[Q] Fixing Recovery issues with Iconia A500? - Acer Iconia A500

Hi there!
I own an Acer Iconia A500. Originally came with HC3x, updated it all the way to ICS. Rooted it at ICS with this method:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1546593
Worked fine. The only issue is accessing Recovery at boot. (Just in case I plan on restoring the Stock version of Android, for warranty).
I first used the Acer Recovery Tool app at the Play Store. I tried one of the Recovery options listed. CWM for start. Backed up as asked, then rebooted into recovery. I was told "recovery verified failed". Did a restore, tried another method, same crap, with a time the bot with the (!) appears. Did some research on the issue, and came up to this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1622425
I did option 1 (Afterota v1.09). And flashed Recovery Twp 2.1.3/Bootloader.
I reseted back to bootloader, it didn't show "Recovery verified failed", but instead I got the bot with the (!) again. Went back to Acer Recovery tool. Bottom shows that its unable to identify the installed recovery. So I tried TWRP 2.1.3, didn't work.
My question is, how can I get this to fix? This is my first time trying to install a bootloader. Please help me step by step to get this situation fixed. I appreciate the help by any!!

i am having the same issue and have tried several different fixes without success... any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
(the only one I haven't tried yet is 'manual flashing' outline here http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1622425... will give this a shot when I get a chance and report back... from all the 'automated' or gui methods it always seems to get stuck at the flashing/copying stage...)
thanks!

Same issue...
Glad I'm not the only one with this issue... Used the exact methods you did, same results. Amazing!

i think part of the problem may be that the bootloader was not unlocked when the initial recovery was flashed? when i rooted i thought I had properly unlocked the bootloader as well, but perhaps not....? (... i thought i read somewhere that if the bootloader has not been unlocked when you flash recovery these are the results.. so i am assuming that this might have something to do with the issue?)
the question is, is there a fix?
i have been playing and experimenting more on the tf101 side... all the stuff i'm doing with this is for my wife's a500 because she liked some of the features on my tablet... i'm not all that familiar with the A500 (didn't have to deal with bootloaders separately on the tf101) so any help is greatly appreciated!
thanks!

Alright. I seem to have got it all fixed. What I did was, went back to this page:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1622425
Went to the "Automated flashing tool" / "USING blackthund3r ATX flash tool , It makes it all a little easier !" Method (below Option 2, in the middle). Downloaded V8-TWRP_2.1.3_ICS_recovery.a500apx and APX-FLASH-Tool & Manager, and followed the instructions.
It didn't work with Windows 8 RTM, (driver issue with APX), but Windows 7, worked perfectly, after downloading the Acer driver from a link in the app when prompted. All worked well.

hope u guys got sorted....
for others reading this
to install recovery from ICS you must first flash the unlocked boot loader, after that u can use Acer recovery installer, although once unlocked most of us use fast boot or the auto tools to do it

Related

Need help unbricking please

Kept trying to install either the new ICS leaked ROM for 501 or CM9, so I've followed the steps here for installing a custom bootloader. Thing is the ROM I had installed didn't work, being one of the two above. Anyway, I got into APX mode and followed the steps in the thread, only that didn't load up recovery anymore (I had one of thor's). What I did next was to try and fix it somehow by flashing some other things via nvflash, it said it formatted partition 4, I believe.
Short of it, now when I press power I see a brief flash of the Acer logo and that's about it.
Any help would be appreciated.
and yeah, the second time around i used this.
sorry, i'm an idiot. for some reason there was a battery drain.. i can boot into recovery no problems

