Boot up takes two steps

abdekker12 · November 2014

Have an Acer Apsire S7-392. I've noticed that after shutting down the laptop, when I open the screen the "Acer" welcome screen is displayed (I guess this is the BIOS loading) then..the screen goes black! The lightbulb LED at the top of the keyboard goes off. Then I manually press the power button on the left side of the laptop and the "Acer" welcome screen is displayed and then Windows loads normally.

Alternatively, if I start by pressing the power button on the left, the same thing happens. The "Acer" welcome screen displays, then black, then manually clicking the power button results in the laptop powering normally.

Any ideas what might be causing this? Maybe an errant BIOS setting or some Intel software issue?

Thanks,

Alain

philetus · November 2014

It might be your battery.

http://forums.cnet.com/7723-19681_102-566145/acer-5810tz-power-issue/

abdekker12 · November 2014

Thanks, I've noted that article. It certainly sounds possible. Is there any way to check this? The laptop is only two weeks old. There are a lot of odd power issues with this new laptop, possibly related to Windows 8.1. For example, as noted in a different thread, when I shut down the PC, any plugged in USB mice continue to draw power from the battery. I think there is probably something more involved then just a faulty battery going on here.

I'd like this new laptop to just "behave itself". Don't power devices when powered off, don't take two steps to boot up, don't wake up until I say "Wake up", etc. Am I fighting Windows 8.1 here (which I am growing to loath - its a childs' OS)?

Thanks,

Alain

IronFly · November 2014

Hi abdekker,

do you mind trying one thing?

windows key logo+X

select power option

on the rigth side choose "decide what the power buttons do"

now click on "change settings that are currently unavailable"

untick "turn on fast startup"

click save changes

power off your device

wait some minutes and then power on

(this option will increase speed on boot when enabled but sometimes can frooze a system at boot)

i'm curious if this will fix your issue, if not, revert back to previous without problems.

abdekker12 · November 2014

That worked, thanks!

I've tested it now both with opening the lid and with pressing the power button on the left-side of the laptop. In both cases the laptop now boots up in one quick step, without initially powering down and the screen going blank. The boot-up is very zippy and given that I don't have to do it twice anymore it is *much* faster.

This begs the question as to why that option is called "Fast Boot". Should be called "Secret Option to make Boot Into a Slow Two-Step Process", but I guess "Fast Boot" was quicker to type so they went with that Smiley Surprised )

On a side-note, another issue I had which was that plugged in USB devices, like a mouse, continued to be powered when the laptop shut down seems to have gone with this change as well. Good! I do note, though, that if I unplug the mouse and then plug it back in, it lights up and starts to draw power. I can live with that.

Thanks again,
Alain

IronFly · November 2014

You welcome.

this "dual" boot happens only on cold boots not on restarts, maybe can be related to the external mouse, since windows tries to quickly wake up all the hardware but if a device fail to wake in time, the system hangs or reboot.

abdekker12 · November 2014

Aah, ok. Yes, your explanation of what might have caused the slow boot when using the "Fast Boot" option makes sense. Maybe Windows has tight time-out criteria for plugged in devices on "Fast Boot". Even so, its been a bit poorly implemented then. I would have thought that it would be relatively simple to "learn" the boot-up time with the devices the user currently has plugged in. Windows could then detect that the current time-out is a little too tight and at least loosen it a bit for next boot (and vice versa).

Are you really not an employee of Acer? I've noticed that you are prolific and extremely knowledgable. Thanks for your help.

Regards,

Alain

IronFly · November 2014

Yes, fast boot works strange sometimes.

FYI i learnt it by myself since windows 8, because my soundcard need a little more time to start since it switches the audio input/output with real switches and this caused an infinite boot.

yes, i'm not an acer employee and never worked with Acer, to be honest i'm unemployed from over 1 year. Smiley Sad

abdekker12 · November 2014

Well Acer need to give you a job...

abdekker12 · November 2014

Uh oh, it has started to happen again. Yesterday, after turning off "fast start", the laptop was behaving itself booting u in a single step, now today it has started playing up. The boot again takes two steps and the "Turn on fast start-up" option is NOT ticked. So this is not the solution or is only part of the solution.

Anybody got any ideas?

Thanks,

Alain

IronFly · November 2014

Try to boot without the USB mouse inserted.

abdekker12 · November 2014

Sorry for the delay. I've now done loads of shut down, sleeps, etc and I *think* I've got the symptoms more precisely defined.

* If I perform a full shut down, then the next time I lift the lid the laptop boots up into Windows 8.1 fine

* If I close the lid (putting the laptop to sleep), and then lift the lid after a short time period, the laptop wakes up and boots into Windows 8.1 fine

* If I close the lid (putting the laptop to sleep), and then wait for several minutes for some sort of "power-out" (the blue light goes off just above the laptop), then lift the lid, the laptop wakes up...then blacks out dead. I have to press the power button on the side to complete the two-step boot process.

Having a USB mouse plugged in doesn't appear to affect it (works or fails in the same way if it is plugged in or not). I'm suspecting something to do with the Power Options and maybe a flaw in the Acer firmware.

Any other ideas? The problem is annoying but not disastrous. It means that I cannot use the "sleep" function reliably by simply closing the lid.

Thanks,

Alain