How to force a system Restart in Switch Alpha 12 tablet?

Hi,
Yesterday, I could not get pass the lock up screen. The mouse click on the screen area wouldn't prompt the password entry filed for login, neither the Enter key and in fact the Ctrl+Alt+Del didn't seem to be working so I can force a system Restart. After one frustrating hours I let the battery drain to 0% over period of the entire day and finally everything was fine after a fresh system restart this morning. In my old HP notebook and other laptops before that, I always forced system Restart by removing the battery, an option that's NOT available on Switch Alpha 12 (at least not so easily). Is there a way, I can force a system Restart if I encounter this problem again without having to wait an entire day?
Thanks in advance

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padgett

My Switch 12 has a reset pinhole next to the power input but I do not know about a Switch Alpha 12.

hrh747

@padgett: I looked for such pinhole so impatiently yesterday and the Switch Alpha 12 does not seem to have one. Every system should really have a hard reset feature.

brummyfan2

hrh747 said:

@padgett: I looked for such pinhole so impatiently yesterday and the Switch Alpha 12 does not seem to have one. Every system should really have a hard reset feature.

Hi,
Give this a try, switch off the laptop, press Power button as soon as you see the blue light keep pressing Windows button(one with the Windows logo, just below the volume button).

hrh747

@brummyfan2: Hi, thanks for the reply. I tried that combination (power+window) buttons yesterday, that just resulted in sleep and wake mode.

billsey

You can force a full power off by pressing and holding the power button for 30 seconds or so. No need to muck with batteries.

reasonableman

If the Switch Alpha 12 is frozen there is no hard reset, and holding the power button for 30 or more seconds does nothing. You will need to drain the battery. I suggest using the USB C port to charge a cell phone or battery pack to drain it faster. (This is at least up to late 2017 model, I'm not sure if the new ones have a reset pinhole.) Acer acknowledged that there is no reset mechanism and that no combination of keys or holding the power button would do a hard reset. As this was a significant shortcoming, I hope the new version has a reset pinhole or will respond to a 30-second power hold.

Ln0709

I have an acer switch alpha 12 it was for work purposes but upgraded to something different. I’m trying to restore to factory settings so I can use for home use. I’m struggling to find the recovery key? Any ideas. Thanks

billsey

@Ln0709 if you updated your Windows 10 it often screws up the restore partition. You can do a Windows Reset instead and it'll remove everything back to a stock Windows image with none of the Acer applications it originally had. If that doesn't sound workable you can purchase a recovery image from the Acer store in the US or Canada.

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