Best Minipc Forum

I bought an AK2 (Celeron J3455, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) from Amazon just under a month ago and have had it running for ~15 days. Yesterday evening, while I was away from the machine, it appeared to have exited Win 10, which had been stable over the last 15 days, and I found the machine booted into the BIOS. The machine then recycled through BIOS several times before I started to change the BIOS settings to try and get back to Win. This was very hit and miss and it was not always possible to restore BIOS defaults to show that the UEFI Hoodisk SSD was my primary boot source, which made me suspect an issue with the SSD.

Despite several attempts at booting to Win 10, the closest I got was to reach the Win login page and the recovery options but each and every time I tried to proceed, the machine crashed to a BSOD.

I was able today to explore the machine's SSD via a Linux Live Distro (Parted Magic) on USB, which allowed some recovery of files but copying did not always work and the Linux OS reported IO errors on occasion.

I have tried reinstalling Win 10 via the AK1 Win10_2004_Pro system download but on first attempt the software warned it could not find a drive and on the second attempt (after I had unplugged the machine for 30 seconds), the installation has stalled at 26% of applying image.

Could you confirm how to proceed? In my humble opinion, I think there's an issue with the SSD. Would I qualify for a replacement SSD if I have bought the machine from Amazon?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Oliver

I have spent a further two hours trying to install Win 10 and/or trying to access the SSD via the Linux Live USB stick and neither work now. I have opted to return the machine to Amazon.

QuincedeMolsk,

It does sound like an SSD issue, at least to me.

You've indicated that you've decided to return it, but for reference, regarding your question, and though I can't speak for him, if the admin determines that the SSD is the issue, and the unit was purchased from Amazon, it's almost assured that the admin would offer a replacement SSD.

When that determination and offer is made, the process is contacting the after sales department via email and providing the Amazon order number so the purchase can be verified. I don't know the actual process for sending the replacement SSD though, as in where it comes from or how long it takes to get it.

Gabe,

Thanks for replying and confirming what the process might be! I was still in the period where I could return it to Amazon and after spending the best part of a day trying to get the machine back up and running, I decided I just didn't fancy potentially waiting for a new SSD and then spending more hours installing it etc. (something I am absolutely familiar with), with a small chance that the fault may have been elsewhere.

The ACEPC machines are attractively priced for the respective spec but I am a bit hesitant to buy one again now after this experience.

Thanks for the sterling support work you provide on the board. I visited a number of threads that appeared potentially similar and your name was often there or thereabouts.

QdM

During the warranty period, you can contact ACEPC for after-sales negotiation to replace the product or purchase an SSD, and let them compensate for the difference.

Thanks witt, good to know. May convince me to give one of their machines a try in the future; while it was working for those 15 days, I was happy with the AK2's performance. It does seem from this board that there is an active after-sales care, which is good to see.

QuincedeMolsk,

I don't blame you for wanting to return it. I ran into a similar situation about a year and a half ago with what I believe is one of their alternate brand names (Guzila). I had just gotten the unit and was using it for about an hour when, just after installing some updates, it wouldn't restart. I tried to reinstall Windows 10 (from the Microsoft ISO, not what's available here), but it would keep telling me that I couldn't install Windows on the partition. The disk was seen and available, but for some reason it just wasn't working. I then went into the BIOS and it wasn't showing. It's like the disk controller blipped out or something.

I contacted Amazon and they offered to refund it or have the company that was selling it (again, likely ACEPC) troubleshoot it with me, but at that point I already had that "I don't want something "tainted"" feeling, so I chose to return it for a refund. When I got the refund I ordered a GK1, which was basically the same thing as the AK1, but with a J4105 processor instead of the J3455. The GK1 worked perfectly. I say "worked" instead of "works" as a I later got an AK3 and swapped the system boards, as I like the GK1 case more, but the AK3 has a better processor. The original GK1 board still works perfectly, however, and even better than when it was stock. If you click on the link you'll see what I mean. I still have both units, but because they're now 'Frankensteined' with the board swap I can't call either one their original model number. I guess one would now be a GK1/AK3 and the other an AK3/GK1. LOL.

And thank you for the compliment. I genuinely appreciate it.

This is really cool Gabe that you swapped out the mobos! I am still toying with getting another ACEPC in the near future. It worked really well until the "blip" - I suspect a Win 10 update in hindsight. The AK2 was pretty fast for what I was doing: surfing, SFTP file transfer, emulation through RetroArch, media playback. It was certainly outperforming my 5+ year old Acer laptop with its i7 processor. I have so many PCs/laptops lying around the house in various states of tinkering that my better half my roll eyes at me getting another gadget. I would also be interested in seeing how an ACEPC performs with a linux distro.

I've thought about installing Linux Mint in my W8 Pro (same thing as a T8). Or maybe Ubuntu, which I had seen offered on them a few times on Amazon. I know I'll have to find drivers for it myself, but that will kind of be part of the fun. It's too slow for me with Windows, but I'm sure with Linux it will be much better.

I know what you mean about having a lot of computers lying around. I still have every PC I ever built or purchased since the early 2000s. I even have four Raspberry Pis, which like my mini PCs were more out of fascination than actual need. A "hobby", I guess you could say. I'm so used to desktop PCs that to see these little things run their operating systems so well is amazing. I even installed a couple of games (Half-Life 2 and Portal 2) on the new model T6 Pro I have, and they run perfectly. Just as well as they did on my AMD FX-6100 based desktop.