Made the mistake of updating to Windows 8.1. Laptop now doesn't boot properly.

Hi guys. New here.

So I recently made the mistake of udating my laptop (an Acer Aspire V3-571G from Windows 8 to 8.1. Downloading and installing from the Microsoft store worked fine, the laptop then rebooted to continue installation. This is where the problems started.

It got through the installing device drivers etc. stages until the rather vague "Getting Ready" stage, which it sat at for hours. I eventually left it over night, in total for somewhere around 18 hours, and there was still no change. So I did something that was, in hind sight, rather dumb. I restarted my PC.

I assumed the installation method would have SOME kind of failsafe for an interrupted installation, but I guess not. The next time I started up my laptop it acted like it was booting normally. However after the Acer logo and spinning wheel, instead of going to the login screen I was greeted with a empty black screen. This has been the case every time I restart now.

-I've tried connecting it to the TV via HDMI or another monitor via VGA in case something had happened to my display, but the results are the same.

-I've tried making a Windows 8 install disk in the hopes that it would boot up and offer me the repair feature. No such luck, it just goes to the Acer logo screen, cd spins up, and then blank black screen again.

-Same result with a USB install disk.

-I've also tried frantically hammering alt+f8 in the hopes of getting into the Advanced Boot Options. Haven't had much luck with this. Why microsoft decided you could only reliably get to repair tools from within the OS is a mystery to me.

I think that covers everything. Has anyone encountered this before or have any suggestions for me? I'm at the stage where I think I might just send it to Acer for repair. It's still under warranty.

Oh, one last thing. I have no cursor during the black screen. My googling has shown a lot of people with this problem and it seems different to mine.

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Vince53

Sworkman, I'm sorry this happened to you. For what it's worth, it's Microsoft's fault, not yours.

WIndows 8.1 is not an upgade. It is a complete operating system, and it deleted all your Acer drivers. It installed generic drivers that might not work on a laptop, because laptops are more specific than desktops. Don't kick yourself for restarting your computer--the installatiOn was stuck and couldn't get out of itself.

Fortunately, you should not have any hardware damage. You need to borrow a legal copy of Windows 8 and put it in your DVD drive. Reboot, and it should take you to a repair menu. MAYBE it will let you roll back to your original operting system, or maybe it will let you restore the factory settings.

sworkman

Thank you for your quick response, it's very appreciated. With a Windows 8 install disk, I get the blue windows logo instead of the Acer one during start up, but then on to the same black screen unfortunately. Could you tell me what the keyboard shortcut for safe mode is on Acer laptops? F8 or Alt+F8? I know it's highly unreliable on Windows 8, but it's something I can at least try.

Vince53

The Safe Mode method varies on different machines. The fact that Microsoft hides it in Windows 8 doesn't heal any.

With your repair discs installed, restart and hold down the Shift key plus F8. Sometimes you have to repeatedly hit F8, while other times you have to hold it down. After trial and error, you should get to the recovery screen. As you check the various options, you might decide that entering Safe Mode is not your best option. However, from the Recovery Screen, select "See Advanced Repairs Options," Troubleshoot, Advanced Options. Here you get some pretty good choices that you´all want to think over; some of them are better than Safe Mode for your specific problem.

If you select Windows Startup Settings, it will tell you how to reboot into Safe Mode.

sworkman

Unfortunately I still can't get access to Safe Mode and haven't managed to make any progress with the black screen. I'm considering sending it off to get repaired. In that regard I'm wondering would it be faster to send it directly to Acer or the retailer I bought it from (Amazon)?

GGsAcer

Hold F2 at boot to go in to the BIOS Settings. From there change the boot sequence to CD/USB then HDD.

After saving the BIOS settings, it will restart and as soon as it does, start tapping F12 repeatedly until the boot options appear; chose CD or USB.

I did a clean install of 8.1 instead of that upgrade nonsense. All my drivers work fine (some from 8 and newly updated 8.1)

I can't show you how to perform a clean installation, you will have to research and find out how to do that yourself but in the case of rescueing your files, just pop in a linux distro e.g Zorin and backup your files.

After that, you can download all the drivers for 8/8.1 via the Acer website and perform a clean install of 8.1

sworkman

@GGsAcer

If you had read my first post;

"I've tried making a Windows 8 install disk in the hopes that it would boot up and offer me the repair feature. No such luck, it just goes to the Acer logo screen, cd spins up, and then blank black screen again."

Or my second;

"With a Windows 8 install disk, I get the blue windows logo instead of the Acer one during start up, but then on to the same black screen unfortunately."

You will see I've already tried using a Windows 8 CD and got the same result. And yes, I changed the boot order in BIOS first. I appreciate more people trying to help fix my issue, but lets not go round in circles here.

GGsAcer

I was going to suggest a Linux distro instead but perhaps your computer is done mang; good job Microsoft!

You will probably have to send it in to Acer but it wasn't their fault, it was Microsoft so...goodluck

sworkman

Alright, after many many convoluted methods I finally got Windows 8 reinstalled on my machine. There are however 2 issues I'm still having.

The first is that I had to set BIOS to legacy to get the installation to work (UEFI never got past the black screen), but now if I try to change BIOS back to UEFI it claims that there is no bootable device found.

The second is that I can't activate Windows. Apparently my OEM key can't be used on a retail copy of Windows. So... the only way around this is to get a Windows disc directly from Acer, I guess?