Database Users

Mess up Fascinate

I installed the lagfix kerneral and I tried another kernal and the phone would just freeze on the samsung, Then I tries a restore with odian restore files and now my phone boot to Android system recovery <2e> in blue text and at the bottom it says # manual Mode#
Please can someone help me

mvm2001 said:
I installed the lagfix kerneral and I tried another kernal and the phone would just freeze on the samsung, Then I tries a restore with odian restore files and now my phone boot to Android system recovery <2e> in blue text and at the bottom it says # manual Mode#
Please can someone help me
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that is why YOU DONT FLASH STUFF FROM OTHER SGS PHONES ON YOUR FASCINATE. this has been beaten to death time and time again on every forum, its getting really annoying to continue to see these threads
but yeah try and push all the odin files again, system, kernel, cwr

PDA
and they do get pushed to pda not phone right? If this doesn't work what can I do to get my phone back.

lol, funny that shortly after reading a thread about people screwing up their phones, this pops up.
Check the threads at the top of the development forum.

mvm2001 said:
and they do get pushed to pda not phone right? If this doesn't work what can I do to get my phone back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
push it with pda yes.......these are things that should have been learned *before* flashing random crap to your fascinate

Its did work it goes right to the android system recovery, no matter what i do. any help!!

mvm2001 said:
Its did work it goes right to the android system recovery, no matter what i do. any help!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would suggest this or calling (800) 922-0204 and hoping for the best

There has to be a way to get the phone working again?
anyone!!

Try the latest package posted by Adryn and see if that works. If it doesn't, then I think hoping that it can be replaced is your only option.

Well, if it's a lag fix issue. You may need a new mbr as well. In case you are wondering, mbr is master boot record.
Look up adrynalyne's voodoo fix as well. Start there.

Important for woot.com [Sprint] Tab Owners

So there may be several of you reading this posting that got your Tab from woot.com. I have been working on getting my hands around this tablet since day 1 and I wanted to stress to each and every one of you that plan on rooting or flashing anything to get yourself a new SD card asap... I found, as well as many others, that the SD card that came from Samsung (16GB) seems to be a problem for the device when it comes to flashing kernels and roms...
I finally was able to get Honeycomb on my device after swapping the 16GB SD card out with a 2GB SD card I had laying around at work. I couldn't get any of the CWM kernels to actually do as it was planned to do until now...
Just wanted to share!

Because I find it important to share what I learned, here are the steps I followed, in as best detail as I can, to obtain root, CwM 3.0, and Spacemoose1's HC Alpha 2.5 build:
First of all a few things to note, some of which is specified above in my previous posting, replace the SD card with another one that’s not from Samsung (as it appears this caused several issues). Odin 1.7 (with .pit) and Heimdall (with 1.1.1 binaries) are your best friends, download them both. Make sure for using Heimdall you have the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable Package (x86). For Odin make sure you have the EA24 .tar, this will be your get out of jail free card if you mess something up (Lord knows I’ve done this like 20 times trying). This simply allows you to reflash your Sprint Tab back to EA24 and you can start over.
Here are the steps I followed to get to where I am now:
-- Took the OTA updates from DJ30 (out of the box at this) to EA24 (eventually started here after using Odin several times) to EB28.
-- Enabled USB debugging (always important to have this one on and, if you’re like me, stay awake so I don’t let the thing fall asleep on me and unknown sources).
-- Obtained root with SuperOneClick (this is very easy to do, literally one click root) and rebooted as specified by SuperOneClick’s direction. I verified root by observing Super User in my apps and downloading terminal emulator, typing “su” in the window and selecting enter to be shown # to verify root.
-- I downloaded the latest and greatest kernel (zImage) and ROM from Spacemoose1’s build thread and placed a copy of the zImage file on my desktop for quick access and the ROM on my SD card of the Tab.
-- Next I unplugged the device from the computer, powered down, and put it in to download mode by holding down the power button and volume down until the shoveling android is shown. I then plugged in my device to the computer and opened up my Heimdall folder I extracted to my desktop and navigated to the Drivers folder and double-clicked the zadig.exe to install the drivers. I selected options and list all devices. From the drop down I selected Samsung USB Composite Device and selected install drivers. If everything goes well it will say drivers are installed successfully.
-- I didn’t leave download mode, I proceeded to flash the zImage file from Heimdall. I opened Heimdall Frontend and, on the left side of the application, selected browse to find the zImage file I placed on my desktop. I ensured the checkbox to the left of the field was checked and selected start. If everything is successful it will flash your kernel and reboot in to recovery and freeze at the Samsung logo. I held down the power button for about 8 seconds until the screen cut off. When the battery icon was shown (with the green color showing amount of charge) I held down the power and volume up button to enter recovery mode. It will attempt to backup and fail, don’t sweat it. Wipe data/factory reset and then wipe cache, then reboot the Tab. It will freeze at the Samsung logo again; just hold power down for about 8 seconds until it turns off. When the battery icon is shown (with the green color showing amount of charge) I held down the power and volume up button to enter recovery mode. This time the device will resume backing up and complete successfully. Once it’s completed, to flash Honeycomb you will need to select install zip from SD card and then select zip from SD and choose the latest ROM that you downloaded and placed on your SD card. It will flash so let it do its thing. It will reboot and eventually load Honeycomb.
MOST IMPORTANTLY JUST READ AND IF YOU'RE NOT SURE ABOUT SOMETHING PM ME AND I'LL SEE IF I CAN HELP!

