Stuck on Acer Logo after booting ARM Windows 11 via USB, missing drivers for Acer Swift 14 SF14-11

Hello,

I need to reinstall Windows 11 on the aforementioned laptop, and this is proving to be very complicated. I used Rufus to set up a bootable stick with Windows 11 (ARM). It is recognized, but after I select the stick and press Enter, only a few lines appear briefly and I get stuck at the Acer logo. Acer support is not very helpful. They just tell me to create a USB stick (which I have!) and that they cannot provide me with a recovery image. As I see it, the Windows ISO is missing the correct drivers for the laptop. Is there a solution in the meantime?

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

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StevenGen

First of all, what is the exact model number of your Acer Swift 14 AI laptop, is it the SF14-11T etc model or what? Have a look on the Acer support driver page if your Swift 14 AI has an Intel RST driver for the M.2 SSD boot drive, as you need this driver on the Rufus boot drive.

But if the Rufus bootable USB gets stuck and doesn’t boot into the Win-11 version 24H2 installation process, then the Rufus bootable USB is constructed wrongly or the USB is faulty, try another USB and download the Rufus 4.9 software and follow the Rufus installation guide exactly from the link I’ve provided as then the bootable USB will boot into the laptop and start the Win-11 version 24H2 installation.

Maybe you will also need the Intel RST driver (which Acer does not I’ve got the Swift SFX14-51G model and I reinstalled Win-11 Home version 24H2 and this Swift laptop has an Intel RST (Intel® Rapid Storage Technology) Driver version 19.2.0.1003 so download this IRST driver and put onto the Rufus bootable USB and when you get to the Wn-11 section at “Where do you want to install Windows? > Load driver > you install this IRST driver so that the system recognizes the boot M.2 SSD drive and you can finish the installation. Good luck and hope this helps you out and let us know the results.

If this answers your question and solved your query please "Click on Yes" or "Click on Like" if you find my answer useful👍

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/728612/cant-install-windows-11-arm-on-acer-swift-14-ai

Hi MaxPayne_87,

Intel RST (Rapid Storage Technology) applies only to systems with Intel chipsets and storage controllers. Your Acer Swift 14 AI is built on an ARM‑based Snapdragon platform, so there’s no Intel hardware for RST drivers to interact with — they simply don’t apply.

If the Windows 11 (ARM) installer hangs at the logo, the more likely cause is missing ARM‑specific drivers or an incomplete installation image. Recommended steps:

Confirm ARM build — Make sure the ISO is the official Windows 11 (ARM64) image from Microsoft.
Try alternative creation tools — Use Microsoft’s Media Creation Tool (ARM build) or UUP Dump to ensure all required ARM components are included.
Test another USB stick — Some boot issues are caused by faulty media; recreate the boot drive using Rufus with the GPT + UEFI option.
Check Acer’s support page — Visit the official support site for your exact Swift 14 AI model: https://www.acer.com → Support → enter your model number. If no ARM driver bundle is listed, you may need to manually inject key storage and USB drivers into the installation image’s https://boot.wim file before retrying the install.

How to inject drivers into https://boot.wim:

Install the Windows ADK and Windows PE add‑on from Microsoft.
Create a working folder, e.g., C:\Mount.
Open an elevated Command Prompt or PowerShell and run:

dism /Mount-Wim /WimFile:"D:\sources\boot.wim" /index:1 /MountDir:C:\Mount
dism /Image:C:\Mount /Add-Driver /Driver:"C:\Path\To\Drivers" /Recurse
dism /Unmount-Wim /MountDir:C:\Mount /Commit

(Replace D: with your USB drive letter and C:\Path\To\Drivers with the folder containing the extracted ARM64 storage/USB drivers.)

On ARM platforms, the priority is a verified ARM64 installer with complete drivers — Intel IRST is not relevant for your hardware.

MaxPayne_87

Thank you very much, both of you!

I followed this guide on Reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows11/comments/1m0hdm3/installing_windows_11_on_arm_snapdragon_x_elite/

And now I am no longer stuck at the Acer Logo. But now I have the issue that no SSD appears when I need to chose a place where to install Windows. I tried all the Qualcom driver but they don't work, any idea which driver I exactly need?

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/comment/1353330#Comment_1353330

Hi MaxPayne_87

Quick ARM SSD‑detection fix for Swift 14 AI (Windows 11 ARM)

Get the correct driver
- From another device, download the Qualcomm NVMe storage driver (ARM64) for your exact Swift 14 AI model from Acer’s official support page:https://www.acer.com/us-en/support/drivers-and-manuals
- If it’s not listed, try the WOA‑Project Qualcomm driver pack:https://github.com/WOA-Project/windows_qcom_platforms
- Extract the package so you have the .inf and .sys files in a folder.
Load it during Windows Setup
- Boot from the Windows 11 ARM USB.
- When you get to “Where do you want to install Windows?”, click Load driver.
- Point it to the folder with the extracted Qualcomm NVMe driver.
- The SSD should appear after the correct .inf loads.
If still no drive is detected
- Re‑create the USB stick (GPT + UEFI in Rufus).
- Temporarily disable Secure Boot in UEFI.
- Keep only the internal SSD connected during install.

StevenGen

As I've said above, put the Intel RST Driver version 19.2.0.1003 and its section 09AB that is from a Swift SFX14-51G driver or the newest that is the IRST version 20.2.1.1016.4 on the installation USB, and see if this works, do this at the below section of the Windows-11 installation section and see if the M.2 SSD drive is recognized and you can install the OS.

If this answers your question and solved your query please "Click on Yes" or "Click on Like" if you find my answer useful👍

MaxPayne_87

Hello Puraw,

thanks a lot. Indeed, I can't find the Qualcomm NVMe storage driver for the Swift SF14-11 and I am a little bit clueless how to find the proper WOA‑Project Qualcomm driver pack on the website you mentioned. Would you mind stating the direct link where I can download the inf files?

MaxPayne_87

So, it worked! I used the USB-C port and suddenly the hard drive appeared, for whatever reason!

Thanks all for the support.

pixel8

can you please tell me how you figured it out?, i myself am facing the same issues and more, as i had all my drivers lost in the process. can you lend me the driver that you found for this?

MaxPayne_87

I didn't use the drivers.

LucasGonzagaJr

@Maxpayne_87

"Hi! I saw that you managed to format the Acer Swift SFG14-01, and I'm having the same problem. When I boot from the USB, the SSD doesn't appear for Windows installation. Could you tell me exactly what you did to make the drive show up? For example, did you use a specific port, change any BIOS settings, or load any driver during the installation?