Windows 10 hangs/freezes on Restart

Question

I have an Acer E3-111 laptop that is having trouble after upgrading to Windows 10 from Windows 8.1.

I found the following post which summarizes my problem but I am running the official build (10240). And my issue does not happen all the time and solution mentioned does not work.

http://www.tenforums.com/windows-insider/5026-build-10041-freeze-restart.html

"my Acer E5-511 consistently freezes on the Acer Boot Screen ("Explore beyond limits"!) on every restart. Sometimes I see the beginning of the rotating ball (or whatever its called), but only for 1/2 revolution. Only workaround is to power off the machine and start from power on Button."

I have tried reinstalling from scratch from Windows 10 burned to USB. The problem happens even during installation. Restart usually hangs before a half rotation of the boot "dots". I have since installed all the Windows 10 drivers for my laptop from the Acer site yet this problem persists. The issue seems to happen more often if I modified the system (e.g. after Windows update).

I am using a Samsung 850 EVO. Not sure if it matters. Firmware is the latest.

I have tried turning hibernation on/off. Turning Fast Startup on/off. None helped.

Any ideas what would have caused this? How can I determine where the boot is stuck?

Solution

Turns out the issue is the BIOS. My BIOS is beyond old:

http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/drivers/5329;-;Aspire%20E3-111

The newest BIOS is 1.35, oldest BIOS above is 1.11 and I am running 1.05! It makes a huge difference. No more freeze on restart. I think it even fixed an issue with external monitor because it used to not show anything on external monitor during boot.