Iconia W4 drive restore: can't get past the first boot after restoring from USB

Arrhenius
Arrhenius Member Posts: 28 Troubleshooter
edited March 15 in 2018 Archives
I am having hard time to restore this device. It came with Windows 8; I did update it to W10 when they had the promo for a free upgrade.

I did use the tablet a lot; then I did put it away and when I picked it up, the issue started right after the content creator update.

So I did wipe clean the drive, since there is no recovery partition for W8 (the idea was to restore it to the original OS but Acer does not include a restore disk nor a recovery partition on disk).

Now, I use a OTG connector with a wired keyboard and mouse, and a USB stick with W10 32 bit on it; the usb hub is powered.
The installer start, it install the OS but then when the device reboot and should finish the installation, it just spin forever or show a dialog saying that the installer didn't complete successfully and suggest to restart the install process.

I did try 3 times with W10, and once with W8; after creating the relevant USB boot stick with the USB tools from microsoft. I do not understand where the problem lies; is it a bad drive? Do I need a non-standard installer for the W4? It blows my mind that I can restore a Raspberry pi with ease, or put a new OS on it, while with this device I can't even restore the original OS on it.

Any help would be appreciated; it is my main device for books and training material when I am on the go.

Answers

  • padgett
    padgett ACE Posts: 4,532 Pathfinder

    If booting from a USB drive now, have you tried a Linux Live distro ? That should help decide if Windows or Hardware.

    Do not really know what you have now since wiped. Did you record the Microsoft license keys first ? Take a disk image ?

    Have used Windows to Go (USB based Windows) and requires a special flash drive, but not recently.

  • Arrhenius
    Arrhenius Member Posts: 28 Troubleshooter
    padgett said:

    If booting from a USB drive now, have you tried a Linux Live distro ? That should help decide if Windows or Hardware.

    Do not really know what you have now since wiped. Did you record the Microsoft license keys first ? Take a disk image ?

    Have used Windows to Go (USB based Windows) and requires a special flash drive, but not recently.

    I can try to put a live distro on a USB key and see what happen; although the live distro would run from the USB stick; so I have to put the whole OS on the local disk to check if the disk is the issue. Good suggestion.

    I did not record the license; I should have somewhere the key that came with the system, with all the documentation. W10 activate without a key, since the hardware is saved with the key on their server, and tied to the account. I had no chance to make a backup when I purchased the tablet; and I had no idea you could make a backup of the whole OS to restore it at later time.

    I did try with standard Windows USB tools; which I used for years to install windows on different desktops, but this is my first attempt at installing windows on a tablet. In the worst case, if Linux works; I will use that. Can't run worst than Windows after all, but I would rather have windows on it, since I have different software that I use on the go; and the touch drivers for Linux may not be working correctly.
  • padgett
    padgett ACE Posts: 4,532 Pathfinder
    Are some hard ware diagnosis tool in Linux you could use to check the hard disk(HD0) but need to be able to boot something first. AFAIR the W4 was a Bay Trail tab. I have Win 10 1709 running on a similar tab (x86 32 bit, 32GB Flash, 2GB Ram) but Windows does not seem to want to update Clover Trail devices like my W3.
  • Arrhenius
    Arrhenius Member Posts: 28 Troubleshooter
    It doesn't seem to boot from the linux distro at all; I suspect the issue is the mix of 32 bit CPU and 64 bit EFI; since it is a bay trail device.

    At this point I am stuck; can't put back windows, can't put linux, and I doubt that I can find a working version of android, since it is a X86 and not an ARM CPU... it cost less to get a fire HD for 70 bucks, compared to another tablet or fix this one. Last effort will probably be to send a mail to support to see if they still have the recovery cd available, and find an external DVD drive to try with a physical media
  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 31,436 Trailblazer
    They should still have the recovery media available in the Acer store if you are in the US or Canada. Elsewhere in the world you have to go through their support.
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • Arrhenius
    Arrhenius Member Posts: 28 Troubleshooter
    billsey said:
    They should still have the recovery media available in the Acer store if you are in the US or Canada. Elsewhere in the world you have to go through their support.
    It does not seem to be the case; I did search on the store and there is no sign of recovery disk.

    To me it is infuriating that you can't get a downloadable ISO of the recovery disks; especially considering that you can download Windows directly from Microsoft for free. Then they wonder why users prefer to buy brands that give restore disks for free or even include them in the packaging. A DVD cost 40c.
  • padgett
    padgett ACE Posts: 4,532 Pathfinder
    Most Linux distros have an x86 (32 bit) version, should be using that. Not sure what you mean by "I suspect the issue is the mix of 32 bit CPU and 64 bit EFI". Have you tried turning off Secure Boot (erase the library) in the BIOS ?
  • Arrhenius
    Arrhenius Member Posts: 28 Troubleshooter
    padgett said:
    Most Linux distros have an x86 (32 bit) version, should be using that. Not sure what you mean by "I suspect the issue is the mix of 32 bit CPU and 64 bit EFI". Have you tried turning off Secure Boot (erase the library) in the BIOS ?
    Yes, there are 32 bit distros; but the bootloader check the EFI, and expect a 32 bit EFI; while the Atom CPU like the one in the W4, use a 64 bit EFI; from what I can read online.
    This is the same issue but inverted, of the first batch of Mac Pro; where the CPU was a 64 bit capable but the EFI was set at 32 bit, so you could not put newer OSX on it, unless you replace the EFI.

    I did turn off secure boot; and set my bios password as in the videos from Acer channel on youtube; although that didn't change much things.

    Even If I can get linux to work, the touch screen won't run as in Windows; and WIFI is also spotty at best; so that tablet would stop to exist as tablet and will be used with keyboard and mouse attached...which is not what I need it for, sadly.
  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 31,436 Trailblazer
    So I don't have a W4 to test with, but if you go to the Acer Store, click on eRecovery Media and enter the SNID of your tablet it doesn't show you the appropriate item? Does it give any type of error? It's always worked for me in the past...
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • padgett
    padgett ACE Posts: 4,532 Pathfinder

    caveat: I do not have a W4 but do have a similar Bay Trail Tablet

    Yes the Intel CPU in your device is 64-bit capable but the tablet was provided with Windows 8.1 32 bit so the UEFI library should have 32 bit signatures.

    FYI Windows 10 provides for saving offline a full system image and to create a USB or DVD recovery drive. Booting from the recovery drive allows reinstallation of the system image.

  • Arrhenius
    Arrhenius Member Posts: 28 Troubleshooter
    padgett said:

    caveat: I do not have a W4 but do have a similar Bay Trail Tablet

    Yes the Intel CPU in your device is 64-bit capable but the tablet was provided with Windows 8.1 32 bit so the UEFI library should have 32 bit signatures.

    FYI Windows 10 provides for saving offline a full system image and to create a USB or DVD recovery drive. Booting from the recovery drive allows reinstallation of the system image.

    I think this is the one that I tried. MS site has a tool that you download and allow you to create a bootable USB drive, so you can install Windows again.

    For some reasons, the installation stall after  rebooting the first time; tried every trick in the book, and nothing did work; which make me think that the  device is fundamentally dead.
  • padgett
    padgett ACE Posts: 4,532 Pathfinder
    edited February 2018

    This thread is getting a bit confusing but sounds like the issue may be the BIOS trying to reboot from the wrong device, have you changed the boot order ? Should have the hard disk or Windows Boot Manager first and use F12 for the initial USB boot.

    BTW are you using this tool ? I generally use Win32 Disk Imager or Rufus.