"no bootable device" on load - Acer Nitro 5

Acer Nitro 5 with replaced motherboard now suddenly shows "no bootable device" on load.

Things I have tried:
F2 to BIOS and "restore defaults" did not work.
Battery pull did not work.
No pinhole to reset.
Removing and replacing RAM did not work.
No bootable device means it will not work to get to recovery screen, so that is out.
Have made various USB recovery drives and tried booting, and they will boot but hits a B1initializefailure (or some such) which when you search says hardware BIOS failure.

Product had mother board fixed June 2021 for battery issue (battery would nor charge). So, computer should now be in warranty, but bought in Jan 2021 means marked as out of warranty.

Any help is appreciated.

[//Edited the content to add model name]

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JackE

Does the drive appear in the BIOS INFORMATION tab?

samiam3

Yes they do. I should be able to get the computer to start from recovery drive, but no matter how I generate them UEFI vs legacy and MBR vs GPT, and with BIOS secure boot off (or on, for that matter) they'll start up, but they die at the B1initialize error

JackE

>>> MBR vs GPT >>>

Does this mean you already tried to repartition the boot drive to MBR?

samiam3

No, it means I tried bootable USB disks with settings of MBR as well as GPT and all died at that error point.

I have not gotten it booted such that I can run anything on the bare metal.

samiam3

Just to note what was tried, made new USB, tried with secure boot on. In both USB slots left and right side.

Turned secure boot off by setting admin password and turning it off in BIOS (hit F2 on boot). No dice, still fails on boot.

I suspect hardware failure at this point.

JackE

(1) The BIOS must be in UEFI mode.

(2) The F12 boot menu option must be enabled in the BIOS Main tab.

(3) The boot installation iso stick must be GPT paftition scheme FAT32 if prepared with Rufus

(4) Turn the machine on and immediately start tapping the F12 key.

(5) The F12 boot menu should appear to allow booting from the installation stick

If you still get an error, please post a phone photo of the error message if possible.

samiam3

Thank you kindly for the advice. Will verify #3, as I tried many combinations but perhaps missed this one.

Will try in coming days and report back.

Easwar

Hi @samiam3,

In the BIOS information page is the unit HDD is showing.

samiam3

I will be back with computer in a few days and will check. I believe so though, yes.

samiam3

Okay, back to trying to fix computer again, and remembered about this thread. Yes, HDDs are recognized. Can get to BIOS. But get "no bootable device" if just try to boot regularly.

samiam3

Got Rufus prepared UEFI Shell USB working, so I confirm I can boot to a USB stick.

1. I am using the USB port on the RIGHT side of the computer.

2. I set a SUPERVISOR password on the BIOS. This allowed me to turn SECURE BOOT to DISABLED, in the fourth of five menus in the BIOS.

Now trying a Rufus-prepared GPT + UEFI (non CSM) Windows 11 installation ...
... USB drive flashing ...
... now getting Windows rotating circle of dots at bottom of screen ...

... crash: STOPCODE DRIVER PNP WATCHCODE

StevenGen

samiam3 said:

Acer Nitro 5 with replaced motherboard now suddenly shows "no bootable device" on load.

Things I have tried:
F2 to BIOS and "restore defaults" did not work.
Battery pull did not work.
No pinhole to reset.
Removing and replacing RAM did not work.
No bootable device means it will not work to get to recovery screen, so that is out.
Have made various USB recovery drives and tried booting, and they will boot but hits a B1initializefailure (or some such) which when you search says hardware BIOS failure.

Product had mother board fixed June 2021 for battery issue (battery would nor charge). So, computer should now be in warranty, but bought in Jan 2021 means marked as out of warranty.

Any help is appreciated.

[//Edited the content to add model name]

samiam3 there are allot of guides on the "no bootable device" so look at this Intel link guide for the basics "M.2 or 2.5" SSD Isn't Recognized as a Boot Drive by an Intel® NUC" or look at this guide "6 Methods to Fix No Bootable Device on Windows 11, 10, 8, 7".

JackE

>>>. crash: STOPCODE DRIVER PNP WATCHCODE >>>

Please post a phone photo of your BIOS INFORMATION screen if possible.

samiam3

StevenGen said:

samiam3 there are allot of guides on the "no bootable device" so look at this Intel link guide for the basics "M.2 or 2.5" SSD Isn't Recognized as a Boot Drive by an Intel® NUC" or look at this guide "6 Methods to Fix No Bootable Device on Windows 11, 10, 8, 7".

from Intel
- says to boot to BIOS and check if device recognized. Yes, my 256Gb (HFM256GDJTNG-8310A) and also a secondary hard drive added are recognized.
- Intel then says to replace boot storage if recognized. Not that helpful, but I guess at that point it's not their problem.

from Guide

Method 1. Remove and connect back all hardware components
- detected per BIOS
Method 2. Check boot order
- does not show in BIOS. It did once, but I cannot get it to show again. I can boot to UEFI shell successfully, and I can get Windows recovery to start loading (circle shows) but it does not boot to the shell, just hangs on "no bootable device" at some point. Will try again.
Method 3. Reset primary partition as active
- cannot. See 2. But will try again, and from UEFI shell.
Method 4. Check internal hard disk status
- will try chkdsk from UEFI shell. Not sure if included in UEFI shell utils but I'll try.
Method 5. Fix boot information (BCD and MBR)
- This is asking to run bootrec /fixmbr, bootref /fixboot, bootrec /scanos, and bootrec /rebuildbcd from Command Prompt. As I cannot get Win recovery to load to shell, I will have to prepare boot media. Doing so.
Method 6. Recover deleted boot partition
- will try when get here.

samiam3

Two things.

1. Boot order shows in the BIOS. It lists only the USB. I note that the two SSDs are recognized and listed on the main information screen.

2. I made a partition boot USB with AOMEI Partition Assistant as described by the second link (because Win recovery disk does not boot), and it will not boot. Says "no bootable device" again.

JackE

>>>1. Boot order shows in the BIOS. It lists only the USB. I note that the two SSDs are recognized and listed on the main information screen.>>>

No, NOT BOOT tab. Please post a phone photo of the BIOS INFORMATION & MAIN tabs. Do you have a phone camera? If not, you must write down what you see on the screen in the INFORMATION & MAIN tabs.

samiam3

Yes. I understood. That is why I said, at the end of my sentence "I note the two SSDs are recognized and listed on the >>main information<< screen."

I have now uploaded the pictures. They are here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/LnWXVmu6EpV7N2au7.

JackE

No. You have only one 256GB SSD and one 2TB HDD. The SSD is probably the C : \ boot drive. The HDD is probably the D : \ data drive. The RST optane SATA mode does not look correct. Did you try to change this mode in the BIOS ADVANCED tab?

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/48/fjbyvrc27m6j.jpg

samiam3

Yes, you are correct. The computer I am typing on has two SSDs. The one at issue has the 256 SSD and a 2 Tb hard disk drive.

The 256 SSD is the boot, yes. I will try to change RST now.

samiam3

Under ADVANCED I have two options. Intel VTX and Intel VTD. They were both enabled.

I disabled both, rebooted, and got "No Bootable Device".

Wonder if the boot record on C was corrupted, but I cannot get to a Windows shell (from a Win recovery disk) to fix that.

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