I also have a sprint refurb woot tab and did not have this issue.
I flashed to hc just fine using superoneclick -> special sprint tab cwm instructions thread (uses heimdall) -> cwm update using sm1's zip file.

Thisrobot said:
I also have a sprint refurb woot tab and did not have this issue.
I flashed to hc just fine using superoneclick -> special sprint tab cwm instructions thread (uses heimdall) -> cwm update using sm1's zip file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I've seen mixed reviews on how to go about things and many Sprint users, including woot.com Tab owners, experiencing a wide array of issues or none at all. I think documenting all the various issues will give us a better chance of figuring out different approaches that'll be specific to each user.
Just wanted to share another story in detail. Thanks for your input!

I'm one of the one's having no issues at all. I took both updates, rooted the thing and disabled the activation. Have no desire to do anything with it beyond that though. HC just strikes me as half baked. If/when the GB update comes down OTA I'll take it, but I have no plans to flash any ROMS or anything. Only issue I've noticed is that if I don't reboot it every other day or so it develops serious lag. If unaddressed it becomes completely and totally unresponsive. Rebooting it fixes the problem. I may just program Tasker to reboot it at night.

A. Nonymous said:
I'm one of the one's having no issues at all. I took both updates, rooted the thing and disabled the activation. Have no desire to do anything with it beyond that though. HC just strikes me as half baked. If/when the GB update comes down OTA I'll take it, but I have no plans to flash any ROMS or anything. Only issue I've noticed is that if I don't reboot it every other day or so it develops serious lag. If unaddressed it becomes completely and totally unresponsive. Rebooting it fixes the problem. I may just program Tasker to reboot it at night.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i noticed a similar slowdown when my tab was on for long periods of time.. If you are using Dolphin HD, install the addon "browse faster." it kills unnecessary processes and makes scrolling/switching tabs more responsive.
OR, you can hold the home key-> hit the task manager button->exit all and/or under the ram tab clear memory.
These work fine for me, and at this point i pretty much never have to reboot because of slow perf.

The original microSD card was unrecognized out of the box, but formatting it on another device worked. Try doing that and putting the card back in.

s44 said:
The original microSD card was unrecognized out of the box, but formatting it on another device worked. Try doing that and putting the card back in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll have to give it a shot, even though I just bought a 32GB one for it..

anyone else getting a constant conversion to ext4 when you reboot into CWM? I swapped out the stock sd card for a 1gb card i had laying around, it runs through the conversion, and can read the sd card, but as soon as I flash the HC rom and reboot it just sits at the samsung bootlogo. I power it down, and go back into recovery and it runs the conversion again. The only time it doesn't run the conversion is if i put the stock sd card in, then it just says can't mount /sdcard. this is getting really annoying. I've got an Epic 4g and stuff like this just doesn't happen, so I'm wondering what the heck the issue with the Tab is.
So, figured out anytime I was getting stuck in the ext4 conversion loop for recovery, that I needed to go back and flash the recovery via heimdall again. It seemed every 3rd flash would work. Annoying, but at least now I know.

My card pooped out and they gave me a $20 credit. Time for a class 10 16gb card. Maybe the dead one will come back to life!
- Z

I bought a refurbished Sprint Galaxy Tab from meritline.com. Probably of similar heritage to the one Woot was selling.
So far my 16GB SDCARD has worked without any problem. I have (just for the heck of it) ordered a 32GB Class 10 card to use in the Galaxy Tab.
Am waiting for Spacemoose1 to release a Honeycomb beta version. Will probably dive into HC at that point.
And if someone figures out how to get Netflix flying on the Galaxy Tab I'd be interested to hear all about it.

Another question -
Since my Sprint Galaxy Tab does NOT have any active data plan, will it still acquire OTA updates? Mostly I'm curious about the upcoming, promised Gingerbread update from Samsung.
Or will I have to manually install it. Since KIES does not function on these CDMA tablets it leaves me wondering just how this update will find its way to my Galaxy Tab.

