Acer Swift 3 (Model no. SF315-41-R9S1) boot failure and unable to repair or reinstall fresh OS.

The laptop shut down automatically after a windows 10 update. When I restarted it, boot failure error code 0x00000e9 was displaying on blue screen. Even pressing F1 doesn't take me to to Recovery Environment or pressing F8 doesn't take me to Start up settings. Pressing ENTER restarts the laptop and gets the blue screen back again. Pressing ESC key takes me to BIOS (ver. 2.0) menu where everything is in order. The HDD Serial no and Model no are shown. The boot menu shows this HDD too.
I installed a new SSD in the additional slot to eliminate any hard disk failure and tried to clean install windows 10 using a bootable usb drive. But the same error on blue screen appears again. Nothing else progresses beyond this blue screen.
Unfortunately I could not make a recovery drive using acer care center (Recovery Management) for this laptop before it crashed. All I try to do is repair or reinstall the OS with a bootable installation pendrive containing windows 10. Though usb device is selected on top of BIOS boot order list, windows installation doesn't initialize. Rather, the same blue screen appears with the same error code. Pressing Alt+F10 while powering ON too doesn't take me to Automatic Repair Settings (Recovery Option) of windows. Only the message PREPARING AUTOMATIC REPAIR appears below ACER logo and then the same blue screen comes up again. I have attached the screenshot here. Please help me out with possible trouble shoot... Friends! 😔 😐

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billsey

It's possible the system was still using the EFI image from the HDD to boot even after installing the SSD and Windows. Use the F12 boot menu to force a boot from the SSD. Use diskpart to verify that the install did create all the right partition s on the SSD and if you can't get it to use that SSD EFI partition try taking the HDD out, booting the install image and have to remove all existing partitions before reinstalling.

amarever

Thanks for your reply.
When I suspected the HDD as failed, first thing I did is I removed the HDD and installed a new SSD. But I am not able to install fresh windows on this SSD with a bootable Installation USB drive plugged. I am getting the same error as above.
For using diskpart, I should be able to enter recovery environment (reset options like advanced trouble shoot using cmd), but any of the ways to go to that page doesn't work including hot key Alt + F10.

amarever

@billsey
I am stuck at the same blue screen and using options given below the error message like ENTER, F8 only flickers the blue screen for a second and not fetch any new page. Pressing F1 restarts the PC back to this blue screen itself. Pressing ESC gets me BIOS menu. I have only USB bootable drive to select from the boot options sub menu. (HDD is removed and SSD is brand new without OS) 😊

Commodore_1995#

Try disconnecting ssd and just leave hdd connected. Then press alt+f10 before the Acer logo. Does an image similar to this appear?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpzLJRAZldA&list=FLVBqwtBw09_Z9tXo1Injakw&index=9

amarever

egydiocoelho said:

Try disconnecting ssd and just leave hdd connected. Then press alt+f10 before the Acer logo. Does an image similar to this appear?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpzLJRAZldA&list=FLVBqwtBw09_Z9tXo1Injakw&index=9

@egydiocoelho

Disconnected SSD and started the PC only with HDD. After power ON, pressed alt + F10 and the screen as attached appeared and after a while, again the same blue screen with error code.
Also tried with Bootable Installation USB drive plugged too, but in vain. 😢

IMG_20210726_105808.jpg

IMG_20210724_181509.jpg

billsey

Try this: disconnect all drives and boot into the BIOS. Hang around the BIOS for long enough to suggest the system is stable in that mode. Then plug the Windows install flash drive in and boot to the installer. Use the Repair option on the second screen to get into the repair mode and wander around there as well, maybe use the command prompt for a while. See if it seems stable there as well. If it's stable in those two environments then the issue is likely in the EFI or OS environment. Put the SSD in and boot from the install, delete any existing partitions when you get to the point where it asks you where to install, then install to the unallocated space (which should be the full drive). When the install has completed go ahead and boot to Windows to test stability.

If it fails anywhere during that process, let us know where you were. That will help pin it down to hardware or software.

amarever

billsey said:

Try this: disconnect all drives and boot into the BIOS. Hang around the BIOS for long enough to suggest the system is stable in that mode. Then plug the Windows install flash drive in and boot to the installer. Use the Repair option on the second screen to get into the repair mode and wander around there as well, maybe use the command prompt for a while. See if it seems stable there as well. If it's stable in those two environments then the issue is likely in the EFI or OS environment. Put the SSD in and boot from the install, delete any existing partitions when you get to the point where it asks you where to install, then install to the unallocated space (which should be the full drive). When the install has completed go ahead and boot to Windows to test stability.
If it fails anywhere during that process, let us know where you were. That will help pin it down to hardware or software.

