e575g-e534g Acer laptop not booting help please

The other day my laptop was taking over two hours to boot up and was running so slow it was impossible (click on a folder and half an hour to open). Went into bios to change boot up order with external USB boot disk and restarted but then found I had lost the boot USB I had made. Now get the following errors on boot up: PXE-E61 Media test failure, check cable and PXE-M0F: Exiting PXE ROM. Ok, so obviously the pc is looking in the wrong place to boot from and my question is, how to I get to the boot up BIOS or whatever it is called now a days from initial start. I have two of the exact same PC and I did go down the route of trying to create a boot disk on a usb and followed some online instruction and was doing ok until it said find and copy the correct OSI onto the USB. Where would I find this and what would the name of it be as there are loads. Thank you all for any suggestions

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JackE

It would help to know what full ACER model number you have. Jack E/NJ

DB1001

Hello Jack. It is N1602 E5-575 series e575g-e534g Thank you

JackE

Press and hold the power button till the laptop completely shuts off. Remove the USB stick. Press & hold the F2 key, then press the power button to turn the machine on. The BIOS menu should appear. Make sure the HDD or SSD is recognized in the Information tab as HDD0 in AHCI mode. Also enable the F12 and D2D options in the Main tab. Move the USB HDD back down below the boot manager and hdd. Press F10 to save settings and exit.

Then shut the machine off again. Then press and hold the ALT+F10 keys. Then press the power button to turn the machine on. A recovery screen should appear as in the video below. First try a factory refresh while saving your personal files. Jack E/NJ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpzLJRAZldA

DB1001

Hello Jack. Thank you for the advice. I have done as you suggested and this took me to the recovery section and I selected factory refresh but a message came up something like "unable to perform this action" so I powered off and then restarted using ALT +F10 and power up it takes me to System Image Recovery and showing my account name. I click on this and enter my password. I then get a message saying "windows cannot find a system image on this computer. Is it a case in my infinite ignorance that there is no system image which might explain a lot? I do have as mentioned two Acers exactly the same as I got one for my partner at the same time. Is there any way I can clone or similar an image from the other acer or do you have any other suggestions. What I do not understand is when this all started the only issue I had was the PC was taken ages to boot up and load any programs before it finally died. Fortunately most of the valuable stuff I had is backed up onto a hard drive so if we find a solution whereby we do a complete reset back to factory standards and I loose everything I can live with this. Thank you one again, I appreciate your help especially at this time when my computer is a link to the outside world. David

JackE

>>>windows cannot find a system image>>>so if we find a solution whereby we do a complete reset back to factory standards and I loose everything I can live with this.>>>

That's because you would've had to make an image on a USB stick when the HDD was in good shape. Apparently you didn't do that. So Windows couldn't find the image stick plugged into a USB port.

Now, I think the HDD may be failing. This would also help explain a slow boot with the head having trouble reading the disk. So, I recommend a full erase/remove everything factory reset using the ALT+F10 cold boot method. However, if the drive is indeed failing it'll only be a temporary fix. Since the Windows OEM licenses are tied to the machine's serial number ids (SNIDs) embedded in the mainboards, access to identical models won't be helpful. If it doesn't work, then there is a possibility of cloning/migrating the system to a new HDD (gigantic TB capacities are super cheap nowadays) using a HDD-to-USB port adapter. Jack E/NJ

DB1001

Hello Jack, all noted however it is not an HDD on this pc but a SSD (not that this likely makes any difference). At this stage I have accepted that I have likely lost everything which I can live with. I have tried the factory reset via ALT F10 but the pc wont let me do this saying it is unable. I am prepared to spend a bit of money to sort this so could you give me some guidance please on cloning/migrating (what I need to buy etc) as normally I would take the pc to a repair shop but under the current terrible climate no where is open and lets face I have time at home at the moment. I can buy a new disk on line and indeed anything you suggest. The alternative is to buy another laptop but as this one cost me in excess of £600.00 I would rather try other things before I commit to throwing it away. Thank you Jack.

