New (flagship?) Swift SF14-71T No Bootable disk error on first cold start only

BIOS fails to identify new install SSD on cold starts ONLY. Rebooting identifies OK into Windows 11 OK. Restart from Windows identifies SDD. Frustrated in having to reboot to use.

I waited almost a year for the Swift SF14-71T to be released from Acer. Before using it I upgraded the HDD with an August 2023 manufactured Samsung 2TB 990 PRO PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD..

This install process below was successful, however, there is a problem:’

Disk Drive not recognised when booting from cold (ie left off for 10 minutes or longer )

Laptop fails to reconsider Disk Drive on boot and or cold F2 Boot as bios show NO HDD found

I then turn it off and on (reboot – second try), and the SSD is ALWAYS found / always found also in F2 Boot

I can restart from Windows and the Disk Drive is always found = Windows working

I tried a few BIOS settings, but nothing worked, including reset back to default

BIOS upgrades with the current version from the driver support page ( there were 2x upgrades listed)

NEW LAPTOP process

Turn on laptop from new – activate Windows 11

Then Install Macrium Reflectt 8 free workstation (I used previously for my old Acer Laptop upgrade 250gb to 1Tb )

Cloned disk

Install disk driver into laptop and power up

All Working except for this COLD start loss of drive / failed to identify the drive

POSSIBLE ANSWER

This ACERS Laptop / BIOS is not compatible with current model technology SSD's? (sadly outdated even before before release?)

Note: purchased in MAY sat in its box until now, found the time to invest in the week's work required to migrating over and software from Windows 10 to 11

Feedback is greatly received. Hope the above makes sense, dyslexic . I love to use my new LT, currently staying put in its box

Accepted answers

StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/695613/new-flagship-swift-sf14-71t-no-bootable-disk-error-on-first-cold-start-only

The SF14-71T takes a 1x M.2 SSD drive and these are its specs and type of drives that Acer fits to this laptop, it could be that the laptops M.2 slot is damaged, as the cold start boot should NOT be happening on a new laptop. Don't try to do anything and send your Swift laptop to Acer Tech Support and get them to look at the slot and mobo, otherwise the new M.2 Samsung 2TB 990 PRO PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD drive is faulty, so check that also with another laptop, as it doesn't matter if its not a Gen4 laptop that you test this drive out on. As your new Swift SF14-71T should be fully compatible with the Samsung 2TB 990 PRO PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD

M.2 SSD drives fitted by Acer oem to the Swift SF14-71T

All comments

billsey

It sounds like the drive itself is not coming up and initializing fast enough. We used to see that 30 years ago with HDDs that were slow. The solution back then was to put a delay in at the BIOS level to allow the drive to come up before the system tried to start loading the OS. Needless to say that is no longer an option because modern drives aren't support to have that type of problem. I'd contact the vendor that sold you the Samsung and have it replaced. My guess is it's throwing enough errors when starting to take too long to get up and running, and errors are typically a bad thing.

StevenGen

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/695613/new-flagship-swift-sf14-71t-no-bootable-disk-error-on-first-cold-start-only

The SF14-71T takes a 1x M.2 SSD drive and these are its specs and type of drives that Acer fits to this laptop, it could be that the laptops M.2 slot is damaged, as the cold start boot should NOT be happening on a new laptop. Don't try to do anything and send your Swift laptop to Acer Tech Support and get them to look at the slot and mobo, otherwise the new M.2 Samsung 2TB 990 PRO PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD drive is faulty, so check that also with another laptop, as it doesn't matter if its not a Gen4 laptop that you test this drive out on. As your new Swift SF14-71T should be fully compatible with the Samsung 2TB 990 PRO PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD

M.2 SSD drives fitted by Acer oem to the Swift SF14-71T

1synergy

Many thanks for the awesome feed feedback. I did think of that. I replaced the original ACER OEM driver back into the slot. And no issues on the 1TB Acer drive :(

billsey

So back to the vendor with the new drive and get a replacement. It should have no issues with a new drive, so the one you got is pretty obviously faulty.

1synergy

I Logged a detailed support request with Samsung New Zealand. A Samsung support person requested lots of information which I replied via the email address provided. The response back = Crickets .. Nothing - No help. I guess I picked the WRONG brand. My last Acer - I upgraded 250Gb to 1Tb Western Digital. Sweet perfection. Returned drive. DO NOT PURCHASE SAMSUNG 990 PRO - backed with zero support :(

billsey

In your case, the issue isn't with Acer, it's with Samsung. Can you not return the Samsung drive to the vendor for replacement?

1synergy

The problem is with ACER - New (2023 release) Laptops are not compatible with current technology SSD drives
Feedback from an expensive investigation
We scanned the (new Samsung ) 2TB SSD, no faulty found.
detected the SSDs information by software at our testing pc.
both of them are support pci-e 3 and 4. but the original one only support nvme1.4 and the new one support nvme2.0. we think that this is maybe the main problem.
we also tried to fix your clone (clone image was a copy disk to disk - they did a Windows 11 reinstall) and the problem is still the same. also tried resetting your bios, still the same.

Going back to Acer with a support request for 2T compatibility list

Id love loved to use my 1400 6 month old laptop going forward - with 2Tb

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