Acer Spin 3 is telling me no bootable device is found. I've tried so many things

sofhas
sofhas Member Posts: 3 New User

I've tried using other forums on here but my issue is persistent.

I'm troubleshooting this laptop for someone else so I'm not sure how long this issue has been going on. This laptop uses a HDD and the BIOS says that the system detects the HDD.

I tried setting the boot up options back to default.

I tried changing the boot up to Legacy, but it wasn't an option so I made a supervisor password to see if that would give me access to the Legacy option, but no beans.

I turned on D2D recovery and F12 boot up menu access, then using a drive to try an reinstall W10 from the drive but that didn't work either.

When I select the option to boot from the drive, the windows symbol pops up, processes for a bit, then switches back to the acer logo and more processing. From there, it seems like the acer is either really having a hard time reinstalling windows or its just restarting the process over and over because it isn't fully successful. And I figure this cause the screen goes blank for a moment (or the computer is restarting quickly, it happens fast so I can't tell) and I have let it do its thing for like at least 30 minutes.

I'm still going to let it keep doing its thing until I get a response from, it in case the drive is just slow.

The drive is a Kingston DataTraveler 16GB and supposedly that could be part of the issue due to speed, so I will attempt to use a different drive when possible, but is there any other advice someone could offer me in the meantime or is it just replacement time?

Answers

  • sofhas
    sofhas Member Posts: 3 New User

    This is where I found the info on the drive stick

    Cite your sources, kids!

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,944 Trailblazer

    It would help a lot to know which Spin 3 model you are working with. There have been literally hundreds of them over the years. The full model number should be on the same sticker as the serial number and look something like SF3xx-xxx-xxxx. There is a fairly good chance, from your symptoms, that the drive has failed. It's good that the system doesn't allow changing to a legacy boot, that hasn't been used since the Windows 7 days and will totally break booting for any newer OS. When booting from the Windows install flash drive, where does it fail? Do you get the initial menu screen where you choose to install? Do you get to the second screen that has the Repair option available? If so, choose Repair, then navigate to the command prompt and use diskpart to look at the drive...

    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • sofhas
    sofhas Member Posts: 3 New User
    edited January 2023

    I'll reply with the serial number when I have it on me but as fair as the boot failure, it doesn't even get to the initial menu screen, it shows the windows logo and a buffer circle, then it switches to the acer logo and a different buffering circle and stays there just buffering and restarting. No clue what it's trying to do but I'll take a look at the drive


  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,944 Trailblazer

    If you are going to use the serial number, only give us the first ten digits... The fact that you are getting past the Acer logo and into the juggling balls points directly at the OS or the drive.

    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.