My Helios 300 PH315-52 UEFI menu doesn't load when any Linux distro is installed

Hi All,

I recently tried dual booting my Helios 300 with Manjaro Linux alongside Win 10 Home but I see an inexplicable issue - once Linux is installed alongside Win 10, I can't access the UEFI menu anymore unless I delete the Linux boot EFI partition.

Install process followed:

Switch from "Intel Optane with RST Premium" (RAID) to AHCI (required by any Linux distro to be installed in the SSD)
Reboot in safe mode to ensure correct AHCI drivers are picked by Windows, then again boot normally.
Boot to Windows and verify it properly boots up (which it does).
Create bootable USB for Manjaro Linux using Rufus (GPT partition table).
Reboot, hit F2 and go into UEFI menu, disable secure boot. Also enable boot menu (F12).
Change the boot order to boot from the USB drive.
Successfully boot into the live USB, shrink SSD (free up around 100GB from the SSD and manually set up the partitions using this free unallocated space), and installed Manjaro (success).
Reboot, hit F12, boot to Manjaro, works perfectly.
Reboot again, hit F12, boot to Windows, works perfectly too.

Now at this point, if I rebooted and attempted to access the UEFI by fast pressing the F2 during bootup, I just get a black screen with a white cursor.

And if I booted to Windows, deleted y Linux partitions (the EFI partition containing GRUB bootloader for Manjaro and the root partition for the Linux installation), and then rebooted and attempted to access the UEFI menu (fast press F2 on boot), I can access it fine.

I really don't understand what is the issue here (my knowledge of firmware is very limited!). If someone in the community has run into this issue before, any guidance is greatly appreciated! happy to provide additional details if required.

Thanks!

----

List of threads (with similar problems as mine with UEFI) I already checked for possible solutions:

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/540432/linux-install-on-acer-predator-helios-300-g3-571 (this thread contains a solution which follows almost the same steps as mine)
https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/579276/bios-freeze-after-linux-install-sf114-32/p1
https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/646902
https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/534756/cant-get-into-bios-after-linux-install-attempt/p1
https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/573594/sf114-32-no-uefi-menu

Accepted answers

All comments

Gawain

strange - personally i would have dropped no.6 and used f12 to boot from the usb (same method as for no.8), once installed, grub should see the win 10 boot partition and allow you to select from there (rather than using f12 to select the boot partition to read). If it wasn't listed, then in manjaro at the terminal: sudo update-grub

reboot then see if you can access manjaro, then reboot and try f2, then exit without saving changes then try 10 (from the grub menu, not using f12)

QuantumBrute

Hey there!

I was in the same situation and resolved the issue. I will post every step so that it is clear to follow:

1. Make partition for Manjaro on SSD & ensure the BIOS has SATA Mode as AHCI, F12 Mode is enabled & Disable Secure Boot.
2. Boot from bootable drive.
3. Select necessary options till partition section.
4. In partition select, INSTALL ALONGSIDE option. This is really essential.
5. Install and shutdown.
6. Boot up Manjaro using F12 and shutdown.
7. Now boot up again and press F2 for BIOS. It should give the black screen with blinking cursor issue.
8. Flash the BIOS from Windows (You have extract the Covini_Alphard V1.XX.exe file using 7-zip or WinRar and edit the platform.ini. Edit [Bios_Version_Check] Flag=whatever to Flag=0) OR reset the battery by pressing power button for 15 seconds WITHOUT the adapter being connected.
9. Now BIOS is reinstalled so go and change SATA mode to AHCI, F12 Boot Menu enabled.
10. Enable secure boot and select trusted UEFI file as the EFI/Manjaro/grubx64.efi and give a name to it. Save & shutdown after that.
11. Now go to BIOS and change the boot order so that Manjaro is on top.
12. Everything should be working perfectly now.

Feel free to ask any questions!

VeganCzech

QuantumBrute said:

Hey there!

I was in the same situation and resolved the issue. I will post every step so that it is clear to follow:

1. Make partition for Manjaro on SSD & ensure the BIOS has SATA Mode as AHCI, F12 Mode is enabled & Disable Secure Boot.
2. Boot from bootable drive.
3. Select necessary options till partition section.
4. In partition select, INSTALL ALONGSIDE option. This is really essential.
5. Install and shutdown.
6. Boot up Manjaro using F12 and shutdown.
7. Now boot up again and press F2 for BIOS. It should give the black screen with blinking cursor issue.
8. Flash the BIOS from Windows (You have extract the Covini_Alphard V1.XX.exe file using 7-zip or WinRar and edit the platform.ini. Edit [Bios_Version_Check] Flag=whatever to Flag=0) OR reset the battery by pressing power button for 15 seconds WITHOUT the adapter being connected.
9. Now BIOS is reinstalled so go and change SATA mode to AHCI, F12 Boot Menu enabled.
10. Enable secure boot and select trusted UEFI file as the EFI/Manjaro/grubx64.efi and give a name to it. Save & shutdown after that.
11. Now go to BIOS and change the boot order so that Manjaro is on top.
12. Everything should be working perfectly now.

