Resurrecting an old Acer Aspire 10 E (SW3-013)

23 Mar, 2024

The issue: 32 Bit UEFI, 64 bit capable hardware

This device has been built with a 32 Bit UEFI, meaning that althougn its hardware (quite limited!) is capable of running a 64 Bit OS, you would have to do a series of time-consuming activities to get it running, only to...have half of its features working.

The dilemma: Windows or Linux?

I have read plenty of forums and blog posts around the web and decided taht for the sake of resurrecting this device, sticking to Windows would be the best choice. It'd allow me to use this convertible both as a netbook and as a tablet. Considering I'd make a very light use of it, I opted for the 'easy' solution, although piecing all the required actions to make it work as expected has been a bit of a challenge.

The process

First of all, a disclaimer: before I reached success, I had to repeat the job twice.

This is because on the first iteration, I discovered there were some issues that needed to be addressed; it allowed me to discover what I didn't know that I didn't know.

I got an initial grasp of what was required by watching this video from A&J Computers.

It was really helpful as it had some links to the drivers, but as I discovered it does some extra unnecessary actions and it doesn't cover some other required steps, which is what prompted me to write this comprehensive guide.

I'd recommend watching it/having it at hand as it'll show you exactly the look of some of the following steps.

This guide should allow you to get a "works-on-first-attempt" result, but as a general advice: please, do not discount the value of stumbling around until you find YOUR solutions.

PLEASE NOTE: when following guides written by someone else, I recommend following what I call "The Idiot's Flow": read the guide once from top to bottom, so you can grasp the key concepts, then read it again, after researching any unclear points, finally pretend you are an absolute idiot and didn't understand a single thing and read it a third time (this time, having covered all of your blind spots).

This should lower the risk of doing something wrong, breaking things, wasting time and getting frustrated.

Trust me, it works.

Step 1: prepare the device, gather the hardware and software

Here's what you'll need:

• plug the device to its power adapter and let it recharge fully. If you do this now, you'll have the device ready by the time you finish this text.
• an empty USB drive - minimum 8GB, it'll be fully erased so make sure you don't have important data in it!
• the original device keyboard or an OTG cable (to connect another keyboard and the USB drive)
• a copy of Windows 10 Enterprise 2015 LTSB x86 (32 Bit) ¹
• Rufus - a program that lets you create bootable USB drives from ISO files;
• this device's original Windows 8.1 drivers (downloads when you click) ²;
• scripts for fixing the gyroscope orientation - courtesy of Samuel Pinches; the gyroscope will initially turn the screen in the wrong direction, these help fixing the issue. Please download directly from Samuel's website, I don't want to steal his traffic, you'll find the download at Step 2a of the link to his site.

Step 2: prepare the USB drive

This is very straightforward, so I'll cover it in a bunch of points (or you can watch this brief demo):

1. Plug the USB drive on your computer
2. Open Rufus
3. Choose the Windows 10 ISO you downloaded by clicking "SELECT"
4. Ensure that Target system is set to BIOS (or UEFI-CSM)
5. Press START

Once the program completes the process of creating a bootable drive, you can close Rufus and safely disconnect the USB drive. This is ready to be used.

Step 3: Set up the BIOS in the Acer Switch

This device, by default, might not allow you to boot from the USB drive you just created; you need to ensure you make some changes in the BIOS. You have two different procedures, depending on whether you have the device's detachable keyboard.

3a: if you have the detachable keyboard

1. Ensure the Acer Switch tablet is turned off and connected to its detachable keyboard
2. Connect the USB drive you prepared into the USB port on the detachable keyboard
3. Turn on the device and press F2 repeatedly on the detachable keyboard
4. You should see a new screen with a side menu - select "Security"
5. Set up a Supervisor Password - as unintuitive as this is, it'll unlock another feature needed for Step 6. Please, choose a password you will remember. Take note of it in a safe place.
6. Go back to "Main" and enable the F12 Boot Menu.
7. Go to "Boot", disable Secure Boot and under Boot Priority Order, bring up USB HDD with the arrow up button
8. Go to "Exit" and select "Exit Saving Changes"

3b: if you DO NOT have the detachable keyboard

1. Ensure the Acer Switch tablet is turned off and connect the USB OTG cable/hub
2. Connect a USB keyboard and the USB drive to the OTG cable/hub
3. Turn on the device and press F2 repeatedly on the detachable keyboard
4. You should see a new screen with a side menu - select "Security"
5. Set up a Supervisor Password - as unintuitive as this is, it'll unlock another feature needed for Step 6. Please, choose a password you will remember. Take note of it in a safe place.
6. Go back to "Main" and enable the F12 Boot Menu.
7. Go to "Boot", disable Secure Boot and under Boot Priority Order, bring up USB HDD with the arrow up button
8. Go to "Exit" and select "Exit Saving Changes"

Step 4: Install Windows

This doesn't need much explanation, once the computer boots from the USB drive follow the on-screen instructions; I won't cover the OS installation as part of this guide, but there are plenty video tutorials on the web.

PLEASE NOTE: the boot from the USB drive might be rather slow; be patient.

Step 5: Configure the OS, install missing drivers, fix orientation

Once the OS is installed and you log into your account, proceed with the installation of the original drivers (linked at the beginning of the guide) and then run a Windows update.

You might've found difficult to work due to the gyroscope rotating the display layout at every turn, so...it's time to fix it!

Get to the website linked at the top of this article, follow Step 2a and onwards and your gyroscope will start working as it should.

This concludes the guide. I hope this has been helpful to you, have fun with your freshly resurrected Acer Aspire 10 E ♥

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