# Asus T100 Boot key combinations



## sarman_1998 (Jan 4, 2014)

I've been messing with the new ASUS T100 Transformer T100TA and found a few boot key combinations through trial and error.  I hope someone else can make use of them.

Hold the listed key while powering on the tablet.

ESC:    Boot device selection menu
DEL:     Boot into BIOS Setup (same as F2)
F2:       Boot into BIOS Setup
F9:       Boot into windows recovery mode
F12:     Not sure what this is, it briefly flashes "Launching FFU.efi" then print "Main Start" and sits there
Vol Down: Boot Device Selection Menu

I tried each button on the top row of the keyboard plus: tab, alt, ctrl,fn, windows.  In case anyone want to try other stuff.


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## terminal 7 (Jan 6, 2014)

*blank..*

not sure why but im drawing a blank here.
I cant get any bios options regardless of holding escape or f2 or delete while powering up my t100

cant figure out why?

And a question - does the bios look like any other or is it just like the "additional options page" you get when booting into recovery options, kinda like a win8 boot screen with efi option or restore etc.

i assumed i would see a proper bios but i just cant seem to get any key to do a thing - it just boots normally, i do have  the latest 220 bios.

Thanks.
.
.


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## sarman_1998 (Jan 6, 2014)

terminal 7 said:


> not sure why but im drawing a blank here.
> I cant get any bios options regardless of holding escape or f2 or delete while powering up my t100
> 
> cant figure out why?
> ...

Click to collapse



With F2 you should see a normal bios screen.  
My guess is that you are doing a shutdown from in win 8, then turning on with the F2 key pressed.

Try doing a restart from in Win 8 and start holding F2 as soon as the screen goes blank.  

By default win8 has "fast boot" enabled, which means it doesn't do a proper boot from bios when you turn of after a "shutdown" from in win8

Hope that helps.


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## ThorburnJ (Jan 6, 2014)

sarman_1998 said:


> I've been messing with the new ASUS T100 Transformer T100TA and found a few boot key combinations through trial and error.  I hope someone else can make use of them.
> 
> Hold the listed key while powering on the tablet.
> 
> ...

Click to collapse



Very useful. Thanks for those.

Holding Vol Up with power can help when it doesn't want to boot too IIRC.


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## Dimitry.kolesov (Dec 11, 2014)

*Solving problem*

Faced with the same problem after regular Windows 8.1 update. 
Really thanks for advise given above.
To finally solve the problem just reset bios settings to default.


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## Theodoric47 (Apr 25, 2015)

*T100 Windows 10 Evaluation*

In my zeal to explore the capabilities of my new T100TAF, I tried to install the Windows 10 Evaluation 10041. It kind of installed OK at first but now I have no WiFi and it will not allow me to do anything as the screen flashes and never settles down. I have tried to boot into retsore and reset it but I get errors. Any ideas?


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## waldounited (May 2, 2015)

*boot from USB Asus t100ta*

Hi everyone

A few days ago I was trying to install the preview of windows 10 on my Asus t100ta but looks like that system wasn't compatible with some software of the PC and I wanted to do the factory reset by pressing F9, when it was trying to restore I got a message saying "winload.efi is missing" then I tried to boot with a USB but doesn't work, I tried disabling the security boot. And nothing works. If someone please can help I have 4 days trying with none results :crying:


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## Ibuprophen (Jul 20, 2015)

That is because the Asus T100 Tablet has an android based Windows 8/8.1 installed. I know that somewhere I had found information on downloading the Android based Windows as well as creating an installation USB of the Android based Windows. The Asus T100TA I have came with the x86 (32-bit) but, has an x64 based architecture allowing for the Android Windows x64 (64-bit) to be installed. To add, the tablet can  have Android Apps installed in it as well. Think of it as a big Android phone (of course, you can't make calls unless you have something like Skype LOL!). I hope this helps.


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## joestcyr (Jul 31, 2015)

*UEFI allows  32 bit O.S's ONLY.*



Ibuprophen said:


> That is because the Asus T100 Tablet has an android based Windows 8/8.1 installed. I know that somewhere I had found information on downloading the Android based Windows as well as creating an installation USB of the Android based Windows. The Asus T100TA I have came with the x86 (32-bit) but, has an x64 based architecture allowing for the Android Windows x64 (64-bit) to be installed. To add, the tablet can  have Android Apps installed in it as well. Think of it as a big Android phone (of course, you can't make calls unless you have something like Skype LOL!). I hope this helps.

Click to collapse



android or not, this is windows 8.1, it is NOT possible to (at this writing) to install a 64 bit based O.S. on this t100ta. while it does contain the architecture, the killer is the UEFI which is only 32 bit capable.


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## cushcalc (Aug 10, 2015)

On my Asus Transformer T100 Chi, I have found that Volume Up plus power key boots you into the recovery menu. This also works on Lenovo tablets.

BTW, I have never heard of "Android based Windows". That seems like an oxymoron to me


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## coolkid12239 (Aug 25, 2015)

cushcalc said:


> On my Asus Transformer T100 Chi, I have found that Volume Up plus power key boots you into the recovery menu. This also works on Lenovo tablets.
> 
> BTW, I have never heard of "Android based Windows". That seems like an oxymoron to me

Click to collapse



Agrred, Android based windows, like wut. One is made by google and the other by microsoft. Not to mention all C++, c# and DOS code is directly incompatible with arm (what andorid uses). I mean yes some android phones are 64 bit and stuff but thats arm64 NOT the AMD64 standard that desktops and laptops use. The 32 bit x86 standard that laptops use is called i386 and was developed by intel. amd64 was developed by amd then purchased by intel who license amd to still use it. This is exactly why only Intel and AMD make desktop and laptop processors.