Feel free to ask any questions!

Hi I want to ask about step 8. I don't understand what you mean? Do you mean any flash bios or something?

Otherwise I see only Boot secure - Enable / Disable in BIOS

I can change it but I can't change the possibility of UEFI, Legacy like on my old Acer Aspire I have at home.

I want to install pure Windows 10 without the ballast from Acer.

Otherwise, I want to ask if envis whether it is possible to flash the BIOS on the previous version eg 1.03,1.05? I have now 1.08 and I wonder if it goes some way to delete ... On the net I saw it goes USB re-flash. So I do not know what is true

Thanks for the answer

QuantumBrute

VeganCzech said:

QuantumBrute said:

Hey there!

I was in the same situation and resolved the issue. I will post every step so that it is clear to follow:

1. Make partition for Manjaro on SSD & ensure the BIOS has SATA Mode as AHCI, F12 Mode is enabled & Disable Secure Boot.
2. Boot from bootable drive.
3. Select necessary options till partition section.
4. In partition select, INSTALL ALONGSIDE option. This is really essential.
5. Install and shutdown.
6. Boot up Manjaro using F12 and shutdown.
7. Now boot up again and press F2 for BIOS. It should give the black screen with blinking cursor issue.
8. Flash the BIOS from Windows (You have extract the Covini_Alphard V1.XX.exe file using 7-zip or WinRar and edit the platform.ini. Edit [Bios_Version_Check] Flag=whatever to Flag=0) OR reset the battery by pressing power button for 15 seconds WITHOUT the adapter being connected.
9. Now BIOS is reinstalled so go and change SATA mode to AHCI, F12 Boot Menu enabled.
10. Enable secure boot and select trusted UEFI file as the EFI/Manjaro/grubx64.efi and give a name to it. Save & shutdown after that.
11. Now go to BIOS and change the boot order so that Manjaro is on top.
12. Everything should be working perfectly now.

Feel free to ask any questions!

Hi I want to ask about step 8. I don't understand what you mean? Do you mean any flash bios or something?
Otherwise I see only Boot secure - Enable / Disable in BIOS
I can change it but I can't change the possibility of UEFI, Legacy like on my old Acer Aspire I have at home.
I want to install pure Windows 10 without the ballast from Acer.
Otherwise, I want to ask if envis whether it is possible to flash the BIOS on the previous version eg 1.03,1.05? I have now 1.08 and I wonder if it goes some way to delete ... On the net I saw it goes USB re-flash. So I do not know what is true Thanks for the answer

Hey there,

In step 8, I meant you have to reflash or reset the bios. In any of the both ways you still retain flash 1.08 BIOS. Either reflash the BIOS from windows or reset the BIOS using battery reset method (Turn off the laptop, unplug the laptop and press the power button for 15 seconds). You need not change change BIOS to legacy, BIOS needs to be in UEFI mode for the dual boot. If you need a step by step guide for reflash method I can add it too otherwise just reset the battery. Let me know if it worked any other issues you faced.

SUNKenHERO

@QuantumBrute can you please guide me with reflashing the BIOS. Unfortunately while changing RST with optane to AHCI, I forgot to disable secure boot. Now I can neither access BIOS nor Boot into POP!_OS (security boot fail).

QuantumBrute

SUNKenHERO said:

@QuantumBrute can you please guide me with reflashing the BIOS. Unfortunately while changing RST with optane to AHCI, I forgot to disable secure boot. Now I can neither access BIOS nor Boot into POP!_OS (security boot fail).

Unplug your laptop and ensure the laptop is in off state. Press and hold the power button for 15 seconds and then leave it. After that your laptop will turn on and off a bunch of times and your bios will be back.

SUNKenHERO

@QuantumBrute is there any chance of things going wrong with this process ? Cuz some of my friends warned me that my windows might also not boot up if the bios flash goes wrong.

QuantumBrute

SUNKenHERO said:

@QuantumBrute is there any chance of things going wrong with this process ? Cuz some of my friends warned me that my windows might also not boot up if the bios flash goes wrong.

This won’t go wrong. It’s a process made to be used when things are wrong. After reset windows will definitely boot as it will be the only boot manager left. Do remember that after the bios is reset you have to change the settings back to as required by you. And as I had mentioned in steps, you have to follow step 10 but here the file will be in EFI/systemd for Pop OS. Then you have to change the priority order and disable secure boot and you should be good to go.

xapim

QuantumBrute i think what you mean its a battery power drain right ?? because to re-flash a bios in a crisis recovery mode would require the bios bin file to be identified and extracted from a current bios exe install file (a really complicated procedure) and to be in a usb flash drive this cant be done easily neither its recommended to anyone only acer service center engineers as if you flash the wrong bios will brick it for good.

