Acer Aspire S3-391 Windows 8 Pro cannot enter Bitlocker passphrase

I have recently had an issue with my Acer which I have added Pro feature and enabled Bitlocker (passphrase authentication only). Af first it worked fine but recently, when presented with the Bitlocker passphrase entry screen it sits with the cursor blinking but the keyboard is totally inoperative, I cannot even Ctrl+Alt+Delete to restart.

The only recourse (workaround) is to power off then on and quickly F2 to go into BIOS, then F10 to exit (which brings the Bitlocker password display) and keyboard entry works again. This did not happen at first, and is intermittent, as occasionally the keyboard does work. I have disabled and enabled Bitlocker and the problem just comes back.

Does anyone else have this experience? Know a magic keyboard wake up sequence? Is there a BIOS upgrade to fix?

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LukeOliver

+1 for the same problem. Tried the new BIOS (.14?), no change.

patsalter

I have exactly the same problem here. We have 3 of these machines which were upgraded to Win 8 Pro, installed Bitlocker and 2 of these now do exactly the same thing.

One has bios v2.14 and the other 2 bios v2.09 (one of these does not exhibit the problem)

I noticed the Bios upgrades state "not for Win 8 Upgrades" but cannot install one of the older versions to try

Thanks for the tip workaround - saved me a lot of time

kevinsloan

Not seen a full remedy for this yet....

Workaround 2.0: I have now turned on the F12 Boot menu option in the BIOS and thereafter press F12 at power-up (and hit return at the "menu" - which has precisely one option for UEFI - any choice you like as long as it is "Windows Boot Manager"). Saves a couple of key strokes, and accidental BIOS changes Smiley Happy .

But this fault is really annoying: I wish someone [Hint: Acer] would provide a proper fix! Smiley Sad

patsalter

Thanks for F12 tip

I think the problem may be to do with the speed the Acer boots up - have had problem with an HP laptop installing bitlocker without TPM when it needs to verify key on USB stick. It booted too fast to verify the key so I added a 5 sec delay in Bios and it all worked fine.

However, I cannot find any setting in Acer Bios to set a delay

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