Acer Aspire XC-895 desktop has secure boot violation / stuck on Acer screen

louisejxx
louisejxx Member Posts: 9 New User

Hi there,

My Acer Aspire desktop froze during a Windows update yesterday, and I had to force shut it down. Since then, it's come up with the red Secure Boot Violation screen. After searching online, I tried the suggestion of disabling the secure boot, however when the system restarts it then just gets stuck on the Acer screen. I've also tried getting onto the Windows Automatic Repair by powering up and down several times, but the automatic repair screen just doesn't come up.

I also can't get onto F12 to look at the Boot options either.

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

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Answers

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,101 Trailblazer

    Can you take a picture of the failure screen for us? A secure boot violation typically means the EFI partition is corrupt and that can be rebuilt by booting from a Windows install image and using the command prompt in Repair mode. You can enable the F12 Boot Menu in the BIOS, it's disabled by default on most systems. For more targeted suggestions we're going to need to know what machine you actually have. Your full model number is usually on the same sticker as your serial number, it should look something like xxxxx-xxx-xxxx. In addition it's often helpful to know what drives you have…

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  • louisejxx
    louisejxx Member Posts: 9 New User

    Thanks for your reply - please see attached photos. The first is of the error message that appears without any intervention, the 2nd is how the screen is stuck once I’ve attempted to disable the secure boot.


    I had a look in the BIOS settings but unfortunately couldn’t see anything about enabling the F12 Boot Menu.

  • louisejxx
    louisejxx Member Posts: 9 New User

    Also the computer is an Aspire XC-895…there were 2 numbers underneath - one was S/N and the other SNID, which one is the one needed?

  • Larryodie
    Larryodie Member Posts: 1,658 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    edited June 2023

    It is BOOT MENU in my TC-895 .

    It used to be F12 Enabled or so.

    You have to boot menu enable then SAVE it in bios then reboot , tapping the F12 .

  • Larryodie
    Larryodie Member Posts: 1,658 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
  • Larryodie
    Larryodie Member Posts: 1,658 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon

    Create your installation USB here on a working computer then load it from your bad one via the boot menu.

    You may can do a ALT- F10 to reset from a the stored default and save your files too.

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/create-installation-media-for-windows-99a58364-8c02-206f-aa6f-40c3b507420d

  • Larryodie
    Larryodie Member Posts: 1,658 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon

    Did you go into bios via tapping the DELETE key and do this ??

    https://www.partitionwizard.com/disk-recovery/secure-boot-violation.html

  • Larryodie
    Larryodie Member Posts: 1,658 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon

    Sometimes this will work.

    Remove power and all cables from the desktop, and press and hold the power button for 30 seconds. Plug power back in to the desktop and see if the computer will power on.

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,101 Trailblazer

    The EFI file that you are attempting to load has been changed from the standard. You will need to boot from a Windows install flash drive and replace the EFI image with a real one. Luckily it sounds like the malware that installed the bad EFI image did a poor job of it since it doesn't actually boot.

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  • louisejxx
    louisejxx Member Posts: 9 New User

    So I have just managed to get on to the Boot Menu via F12, however when I press Enter to go to the Boot Menu, the screen just goes blank (the screen is still on though). I've left it 30 minutes to see if something just needed to load up, however nothing has appeared since.

    I've also tried turning the power off at the plug and then holding down the power button for 30 seconds - this did then bring up a different menu when I rebooted (see attached image) but when I pressed F1 it just took me back to the Secure Boot Violation screen with the red box.

    It seems like my next step is to try and boot from a flash drive - when I do this do I just put it into the computer and then go on the Boot Menu to change the settings so that it boots from the USB?

    Thanks so much for everyone's suggestions, it's really appreciated!

  • I would try something simpler. Create a password in supervisor password and then disable secureboot. Check whether the problem continues or not.

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  • Larryodie
    Larryodie Member Posts: 1,658 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon

    Follow the instructions of this link then do an F12 to change the boot drive to your USB.

    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/create-installation-media-for-windows-99a58364-8c02-206f-aa6f-40c3b507420d

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,101 Trailblazer

    In the boot menu you should be able to cursor through the bootable devices and choose the USB flash drive as you boot device. Don't continue to try and boot from the HDD. Either the HDD is having issues or the Optane memory in your M.2 slot is having issues.

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  • louisejxx
    louisejxx Member Posts: 9 New User

    Hi there, apologies for the massive delay in coming back to this - life got in the way and the computer has just been sat there. I’ve tried to reinstall windows, but am being met with the above message. Any suggestions at all?

  • JimboTheWindowsFreak
    JimboTheWindowsFreak Member Posts: 67 Devotee WiFi Icon

    Hit F2 Instead of F12, see if you can get anything hinting at the problem in the bios

  • JimboTheWindowsFreak
    JimboTheWindowsFreak Member Posts: 67 Devotee WiFi Icon

    How are you installing windows? USB or DVD?

  • louisejxx
    louisejxx Member Posts: 9 New User

    It’s on a USB

  • JimboTheWindowsFreak
    JimboTheWindowsFreak Member Posts: 67 Devotee WiFi Icon

    Do you have a DVD drive handy?

  • louisejxx
    louisejxx Member Posts: 9 New User

    No sadly not, the laptop I used to get the windows file doesn’t have one, nor would I have any dvds to burn onto.

  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,101 Trailblazer

    Did you extract the driver files from Acer's support site to the Windows install flash drive? Those drivers should be signed…

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