I also don't have a data plan with sprint, and I've received OTA updates (possibly pulled down via wifi) so hopefully if we do get lucky enough to get an official GB update, it'll come OTA even without a data plan..

pvtjoker42 said:
I also don't have a data plan with sprint, and I've received OTA updates (possibly pulled down via wifi) so hopefully if we do get lucky enough to get an official GB update, it'll come OTA even without a data plan..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My Samsung Fascinate is on a data plan with Verizon. When an OTA download is available and I request the update via the phone settings, it ALWAYS cautions that it is about to disable the WiFi in order to access the OTA update.
I do not know if the same is true of Sprint as I've never had an activated Sprint phone . Seriously hope not as it might make it less than straight forward to acquire the OTA updates such as Gingerbread.
Time will tell.

warranty on a refurbished galaxy tab
Hawk521,
I am thinking of buying the one from meritline too. I am concerned as to who did the refurbishing. Was it Samsung? How come there is only a 90 day warranty as opposed to a year for a new one? Is it worth spending more for the full warranty?

pvtjoker42 said:
anyone else getting a constant conversion to ext4 when you reboot into CWM? I swapped out the stock sd card for a 1gb card i had laying around, it runs through the conversion, and can read the sd card, but as soon as I flash the HC rom and reboot it just sits at the samsung bootlogo. I power it down, and go back into recovery and it runs the conversion again. The only time it doesn't run the conversion is if i put the stock sd card in, then it just says can't mount /sdcard. this is getting really annoying. I've got an Epic 4g and stuff like this just doesn't happen, so I'm wondering what the heck the issue with the Tab is.
So, figured out anytime I was getting stuck in the ext4 conversion loop for recovery, that I needed to go back and flash the recovery via heimdall again. It seemed every 3rd flash would work. Annoying, but at least now I know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got around this by formatting, partitioning and converting to ext4 using my Evo4G.

alans75 said:
Hawk521,
I am thinking of buying the one from meritline too. I am concerned as to who did the refurbishing. Was it Samsung? How come there is only a 90 day warranty as opposed to a year for a new one? Is it worth spending more for the full warranty?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know who did the refurbishing. On items like this that have only been on the market for 7 months or so, most 'refurbs' are likely simple product returns from buyers who were not happy for one reason or another. I've bought lots of refurb items over the years and have yet to have any regrets.
FWIW, mine came in a brand new looking oem box, the power supply and cables were still in the oem packaging and all documentation was pristine.
If it suits your needs go for it. Sure beats spending $350+ bucks on one. I'm not using any Sprint 3G data plan - just treating this as a WiFi only tab.
Also, just today it leaked out that Sprint will be providing an OTA update to Gingerbread starting on July 5th, 2011.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/30/sprint-updating-the-samsung-galaxy-tab-with-gingerbread-on-july/

pvtjoker42 said:
anyone else getting a constant conversion to ext4 when you reboot into CWM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After it fails the first time (and while you're still in the CWM utility ROM go and clear the two cache settings prior to restarting into CWM rom again. Clearing the caches (one is under the advance setting) will clean things up so that upon the next bootup CWM will properly convert to ext4.
At least that is what I've seen several times now.
Good luck with it.

Gingerbread for Sprint on July 5th?
Has anyone had any luck with the July 5th Gingerbread upgrade that Google and Sprint have indicated would begin downloading on July 5th?
I realize they may roll the update out over several days, but so far my attempts to prod the update manually have met with no results.
If anyone has better luck please post it here. Also note if your Galaxy Tab has a current Sprint data plan, or if it is like mine, a refurb that has no current contract for data.
Watching and waiting...

Hawk521 said:
Has anyone had any luck with the July 5th Gingerbread upgrade that Google and Sprint have indicated would begin downloading on July 5th?
I realize they may roll the update out over several days, but so far my attempts to prod the update manually have met with no results.
If anyone has better luck please post it here. Also note if your Galaxy Tab has a current Sprint data plan, or if it is like mine, a refurb that has no current contract for data.
Watching and waiting...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My non-activated sprint galaxy tab just only show me "Unknown Error", when I try Setting->About My Galaxy Tab->System Updates->Update Firmware.

[Q] arresting _initiated_ OTA "upgrade" process? post-shutdown, pre-re-boot

[Q] arresting _initiated_ OTA "upgrade" process? post-shutdown, pre-re-boot
Spent the better portion of my day off using interweb engines looking for variations of stopping/aborting/terminating OTA in progress. Yes, 4.5 hours of sheer joy! Pesky popups every two hours to upgrade OTA or wait another two hours. For past few days I have been studiously mashing 'wait another two hours'. I inadvertently mashed permission to proceed while tinkering with awesome Tasker
wiki does not cover this. thread searching has been similarly unproductive. Calling 611 was as useless as one might imagine.
oh noes
phone "shutdown" itself
phone battery yanked during "shutdown" banner, but before re-boot
phone is not rooted. really, it's not. shudda wudda cudda yeah
phone is already in USB debug mode awaiting rooting next week. yup, shudda acted sooner
no gmail account inflicted on the phone. sure, no market access, no great loss I mostly use f-droid for apps (and some commercial purchases) and funambol (and live activesync) for contact and calendar (backup)
.
.
(1) What can be done to prevent this "upgrade" from continuing and leave the phone usable? leave the phone 340?
(smashing with hammer will stop the "upgrade" but not very useful)
I assume that the phone will boot into a special mode to "upgrade" me from off the shelf 340, then burn new firmware. (2) Can those files waiting to be burned be deleted out from under the phone before they can be applied?
(3) since the phone is not-rooted, but yes usb debug enabled, and since rooting seems to use adb to push files into temp write areas.. if someone knew where ota files lived, and if write/delete permission could they be deleted by adb?
.
.
this is not "how do I stop update nags" -- as the 'install updates', the button on the left, has already been mashed
this is not "stop ota updates" as the update has already been advertised and inadvertently initiated
no joy here either:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/tags.php?tag=ota+upgrade
http://forum.xda-developers.com/tags.php?tag=ota+update
http://forum.xda-developers.com/tags.php?tag=ota
I remain hopefully expectant

