I have been using my Acer Switch Alpha 12 a lot recently. Two main problems are annoying. I see this as, not an Acer only problem, it’s a WINDOWS problem entirely.<\/p>\n
OK Restart, login with PIN, works. Shut lid. Short bit later trying to unlock just brings on that frustration again.Something is stopping, whatever it is that processes the PIN, it’s not just me with this problem, it’s others with any variety of 2-in-1 Windows tablet pc.<\/p>\n
In fact you may start to notice this happening, at the top of your screen the flash of different mode states…it’s weird, it is connected, the keyboard, but it’s not entirely connected. There are no touchpad profiles to reload to fix the problem. It’s entirely fixable, not “fixable” permanent, you’ll have to do this frequently. Take the keyboard away from the tablet, then reconnect it. Immediately keyboard is fully talking to the tablet again.<\/p>\n
Sometimes certain keys stop working, same fix works.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
The detachable keyboards that hook on via magnetic contacts (Like Switch and Surface tabs) are not the same as Bluetooth keyboards. This is specific to physically connected detachable keyboards in Windows.<\/p>\n
I’ve seen this keyboard problem in Windows 10, haven’t had another Windows version on my Switch ever. My husband had a Dell 2-in-1 with a detachable 2nd Battery Keyboard in Windows 8, it had so many more problems and eventually died [needed a new MB, not worth it.]<\/p>\n
My Switch Alpha 12 is updated regularly. I only use it in my private home network so far. \u00a0I have had no other trouble except for one Sleep state I couldn’t wake it from, once, for a few hours, then suddenly it came to life again. \u00a0That was a wicked morning, I was re-living my trouble with the Dell, but in the end, no. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
All in all I love my ‘not as small as my 8″ Android Tablet but not as big as a normal 13-15″ Laptop’ 2-in-1 Acer Switch Alpha 12 Windows 10 portable machine.<\/p>\n
Sometimes I love a big computer, and that’s where my Desktop comes in to play. I built it long ago (in computer years) but it’s just as good as Day 1.<\/p>\n
My Acer is an i5, my Desktop is an older i7. This laptop is frisky and fast unlike older HP laptops that were previous i5 variations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have been using my Acer Switch Alpha 12 a lot recently. Two main problems are annoying. I see this as, not an Acer only problem, it’s a WINDOWS problem entirely. Something Went Wrong (PIN Login Error) The worst: Every so often, when I have to input my PIN to login, “Something went wrong…” and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Windows 10 - 2 Problems with 2-in-1 Tablets: Something Went Wrong (PIN Login Error); Touchpad or Keys Stop Working (Keyboard) ...read more","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,1014],"tags":[1115,1169,1171,1170,1168,749,1167],"class_list":["post-2852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computers","category-devices","tag-acer-switch-alpha-12","tag-dell","tag-detachable-keyboard","tag-pin-error","tag-surface","tag-win-8","tag-windows-10"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2932,"url":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/2017\/05\/28\/windows-10-2-1-tablet-pin-login-seems-ok-now\/","url_meta":{"origin":2852,"position":0},"title":"Windows 10 2-1 Tablet Pin Login Seems OK now","author":"Maisy","date":"Sunday, May 28, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"My 2-1 Windows tablet, Acer Switch Alpha 12, seems to be fine since ... I guess the Creators Update [knock on wood.] My previous post\u00a0spoke of two problems and neither one seems to be that ugly anymore, specifically the Pin login has been smooth, working fully, even with inputting the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Computers"","block_context":{"text":"Computers","link":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/category\/computers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2655,"url":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/2016\/07\/30\/acer-switch-alpha-12-my-new-pc\/","url_meta":{"origin":2852,"position":1},"title":"Acer Switch Alpha 12 – My New PC!","author":"Maisy","date":"Saturday, July 30, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I finally have a laptop again. It's really mobile, the perfect in-between for me between my desktop and Android devices. I'm typing on it right now, in Chrome. Easy setup, and using Chrome makes it all the easier to get into all my browser content in a snap. I got\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Computers"","block_context":{"text":"Computers","link":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/category\/computers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/20160730_115243.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/20160730_115243.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/20160730_115243.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/20160730_115243.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/20160730_115243.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8514,"url":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/2026\/03\/19\/installing-fedora-on-old-2-in-1-touchscreen-laptop-acer-switchalpha12\/","url_meta":{"origin":2852,"position":2},"title":"Installing Fedora on old 2 in 1 touchscreen laptop (Acer SwitchAlpha12)","author":"Maisy","date":"Thursday, March 19, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"My laptop is from 2015, I do have Win 11 on it, but I don't like it for this device. We shall see how it works out.","rel":"","context":"In "Computers"","block_context":{"text":"Computers","link":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/category\/computers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2931.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2931.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2931.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2931.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2931.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/2931.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2964,"url":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/2017\/07\/13\/from-win-to-ubuntu-to-linux-mint\/","url_meta":{"origin":2852,"position":3},"title":"From Win to Ubuntu to Linux Mint","author":"Maisy","date":"Thursday, July 13, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"I installed Ubuntu on an old laptop to fix my Sansa e280 last week. \u00a0A couple of days later I changed the distro to Linux Mint KDE 18.2 64bit UEFI. It's running great on that old HP laptop. On Tuesday of this week I put that same iso on a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Computers"","block_context":{"text":"Computers","link":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/category\/computers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8113,"url":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/2025\/06\/28\/new-pc-and-old-one-just-for-emby-server\/","url_meta":{"origin":2852,"position":4},"title":"New PC and old one just for Emby Server","author":"Maisy","date":"Saturday, June 28, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"I built a new PC since prices I was watching came down some and it just made sense for me to have my very storage heavy PC just for Emby Server use. I have: Be Quiet! Pure Base 501 LX case Be Quiet! 850w power AMD Ryzen 9 9900X processor\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250628_163902-rotated.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250628_163902-rotated.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250628_163902-rotated.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/20250628_163902-rotated.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2658,"url":"https:\/\/hyperthinking.us\/weblog\/2016\/08\/01\/amazing-what-you-can-get-for-about-700-today-compared-to-a-few-years-ago\/","url_meta":{"origin":2852,"position":5},"title":"Amazing what you can get for about $700 today compared to a few years ago","author":"Maisy","date":"Monday, August 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"In January I posted\u00a0Lack of Nice Laptops; 43x830C Monitor is Wonderful instead\u00a0which was important in terms of upgrade for me, I wanted a laptop, had for a long time, but the model I liked was not available any more, other good ones were way too expensive. 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