Aspire Z22-780 Unable to boot into UEFI via SATA or USB

thomasglu · March 2022

I have an Acer Aspire Z22-780 all-in-one desktop that was configured to boot into Windows 10 via EFI.
I have since upgraded the system to boot into Windows 11, similarly via EFI.

Recently however, I was informed that I did not have a proper boot device, and was unable to boot into Windows 10 or 11 via EFI. When I attempted to use the boot selection menu to select a USB Windows recovery/installer, I was immediately taken back to the boot selection menu. Similarly, selecting my SSD resulted in the same, while letting it try to find a boot device resulted in being told an improper boot device was selected.

If I disable Secure Boot and enable CSM/Legacy Boot, I am able to install Windows onto any SATA drive via MBR. However, when I reenable EFI and/or Secure Boot, I am unable to boot to any such device.

I suspected something happened to the BIOS, so I attempted to flash it from the non-EFI install of Windows, only to be given an error that an unsupported platform was detected. I obviously can't boot into a EFI flash drive to flash the BIOS, because again... it cannot detect any EFI device (except strangely, a Microsoft Surface SSD I previously intended to get data from that was connected to a USB adapter).

Does anyone know what may have happened, and how I can get my system to recognize EFI devices again?

(Thread was edited to add model name to the title)

Commodore_1995# · March 2022

Are the usb stick and ssd converted to gpt?

thomasglu · April 2022

egydiocoelho said:

Are the usb stick and ssd converted to gpt?

The USB flash drive was formatted as FAT32, made active, and had the Windows installer files copied onto it. It's seen as an EFI bootable device in the boot selection menu. It just won't boot.

The SSD was cleaned, and had Windows installed onto it via the aforementioned EFI bootable flash drive containing the Windows installer. It contains an EFI partition, the primary partition, and a recovery partition, as created by the Windows installer.

Again, the system BIOS seems unable to boot into any EFI device, even though UEFI is enabled, and regardless of whether or not Secure Boot is enabled or not.

Commodore_1995# · April 2022

Have you tried using another flash drive or external hard drive?

billsey · April 2022

The USB flash drive was formatted as FAT32, made active, and had the Windows installer files copied onto it. It's seen as an EFI bootable device in the boot selection menu. It just won't boot.

That process normally doesn't work at all. You should use either the Media Creation Tool from Microsoft or Rufus to take the Windows install ISO file and 'burn' it to the flash drive.

StevenGen · April 2022

thomasglu said:

I have an Acer Aspire Z22-780 all-in-one desktop that was configured to boot into Windows 10 via EFI.
I have since upgraded the system to boot into Windows 11, similarly via EFI.

Recently however, I was informed that I did not have a proper boot device, and was unable to boot into Windows 10 or 11 via EFI. When I attempted to use the boot selection menu to select a USB Windows recovery/installer, I was immediately taken back to the boot selection menu. Similarly, selecting my SSD resulted in the same, while letting it try to find a boot device resulted in being told an improper boot device was selected.

If I disable Secure Boot and enable CSM/Legacy Boot, I am able to install Windows onto any SATA drive via MBR. However, when I reenable EFI and/or Secure Boot, I am unable to boot to any such device.

I suspected something happened to the BIOS, so I attempted to flash it from the non-EFI install of Windows, only to be given an error that an unsupported platform was detected. I obviously can't boot into a EFI flash drive to flash the BIOS, because again... it cannot detect any EFI device (except strangely, a Microsoft Surface SSD I previously intended to get data from that was connected to a USB adapter).

Does anyone know what may have happened, and how I can get my system to recognize EFI devices again?

Yes this is a problem that I've encountered also in doing a Win-11 clean install with an .ISO file from Microsoft, but and as its been suggested use the Rufus tool and make your either Win-10 or Win-11 installation USB from that as it just doesn’t work downloading the .ISO from Microsoft. See this guide as it explains it step by step and very well “How to create bootable USB drive for Windows 11 with Rufus” and download the installation files through Rufus as that works 100%.

thomasglu · April 2022

StevenGen said:

Yes this is a problem that I've encountered also in doing a Win-11 clean install with an .ISO file from Microsoft, but and as its been suggested use the Rufus tool and make your either Win-10 or Win-11 installation USB from that as it just doesn’t work downloading the .ISO from Microsoft. See this guide as it explains it step by step and very well “How to create bootable USB drive for Windows 11 with Rufus” and download the installation files through Rufus as that works 100%.

I've created a Windows 11 installation flash drive via DISKPART + file copy; the Windows Media Creation Tool; and also Rufus. The system refuses to boot from any UEFI device anymore including these, and the SSD where a UEFI installation of Windows 10 and 11 resided.

As I mentioned before, I was able to install Windows 10 and 11 via the drives I manually created, but recently the system stopped booting to any UEFI device. I can switch the BIOS settings to CSM/Legacy and boot into non-EFI flash drives and disk drives, but it would not boot into any UEFI drive anymore.

I do however suspect that plugging in my MS Surface's SSD into the system triggered this issue, however. When I rebooted my system prior to the issue happening, albeit with the MS Surface SSD plugged into the system, the Acer desktop decided to boot from that instead, and it initially looked like my normal system startup until it brought me to a Surface firmware integrity check and I immediately powered it off. Since then, it refuses to boot from the internal drive or any external drives that are EFI.

ttttt · April 2022

@thomasglu

I'll suggest you take out the CMOS battery and wait a couple hours to have the BIOS reset first.

Do a fresh Win 10 or Win 11 install under UEFI environment from the FAT32 installation flash drive either created by MS or Rufus.

The FAT32 flash drive should be in MBR partition type.

thomasglu · April 2022

ttttt said:

@thomasglu

I'll suggest you take out the CMOS battery and wait a couple hours to have the BIOS reset first.

Do a fresh Win 10 or Win 11 install under UEFI environment from the FAT32 installation flash drive either created by MS or Rufus.

The FAT32 flash drive should be in MBR partition type.

I had taken out the CMOS battery and depressed the power button for a full minute to reset the BIOS. Although the default settings were loaded, the issue persisted.

thomasglu · April 2022

After conversing with an ex-Microsoft engineer, who suggested that Bitlocker from the Surface SSD may have triggered some hidden TPM function in the BIOS to cause this behavior, I began a different battery of tests and found the solution by pure accident.

Prepare a Windows 10 and Windows 11 installer
Reinstalled Windows 10 onto the Surface SSD via the Surface Recovery Tool
Connected Surface SSD to Acer AIO desktop
Booted into Surface SSD
Press SHIFT+F10 at the OOBE, connect a Windows 11 installer, and then run the upgrade from the command prompt

Somehow, upgrading the Surface SSD to Windows 11 while it is in OOBE and Bitlocker disabled resulted in whatever was causing UEFI not to boot to resolve itself. Afterwards, I can boot into any EFI internal, USB, etc. device.

This was seriously the strangest thing I have ever come across... but glad it is fixed now.