I'm not sure how to stop an update in progress. What you could do is flash the .340 SBF file from RSD lite. This will wipe everything on your phone so backup first.
Both can be found in the link below. You will need to extract the .zip file which contains the sbf file. You will also need the proper Motorola drivers installed and usb debugging enabled. Once you have all the files you will need to get the phone into the bootloader and then flash the sbf file.
Instructions:
Open RSD lite on the computer.
To get phone into boot loader, turn the phone off and make sure the USB cable is plugged into the phone & computer. Once off, Hold the volume down + camera button and then press the power button. Once you see a flash on the phone screen let go of all 3 buttons and you will see the bootloader screen.
Now look at the computer and you will see the phone show up on port 1 on RSD lite. Select the correct sbf file and click start. This will take awhile.
More info here: http://www.mydroidworld.com/forums/droid-x-discussion/6367-new-full-sbf-droid-x-2-3-340-a.html

save me you're one of my reasonable hopes
Gcracker47 said:
I'm not sure how to stop an update in progress. What you could do is flash the .340 SBF file from RSD lite. This will wipe everything on your phone so backup first.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can this be done AFTER the OTA "upgrade" to gingerbread on the Droid X??
and can it be done from Ubuntu (natty)?

Can user-data be pulled with SBF tools? When ADB is not an option?

Acer 500a Rooted and unable to update

I have an Acer 500a I just bought off carigslist. Initially I thought it would be fine but then I realized I was inheriting someone elses problems. I hope someone may be able to help.
Within the first few hours I was noticing google Play crashed a number of times and struggled to update from Market. Somehow the update went through but now there is a system update that won't go through. I'm able to down load it and when i restart the computer to complete installation the screen goes black and says: booting recovery kernel in the corner. I then see a picture of an android and a load bar which after 2-4 seconds the android is on his back and an exclaimation mark is coming out of his belly.
My android version is 3.2
Kernel version
2.6.36.3+
Build number
Acer_a500_7.006.01_COM_GEN2
I'm pretty sure its rooted and i think that might be why its not playing nice with google market and system updates. I called the old owner and explained the problem and he just said he had it rooted and he thought he unrooted it. There is an ap called superuser in aps. (although if it were rooted would'nt I be able to uninstal some of thecrap software it comes with like GOLF HD? -- it won't let me).
The system update is for Acer_a500_7.014.01_COM_GEN2 8.88mb
My problem is all of the force closes I'm getting and the inability to update the system. Any thoughts? I don't have a usb cord to connect it to a desktop either =(

I am a bit out of practice, but...
Should be pretty simple to fix. From what I am seeing, you are running a stock rom. Just because the superuser.apk is installed on the system does not mean it is rooted, but it probably is.
Hit the market, grab "Root Checker" - simple tiny program to let you know for sure if your tab is rooted or not.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=burrows.apps.rootchecker&hl=en
From what I understand - automatic system updates will fail when trying to apply them to a rooted or modded system. Probably why you cannot auto-update.
My advice at this point would be to:
1) Since you just bought it, just do a factory wipe on it. That will remove all the stuff the prior owner had running on it and will result in a unrooted tab that should be able to get auto updates without a problem.
2) Un-Root it. Once the tablet is unrooted, the system should update without any issue.
As for your Play Store issues - I have never heard of or personally seen any issues caused with installing apps from the store on a rooted device. I have seen a few apps that will refuse to run on a rooted device - but that does not sound like your problem.
I would go with option 1 - just factory wipe the thing. Prior owner may have made tons of changes to the OS that we will never know about, and may have handed you a unstable system. Start fresh. Wipe it out.
Hope this helps you out! Let me know if I can answer any questions.

k thank you so much for the quick reply! I downloaded the root checker and it Is rooted. I did a factory wipe as found in the settings privacy tab when I bought it. That factory reset did not unroot and only cleaned out some of the aps on the device. Is there a better or more surefire way to unroot it? If I reset with the volume down key will it hard reset it?
Thank you for you help!
Draight

