Acer TC-780 SSD stops loading in BIOS after recent (Aug-Oct 2020) Windows 10 update

After each of the last two windows updates, booting my TC-780 gives the "Reboot and Select proper Boot Device" error because the SSD drive with the Win 10 OS is no longer being recognized by the BIOS. Only the second 1-TB HDD drive is being recognized. Each time, loading Win10 with a recovery USB stick and restoring the OS on the SDD to a pre-update restore point allows the BIOS to recognize the SSD and boot normally. It runs fine for weeks until the next Win10 update, then it goes back to not booting. I have verified this is the issue twice by getting it to work again after restoring and removing the offending Win 10 update. I then re-applied the latest update again and now it is not booting again. This is the current state of my computer.

What can I update or do to keep Windows updates from killing my SDD at boot? I checked the ACER driver site for any BIOS updates that might address this, but didn't see anything that seemed applicable. This has only been a problem with the last two Win 10 updates in the last 2 months. Every other Win 10 update prior had no issues.

Relevant info:

Model: AT6W1
Bios Version : R02-A3
Build Date : 5/26/2017

Accepted answers

All comments

ttttt

@rich8n
Do you have two boot drives ( the HDD and SSD) connected to the PC at the same time?

rich8n

ttttt said:

@rich8n
Do you have two boot drives ( the HDD and SSD) connected to the PC at the same time?

No. The HDD is not a boot drive. No OS. It barely has anything on it at all. Also, I have attempted to boot with the HDD SATA cable removed when I was trying to diagnose the issue before I figured out it was the Win 10 update. It doesn't change any behavior to have the HDD disconnected.

ttttt

@rich8n
Have you tried to reset BIOS to the factory default after having problems?

rich8n

ttttt said:

@rich8n
Have you tried to reset BIOS to the factory default after having problems?

Yes, several times.

wkkuhnke2

I updated Windows 10 a few days ago. Since then, when I boot I get stuck in a loop. Sometimes it says "automatic repair", sometimes it doesn't.

ttttt

Then I'll say that is Widows 10 software problem. Hope Microsoft will solve the problem with the future updates.

ttttt

Sometimes unexplainable problems can be solved with BIOS update.

rich8n

Is there an overall BIOS update I should be using? On Acer's product support page for the TC-780 under BIOS there are what look like specific fixes to specific problems, but no overall upgraded BIOS to flash. https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/6817?b=1

rich8n

Never mind. After looking closer I realize that each of those is a full BIOS update, and the descriptions are just the main issue that update addresses. I will update to the latest version and see if that works. Thanks.

rich8n

So I updated the BIOS, restored windows 10 to a pre-update state and it booted up. I updated Windows 10 with all available updates, and it still appeared to boot up fine. However, when my in-laws got it home, the next day it went back to not recognizing the SSD OS drive at boot. So, I am at a loss as to what to do next.

billsey

It's sounding to me like the issue is more likely hardware with the SSD than the software directions you have been looking. Which drive is installed?

rich8n

billsey said:

It's sounding to me like the issue is more likely hardware with the SSD than the software directions you have been looking. Which drive is installed?

I'll take it out and look, but it is the stock m2 ssd that came with this: https://www.newegg.com/acer-tc-780-neselecti5-student-home-office/p/N82E16883101369

billsey

It looks like they used both Lite-On and Toshiba drives in the 256GB versions. Use one of the SMART disk utilities to see if there are any errors being recorded.

rich8n

It is a Micron 1100 MTFDDAV256TBN

rich8n

SMART output using Micron's Storage Executive:

ID	Description	Attribute Data	Units
1	Raw Read Error Rate	9687	Errors/Page
5	Reallocated NAND Block Count	453	NAND Blocks
9	Power On Hours Count	290	Hours
12	Power Cycle Count	2110	Power Cycles
171	Program Fail Count	0	NAND Page Program Failures
172	Erase Fail Count	0	NAND Block Erase Failures
173	Block Wear-Leveling Count	62	Erases
174	Unexpected Power Loss Count	360	Unexpected Power Loss events
180	Unused Reserved Block Count	1592	Blocks
183	SATA Interface Downshift	0	Downshifts
184	Error Correction Count	0	Correction Events
187	Reported Uncorrectable Errors	388929	ECC Correction Failures
194	Enclosure Temperature	38	Current Temperature (C)
		57	Highest Lifetime Temperature (C)
196	Reallocation Event Count	410	Events
197	Current Pending ECC Count	0	ECC Counts
198	SMART Off-line Scan Uncorrectable Errors	0	Errors
199	Ultra-DMA CRC Error Count	0	Errors
202	Percentage Lifetime Remaining	96	% Lifetime Remaining
206	Write Error Rate	0	Program Fails/MB
210	RAIN Successful Recovery Page Count	2008	TUs successfully recovered by RAIN
246	Cumulative Host Sectors Written	15816889861	512 Byte Sectors
247	Host Program Page Count	495513216	NAND Page
248	FTL Program Page Count	171375952	NAND Page

billsey

The key SMART stats that I look at are:

Attribute		Description
SMART 5		Reallocated Sectors Count
SMART 187		Reported Uncorrectable Errors
SMART 188		Command Timeout
SMART 197		Current Pending Sector Count
SMART 198		Uncorrectable Sector Count