Why can't my Acer Nitro AN517-51 boot from Ventoy?

Red0509

Recently, I created a USB key running Ventoy (a GRUB-based bootloader) as a recovery device. I tried to test the device and it appeared as "Linpus lite" in the BIOS, and would only boot to Windows 10 if I selected it. I properly selected Secure Boot Support and have already seen that it works on other Secure Boot devices. (even those branded Acer!) I am running the latest version of Windows 10 and just updated it last night.

Mumma_hen

Acer laptops seem to have a very strict BIOS when in comes to secure boot. There is a solution, however it requires temporarily disabling secure boot.

The best option is to go back into Ventoy.exe - Options - untick Secure Boot option and then click update on your chosen USB drive, this will remove the secure boot from the ventoy boot loader.

Next shut down your PC, press F2 (or other BIOS key) and go to the boot tab and disable secure boot. You may find secure boot in unable to be selected, and if this is the case go to Security tab in BIOS and under secure boot password (May be called something else like BIOS Password) and assign a 4 digit passcode of your choice like 1234 (don't worry you can remove it after) 

Then go back to the boot tab and now you can disable secure boot, once disabled go back to security and change the password you set, first confirm the password and when asked to type a new one leave it blank and press enter and on confirmation. Now you have no password set on the BIOS and secure boot is disabled.

Ventoy will now boot, install your chosen OS and once install is complete you may chose to re-enable secure boot, the simplest way is to load factory defaults (If you have a SATA based SSD make sure to change from RST to AHCI or if your booting Linux) or alternatively re-assign a password to the BIOS, enable secure boot and remove the password again.

Hope this helped!