Okay.
I am about a year out of practice with my a500 - but from what I am think, if a factory reset still results in a rooted device - the prior user installed a stock ROM that comes pre-rooted.
I highly doubt being rooted is causing the issues you are running into.
At this point if you just want to get back to stock you can probably just install the Acer Recovery Manager from the market and use it to reflash a stock unrooted ROM. Or I see a few guides about how to manually restore back to stock over in the dev section for the a500.
Others will correct me if I am wrong, but I think Acer Recovery Manager should take care of your problem.
Hope this helps!
(Edit: Or you can just download the official stock 4.x rom (ICS) from the dev section and flash that. 3.2 is pretty slow and wonky in my experience, you should be able to just download a 4.x ROM and flash, since you are rooted. Again, I am way out of practice. Don't do anything before reading up!)
(Edit again: I think I was making this harder then needs be. Just flash any stock 3.2 unrooted ROM, done. After you do that the automatic on the air update should kick in for you and update you to ICS)

Thanks for taking the time to work with me on this. I downloaded the program you suggested and tried to use a stock rom. When i went to reboot I had a picture of an android looking up at an exclaimation mark. It was froze like that until I restarted it. Now its back to the way it was, rooted and unupdatable.
I'm probably going to try to just wipe it all over but do i need to plug it into my computer somehow? I dont have a usb connector for the tablet, just the wall charger plugin. can i just download a rom and use the utility to try install it? when I reboot it am I supposed to be pressing the volume button?
I've read a few other forums but usually they sound pretty intense...

draight said:
Thanks for taking the time to work with me on this. I downloaded the program you suggested and tried to use a stock rom. When i went to reboot I had a picture of an android looking up at an exclaimation mark. It was froze like that until I restarted it. Now its back to the way it was, rooted and unupdatable.
I'm probably going to try to just wipe it all over but do i need to plug it into my computer somehow? I dont have a usb connector for the tablet, just the wall charger plugin. can i just download a rom and use the utility to try install it? when I reboot it am I supposed to be pressing the volume button?
I've read a few other forums but usually they sound pretty intense...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm..
Try the thread I linked two in my second edit of my last post. You just need to grab the stock and unrooted 3.2 - put it on a MicroSD card as update.zip - then reboot with vol rocker and power switch to get the system to flash the update.
That *should* work just fine.
(Edit: Forgot the link! http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1839313 - there you go)

Thankw, I am going to try it after readingna bit more. Do I need to have clockworkmod installed for all of this?

draight said:
Thankw, I am going to try it after readingna bit more. Do I need to have clockworkmod installed for all of this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope. Just snag the stock unrooted 3.2 ROM - place it in the root of the MicroSD card as update.zip
Power down.
Power up with VOL + and POWER key held at the same time (you can let the vol rocker go when you see text appear in the upper left corner)
Should be all you need to do. Worst case; it does not work and returns you back to where you are now. Worth a shot.
If that does not work, let me know so I can do a few mins of homework and help you further. Been a long time since I have changed ROMS or had any issues with my a500.
I have bricked it twice by not following directions all the way or just making simple mistakes, but from what I have found there is always a way to recover.

Just tried it. I copied the boot zip to sd card and renamed update.zip and reset..It looked like it was going to download after showing some text in the corner and then an exclamation mark appeared above the androids head... I left it and after a few.min it rebooted back

draight said:
Just tried it. I copied the boot zip to sd card and renamed update.zip and reset..It looked like it was going to download after showing some text in the corner and then an exclamation mark appeared above the androids head... I left it and after a few.min it rebooted back
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm. Odd.
Like I said, I am rather out of practice.
Someone more experienced them me: please help me point Draight in the right direction here?

Thanks for trying to help. =(
I wish that my tablet wasn't having such issues. I;m going to try to scramble around the forums and see if I can find some advice...If anyone has a suggestion please let me know.
Thanks again entropy,
Draight

Update:
So I've been tinkering around with it a bit more and I found a usb cord that plugs it into my computer. I keep finding boken links on this site so Im struggling to find an update I can use to flash to. I downloaded a different super user program which allowed me to temporarily unroot my device. I then restarted it and no root checker says its no rooted and I cannot find the superuser program. I think I have somewhat unrooted it -- but I think the real issue now is the recovery tool. I keep reseting it - hard reset, or factory reset and it wipes everything away but when i try to update it gets about 1/3 of the way up the bar then it stops with an '!' Mark above the droid. Im kind of annoyed at this point and hoping for some new links or some ideas on how to repair the recovery piece.
Draight

Go to the Dev section, and grad a couple of the ICS Update roms. You will see them listed for the a500. Make sure they are the FULL update roms. Should be about 3-400mb. These contain a FULL ICS Update Rom, and not a patch file.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1816560
Then, go to the Themes and apps forum. You'll see a sticky that has the Acer Update Decrypter.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1869505
Now, unpack the decrypter, and select one of the ICS Updates. Then hit Start. Take a couple minutes, but you will have a duplicate file with the word "decrypted" added to it.
Wait, you are not done yet.
Using a program like 7zip, or even Winzip, open the decrypted file. DO NOT EXTRACT, just open it and pull the update.zip to your PC's desktop.
Copy that update.zip file to your Ext SD Card of the tablet. Don't be putting it in any folder, just copy it to the root of the card.
Now, you still ain't done.
With the tablet off. Press and hold Vol+ and then PWR. Hold them both untill you start to see text about installing blah blah blah, then release the buttons.
If it completes, and you can reboot into ICS, then you are good to go.
If something fails during installation, then decrypt the other update Rom file you downloaded, and do the same procedure. Usually one of the 2 or three should work for you.
Note these are for the a500, and not the a501.
One more thing. It's advisable you get your UID number before doing these things. You probably won't need it, but it's nice to have written down in case you need it in the future. Inf to get it is at;
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1624645
MD

