Stuck at ACER screen, even with live USBs - Aspire 7 A717-72G-700J

My laptop will not boot, it gets stuck at the logo screen. I'm 99.999% sure this is not an SSD or OS problem, since at least two different Linux live USBs freeze up at the same point (after the bootloader menu.)

Things I've tried:

-Booting into Live USBs/recovery USB

-Choosing fallback kernels from GRUB

-Unpowering the motherboard with the battery disconnect button

-Reseating the RAM

-Opening the case and unplugging the battery entirely

-Ensuring BIOS options look normal

-Resetting BIOS to default settings

-Waiting the better part of an hour at the logo screen

-Trying to boot with a random SD card plugged in (apparently worked for some guy on one of the many forums dealing with similar issues)

Model is an Acer Aspire 7 A717-72G-700J, BIOS is v1.19

[//Edited the content to add model name]

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William_mk2

@SaveTheEmerald

It might also be the issue with battery, charger or power outlet. Try to use the charger in a different room on a different power outlet. Try to bypass the surge protector and connect it directly to power outlet. Try to use an alternative charger if possible. Try to turn on the computer without the charger and check it ( as long as the battery is not drained out )

I am really sorry for the inconvenience.. Let us do the basic steps first..

Doing the power drain and bios defaults will really help. Kindly follow the steps given below:

Turn off the laptop. Disconnect or unplug the charger cable, devices or any other cables connected to your laptop. Close your laptop. Turn it upside down. On the bottom of the laptop, you can find a pin hole. It is a tiny hole. You can a find a battery symbol indicator next to the hole. It is like a + and – sign symbol as though somebody is trying to shift the battery out. Insert the pin on to the hole for 30 seconds. Remove the pin. Flip the laptop. Connect the charger cable, turn on the computer. Only on laptops where the battery is inbuilt you can find the battery reset hole on the back of laptop.

If you don’t find a pin hole on the back of laptop then you might be using removable battery. There is no need to unscrew anything to remove the battery. Turn off the laptop. Disconnect or unplug the charger cable, devices and any other cables connected to your laptop. Close your laptop. Turn it upside down. On the bottom of the laptop, please look at the top or bottom depending on the way you look at it. You can find a long door. It is a battery removable door. Just below that you can find a latch. If you move the latch you can remove the battery door. Once the battery is removed, flip the laptop. Open the top cover, press and hold the power button for 1 minute. Connect the battery back on the back of computer. Connect the charger cable back and then turn on the computer.

If you don’t see a reset pin hole on the back of laptop or if you are not able to remove the battery (if it is inbuilt) then please unplug all the cables and devices out of laptop. Hold the power button for 1 minute. After releasing the button you should wait a while before plugging in power. Just because the button has been pressed doesn’t bleed off all the residual electricity on the motherboard. Wait 15-30 minutes before plugging in power. Then once power is connected wait for a full battery indication before turning the system on. That allows the battery to fully reset it’s internal statistics.

Connect all the cables back and restart the computer.

While turning on the computer, tap f2. It will go to bios. Press f9 once. It will show load bios defaults with a yes or no popup. Press enter. Popup screen will disappear. Press f10 once. It will show save changes popup with yes or no. Press enter. Computer will restart and it will load into windows.

It might also be the issue with battery, charger or power outlet. Try to use the charger in a different room on a different power outlet. Try to bypass the surge protector and connect it directly to power outlet. Try to use an alternative charger if possible. Try to turn on the computer without the charger and check it ( as long as the battery is not drained out )

Try windows x

go to device manager

expand Battery

right click on all the items below battery – uninstall

Restart the computer

It should work fine..

JackE

>>>I'm 99.999% sure this is not an SSD or OS problem>>>

Just to be more or less sure, enable and save the F12 and D2D options in the BIOS Main tab. Then at the stuck logo, press and hold power button till machine shuts off. Then temporarily disconnect the boot drive. Remove any peripherals other than a bootable GPT-partitioned FAT32-formatted USB stick. Then turn the machine on and immediately start tapping the F12 key. What happens?

