Acer Travelmate P4 Spin 14s (TMP414RN-53-555Z) The BIOS settings being lost or reset randomly.

andyhall · October 11

We have approximately 100 Acer Travelmate P4 Spin 14s (TMP414RN-53-555Z) running Windows 11. For initial imaging and deployment, we had to make some BIOS setting changes - disabling VMD and secure boot. About once a week I get a support call that a machine "won't boot." Every time the device is stuck in the Windows 11 repair screen. To fix, I shut down the machine, get into the BIOS and change settings back to what it was when I imaged and all is fine.

They don't lose all BIOS settings, as the password to access the BIOS is still there. The specific settings that are getting reset are:

Main → Network Boot (changes from on to off)

Main → F12 Boot Menu (changes from on to off)

Main → VMD controller (changes from off to on)

Boot → Secure boot (changes from off to on)

I cannot identify a pattern of any kind and have tried to replicate it on other devices but can't.

[Edited the topic title to include the topic issue.]

andyhall · October 11

These are all running BIOS version 1.20 as well.

billsey · October 12

This is likely caused by an EFI/BIOS update being pushed by Windows update. That happens fairly often and will essentially reset close to factory. We saw issues early on when they were first starting to push those where it would do changes that broke booting, such as changing iRST settings… Are Windows updates being allowed through automatically or are you doing an approval process before letting them get to the client machines?