Thanks! I am downloading a few of the FULL ICS roms:
*Acer_A500_1.031.00_WW_GEN1 : http://d-h.st/uAy
Acer_A500_1.031.00_PA_CUS1: http://d-h.st/idO
Acer_A500_1.041.00_WW_CUS1: http://d-h.st/Yt5
*Acer_AV041_1.054.00_WW_GEN1: http://www.theandroidcollective.org/...00_WW_GEN1.zip
*Acer_A500_7.014.16_041.206.01_COM_GEN1: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_bk...hVc1RVcHc/edit
The I downloaded the ones ending with Gen1. Once they are downloaded I will continue with the instructions. Thank you so much for your help! I will post how it goes later tonight.
Draight

I just decrypted both:
*Acer_AV041_1.054.00_WW_GEN1:
*Acer_A500_1.031.00_WW_GEN1
Both get get to the third bullet quickly and the bottom says DONE! It takes like 4 seconds. I don't think the Decryption key of $12 is working
[*] Opening file: Acer_A500_1.031.00_WW_GEN1.zip
[*] Decrypting using key $12
[*] Writing decrypted file: Acer_A500_1.031.00_WW_GEN1_decrypted.zip
I try to extract something from the decrypted file and it says the file was not downloaded properly and I should try redownload it...it says its not a proper archive

wahoo!
So that worked! I down loaded the file Acer_AV041_A500_1.033.00_PA_CUS1 and extracted the update. I palced the update on the sd card and booted with the power and sound volume pressed down. it went through the installation procedure and restarted twice before saying it was upgrading my aps and BOOM its got ICS and everything looks great. Thank you so much for your help and I hope that this paper trail is able to help someone in the future

My problem is that I'm on ICS and I'm rooted, but I just can't download a custom recovery. I've tried, and I haven't gotten anywhere
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2

Kill the kill switch - "ST - yy"

< include generic disclaimer here >
TL;DR
Since update 3.1, Nvidia can force updates (such as the one that bricks your tablet) to be downloaded and installed silently. No guarantees, but:
If you're on stock, delete TegraOTA (/system/app/TegraOTA or /system/priv-app/TegraOTA if you're on 5.0 or newer, or /system/app/TegraOTA.apk if you're still on 4.4) before booting into Android (the attached ZIP file does this for you, but please check with the file manager in recovery before rebooting and let me know if it didn't work), then reboot
Note: you also will need to delete TegraOTA again if you ever install an OTA from Nvidia or a recovery image
If you're not on stock, you're probably safe
EDIT: The urgent OTA is currently not getting sent out to any devices anymore, not even to those who have been getting it before.
EDIT 2: The urgent OTA is now being delivered again, this time named "ST - yy"!
What if my tablet is already deactivated?
Unless you can still boot into fastboot mode (in which case your tablet isn't really deactivated yet), your tablet is probably gone for good. The only way to fix this would be through nvflash, and using it requires the SBK that is unique to each device and that only Nvidia knows, so it's pretty unlikely that we'll ever be able to fix these deactivated tablets.
What/why/how?
In the last OTA (Update 3.1), Nvidia has made some changes to their TegraOTA application. The most important/interesting/suspicious of which is the ability for them to mark OTAs as "urgent". What this means is that these updates will be downloaded without ever notifying the user, and they will be installed without asking the user for permission first. If this is how the kill switch is delivered, all users will see is the tablet randomly rebooting and installing an update, then the tablet would never boot again. As some of you might notice, this would match what has been happening to a few users already, both here and on reddit.
But that's not all. I've been connecting to the OTA servers using various serial numbers (both found and provided to me by a few people) in hopes of actually finding the update that bricks the device. The first serial number I've tried that wasn't mine was the serial number from the screenshot on the recall page. It revealed an interesting "urgent" OTA, named "SHIELD Tablet xx - LTE", which does nothing but flash a blob (which, among other things, contains the bootloader). Many more questions appear now, but the main one is: if this is nothing but a routine bootloader update, why is it marked urgent? And why is it not attached to any Android update? But this by itself is not enough to prove anything, as I could only obtain it with one serial number, so as far as I could have known, it might had just been an internal update or something similar. (update is linked and analysed in the second post below)
Today, however, one of the serial numbers I've been given by some of the people here (thanks for the help guys!) turned out to have the same update waiting for it the next time it connected to the Internet. This rules out the possibility of an internal update, so the next somewhat obvious possibility is that this is the kill switch. Mind you, I still have no direct way of proving this without flashing the ZIP to see what happens (which I'm not planning to do myself), but I will keep checking on the other serial numbers I've gotten to see if this update turns up for them too.
The same person who has given me this serial number has also tested running the old tablet on the latest stock Android version but with TegraOTA removed, and, as expected, the tablet is still working perfectly fine now. Your mileage may vary.
How can I know if the kill switch has been triggered for my tablet?
Go to http://shield.bogdacutu.me/ and enter the full serial number of your old tablet. If the next OTA returned is "SHIELD Tablet xx" "ST - yy", the kill switch has been triggered for your tablet.
Warning: the serial number from the box of the tablet and the one etched on the side of the tablet are not complete, as they only contain the first 13 characters of the full (20 characters) serial number. You can get the full serial number from Android (Settings -> About -> Status), from the bootloader (it will be on the screen when you boot into bootloader mode), or from your computer if the tablet is or (in some cases) if it was previously connected, using various tools such as USBDeview. Example: 0413714803249000a4cf (you can try this on the page and it will return that the kill switch is activated).
Why would I want to also do the fix on my new tablet too?
The update is signed by Nvidia, and communication with the OTA server does not use HTTPS, so, for example, a malicious WiFi network could MITM your connection and cause this update (as well as any other signed update) to be flashed to your new tablet without your permission, thus permanently disabling it too. If you have the stock recovery, only updates signed by Nvidia can run. The story might be slightly different if your recovery doesn't enforce signature verification (such as TWRP and CWM by default).
Can I still get updates from Nvidia after doing this?
Not directly, but people will post OTA download links here on xda when new updates get released. I'd personally recommend that you wait before flashing though until someone here checks the new update to confirm that there's no new way for Nvidia to kill your tablet.
Many hours of work have gone into investigating this. Even if it doesn't help your specific scenario, consider hitting that Thanks button, so that I can at least know it wasn't for nothing.
I'd also like to thank the people who have given me their serial numbers to use for testing again, this wouldn't have been possible without their help: @Beauenheim, @Jackill, and @runandhide05 (who has even volunteered to test removing TegraOTA with the latest update on his old tablet :highfive

