Acer W4-820 tablet cannot boot off USB DVD or USB thumb drive, help please

[steve2470]

1- Here is the precise model: http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314451

2- It has only ONE micro USB port, for charging and other purposes.

3- I have a OTG cable but I cannot boot yet. The tablet definitely sees the usb devices but it always boots up to the old Windows install attempt.

4- I tried to install Windows 10 Build 10049 on it and it's bricked, for now. Yea, I know.

5- The tablet boots up to the old Win10 installation 1st configuration screen, but the touchscreen is frozen and accepts absolutely no input.

6- BIOS is set to no secure boot. Secure boot settings have been wiped. Boot order is USB HDD, USB DVD, then Windows Boot Manager.

7- My USB thumb drive has been formatted FAT32. As I said above, the tablet definitely sees the usb thumb drive, but always rejects it for boot.

8- I don't know how to crack it open and repair it. Sorry!

Help, please. Thanks a million in advance.

Steve

Update to the ordeal here

 

[Harrison Whitmarsh]

Hello Steve and welcome to Toms!

So I want to clarify a few things here,
So the machine is not currently booting from UEFI, its in Legacy mode? UEFI would boot automatically to your HDD that would hold an OS, even if the OS is damaged, instead of your USB. In Legacy mode though you would obviously be able to choose. Some PC's now have a "button" in BIOS that you have to turn on and off for Legacy.
Your installation of Win10, did you clean-install or did you try to upgrade? Upgrade since WinVista has been a pain in the butt and ALWAYS creates issues. If your "HDD" wasn't wiped all the way, this could be your issue too.

Hopefully this helps get the juices flowing. Here if you need me!

- Harrison Whitmarsh
Lincoln Nebraska USA

 

[steve2470]

Hello Steve and welcome to Toms!

So I want to clarify a few things here,
So the machine is not currently booting from UEFI, its in Legacy mode? UEFI would boot automatically to your HDD that would hold an OS, even if the OS is damaged, instead of your USB. In Legacy mode though you would obviously be able to choose. Some PC's now have a "button" in BIOS that you have to turn on and off for Legacy.
Your installation of Win10, did you clean-install or did you try to upgrade? Upgrade since WinVista has been a pain in the butt and ALWAYS creates issues. If your "HDD" wasn't wiped all the way, this could be your issue too.

Hopefully this helps get the juices flowing. Here if you need me!

- Harrison Whitmarsh
Lincoln Nebraska USA

Thanks for the welcome, Harrison. Here is where it stands right now:

1- It is still in UEFI mode. I cannot boot off usb yet.

2- This tablet does not have a legacy mode. It only allows you to turn off Secure Boot.

3- I did a clean install of Build 10049, but it went wrong, as you see.

4- Right now I am trying to learn how to turn off Bitlocker for the hard drive. Somehow Acer enabled Bitlocker and it has never been turned off. Right now I can't install Windows 8 from a downloaded ISO because of the Bitlocker. http/www.eightforums.com/tutorials/21270-bitlocker-auto-unlock-turn-off-windows-8-a.html on edit, using that URL about Bitlocker.

Thanks for your time.

 

[Harrison Whitmarsh]

Hey Steve, hello again!

First off, Bitlocker, FML. I HATE HATE HATE that Bitlocker even exists. Good luck to you there sir. From my very brief fights with that program, its not hard to turn off, but you need a working OS and a Microsoft account to fix it. If you have both, the battle is not horrible, but without that, good luck.

The only run-in I had with Bitlocker was when I was trying to do a refresh on a little ASUS tablet, w/ dock. When I booted into advanced startup mode it would pop up saying that I needed to bypass Bitlocker, and when I did, it would boot-loop back to the same issue. Finally I got out of the loop (don't remember how) and booted to the desktop. From there I used a second computer to get the "turn off Bitlocker" information as the tablet restarted itself every 45 seconds. Then I turned it off in the drive, and that was that; went back into advanced startup and reset the device. Talk about a nightmare though.

Sadly my friend, this is where my knowledge ends, I have only had 1 run-in with that software, and it was on a slightly usable system. I wish you the best though, and I hope someone else here can offer some knowledge that I just don't have.

- Harrison Whitmarsh
Lincoln Nebraska USA