Aspire A715-71G-7588 will not boot past ACER splash screen

Aspire A715-71G-7588 will not boot past ACER splash screen. Every once in a while it will get into the Windows startup repair but that does not complete successfully, and there is no reliable way to get it to go that far anyway. It has a 128GB Kingston drive 0 with UEFI boot manager and a 1TB WD drive for data. I am wondering how to repair it, or at least how to determine what is actually wrong with it. I am suspecting replacing the 128GB drive may be part of it but I have no recovery media and my other computer is a work computer running Windows 10 Pro. This would need W10 Home. Any advice?

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Commodore_1995#

Does the windows boot manager appear on the boot tab?

bassmanjohnny5

Yes. UEFI is enabled and Windows Boot Manager is showing as the boot device. I can switch that to Legacy and boot from a UBCD USB drive and the RAM tests ok using Memtest but the hard drive configuration on this does not seem to be supported on the tools on UBCD. I tried GParted just to do disk check but it just keeps telling me that the drives could not be recovered and that they appear to be too small - I am thinking that the tool is just not able to really evaluate the SSD properly. I am leaning toward creating a recovery installation of Windows but I only have a Win10 Pro computer available. Can I make a usable Win10 Home recovery installation and will that license properly on the Aspire, whether I have to replace the Kingston SSD or not?

Commodore_1995#

If windows boot manager is showing up, what happens when you activate d2drecovery and press alt + f10 before the Acer logo?

bassmanjohnny5

That is a step in the right direction, at least now I can get into the troubleshooting system reliably now. I have tried three times to reset this PC, removing all files, only personal files, etc. It gets to the "Installing Windows" and hangs at 2% every time. If I hard reboot it it says that the previous instalation failed and to restart the computer to try again. Since I can get into the troubleshooter, what are the most likely ways to repair this - or would I need to replace either the SSD or the other drive in order for this to work? Is the D2D recovery on the SSD or the other drive?

Commodore_1995#

Don't try to reset windows. Press alt + f10 and look for an option that allows you to correct system startup.

Image: https://www.windowscentral.com/sites/wpcentral.com/files/styles/w830/public/field/image/2018/11/startup-repair-option-windows-10.jpg?itok=vwJdOIBU

bassmanjohnny5

Thanks, so Startup Repair says that i need to be signed in as an administrator. It says it would show a list of administrator accounts but the list is empty. I forgot that I had run into this yesterday, too. Is there a way to get past this and force a Startup Repair?

Commodore_1995#

You can try using these commands at the command prompt: https://www.groovypost.com/howto/fix-windows-10-wont-boot-startup-repair-bootrec/

bassmanjohnny5

It is saying the same thing about not having an administrator account to use command prompt. it actually says that there arent any administrator accounts on this PC.

Commodore_1995#

Probably windows is installed on the ssd. When you disconnect hdd, is windows restored correctly? You do not need to physically disconnect the hdd. Just enter the bios, advanced, sata configuration and disable the hdd port.

bassmanjohnny5

I disconnected SATA1 (leaving SATA0 connected) and tried the reset (removing all files) again, and it froze at 2% again.

Commodore_1995#

OK! I think you should try to reinstall windows, using a microsoft iso. However, you will lose Acer erecovery. You can also download the windows iso and extract to pendrive. Then use the recovery options and try to repair the boot partition like this: https://www.dell.com/support/article/en-ag/sln300987/how-to-repair-the-efi-bootloader-on-a-gpt-hdd-for-windows-7-8-8-1-and-10-on-your-dell-pc?lang=en

bassmanjohnny5

OK thanks, would I need a PC running Win10 Home to create a reinstallation media for this laptop, or could I do that with my Win10 Pro laptop and get a Win10 ISO to use? Is this the way to get the ISO: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4000735/windows-10-reinstall? Or is there another link to get the Windows 10 ISO files? Also is there any way to get the other advanced repair options to work if it cannot see any Administrative accounts on the laptop?

Commodore_1995#

First open powershell as an administrator and enter these commands, to configure the pendrive:

Then, download the x64-only iso here: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=691209

Extract the iso to the USB stick with WINRAR.

bassmanjohnny5

OK thanks I will probably not get to that tonight but I really appreciate all the help. I will try it and report back as soon as I am able. Do you htink that this freezing at 2% reinstall, and Windows not seeing any administrative accounts is a sign of hardware failure (SSD corrupt, etc) or just Windows corrupt?

Commodore_1995#

I believe it is a problem in windows.

bassmanjohnny5

I tried 10 different ways to repair the boot records from that link and others I found on the internet but nothing worked. I ended up reformatting the SSD and starting a Windows 10 install. However it is stuck at Getting Devices Ready 83% and has been for quite some time. If it isnt progressing, and the RAM tested ok using Memtest, would I be looking at a problem with the SSD itself?

Commodore_1995#

Are you still stuck at 83%?

bassmanjohnny5

Yes, it has been at least an hour without moving now.

Commodore_1995#

The rotating symbol that indicates that windows is being installed, also crashed? Do you have how to check the health of the ssd on another computer with crystaldiskinfo?

bassmanjohnny5

I dont have a way to test the drive from another WIndows computer, but is there a bootable tool that will test it? I tried UBCD but I am not sure that it actually tested it.

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