Fragments of code from TegraOTA.apk
< screenshots temporarily removed >
Also, from what I've seen so far, the update isn't delivered instantly after activating the new tablet. I don't know exactly what the rule is, but out of the 4 serial numbers that I have, only 2 have this update waiting for them.
EDIT: One more serial number from the ones I have has gotten the xx update. Only one left...
EDIT 2: All the serial numbers I have have the urgent OTA waiting for them now.

"SHIELD Tablet xx" - Update Analysis
OTA URL: http://ota.nvidia.com/ota/data/post...wf-full_ota-32256_554.0168.20150624152335.zip
yy OTA URL: http://ota.nvidia.com/ota/data/posted-roms/uploaded/st---yy--092704233775---7294.20150819152732.zip (if you don't know what you're doing, DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS, it's very likely that this will permanently brick your device upon flashing it!!!) - also attached to this post in case this link becomes invalid
updater-script is the first file we check:
Code:
getprop("ro.product.device") == "shieldtablet" || abort("This package is for \"shieldtablet\" devices; this is a \"" + getprop("ro.product.device") + "\".");
nv_copy_blob_file("blob", "/staging");
reboot_now("/dev/block/platform/sdhci-tegra.3/by-name/MSC", "");
Suspiciously enough, this only flashes a blob to the staging partition. But what exactly does this blob do, you might ask? Well, the blob actually contains data for 9 partitions, which are automatically replaced during the next boot (before the bootloader does anything else at all, so once you've rebooted, there's no going back) with the contents present in this blob. The 9 partitions are as follows (also detailing comparison with files from update 3.1):
BCT (Boot Configuration Table) - stores some information that is needed for the device to find the bootloader stored on the other partitions, initialize the RAM and some other stuff
Status after update: probably corrupted - the previous OTAs have binary BCTs, but this update replaces it with a text file (which, while it does contain somewhat relevant information, is likely not a valid format). If this is corrupted, it's enough for the device not to be able to boot anymore.
BMP (boot logo) - intact
DTB - intact
EBT (part of the bootloader) - has a zeroed out region
NVC (part of the bootloader) - intact
RBL (part of the bootloader) - has a zeroed out region
RP4 (landscape boot logo) - intact
TOS (Trusted OS - probably part of the bootloader too) - has a zeroed out region
WB0 (related to the boot process, source file is named "nvbootwb0.bin") - has a zeroed out region
The update also contains a few other files, but those are not used at all (probably leftovers from the 5.1 AOSP update template that they are using).
DO NOT DOWNLOAD THE ATTACHMENT IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING. THIS IS THE XX OTA, NOT THE ZIP THAT REMOVES TEGRAOTA!

Just as I suspected!!

