ES1-512-C9QM Random Boot Duration the last boot took over 17 minutes how can I fix ?

Hi, like many others I have come across the blue flashing 'On' light. The laptop will boot but the time it takes seems to be random. Random is to be confirmed; however, last boot took over 17 minutes. When pressing the power button the heatsink fan spins and then stops and the blue 'On' light starts to flash. The fan clicks every 5 seconds, which continues until the boot occurs (with fan spinning as normal).

Once booted up the laptop works as expected. I managed to catch the boot and entered the BIOS menu. All seems normal. Boot mode is UEFI.

I have replaced the RAM and the battery. When in Windows I have performed a disk check, which shows no errors (although I don't expect this to be an OS issue).

My only theory is that perhaps the fan is faulty and that the boot won't occur until the fan is spinning normally. Maybe a self protection thing?

If anyone has any ideas, I'd be grateful for your input.

Best regards,

Icdbdis

[Edited the thread to add issue detail]

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brummyfan2

Hi,

Could you please post the model name of the laptop, it should be like ES1-5xx-xx

icdbdis

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1161322#Comment_1161322

Hiya brummy, ES1-512-C9QM :)

brummyfan2

Hi,

I think the slow booting is caused by spinner HDD, I would suggest you replace the HDD with a 2.5" SATA SSD of your choice.

Acer Aspire ES1-521 | Memory RAM & SSD Upgrades | Crucial UK

icdbdis

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1161325#Comment_1161325

Thank you. Will bear that in mind. Will replace the fan as a start and then feedback here with progress.

brummyfan2

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1161326#Comment_1161326

You are welcome and good luck with the upgrade 🙂

icdbdis

Although as the Acer logo does not even display, I am not so sure that this is a disk issue.

billsey

Spinning HDD by itself wouldn't give you a 15+ minute boot time. Most likely the system was doing either a really big update (such as a W10 to W11) or the drive had an error and it was running chkdsk before finishing the Windows load. Use a utility to look at the SMART data from the drive to see if it thinks there are error. The fan issue likely isn't the problem, I don't think POST complains about fan speed unless the CPU temp climbs too high, and that takes some time.

Commodore_1995#

Is the Acer logo always slow to appear? Have you checked the health of the hard drive yet?

icdbdis

Thanks for all the responses. It's definitely not an Operating System issue. The laptop does not even display the Acer logo. I now suspect that some BIOS corruption has occurred. Trying to flash to the 1.15 BIOS, using the Windows utility on the Acer support page, results in an "Invalid image file" and reversion to BIOS 1.10.

I've replaced the RAM, CMOS battery, main battery, installed a new SSD and performed a clean install of Windows 10. All works fine when it's up and running but it can take anywhere from 10 - 40 minutes to perform the POST and display the Acer logo.

Could anyone advise if there is a standalone BIOS flash process and file for BIOS 1.15, which does not use Windows? I.e. direct flash from USB

Thanks all,

billsey

Give that a try, though I can't think of anything that would corrupt the BIOS in such a way without making it not work at all...

icdbdis

Hi @billsey , thanks for the response. I agree with your last line. I don't understand what the laptop could be doing in the time before the Acer logo appears so can only assume it is a BIOS issue or some underlying hardware failure. It's strange that all seems ok once its up and running.

Where did the above information come from please? I'd like to read a little more to understand the .fd file aspects.

Do you know where I can get the 1.15 BIOS file?

Thanks again.

billsey

The info was snipped from the Service Guide, which isn't publicly available. Some of us are allowed access just for this type of question. The BIOS releases should all be in the Acer support site, Drivers and Downloads under the BIOS tab.