JackE

Your machine would've typically had a 2.5" 0.5 to 2TB HDD from the factory unless you special-ordered . A rather small SSD could've also been possible, not sure if a 2.5" or m.2 card. Do you know what you have in there now. If not, check the BIOS Information tab for a description or press WIN+R enter 'msinfo32' under the components folder disk subfolder for the SSD or HDD model and number. Jack E/NJ

DB1001

I am learning a lot with these exchanges and I remain grateful. Have attached a photo which I hope will shed some light. Many thanks for you amazing support.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/mc/ij59gdnwo5xe.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/8r/74r58srx29ac.jpg

Edited the thread to hide sensitive information
Acer-Samuel

JackE

You have a 2.5" 1TB Toshiba HDD, not an SSD. Exact & WesternDigital replacements are super cheap nowadays. https://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-MQ01ABD100-drive-SATA-300-HDKBB96/dp/B008YDNARU

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071F9MLJJ/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_3?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

I prefer WesternDigitals with a much bigger cache and a bit cheaper. In fact, I buy extras to do direct backups by regularly cloning my working drives just in case they go south on me. Then I just replace the bad with the new cloned WesternDigital and I'm immediately back in business.

Jack E/NJ

DB1001

Your amazing, thank you. Now not wishing to look before I leap and a bit of a loaded question.... With everything I have told you, you suspect it is the hard drive yes? Playing devils advocate..... Would a hard drive failure be the specific cause of my issue especially given that the system cannot perform a clean wipe back to factory standard? I do respect your opinion and of course I understand that without having the actual pc in front of you, you can only give an educated opinion. My question is... Is there anything else that is likely to cause the pc not to be able to perform a factory reset as whilst I am more than happy to go with your suggestion for the hard drive I am hoping that this will be the solution to the problem. The only other thing I am being slightly dumb about is how I clone the hard drive as surely (in my ignorance) if the hard drive is faulty I would not be able to read it to clone it or does cloning talk or interrogate the old hard drive in a different way. Do I need to purchase any software or hardware to clone it and what would you suggest if I do. The last (hopefully) niggling question again in my ignorance. We have talked about the Windows licence being embedded on the PC so.... Will the new cloned drive accept or see such license or will I have to buy a new licence. Again, very many thanks Jack. Where are you based by the way as I will send you a drink when all the dust has settled from this terrible state the world is in.

JackE

If you cannot do a remove/erase everything factory reset, then it's very likely a HDD-related hardware failure but not 100% guaranteed. You can try to further confirm this by trying to install a fresh Microsoft generic version of Win10 using Microsoft's USB media Win10 installation creation tool by clicking on the Win10 icon on this link http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-recovery. If Win10 installs either way (OEM remove everything or generic version), you have the Win10 license embedded on your mainboard so you don't have to get another license.

If you have to get a new HDD, you can either try to clone/migrate the system on the old to the new or fresh install a generic Win10 from the USB media creation tool. If you try to clone you can google the terms 'bootable' 'cloning tools' 'freeware' and use just about any of the half dozen or so apps designed to do just this. They're all pretty good. I find AOEMI and Macrium perhaps the easiest but you might like the others better.

Jack E/NJ

DB1001

Brilliant as ever and if I read it write are you saying I can simply install a new hard drive, use the generic win 10 instal and the pc will see the licence embedded. If this is correct I may as well just cut my losses for any retrieval and start from scratch. Thank you Jack

JackE

Remember, you can also try to read and copy stuff off the old drive by connecting it to another computer with a 2.5" HDD-to-USB adapter cable for less than $10 on Amazon. So order one of those too along with a new HDD while you're at it. Jack E/NJ

DB1001

Hello Jack. Just a bit of an update FYI. I loaded Windows 10 from a USB and the laptop installed it but I think it created a partition on the disk to place it ( the comment only appeared briefly). So at the moment the pc is running and it has retained strnage things like screen savers, desk top wallpaper and my email client details... STRANGE. It still seems a little slow but I am going to get a new disk anyway and the suggested lead. Big thanks once again Jack.

JackE

>>>It still seems a little slow >>>

Relative or compared to what? To when you first got it? How do you come to the conclusion that it seems a little slow? Jack E/NJ

DB1001

It is slower than before all these issue started although a little quicker than the speed it was going in the 24 hours before it all died.

JackE

Yes, order the new disk. Also the HDD/SSD-to-USB adapter so you can clone the old drive if it's still running. Right now you should start copying your personal files onto a USB stick so you don't lose them if the old drive finally gives out. Jack E/NJ

DB1001

Thanks Jack. When Windows reloaded there were .none of the old files anyway but hopefully I might be able to find these when I have the new drive installed. Any suggestions for a specific HDD to USB cable as I am not sure which is which. Is an HDD connector end all the same? Thank you