Thanks a lot this is great. So the silent updater can force updating even with a custom recovery like cwm?
How to install the provided zip?
Thanks again.

tecnoworld said:
Thanks a lot this is great. So the silent updater can force updating even with a custom recovery like cwm?
How to install the provided zip?
Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
CWM and TWRP are both compatible with OTAs, so yes, it can. If you completely erase the recovery (fastboot erase recovery), the update can't get flashed, but the tablet will still reboot (which is at least annoying).
You can flash the provided ZIP through CWM or TWRP (but please check through the file manager if /system/app/TegraOTA still exists after installing it, the ZIP hasn't gone through a lot of testing so it might not work properly in all cases)

tecnoworld said:
Thanks a lot this is great. So the silent updater can force updating even with a custom recovery like cwm?
How to install the provided zip?
Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This was to be my question too... Normal ota updates will not flash if you have a custom recovery, so how would this silent ota update?

bluegizmo83 said:
This was to be my question too... Normal ota updates will not flash if you have a custom recovery, so how would this silent ota update?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Normal OTAs don't work through custom recoveries because they do various checks that usually fail when you have a custom recovery (such as if the system partition is modified, by rooting for example), this urgent OTA has none of those checks

Bogdacutu said:
Normal OTAs don't work through custom recoveries because they do various checks that usually fail when you have a custom recovery (such as if the system partition is modified, by rooting for example), this urgent OTA has none of those checks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh ok! Great explaination. Thanks for all your hard work on this! I'm flashing the zip now, i'll report back if it removes the file
Edit: Ok I flashed the zip, and TegraOTA is gone. Now I will finally turn on my new tablet and set it up!

So out of interest, what do you think the chances are that thisll work?
How did you find out if the update is waiting? FYI I flashed the ZIP... All is good and it booted fine on LTE 32Gb...
Plus the deleting of the TegraOTA File has gone through... So you really think the TegraOTA removal has stopped it?
How do i check if i have downloaded randomly that update?

Great post. Hopefully that's as far as Nvidia is going to go. I flashed a custom rom on my old tablet. I'm keeping my new one stock but deleting the system app per your post. Just in case Nvidia is spiteful when I don't return the old tablet. I don't want to leave them any option of nuking the new one.

fkofilee said:
So out of interest, what do you think the chances are that thisll work?
How did you find out if the update is waiting? FYI I flashed the ZIP... All is good and it booted fine on LTE 32Gb...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Decompiled the OTA application. Using information from there I can connect to the OTA server directly from my PC, and request updates for any given serial number and Android version combination.
I wouldn't have posted this if I weren't relatively confident in my findings

Bogdacutu said:
Decompiled the OTA application. Using information from there I can connect to the OTA server directly from my PC, and request updates for any given serial number and Android version combination.
I wouldn't have posted this if I weren't relatively confident in my findings
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know fella I appreciate it. Could you check my second point? 2 x Nvidia Shields would be awesome! One for Work, One For Home

fkofilee said:
Plus the deleting of the TegraOTA File has gone through... So you really think the TegraOTA removal has stopped it?
How do i check if i have downloaded randomly that update?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I think it did. If that update was downloaded on your device, it would have been too late (as it reboots instantly after the update is downloaded), so I wouldn't worry about that.

Bogdacutu said:
Yes, I think it did. If that update was downloaded on your device, it would have been too late (as it reboots instantly after the update is downloaded), so I wouldn't worry about that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So heres an interesting one for you, using a logical mindset, if you receive your new tablet, activate it, the next time that the old one connects to the network, it downloads this update and bricks it? But it wont technically do this until the new tablet is turned on?

fkofilee said:
So heres an interesting one for you, using a logical mindset, if you receive your new tablet, activate it, the next time that the old one connects to the network, it downloads this update and bricks it? But it wont technically do this until the new tablet is turned on?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As mentioned in the OP, the update doesn't get delivered immediately after you activate the new tablet. But yes, the old tablet shouldn't get the update before the new one is activated.

Bogdacutu said:
As mentioned in the first post, the update doesn't get delivered immediately after you activate the new tablet. But yes, the old tablet shouldn't get the update before the new one is activated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry fella missed that part, I will be donating some funds when i get paid later this month Mucho Gracias!

Totally not related to this thread, but I just went to setup my new tablet and it's not letting me restore apps & settings from my old Shield Tablet... It doesn't show my old tablet as a restore option. I doubt checked and the old tablet is setup to backup all settings and apps though. Anyone else have this issue when setting up they're new tablet?

bluegizmo83 said:
Totally not related to this thread, but I just went to setup my new tablet and it's not letting me restore apps & settings from my old Shield Tablet... It doesn't show my old tablet as a restore option. I doubt checked and the old tablet is setup to backup all settings and apps though. Anyone else have this issue when setting up they're new tablet?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Upgrade to 5.1 on the new tablet without restoring any data, then do a factory reset and you should get the option to restore

Bogdacutu said:
Upgrade to 5.1 on the new tablet without restoring any data, then do a factory reset and you should get the option to restore
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AWESOME man, thank you!!