I wanted to share my experience and maybe vent a little about using an Acer laptop for Linux. I bought an Acer Predator Helios gaming laptop last year while stationed in California and installed PopOS after removing Windows 11. Everything was smooth sailing until yesterday when my laptop ran out of battery while I was watching an F1 race. After plugging it back in and trying to boot up, I got hit with a "Secure Boot Error." I thought I had turned secure boot off for PopOS, but after going back and forth with support, they told me it's a hardware issue and I'm locked out of the BIOS with a password I never set. Now, I have a $1200 paperweight! Has anyone faced something similar or have any advice on how to bypass this? The model I have is an Acer Predator Helios 16, Specific model #: PH16-71-71AV. Thanks for reading my rant!
5 Answers
These days, almost all laptops seem to have major issues. If I were you, I’d consider brands focused on Linux compatibility for your next purchase—System76 is a great option, even if it costs a bit more.
Check out the resources in the Linux4Noobs wiki; they might have some info that could help you troubleshoot your situation. And remember to back up your data regularly and test things in a virtual machine!
If it's still under warranty, you should definitely reach out to Acer for a repair. They really should take care of it at no cost to you. Hope you get a timely response!
That's the route I'm trying to take! Waiting for their response now.
If Acer says it's out of warranty, a good option might be to reprogram the BIOS yourself with a flasher. Otherwise, find a reliable repair shop; they may do it for a reasonable price.
That might be the route I take. There's a shop around here that might charge about $100, but I'm hoping to resolve it through warranty first.
Honestly, I've heard a lot of negative feedback about Acer, whether for Windows or Linux. They often don't provide proper driver support for older models.
It's frustrating, right? Their forums are pretty useless too; just a lot of noise and no real answers.
I plan on going with System76 next time for sure. Their repairability and Linux support are really important to me!