Acer Aspire V5-571 Operating System Not Found and BIOS is Inaccessible

josemalig

Hi,

I have a 10 year old Acer Aspire V5-571 laptop still running smoothly until yesterday.

I don't know exactly what happened, when I turned it on, its showing Operating System Not Found.

My wife told me he caught our 5 year old daughter playing it by just pressing the keyboard.

So I tried accessing the BIOS to see if its not detecting my storage drive.

But I can't access the BIOS. I tried all the possible keys to enter the bios but nothing happen.

So I dismantled the laptop and clean the inside as well. I also reset the CMOS by removing the battery

and put a new one after 30 minutes. But no success. It still showing Operating System Not Found and I still

can't access BIOS.

What should I do now?

Should I consider buying a new one?

][Edited the thread to add model name to the title]

Accepted answers

billsey

Have you got a different machine you can attach the HDD to? With an external SATA case you could at least look to see if the data is still accessible. With a legacy boot environment, that error will show if the drive has failed or if the MBR has been corrupted. But if that were the issue you should still be able to get into the BIOS. POST seems to be completing, since it's looking for an OS, but POST is when it monitors for the F2 keypress...

All comments

billsey

So for a V5-571 model you access the BIOS with the F2 key. That should work during POST, so from the time it turns on through the Acer logo display. What you might be running into is an issue with the keyboard, try plugging in an external and see if that allows you to go into the BIOS. Once in the BIOS do a reset to factory recommendations with an F9, then F10 to save and exit.

Once the BIOS has been set right if it is still complaining about the OS then we need to look at the drive status, since that error typically means it can't find a valid OS or can't load the EFI, both of which use the drive. Create a Windows install flash drive on a different machine and use the F12 boot menu (which might need to be enabled in the BIOS) to boot from the flash drive. On the second screen there's an option to go into the Repair environment. Navigate to the command prompt in repair and use diskpart to get a view of the partition on your main drive. Post those here if you can.

josemalig

I have tried pressing F2 many times. I even tried shift+F2, Ctrl+F2, FN+F2 and all the other Fs in the keyboard but to no avail.

I also tried using 2 different USB Keyboard. But I still can't enter BIOS.

By the way, I'm using Windows 10 running under Legacy firmware.

billsey

Is there any chance something like Pop!_OS has been installed at some point? They tend to disable BIOS entry to keep the users from bypassing any of their security settings (typically by giving you only 0 seconds to hit the key). I wonder if there's any chance the F12 key boot menu is enabled? If so you could put a Windows install flash drive in and boot from that in order to inspect the system. If something tweked the BIOS back to the defaults, with a UEFI boot environment, you would get that error message, since there is no bootable UEFI device. I assume you have tried holding the F2 on an external keyboard down while you turn the laptop on, and leaving it pressed until the message, or the BIOS, appears?

josemalig

@billsey

Sorry but I have no idea what Pop!_OS is.

I tried pressing F2 key fast when I turn on the laptop. I also tried press and hold F2 key and then turn on the laptop. But nothing happens.

When I press F12, although nothing also happens but there is a beep sound.

maybe my laptop retires already.

But I can feel its not it. 😥

billsey

Have you got a different machine you can attach the HDD to? With an external SATA case you could at least look to see if the data is still accessible. With a legacy boot environment, that error will show if the drive has failed or if the MBR has been corrupted. But if that were the issue you should still be able to get into the BIOS. POST seems to be completing, since it's looking for an OS, but POST is when it monitors for the F2 keypress...

josemalig

I can check my HDD using my computer at the office. But as you mentioned, regardless whether my HDD is corrupted or not, I should still be able to get into the BIOS but I'm not.

billsey

I'm at a loss trying to come up with a scenario where you have your symptoms. Any issue with the OS boot process happens after the BIOS stuff, and a BIOS issue doesn't complain about the OS load. You have both happening, which point to two separate problems. :(

josemalig

I thank you for helping me. My problem is solved. At least 99% 😀

I removed my storage device (by the way its SSD, I don't know it if has anything to do with the problem) and using my ssd enclosure, I checked it with my computer at the office and it looks fine. I was able to backup my important files. Then I placed it back in my laptop. Then I tried to boot from a USB Flash Drive. A windows installer for legacy firmware. Then the error message "Operating system not found" is not showing. But nothing is happening. So I tried a USB windows 10 installer for UEFI firmware and it continue. On the part where I need to select which partition do I need to install the windows, it showed this error.

img01.jpeg

So I just formatted the ssd and it continued installing the os.

Now I can use my laptop again but I still can't enter the BIOS though.

Again, thank you for the help mate.

I almost buy a new one.

😄

billsey

Weird, somehow the BIOS was reconfigured to legacy mode in the past and then Windows was installed in that mode. Since you system came originally with Windows 8 it defaults to UEFI mode so the change had to have been done manually. In UEFI mode the drive needs to be GPT and have an EFI partition, in legacy mode it has to be MBR and have a boot block. It's much better to be using UEFI as you are now, since there are a lot of rootkits for MBR systems. At least everything is back up and running, though the BIOS things is still an issue it doesn't really affect functionality.

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