@billsey
Thanks for your reply. 😊
I disconnected all the drives and powered ON the PC. Then I pressed F2 to enter BIOS settings. I checked its stability by staying there for about 10 minutes. Nothing unusual happened except overheating of processor and its heat sink copper strips.
Then I plugged in the flash drive while I was still in the BIOS settings. But it didn't recognize the USB drive. So I unplugged it and powered off the PC. Then I plugged the flash drive again and went into BIOS boot menu where i could find the bootable USB drive. Then continued booting by pressing F10, but after acer logo, the blue screen only appeared. The options specified on the blue screen didn't work even and got back to the same blue screen again. Please check the screenshot.
I haven't put in any of the hard drives and tried booting with installation flash drive. This is unnecessary as the blue screen only would appear again.

IMG_20210727_174452.jpg

billsey

OK, boot back to the BIOS and check two things. Set Secure Boot to disabled and set the F12 boot menu to enabled. Plug the install flash drive in and use the F12 key to load the boot menu. The USB stick should now show as a boot option. Select it and continue to install on the SSD. When you did the F10 to save and exit the boot menu wouldn't have come up without the F12, so it would have again tried to boot using the corrupted files.

Easwar

Hi amarever,

Reset this PC and keep my files
1. Shutdown the unit. Press and hold alt+F10 key. Then turn ON the unit.
2. You will get a blue screen. Choose the option troubleshoot.

3 Ways to Reset Acer Laptop to Factory Settings without Password

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3. Select Keep my files to refresh your PC and reinstall your operating system without removing your personal files. Click Next to continue. Important If you have apps installed on your PC, they will be removed. Recovery - 25
4. Resetting the PC will reinstall Windows, change settings back to their factory defaults and remove all preinstalled apps and programs without removing your personal files. Click Reset to continue.
5. You will be shown the reset progress on the screen. The screen will turn off during the reset process.
6. The screen will turn back on when it is installing Windows. Your PC will restart several times during the reset process.
7. Follow the process until it completes.
8. When your PC has completed the reset process, Windows will have been reset back to its factory default settings without removing your personal files.

amarever

@billsey
Boot menu. (Flash drive shows up)

amarever

@billsey
1. F12 Enabled

amarever

@billsey
2. Secure Boot disabled

amarever

@billsey
3.Boot Menu

amarever

@billsey
4. Blue Screen (after ACER logo)

Commodore_1995#

Download version 1511 of windows 10 and try to recover the efi partition: https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000124331/how-to-repair-the-efi-bootloader-on-a-gpt-hdd-for-windows-7-8-8-1-and-10-on-your-dell-pc

amarever

Easwar said:

Hi amarever,

Reset this PC and keep my files
1. Shutdown the unit. Press and hold alt+F10 key. Then turn ON the unit.
2. You will get a blue screen. Choose the option troubleshoot.

3. Select Keep my files to refresh your PC and reinstall your operating system without removing your personal files. Click Next to continue. Important If you have apps installed on your PC, they will be removed. Recovery - 25
4. Resetting the PC will reinstall Windows, change settings back to their factory defaults and remove all preinstalled apps and programs without removing your personal files. Click Reset to continue.
5. You will be shown the reset progress on the screen. The screen will turn off during the reset process.
6. The screen will turn back on when it is installing Windows. Your PC will restart several times during the reset process.
7. Follow the process until it completes.
8. When your PC has completed the reset process, Windows will have been reset back to its factory default settings without removing your personal files.

Dear Eashwar!
I appreciate your assistance. But the problem is more complex than it seems. 😊

billsey

OK, the BIOS is correct, and the flash drive is recognized as a UEFI Boot device. How did you create the Windows install image on the flash drive (MS Media Creation Tool, Rufus, etc.) and which version of Windows 10 is on it? Do you have a different flash drive you can try? The image on this one may be bad...

amarever

@billsey
1. RUFUS
2. Windows 10 Version 1903
Let me try with a different flash drive and update you.
Thank you.

amarever

@billsey
I tried with different flash drive... But facing same issue. 😔

billsey

OK, I think we've covered almost everything that could be wrong.

The failure is obviously when trying to load the EFI image from any boot device, since it happens with the flash drive, HDD and SSD. The base BIOS is working since you can do stuff in the menu without issues. Both the HDD and SSD are connected to the system via a PCIe/SATA co-lay port on the motherboard, the flash drive is on a different channel for the USB. I could see getting corrupted data through one or the other, but not through both. I know of no malware that can infect the base BIOS, and very few that can affect the EFI image (those are typically state supported malware targeted at a specific locale or entity). My only thought is that there's something wrong in the motherboard or processor that's causing the crash when loading a valid EFI image. I think it likely you are out of warranty, unless you purchased an extended, since the release date on the SF315-41 models was early in 2019. I hate to tell you to just go for a motherboard replacement since that's such a larger part of the cost of the system as a whole...

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