Acer Aspire TC-1780 does display boot menu on Win 11 with F12 enabled

I have an Acer Aspire TC-1780 running Win 11. In the Advanced BIOS setup "Boot Menu", is enabled, but when I boot and the bottom left corner says DEL for BIOS menu or F12 for Boot Menu, I can enter the BIOS area with DEL but it does nothing when I hit F12. An observation which may be relevant is that when in the BIOS menu I can enter Advanced setup by clicking on it with the USB mouse but it has a indication that I should also be able to enter Advanced setup using the F1 key but it also does not work. It appears as if none of the F-keys are recognized during boot up (that's why it may not respond to F12).

I attached two screen pictures, one of the BIOS entry area and the other showing the Boot Menu configuration. No "F" keys work on either screen.

If I change the boot order manually and force it to boot from the bootable USB stick, I see the USB boot device and another USB disk but the main Windows disk with the BIOS designation "Windows Boot Manager" is missing.

I use this configuration to do backups on all my PC's including an Acer Nitro5 Laptop running Win 11 and they all work fine so it's not Acer and it's not Win 11 specifically.

So. it boils down to two questions. Why won't it load the boot menu at boot time (which I believe has to do with the fact that it does not recognize any "F" key during boot time), and why does the Windows system drive disappear when I force a boot from the USB environment (basically Windows shell from the USB)?

Accepted answers

Larryodie

I think that you have to hold the FN key while pressing F12. Your boot is fast so tap the F12 continuously.

https://www.partitionwizard.com/news/f12-boot-menu-not-working-windows-11.html

All comments

Larryodie

I think that you have to hold the FN key while pressing F12. Your boot is fast so tap the F12 continuously.

https://www.partitionwizard.com/news/f12-boot-menu-not-working-windows-11.html

Larryodie

Well I just booted my TC-895UA92 (WIN 11) using the F12 key, it went in the Boot Menu. VERY FAST but I was tapping it pre power on.

Larryodie

from my TC-895 UA92

BigRich

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1305373#Comment_1305373

OK, that answers my Function key question. Thank you.

I have been working on computers since 1978 and this is the first time I had to hold the Fn key and strike the top row function key to get it to work. Live and learn, eh! My other PC's don't even have an Fn key.

The really odd part is that my other Acer laptop (Nitro5) does not require the Fn key to be depressed to enable F12. Different machine, different BIOS so I get it.

Now I have another issue but I may need to post it in a different part of the forum. When I boot my back up software off the USB on this machine, it does not enumerate the Windows boot drive. I can't back it up if it is not listed. Again, the software works on other machines including the Acer Nitro5 which also runs Win 11. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I don't see it in the BIOS as a hard drive but as "Windows Boot Manager". I cannot recall having to disable Windows Boot management on the laptop to see its boot drive and back it up.

Any ideas?

billsey

Windows Boot Manager is what keeps the UEFI list of bootable devices and that is normal for all UEFI systems to be displayed as the default boot device. What backup software are you running, and does it show any devices as available for either backing up from or to?

BigRich

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1305403#Comment_1305403

The software is AOMEI Backupper Pro. Yes, it shows other drives, just not the main OS drive that I'm trying to back up.

I think I may have messed up. I bet I need to install the backup software on the system drive before it will list it. I'm going to go dig up the software and install it to see if it unlocks the drive for enumeration.

I have the software installed on all the other machines I back up, I just skipped a step with this one and just booted from the standalone bootable USB.

It may take me a while to find and install the software and keys so I am probably done for today. Thank you.

I'll try to post if it is a success or not.

BigRich

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1305413#Comment_1305413

I found the software and license and installed it and created the bootable media and it recognizes the OS drive now. I guess the install does some magic to the boot block to make it visible.