Flash Boot unreliable

Dinosaur

Hi All

I have three Acer Aspires of different vintages, and only my oldest one will boot from a Flash drive reliably.

The model I am concerned with is my latest purchase for an application.

Model:ES1-512-COGA

Windows 8.1 (not anymore, Linux-Lite now)

Compact Flash Adapter: Lexar Professional USB 3.0

OS on Flash: FreeDos

BIOS: Legacy Boot

This machine will boot to the Flash drive spasmodically.

Swap from one usb to another, and it "may" boot once.

I have tried:

Swapping usb ports.

Suspect cable replaced.

Cold Boot (turning laptop On)

Warm Boot (re-starting with Ctr-Alt-Del)

Enabled / Disabled BIOS settings that were relevant.

Note that on-board SD card does not even get listed in the possible bootdrives.

My personal opinion is, that the checking of the available disks happens so fast, that half the time the Flash drive

does not show on the bootup screen. Other times , you think it is going to boot, then after ... I get ERROR.

No further explanation as to what the error is.

The odd time that it did boot correctly, I was able to launch my HMI application, and test that it all works correctly.

On my second Aspire V5-561P-6869 the flash has never booted.

On my first Aspire 5733Z PEW71 it works flawlessly.

Hopefully someone can make sense of this.

Regards

Accepted answers

All comments

Clyde

Have you tried a different flash drive?

dove457

In my opininion, you can not boot anything from built-in SD card reader. Except with USB-SD adapter. Moreover, have you tried to disable quick boot in the bios?

Also, you can try to download hiren's boot image and try to boot from flash drive. I strongly believe that it will boot on all your PCs.

Dinosaur

Hi All

Thanks for the replies , I have been trying to get onto this site for days, but kept getting "Site Unavailable, Try Later"

messages.

I have tried only one CFC to USB adapter (usb 3.0) as it works on all other computers.

Tried different speed CFC's

Tried USB sticks direct into port

And Dove47, you are right, the on-board SD adapter won't even show up on the boot choices in the BIOS.

Same with my earlier Aspire V5-561P , but my earliest Aspire 5733 will boot to the on-board SD.

Sounds to me like Acer is going backward.

I will try the image you suggested, but if FreeDos wont boot reliably, then I doubt anything alse will either.

When it fails, it doesn't even try , it is just like it missed seeing that there is a usb device there.

Regards

Dinosaur

Hi All

Hirens Boot CD is a tool that I have never come across, and believe me I have looked for XP bootable images for years.

The installation went without a hitch and the CFC is exactly what was intended by the author.

However;

It will boot on my earliest Acer Aspire 5733 (that Laptop has XP Pro sp3 installed)

Wont even look at it on my Aspire V5-561P , even though I selected to boot from the USB on F12.

The latest Aspire ES1 512 shows a message at bootup "MBR Helper missing"

Some forums suggest large partitions are a cause, but I am using a 4gB CFC, so that's not the problem.

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