Acer Swift 1 Windows 11 automatic repair - not booting up

Hi, my Acer Swift 1 is stuck in the boot loop, I've tried going through all of the avilable on-screen options and many of the solutions offered online which have just taken me around n circles. To hopefully give you some more to go on, I've tried a system restore but a message is displayed stating "You must always restore the drive that contains Windows. Restoring to other drives is optional". A checkbox is displayed with Local Disk (C) Status: You must enable system protection on this drive. The check box is greed out and so is the 'Next' button so I can't go any further, the only option is to cancel. I have tried the 'Reset this PC' option, I have tried 'Local reinstall and Cloud download and both options display "There is a problem resetting your PC. No changes were made'. Does this suggest that there may be some corrupted files and Windows can't load without them? Are there any other possible solutions I could try or does it look like I will have to resort to buying a new laptop?

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

Accepted answers

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1191530#Comment_1191530

Are you sure that your USB Recovery drive is bootable for your system (Window10-11?) and your USB port is compatible with that drive (USB 2.0 or 3.0)? Power the laptop off and on again. If the system always stays on and you use crtl-alt-del or restart to begin a USB boot session, the BIOS may not 'notice' that you have changed the 'type' of partition. If that USB drive doesn't show up using any USB port on your computer, try it on a different computer.

As a last resort bring your laptop to Acer Service to check your drive(s), you may have a bad HDD/SSD or a corrupted boot sector, Acer Service charges a small fee ($25) for reinstalling firmware, OS and Acer drivers.

All comments

Emma_

Hello!!

@manguy

Give a try//

Press and hold the power button for at least 5seconds till the machine completely shuts off. Remove the charger. If your machine has an external battery pack, remove the pack for a few hours. If an internal battery pack, look on the bottom cover for a pinhole with a battery symbol. Gently push a paperclip into the hole for about 60 seconds to disconnect the battery. Then let the machine rest for a few hours.

Reinstall the external battery pack. Then plug the charger back in. Then turn the machine on and immediately press and hold the ALT key while tapping the F10 key. A recovery screen should appear similar to the earlier ones you saw. Then follow the directions below for re-setting the machine to a factory fresh state or refreshing the system while trying to save your personal files.

or

Try the ALT+F10 cold boot reset again. Sometimes it needs to be run 2 or 3 times.

or

Turn machine off. Then turn it back on again and immediately tap the F2 key to enter the BIOS menu. On the BIOS Main tab, enable the D2D recovery option. Then press F10 to save settings and exit. Then shut the machine off again and try the ALT+F10 cold boot recovery method again.

Check the given link for more details:

https://community.acer.com/en/kb/articles/15528-how-to-fix-startup-issues-in-windows-11

Regards,

LunaNova14

manguy

Thanks for posting but unfounately nothing has worked. The screen shows and option to use a recovery device such as a USB or Windows recovery DVD, is there any way to download a Windows 11 recovery DVD on another PC or save the Windows files to a USB device? Otherwise this is starting to look like a lost cause.

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1191427#Comment_1191427

No need to buy a new laptop😉 Simply borrow a working USB 2.0 recovery flash drive from anyone that has Windows11. Before you boot with this USB flash drive make sure that you insert the drive in the correct USB.2 port (if it is a USB 3.0 drive insert it in a USB 3.0 port), Press F2 during booting and check your BIOS settings if Secure Boot is enabled (if not, change that) then go to to the Boot page and move your USB recovery drive to the top of the list with the bootable devices. Save on exit and reboot to the Blue Screens with WindowsRE, go to Advanced menu and select either Recover System or Reset This PC. If you are still unable to boot, bring your laptop to Acer Services they may charge you a small service fee ($25) to reinstall Windows11 and drivers. To copy your personal files to another PC, take out the drive that contains your files and connect it to a USB cable (or mount it in an external USB HDD case) then copy your files to the other PC and also reformat the external drive to protect your privacy when you have your laptop serviced.

manguy

Thank you so much for that information. I'm not sure if I know anyone using Windows 11 right now but I'll ask around. I did see on the Acer support website that a usb recovery media key which restores the original factory settings can be purchased. Would one of those fix the issue?

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1191443#Comment_1191443

Another method is to abort 4 times the Windows booting process then it wil show the "Repair Mode": menu: Press the power button directly after the Acer logo has finished, you mave to keep the button depressed for a few seconds fo shut down, repeat this 3 times and you will get a blue screen with the Repair Mode menu, select Advanced (don't select the repair option as that will get you into that loop again) and select Restart, it will then ask Safe Mode (4 or F4) without or with Networking (5 or F5). and you will have to enter your Windows password. Once in Windows11 Safe Mode you can Restore your system or Reset this PC.

Yes you can get the USB Recovery drive for your system also from Acer, keep in mind that there is a remote chance that your BIOS won't detect any bootable device, either because of firmware or hardware issues. Like I sugested before, also consider bringing/shipping your laptop to Acer Services for a complete reinstall of all firmware, latest OEM Windows11 OS and Acer drivers.

Note in your reply type @Puraw at the top or click on "Quote" otherwise I may not see your posts.

manguy

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1191449#Comment_1191449

Thanks again for advising, unfortunately I didn't have any luck with aborting the Windows booting process, every time it still went still went through the automatic repair and to the loop. When I pressed F2 to check the BIOS settings, Secure Boot is enabled though the only option under Boot Prioity Order is Windows Boot Manager, USB recovery drive is not listed, so that concerns me that I could purchase a USB recovery drive and the BIOS will not detect it. With that in mind, do you thinnk the safest way is to ship the laptop to ACER for a Windows 11 reinstall?

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1191530#Comment_1191530

Are you sure that your USB Recovery drive is bootable for your system (Window10-11?) and your USB port is compatible with that drive (USB 2.0 or 3.0)? Power the laptop off and on again. If the system always stays on and you use crtl-alt-del or restart to begin a USB boot session, the BIOS may not 'notice' that you have changed the 'type' of partition. If that USB drive doesn't show up using any USB port on your computer, try it on a different computer.

As a last resort bring your laptop to Acer Service to check your drive(s), you may have a bad HDD/SSD or a corrupted boot sector, Acer Service charges a small fee ($25) for reinstalling firmware, OS and Acer drivers.

manguy

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1191628#Comment_1191628

SUCCESS!!!! Managed to sort out the USB drive and port, then performed a new install of Windows 11 from the recovery drive and I now have my laptop fully working again and it has not cost me anything! Thank you so much for your advice, without it, I would probably have been looking at buying a new laptop! Thanks once more!