Iconia W700P - need to access bluetooth keyboard during UEFI boot or need to boot from USB stick

egf
egf Member Posts: 12 New User

Solved one problem, now faced with two more:

 

The W700P will now boot from an Acronis TI recovery DVD, but to select the restore function (then the specific backup to restore), it needs input from a keyboard. The Bluetooth keyboard that came with the W700P does not work during the boot sequence. I'd rather not go out and purchase a USB keyboard, but that may be the only option.

 

Or -

 

Can the W700P boot from a USB stick? I've read that it cannot, but in looking at the Acer store, that is all they offer as recovery media for the W700P. I made a bootable USB stick when I first bought the computer, but I cannot get it to boot. All I get is repeated Acer splash screens, perhaps as it tries the various options in the boot order. I've tried changing the order, have set a boot password and turned off secure boot, but I still have the same issue.

 

Any ideas??

Best Answer

  • egf
    egf Member Posts: 12 New User
    Answer ✓

    Solved once and for now! I now own a USB hub, USB keyboard, USB mouse, and USB DVD (externally powered). Throwing all those things on the machine, I was able to boot into the Acronis Recovery DVD, access the menu, and reinstall a previous Windows 8.1 backup.

Answers

  • -Justin
    -Justin Member Posts: 2,362 Skilled Specialist WiFi Icon

    egf,

     

    Look over the article instructions here and see if that resolves your problem.

  • egf
    egf Member Posts: 12 New User

    Thanks, Justin. If only I had a system recovery DVD, I'd be in business.

     

    My problem is that I have an Acronis True Image 2015 recovery DVD and an Acer recovery flash drive USB. I can't get to the Acer virtual keyboard from the Acronis DVD, and can't boot from the Acer flash drive.

     

    Before I go out and buy a USB keyboard and try to make that work with the Acronis DVD, I was hoping for another alternative.

     

    If you have any other ideas, I'm game!

     

    Thanks again.

  • -Justin
    -Justin Member Posts: 2,362 Skilled Specialist WiFi Icon

    egf,

     

    How about these steps, do you get this far?

  • egf
    egf Member Posts: 12 New User

    Hi Justin,

     

    Putting in the flash drive before powering on results in repeating splash screens.

     

    I've tried hitting the Win key on the tablet (there's no access at all to the bluetooth keyboard) after pushing the power button, but it loops on the splash screen.

     

    I've tried holding the Win key and power buttons until the splash screen appears, and that gets me to the BIOS. Once there, even if I plug in the flash drive, it doesn't read the USB HDD type/model name. Moving the USB HDD to the first position works, but on reboot, I still get a "no bootable device" error (without the flash drive), or the splash screen loop (with the flash drive inserted).

     

    The BIOS shows HDD 000 as present, and with a serial number, etc., but it is not recognized as bootable.

     

    Thanks for hanging in there with me.

    eric

  • -Justin
    -Justin Member Posts: 2,362 Skilled Specialist WiFi Icon

    egf,

     

    What led you to have to perform this process in the first place? You might be having issues because the SSD is defective.

  • egf
    egf Member Posts: 12 New User

    I had installed the Windows 10 Technical Preview. One of the latest updates had problems installing security options - it ran for a couple hours before shutting down. I decided to wait for the final Windows 10 release, and started the process to restore Windows 8 using the HDD based Acer recovery. That's when things went wrong and I started to get the "no bootable disk" problems. I thought that using either the bootable flash drive I had created or the old, reliable Acronis True Image backup would be easy fixes. Needless to say, they haven't worked.

     

    I'm hopeful that a USB keyboard will let me respond to the True Image prompts, but we live fairly far away from any stores and don't want to make the trip unless necessary.

     

    Thanks again!

  • -Justin
    -Justin Member Posts: 2,362 Skilled Specialist WiFi Icon

    egf,

     

    Ah, okay, well that helps a little. Have you tried formatting the SSD and letting the recovery USB drive format and recreate everything itself?

  • egf
    egf Member Posts: 12 New User

    How would I get access to the SSD to reformat it?

  • -Justin
    -Justin Member Posts: 2,362 Skilled Specialist WiFi Icon

    egf,

     

    Typically you would have to use a formatting utlity to erase the partitions and format the SSD. If the recovery media you created still fails after that the SSD is most likely defective or the media you created is defective.

  • egf
    egf Member Posts: 12 New User

    Any suggestions about which utility to use? I think have a Win 8 installation disk I created when I bought a laptop and a bootable Win 7 PE disk, either of which might format the drive and install a system, but I'm afraid I'll run into the keyboard issue with them. Would these work, or do you have something else in mind?

  • -Justin
    -Justin Member Posts: 2,362 Skilled Specialist WiFi Icon

    egf,

     

    If it's a retail copy of either you should get access to the part of installation that allows you to delete partitions. Once they are all deleted you can try the recovery media you created, it will format and create the partitions when it runs.

  • egf
    egf Member Posts: 12 New User
    Answer ✓

    Solved once and for now! I now own a USB hub, USB keyboard, USB mouse, and USB DVD (externally powered). Throwing all those things on the machine, I was able to boot into the Acronis Recovery DVD, access the menu, and reinstall a previous Windows 8.1 backup.