Corrupted bios on SP315-51

@bobf53 I do not believe there is a bios problem! Check if this helps!

When you turn on the notebook, immediately press the alt + f10 keys before the Acer logo to start system restore!

If this procedure does not work, can you take a picture of the information and boot section to see if the hd is being correctly identified?

You can make a recovery pendrive of windows and try to restore the notebook!

This is definitely not a problem in bios, but in the boot partition of windows!

instalar windows 10 inglês.pdf

Yes, perhaps the easiest way is to simply order the ACER Win10 USB installation stick for about 45$ from the ACER store https://store.acer.com/en-us/extended/recovery/ . You could also try making the Microsoft generic Win10 installation stick for free then either install all the ACER specific drivers from the ACER site or see if you can then reset the machine. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 Jack E/NJ

>>>the one that failed in update was 1803>>>

Great. Please make sure system protection is enabled so a restore point is created at the time a problem update is installed. That way you don't have to go all the way back to 1510. Just go to Control Panel, search restore point, click on create a restore point, then the configure box to turn on system protection. Jack E/NJ

All comments

1. You need an empty FAT32 formatted USB stick
2. Rename STRDB.bin to STRDB_Recovery.rom and copy it to the root of the stick
3. Plug in charger. Press and hold the power button till machine is completely off. Then insert the stick.
4. Press and hold FN+ESC. Then turn the machine back on. Don't release the keys till you see LED stick activity.
5. The machine will automatically shut off if successful. Then turn it back on with your fingers crossed and hope for the best.

Jack E/NJ

If it does not work with the name given by @JackE, try this STRDBX64.fd

Yes. There are a few other names to try as well.

Jack E/NJ

Thanks, but no luck so far. I tried STRDB_Recovery.rom and also STRBDX64.fd. Machine says something about "starting repair" and not much of anything happens for a while. Then I see something about "starting diagnostic" and soon after the machine puts up a blue screen: "Automatic Repair. Your machine did not start correctly." There a buttons for restart or advanced options. Neither leads to anything that I found helpful.

Just for extra use of time, I tried powering up with tapping F2 to get to the bios screens. Some of the menu functions appear to work, and I changed the boot priority to bring USB:FDD to the top. There was no difference when I powered down and tried to restart as you described.

It's frustrating. The machine acts like all the hardware is intact, just needs the right touch of a magic wand in order to boot.

@bobf53 I do not believe there is a bios problem! Check if this helps!

When you turn on the notebook, immediately press the alt + f10 keys before the Acer logo to start system restore!

If this procedure does not work, can you take a picture of the information and boot section to see if the hd is being correctly identified?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpzLJRAZldA

Agreed. If you can access the BIOS menu, then its firmware doesn't seem to be corrupted. Try the ALT+F10 repair again as shown in the video below. And if it still fails, try it again and again till it works. Jack E/NJ

I agree the bios menu seems intact. I tried alt-F10 (holding alt and pressing F10 repeatedly at power-on). At the Acer logo there is a message to "please wait" and eventually the options menu came up. I chose * troubleshoot/reset this PC/remove everything *. Then things went differently from the video. A "getting ready" message came up with a spinner. After about 30 seconds, another blue screen with "There was a problem resetting your PC." A "close" button takes me back to the options menu.

So maybe I have bios, but it seems I can't boot to windows or do a factory reset. Is there anything else I can try?

BTW, here are the info and boot screens from BIOS setup. Looks like the bios has not been updated. AFAICT, the hard drive settings are OK. One other thing to mention: we have been able to connect a SATA cable from the HD to another computer and read data files. Does that give me a way to try and fix the problem? I appreciate your help.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/1e/j69j612in7y0.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6029997/uploads/editor/ml/iiv2u45ksmd3.jpg

You can make a recovery pendrive of windows and try to restore the notebook!

This is definitely not a problem in bios, but in the boot partition of windows!

instalar windows 10 inglês.pdf

That sounds promising, but I'm not sure if I understand. Are you suggesting I use a SATA connection to another PC, find the recovery partition, and copy it to a thumb drive? If that's correct, it sounds worth a try. Any special thumb drive configuration needed? To make the Acer boot from the thumb drive, would I need to change the boot priority order or some such?

>>>And if it still fails, try it again and again till it works.>>>

So, how many times have you tried the ALT+F10 method so far? Jack E/NJ

Three times so far. Each time I got the "there was a problem ..." message. I can try some more if there's a decent chance it will work eventually. The "cancel" button loops me back to the options screen so it's fairly easy to try again ... unless it's better that I cycle power each time?

bobf53 said:

That sounds promising, but I'm not sure if I understand. Are you suggesting I use a SATA connection to another PC, find the recovery partition, and copy it to a thumb drive? If that's correct, it sounds worth a try. Any special thumb drive configuration needed? To make the Acer boot from the thumb drive, would I need to change the boot priority order or some such?

Not! I'm telling you to make a flash drive with windows 10, to try to recover the operating system through the pendrive, since the recovery partition is not restoring the operating system!

Yes, perhaps the easiest way is to simply order the ACER Win10 USB installation stick for about 45$ from the ACER store https://store.acer.com/en-us/extended/recovery/ . You could also try making the Microsoft generic Win10 installation stick for free then either install all the ACER specific drivers from the ACER site or see if you can then reset the machine. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10 Jack E/NJ

Thanks, I'll look into that. I've tried to reset about 12 times now, and it's starting to make me think of that definition of insanity: expecting a different result when you do the same thing over and over!

>>>I've tried to reset about 12 times now>>> insanity>>>

No. You must try at least one more time before being declared insane.

Jack E/NJ

I think it's time for you to use the recovery pendrive!

Bit the bullet and bought a recovery drive from Acer. It seems to have worked. The PC is running again, back to as-bought configuration. The windows 10 version is 1510, I think, and the one that failed in update was 1803. Now that we have a recovery drive we might attempt the update again.

Thanks JackE and egydiodoelho for pointing out that the BIOS was OK and for suggesting the recovery drive!

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