Companies like snapdragon simply take ARM chip designs and change them into their own processor, but its still an ARM based processor. 

Two entirely different architectures, one designed for low power, standby , small screens and apps, the other for MAJOR general purpose use.

Take my word on this, the two will never merge


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## HANS4300 (Sep 1, 2015)

It's a true that ARM chip is an essentially simplified AMD CPU chip developed for portable devices such as smart phones, tablets etc. where performance requirements aren't so high and lower power consumption is important. I also understand, that apps and executable or install files for Windows PC are not compatibile for Windows ARM platform because of insufficient capability.
But how is possible, that ASUS T100TA with (supposedly) "ARM" CPU chip is seamlessly able to run with full featured  Windows 10 PRO (for PC)... ?


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## jonkiji (Sep 21, 2015)

HANS4300 said:


> It's a true that ARM chip is an essentially simplified AMD CPU chip developed for portable devices such as smart phones, tablets etc. where performance requirements aren't so high and lower power consumption is important. I also understand, that apps and executable or install files for Windows PC are not compatibile for Windows ARM platform because of insufficient capability.
> But how is possible, that ASUS T100TA with (supposedly) "ARM" CPU chip is seamlessly able to run with full featured  Windows 10 PRO (for PC)... ?

Click to collapse



ARM is essentially not a simplified AMD cpu, other than both starting with the letter 'A' the similarity stops. One is CISC architecture the other is RISC. There's no single intersection between the two, AMD has not been involved with the development of the architecture.

The ASUS T100 uses an Intel atom cpu. which is an 64 bit x86 core from Intel. (but since the T100 only has a 32bit UEFI, it's impossible to run a 64bit OS).
The T100 is not a PC, since it's using SDIO for internal communication instead of PCIE, making it more a tablet than a PC, this is why it's a bother getting linux to work on the device, since SDIO support is rather experimental and immature.
Windows 10 (and 8) is suited to run on x86 cpu's with SDIO connecting everything else.
Android on the other hand is running a modified Linux kernel making it having to do exactly nothing with windows, and the other way around. 

Windows 10 is able to run on the arm architecture btw, look at the surface rt with the tegra, and there should also be a port able to run on the raspberry pi.

(Addressing a few incorrect statements found in this thread.)


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## str8chat (Feb 21, 2016)

The T100TA is not Android based. It will accept a Windows 10 32 bit upgrade. Don't try and boot from Windows 10 media. Run 8.1 and run the setup.exe program to start the upgrade. I upgraded my 32 GB system to 10 without problems.

It will run a 64 bit OS, but requires bootia32.efi putting in the \EFI\boot folder. There are various versions of bootia32.efi, some of which do not work.


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## shaqzde (Jun 8, 2017)

i have asus t100ta ang i change my hardisk ang i want to install windows 10 can some help


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## alir_moki (Oct 4, 2017)

str8chat said:


> The T100TA is not Android based. It will accept a Windows 10 32 bit upgrade. Don't try and boot from Windows 10 media. Run 8.1 and run the setup.exe program to start the upgrade. I upgraded my 32 GB system to 10 without problems.
> 
> It will run a 64 bit OS, but requires bootia32.efi putting in the \EFI\boot folder. There are various versions of bootia32.efi, some of which do not work.

Click to collapse



were you able to instal windows 10 64bit on T100-TAF successfully ?
because when I try to install it says my CPU does not support 64 bit although when I checked on intel website its 64bit CPU but I guess the EFI for boot loader is only 32 bit !

can you explain how I can install 64bit on mine ?


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## kiamlaluno (Jul 4, 2018)

*Thank you!*

I was trying to boot my ASUS T101HA from a USB disk, but all I found said to press F2 for the BIOS, which didn't work (probably because secure boot). Windows 10 64-bit was not starting up, so I could not start the restore from there.

Nobody said I could use the Esc key to choose the boot disk, but it worked!


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## zipup99 (Sep 23, 2018)

*ASUS T100 TA (Recovery or Reset) F9/Power*

If anyone is interested... For ASUS Transformer T100 TA Win 10: While holding down F9 key, Press & Hold down the Power key until "Wait a minute" shows up: This Boots into Windows recovery mode with options to completely Reset to factory or Refresh. Do not need Password. I had forgotten mine & so had my daughter on hers...or more likely it's a flaw in the system or crap update...I do see a lot of requests on line looking for ways to reset the password on this "Laplet", & F9/Power was the only method that worked on both. In 20 years of using computers; I had never forgotten my passwords or had she. I spent hours searching for a work-around, hence the reason for me posting this here to help out anyone else. _Sláinte_ :fingers-crossed:


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## Straka (Sep 25, 2018)

sarman_1998 said:


> I've been messing with the new ASUS T100 Transformer T100TA and found a few boot key combinations through trial and error.  I hope someone else can make use of them.
> 
> Hold the listed key while powering on the tablet.
> 
> ...

Click to collapse



Thanks for sharing! The volume down + power also works with Surface Pro 4 tablet.


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## XDAexPT (Mar 22, 2019)

Thank you, Hold power and volume up then go to Enter BIOS, then disable the Boot Priority, and re-install your windows 10 again, if you want.


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## urdrwho10 (Sep 6, 2022)

I've had my Asus for many years and have used it as a dual boot (Linux / Windows) .  Over the years with the windows upgrades it was a Win 10 machine.
I've installed and uninstalled a lot of Linux stuff without problems, until the other night.  Not sure what happened but MX21 (which I've had on before) decided to wipe the Windows bootloader from the EFI.   I've not been able to install any Windows 8 iso because it wants a key.  A key was not provided with the OEM installed system.

The partitions are all GPT. 

Oh well this may stay a Linux machine but that means no tablet.

Any ideas????


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