• Acer Aspire Switch 10 - Factory Reset

    From Andrew@3:633/10 to All on Saturday, September 20, 2025 12:16:14
    From: andrew_d_may@hotmail.com

    I have 'inherited' an Acer Aspire Switch 10 tablet running Windows 10.
    Just the table part, not the detachable keyboard.

    I do not have any login details but was wondering if there is any hope
    of being able to do a complete factory reset. It might make a useful
    cheap tablet for web browsing - can't imagine doing much else with it.

    Any pointers would be appreciated.

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  • From Theo@3:633/10 to Andrew on Saturday, September 20, 2025 17:37:02
    From: theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk

    Andrew <andrew_d_may@hotmail.com> wrote:
    I have 'inherited' an Acer Aspire Switch 10 tablet running Windows 10.
    Just the table part, not the detachable keyboard.

    I do not have any login details but was wondering if there is any hope
    of being able to do a complete factory reset. It might make a useful
    cheap tablet for web browsing - can't imagine doing much else with it.

    Any pointers would be appreciated.

    It looks like it has a 64GB SSD so a 'normal' Win 10 install should fit. I think the tablets from the early Win 10 era with 16GB or 32GB were tricky to install given the small size.

    It appears to have a 64 bit CPU with a 32 bit UEFI so 32 bit Windows should install but 64 bit won't natively. There are some tricks via bootia32.efi
    and GRUB/Ventoy that may work, I haven't tried them: https://forums.ventoy.net/showthread.php?tid=1576 https://github.com/lamadotcare/bootia32-efi

    I would guess that if you ran the Windows 10 installer from a USB there
    would be enough to get it going - you may need to search Acer's site for drivers for eg wifi to add to it. I'd maybe try the 64 bit first and see if that will boot, else go with the 32 bit.

    They likely shipped with Windows 10 v1511 which is very old, so I'd probably prefer to reinstall 22H2 rather than try and factory reset the current OS install.

    You should be able to plug in a USB hub and then keyboard, mouse, storage, ethernet etc into that to install.

    Theo

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