SUNKenHERO as it was explained above thats a battery powerdrain procedure press/hold the power for 30s+ and leave the laptop to rest for a few hours then try to boot into bios and reset to setup defaults

QuantumBrute

xapim said:

QuantumBrute i think what you mean its a battery power drain right ?? because to re-flash a bios in a crisis recovery mode would require the bios bin file to be identified and extracted from a current bios exe install file (a really complicated procedure) and to be in a usb flash drive this cant be done easily neither its recommended to anyone only acer service center engineers as if you flash the wrong bios will brick it for good.

SUNKenHERO as it was explained above thats a battery powerdrain procedure press/hold the power for 30s+ and leave the laptop to rest for a few hours then try to boot into bios and reset to setup defaults

Yes, it’s basically a battery reset. Reflashing BIOS from exe is absolutely possible, I have written how to do it in above replies but battery reset is a much easier and safer way to just get it done. After battery reset the bios is reset defaults. As per my experience over several battery resets while install Linux distros, we can immediately enter the bios after the battery reset without waiting for a significant amount of time, I have never faced issue this way.

SUNKenHERO

Thanx a lot @QuantumBrute , i could get into the bios settings, it wasn't showing pop_os So I disabled secure boot this time (and the other settings) and installed it again in the same partitions. Now I can Press F12 while turning on my laptop and chose which OS to boot into. But The BIOS settings arent opening again. Initially i tried to put EFI/Systemmd as trusted uefi file but i couldn't find it either.

QuantumBrute

SUNKenHERO said:

Thanx a lot @QuantumBrute , i could get into the bios settings, it wasn't showing pop_os So I disabled secure boot this time (and the other settings) and installed it again in the same partitions. Now I can Press F12 while turning on my laptop and chose which OS to boot into. But The BIOS settings arent opening again. Initially i tried to put EFI/Systemmd as trusted uefi file but i couldn't find it either.

I probably know where you are going wrong but to confirm, can tell me about your partitions? Are you making 2 new partitions for boot/efi and / or using boot/efi of windows and new partition for / or anything else?

adepeter

What an interesting thread. I have been looking for a clean guide on how to dual install manjaro alongside windows without breaking my machine.

QuantumBrute

adepeter said:

What an interesting thread. I have been looking for a clean guide on how to dual install manjaro alongside windows without breaking my machine.

Well, been sometime since I edited it. The real thing is boot/efi. It needs to be the same one as windows. Currently I am running Pop!_OS and I installed it by the same method. If you have any issue lemme know

batmalin

If you have problems with BIOS disappeared and Linux, just boot back to Linux and delete as root grubx64.efi file from the /BOOT/EFI directory. After that your BIOS will magically appear. Secure Boot should be disabled especially if you are installing Arch based distro. Fast Boot- always disabled.

adepeter

QuantumBrute said:

adepeter said:

What an interesting thread. I have been looking for a clean guide on how to dual install manjaro alongside windows without breaking my machine.

Well, been sometime since I edited it. The real thing is boot/efi. It needs to be the same one as windows. Currently I am running Pop!_OS and I installed it by the same method. If you have any issue lemme know

Can I reach out to you via any contact means? Facebook / Email (most preferably this)

QuantumBrute

adepeter said:

QuantumBrute said:

adepeter said:

What an interesting thread. I have been looking for a clean guide on how to dual install manjaro alongside windows without breaking my machine.

Well, been sometime since I edited it. The real thing is boot/efi. It needs to be the same one as windows. Currently I am running Pop!_OS and I installed it by the same method. If you have any issue lemme know

Can I reach out to you via any contact means? Facebook / Email (most preferably this)

Sure! Check your messages

imtiaz

QuantumBrute said:

adepeter said:

What an interesting thread. I have been looking for a clean guide on how to dual install manjaro alongside windows without breaking my machine.

Well, been sometime since I edited it. The real thing is boot/efi. It needs to be the same one as windows. Currently I am running Pop!_OS and I installed it by the same method. If you have any issue lemme know

Hi Quantum, can I also reach out to you regarding this? I need help setting this up correctly for work, however have the PH315-53..

QuantumBrute

imtiaz said:

QuantumBrute said:

adepeter said:

What an interesting thread. I have been looking for a clean guide on how to dual install manjaro alongside windows without breaking my machine.

Well, been sometime since I edited it. The real thing is boot/efi. It needs to be the same one as windows. Currently I am running Pop!_OS and I installed it by the same method. If you have any issue lemme know

Hi Quantum, can I also reach out to you regarding this? I need help setting this up correctly for work, however have the PH315-53..

Definitely!

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