Iconia W4-820 bricked?

I was using my tablet a few hours ago and it hit a Blue Screen of Death, with the only error message being "MEMORY_MANAGEMENT". I was using Chrome and had maybe 10 tabs open at the time. Yes, I know Chrome eats memory - but this has never happened before even with two dozen tabs open, which I don't do very often anyway.

It showed the BSOD, took its memory dump, and rebooted ... and showed another BSOD with no information on it, and attempted to reboot again. After that point, the screen was on but completely black. I turned it off and on several times, and tried the little hard reset hole near the HDMI. No change. The Internet says that the BIOS can be accessed by pressing the VolumeUp button + Power, but that did absolutely nothing.

It's been just over 6 months that I've been using it and if it is bricked I'm going to have a serious loss of productivity. Searching for the serial number returns no results, I can't even tell if it's still under warranty (I think it should be, the manufacturer warranty is supposed to be 1 year).

PLEASE HELP.

Accepted answers

All comments

billsey

Doesn't sound good, a motherboard failure could easily give those types of symptoms. You should probably go ahead and contact Acer Support for warranty repair.

Loboguy

So I gave the tablet for warranty repair. The motherboard has been replaced and I will pick it up tomorrow ... and it seems there is a different problem now.

Apparently, with the new motherboard Acer has supplied, I have been told there is no operating system preloaded - and they want me to use my 'recovery media' to restore the tablet.

Keep in mind THIS IS A TABLET. I ordered it brand new from Amazon India, and all that was in the box was the tablet and its charger. When is the last time anyone was provided recovery media for any device barely thicker than a CD case?! The only recovery media I know of was the recovery partition - and since my previous motherboard has failed, I cannot think of a way to access the old recovery partition. I shall somehow have to make do with Linux or perhaps install Windows 7, it seems, unless Acer can either provide me with a new Windows 8.1 installation or can give me a way to access my old installation. Thanks for the new motherboard, no one's denying this at all ... but be serious, how can I have a physical recovery media that I was never provided?

billsey

Somehow I think the technician is a bit coonfused... They should have a set of recovery thumb drives in house. You were supposed to create your own recovery drive as part of your iitial startup, but the Acer repair depot should do that for you, since most owners skip that step.

padgett

BTW dunno about the W4 but both my W3 and W510 came with DVDs. I do know Acer used to have the media for sale from the store.

Loboguy

Well, I didn't buy this from an Acer store. I got it from a reseller via Amazon India, there was no CD or recovery media of any kind at all included, apart from the internal recovery partition (which is moot since the motherboard is shot).

The situation as it currently stands:

Busted motherboard is in Acer's possession, my tablet has a new motherboard but is a blank slate with no operating system. I do not own any recovery media, and was not provided any with my purchase.

Now, this would not normally be a major issue - however, I have tried and failed to boot the tablet from the USB port. I have a generally reliable thumb drive that I regularly use for troubleshooting, which has several Linux distros and a Windows 7 installer. The tablet does not boot it at all. I do not own (and currently cannot afford) a USB CD drive to try.

What I'm trying to say is, I have an expensive paperweight unless this can be sorted out.

[edited to comply with guidelines]

padgett

Acer tablets since at least the W510 have a UEFI BIOS check. This means to boot you need a flash drive that has a special signed GPT boot sector. The RUFUS formatter should be able to do this from a signed .iso

It can be done but is not simple (and helps to have a MSDN subscription).

Loboguy

Thanks, I'll give Rufus a try, then. I have Win 7 Pro and a couple of unused keys lying around, that should do the trick - I hope. From what I read, Win 7 was a little finicky with touch screens, although that may just be anecdotal. Let's see.

Still. I paid for Windows 8.1 .... ideally I get the Win 10 upgrade after 7 installs and I can just skip over all this.

padgett

Just allow A Lot of time. Restoring my W3 from Win 10 preview to Win 8.1 with all updates and then installing the real Win 10 took almost two days. At least most of the time something eith incrementing or counting down is on the screen.

BTW if a Tab does not have enough space for the recovery files, it is happy to use a micro-SD card in the slot. Just select when it asks if you want to use an external drive. It does take a few seonds for the menu screen to populate.

Loboguy

This is ticking me off. The W4 refuses to recognize my flash drive as bootable even after formatting with Rufus.

I tried contacting Acer again and only got the robot. What the heck, man.

padgett

Unfortunately I do not have a W4 but have booted my Switch 12, W3, and W510 from flash many times (12 needs a 64 but signature, other use a 32 bit, suspect the library has on Acer and Microsoft signatures).

The enclosed jpg describes a bootable flash drive. It must be formatted FAT32 and with a GPT boot sector.

Loboguy

I used Rufus with all available options. No luck with anything.

The only thing I can think of now is that it may be something to do with 64-bit vs 32-bit. The only ISOs I have are 64-bit. The W4 is 64-bit capable but with only 2GB non-upgradeable RAM that's pretty much moot. It simply does not accept the flash drive as bootable.

padgett

Yes the 32 and 64 bit UEFI signatures are different. My 32 bit W3 does not recognise one for my 64 bit Switch 12 and verse the vice.

Loboguy

I got the tablet restored at a Acer service center, finally.

Issue du jour: "Windows cannot be activated [...] because this product key has been blocked".

Considering my old motherboard is toast and is also no longer in my possession (and I don't have much money for a new Windows key) ... what are my options?

I've already asked the service center to see if they can contact Acer or Microsoft to resolve this, as there is supposedly some sort of procedure that can be invoked.

padgett

An original key should be in the BIOS, are a number of programs that can retrieve it.

If you have the key but it won't activate try calling the Microsoft Activation Line on the telephone. They may be able to give you a long string of numbers to type in.

Quick Links

Top Members

Weekly

Puraw 320

StevenGen 160

RenanVilela 105

Alejandro_AC 100

Kno63 85

Swift Series Intel^® Evo™

Game Pass

Acer Corner

Gaming on Chromebook

Swift Series Intel® Evo™

Game Pass

Acer Corner

Gaming on Chromebook

Swift Series Intel^® Evo™