Aspire 5600U: Cannot Enter BIOS

[PorkishPig]

Edit: This issue was never resolved.

 

I've encountered an issue that I can simply not resolve at this point. I do not have physical access to this computer and never will. I have been providing remote support to the owner for a few days now. My first choice of action at this point would be to remove the boot drive, but the owner is not comfortable doing so, as it is an all-in-one. The model is the Aspire 5600U.

 

Let me start off by explaining that I have absolutely hated dealing with this computer. It came with Windows 8.1, and I concluded it was time for an upgrade to Windows 10. The upgrade went smoothly, but then issues started pouring in. A day after the install, the computer refused to enter the desktop after logging in, with a black screen that lasted over ten minutes. This was resolved rather quickly, as I told him to just reinstall with his installation media. Now, I've reached a dead end. When his computer boots, it immediately enters an infinite error, as seen below.

 

The computer hangs on this screen, randomly rebooting every 10 or so minutes, ending back at this screen. He's tried to enter the BIOS by spamming F2 (Default for Aspire 5600U), with no luck. The computer simply does not seem to let you enter the BIOS without it having a bootable Windows installation. He let this go for about two-three hours, with absolutely nothing changing. There is never an option to select a boot drive during startup, and the POST screen displays absolutely no information. This computer seems to boot automatically into Windows.

 

If any of you can come up a resolution to fix this POS of a computer, I would be very grateful.

[kb5zue]

14 minutes ago, Homeless_Pineapple said:

I've encountered an issue that I can simply not resolve at this point. I do not have physical access to this computer and never will. I have been providing remote support to the owner for a few days now. My first choice of action at this point would be to remove the boot drive, but the owner is not comfortable doing so, as it is an all-in-one. The model is the Aspire 5600U.

 

Let me start off by explaining that I have absolutely hated dealing with this computer. It came with Windows 8.1, and I concluded it was time for an upgrade to Windows 10. The upgrade went smoothly, but then issues started pouring in. A day after the install, the computer refused to enter the desktop after logging in, with a black screen that lasted over ten minutes. This was resolved rather quickly, as I told him to just reinstall with his installation media. Now, I've reached a dead end. When his computer boots, it immediately enters an infinite error, as seen below.

 

The computer hangs on this screen, randomly rebooting every 10 or so minutes, ending back at this screen. He's tried to enter the BIOS by spamming F2 (Default for Aspire 5600U), with no luck. The computer simply does not seem to let you enter the BIOS without it having a bootable Windows installation. He let this go for about two-three hours, with absolutely nothing changing. There is never an option to select a boot drive during startup, and the POST screen displays absolutely no information. This computer seems to boot automatically into Windows.

 

If any of you can come up a resolution to fix this POS of a computer, I would be very grateful.

Without being able to gain physical access to the machine, you are what I would say are "up shits creek".  With access to the machine the first thing I would do is pull the drive and put it in a machine where I could do some work with it such as scan for bad sectors, etc.  Good luck but I think the owner is going to have to eat some crow if he wants it fixed.

[PorkishPig]

3 minutes ago, kb5zue said:

Without being able to gain physical access to the machine, you are what I would say are "up shits creek".  With access to the machine the first thing I would do is pull the drive and put it in a machine where I could do some work with it such as scan for bad sectors, etc.  Good luck but I think the owner is going to have to eat some crow if he wants it fixed.

I figured as much, but I thought I'd at give LTT a try for my last hurrah. What I am interested to find out is if there is any other way to get an Acer all-in-one to enter a BIOS that I am not aware of. The manual, after all, is pretty useless in the information it provides, such as lacking any information on BIOS functions.

[kb5zue]

1 minute ago, Homeless_Pineapple said:

I figured as much, but I thought I'd at give LTT a try for my last hurrah. What I am interested to find out is if there is any other way to get an Acer all-in-one to enter a BIOS that I am not aware of. The manual, after all, is pretty useless in the information it provides, such as lacking any information on BIOS functions.

Unfortunately since you don't have physical access to the machine, you obviously can't pull the battery from the motherboard.  If you could pull the battery, leave it unplugged for say, a half hour, you could posssibly force the machine into the BIOS but you're still stuck cuz you don't have access.  Found a little information on how to access the BIOS but you're still stuck without the access.  Dang, sorry can't be any further help.

 

https://us.answers.acer.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/37064/~/windows-10:-access-the-uefi-bios

 

There are two ways to enter the UEFI (BIOS) on your computer. You can use either method listed below to enter the UEFI (BIOS) setup.

 

Method 1:

Press and hold the Power Button for 5 seconds to turn your computer completely off.

Power on the system. As soon as the first logo screen appears, immediately press the F2 key, or the DEL key if you have a desktop, to enter the BIOS.

 

Method 2:

Click the Start  menu and select Settings.

Select Update and Security.

Click Recovery.

Under Advanced startup, click Restart now. The system will restart and show the Windows 10 boot menu.

Select Troubleshoot.

Choose Advanced options.

Select UEFI Firmware Settings.

Click Restart to restart the system and enter UEFI (BIOS).

[PorkishPig]

5 minutes ago, kb5zue said:

Unfortunately since you don't have physical access to the machine, you obviously can't pull the battery from the motherboard.  If you could pull the battery, leave it unplugged for say, a half hour, you could posssibly force the machine into the BIOS but you're still stuck cuz you don't have access.  Found a little information on how to access the BIOS but you're still stuck without the access.  Dang, sorry can't be any further help.

 

https://us.answers.acer.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/37064/~/windows-10:-access-the-uefi-bios

 

There are two ways to enter the UEFI (BIOS) on your computer. You can use either method listed below to enter the UEFI (BIOS) setup.

 

Method 1:

Press and hold the Power Button for 5 seconds to turn your computer completely off.

Power on the system. As soon as the first logo screen appears, immediately press the F2 key, or the DEL key if you have a desktop, to enter the BIOS.

 

Method 2:

Click the Start  menu and select Settings.

Select Update and Security.

Click Recovery.

Under Advanced startup, click Restart now. The system will restart and show the Windows 10 boot menu.

Select Troubleshoot.

Choose Advanced options.

Select UEFI Firmware Settings.

Click Restart to restart the system and enter UEFI (BIOS).

Yep, this is about as far as I got with troubleshooting. I cannot enter the UEFI BIOS via Windows restart menu due to being unable to enter the Installation Media or the original Windows installation. Thanks for the help anyway.