SaveTheEmerald

JackE said:

>>>I'm 99.999% sure this is not an SSD or OS problem>>>

Just to be more or less sure, enable and save the F12 and D2D options in the BIOS Main tab. Then at the stuck logo, press and hold power button till machine shuts off. Then temporarily disconnect the boot drive. Remove any peripherals other than a bootable GPT-partitioned FAT32-formatted USB stick. Then turn the machine on and immediately start tapping the F12 key. What happens?

The USB and HDD show up as bootable options (unless I've disconnected them) after pressing F12. Each one still gets stuck at the logo.

I've since tried a third USB (win10), still stuck at the logo

JackE

Temporarily disconnect BOTH bootable internal drives. Then try to boot from the USB stick again alone by itself. No other bootable drives except USB stick.

padgett

If machine BIOS is set for UEFI and USB drives are not, they will not boot.

SaveTheEmerald

I've only ever had one internal drive installed. Removing it and attempting to boot a live USB results in no change: there's a start/test media prompt and either ends up stuck at the logo (again, same as before)

JackE

>>> start/test media prompt >>>

(1) Please post phone photo of this prompt if possible.

(2) With internal drive still disconnected, can you enter BIOS with F2 immediately after turning on machine?

Commodore_1995#

Is sata mode set to ahci or rst with optane?

SaveTheEmerald

The "start/test media" prompt always pops up on that live (Fedora) USB, regardless of which computer it's plugged into. The other drive doesn't have any pre-boot prompts so it goes straight to the stuck logo

BIOS still works with 0 bootable drives

JackE

>>>The "start/test media" prompt always pops up on that live (Fedora) USB,>>>

The Fedora and other Linux USB isos or imgs probably should be prepared with GPT partition scheme FAT32 format using Rufus or using DD in the terminal command prompt. DD is usually more reliable and insensitive to the partitioning scheme.

SaveTheEmerald

JackE said:

>>>The "start/test media" prompt always pops up on that live (Fedora) USB,>>>

The Fedora and other Linux USB isos or imgs probably should be prepared with GPT partition scheme FAT32 format using Rufus or using DD in the terminal command prompt. DD is usually more reliable and insensitive to the partitioning scheme.

ft These drives have worked perfectly fine until now. I've also tried a Windows install usb as mentioned above.

meharg

Then, try to boot from the USB stick again on its own. There are no other drives that can be used to start up. Only the USB stick can.

JackE

>>>These drives have worked perfectly fine until now. I've also tried a Windows install usb as mentioned above.>>>

Then double-check that your BIOS is in UEFI bootstrap mode, not Legacy mode. Also double-check that the F12 USB boot option is enabled in BIOS MAIN tab. Tap F12 key at startup to reveal bootable USB stick.

SaveTheEmerald

BIOS is set to UEFI boot, which is the only available option. These USBs are compatible and have worked in the past.

Pressing F12 with a USB stick as the only bootable drive shows the USB as a boot option. Selecting it does the same thing (per drive) that not pressing F12 does.

One of the first things I would do to debug this thing would be to run a BIOS diagnostic to check RAM & such. There doesn't seem to be any built-in diagnostic in ACER's BIOS though. Any idea why not?

Commodore_1995#

When you disconnect the ssd and hdd, can the bios be accessed? Can you send a picture of the bios information tab?

JackE

>>>Pressing F12 with a USB stick as the only bootable drive shows the USB as a boot option. Selecting it does the same thing (per drive) that not pressing F12 does.>>>

How long are you waiting for the USB stick to boot past the logo? Are you using a bootable USB3 thumbdrive in the blue USB3 port?

padgett

I have seen this before where the drive is UEFI but it does not have an signature entry in the store. Is it possible that the store was erased ? This must be done in the BIOS and if acting the way yours is would reset to factory default then add each drive back one by one. (will need to set the supervisor password to enter).

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/vf/fc2wbh2qjvjh.jpg

SaveTheEmerald

I've always had secure boot & TPM off in the BIOS since first setting this machine up in 2019 (due to installing a Linux distro instead of Windows.)

All the USBs are 2.0 and I'm using the 2.0-only ports, since I've had trouble with 3.0 in the past (different machine.) Even tried disabling 3.0 in the BIOS then attempting to boot, no change.