Stuck on "ACER" logo...won't boot & pc can't see it......Help Please

Stuck on "ACER" logo at boot...won't boot & pc can't see it.
If I go into recovery I get: Android Guy & Box with arrow then a triangle with explanation point.
I was running ICS Rooted OTA.
I was trying to return the tablet to stock ICS & Boot Loader, when I messed things up.
(Sold Tablet--Need to restore it to factory look & feel.)
If someone could please advise I'd GREATLY appreciate it.
Thanks,
Rob
rgenins said:
Stuck on "ACER" logo at boot...won't boot & pc can't see it.
If I go into recovery I get: Android Guy & Box with arrow then a triangle with explanation point.
I was running ICS Rooted OTA.
I was trying to return the tablet to stock ICS & Boot Loader, when I messed things up.
(Sold Tablet--Need to restore it to factory look & feel.)
If someone could please advise I'd GREATLY appreciate it.
Thanks,
Rob
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried to restore HC boot loader on an ICS rom. Don't worry just download one of the update package from the following link. As you mentioned you were on ICS rom then try ICS update only as it will update boot loader back to ics. Decrypt the file using Acer decrypter on the same link. Place the update.zip on your externel SD and then boot in recovery. Let other recovery install the update file.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1113878
Only Acer logo
Hi all,
i have the problem that the A500 does nothing else but show the Acer logo.
The only thing i can do is use TWRP.
What did i try:
I tried flashing some roms using TWRP, also some older ones but no luck.
I tried using an empty SD-card and then start with Volume - and Power but no luck
What can i do...i am stuck...
Anyone? Still have a non-working Iconia 500...boohoo
Is it an option to flash it with Clockworkmod / CWM, reboot, flash it with an Acer ROM ?
jan99 said:
Anyone? Still have a non-working Iconia 500...boohoo
Is it an option to flash it with Clockworkmod / CWM, reboot, flash it with an Acer ROM ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, telling us you've "tried some other ROMs" and have had "no luck" is pretty much telling us nothing at all.
What ROMs -exactly-?
What -exactly- do you do in TWRP?
What version of TWRP?
-Exactly- what error messages do you get?
What bootloader do you have? Sounds to me like you might have the HC bootloader when trying to install a stock ICS ROM. This is not going to work, period.
If you want help, you've got to provide enough info to help you.
Hi FloatingFatMan,
thanx for your answer.
I tried TWRP v2.1.0 with following roms:
Acer_A500_4.010.42_7.006.01_COM_GEN1
Acer_A500_7.014.14_041.203.01_COM_GEN1
cm-9-20120708-UNOFFICIAL-a500
recovery-ra-iconia-3.17-
gnm
Today i updated TWRP to v2.2.0 using openrecovery-twrp-2.2.0-picasso-signed and tried the cm-10-20120730-UNOFFICIAL-a500.zip rom. Same problem, after system reboot i only see the acer icon (permanent).
Also tried cm-9-20120708-UNOFFICIAL-a500.zip but same problem.
What can i do?
There are three main ingredients when customizing a device:
1) BOOTLOADER
2) RECOVERY
3) ROM/KERNEL
You provided answers to #2 and #3....what about #1??? What BOOTLOADER are you on?
Thanks for your reply.
I never changed my bootloader so that will be stock i think.
Finally i managed to get it going again. The trikck was to use a 3.0 stock rom. That worked.
From there i now use ICS (stock) which is fine at first. I had not seen anything but the Acer logo the past 2 weeks, so the Acer ICS will do perfectly now.
But for later on: can i use CM9 or CM10 with default bootloader + TWRP 2.2.0?
Rippster said:
There are three main ingredients when customizing a device:
1) BOOTLOADER
2) RECOVERY
3) ROM/KERNEL
You provided answers to #2 and #3....what about #1??? What BOOTLOADER are you on?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You'll need the unlocked ICS bootloader. Civato made a great guide over in the DEV section.
jan99 said:
Thanks for your reply.
I never changed my bootloader so that will be stock i think.
Finally i managed to get it going again. The trikck was to use a 3.0 stock rom. That worked.
From there i now use ICS (stock) which is fine at first. I had not seen anything but the Acer logo the past 2 weeks, so the Acer ICS will do perfectly now.
But for later on: can i use CM9 or CM10 with default bootloader + TWRP 2.2.0?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK to explain for you.
ICS and JB require the ICS bootloader to run. They will not run on the HC bootloader unless specifically modified to do so. Also, no HC ROM will run on the ICS bootloader. This is why none of those ROMs were working for you.
Flashing stock ICS has updated your bootloader with the locked ICS one, so you probably won't be able to downgrade to any HC ROMs, or use any custom ROMs anymore. You can, however, use APX mode to install the unlocked ICS bootloader which will enable custom ROMs again.
I don't recommend trying to install ANY custom ROMs now until you'd flashed the unlocked bootloader. Instructions for this are in the Development section. Read VERY carefully before proceeding and if in doubt, don't proceed.
Hi FloatingFatMan,
thanks for the explanation.
I think i will stick to the stock rom at first. The APX way is not without risk...but maybe in the near future...
jan99 said:
Thanks for your reply.
I never changed my bootloader so that will be stock i think.
Finally i managed to get it going again. The trikck was to use a 3.0 stock rom. That worked.
From there i now use ICS (stock) which is fine at first. I had not seen anything but the Acer logo the past 2 weeks, so the Acer ICS will do perfectly now.
But for later on: can i use CM9 or CM10 with default bootloader + TWRP 2.2.0?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am having the same "stuck on acer logo" issue. I am totally novice when talking about how to flash to ROM and stuff. Can you please direct to me a simple "dummy guide" on how to flash back to factory rom and fix my tablet. I tried the hard reset by holding down volume up and pwr button and on/off button, where i see the 'erasing..." but it still goes back to logo screen.
Please help me with my situation. Thanks in advance.
Have a look at this video
That is an example on how to do it.

[Q] boot verification failed

I can list any number of things that I've done/tried, but there have been so many! I'm not a noob when it comes to flashing ROMs, but I'm a new to the Acer Iconia Tab A500 and that's the problem, I think.
Anyway, I got the A500 with Honeycomb and I let it do the ICS OTA. No problem. Then I rooted it. No problem. I got to here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=31546261#post31546261
Then I decided to change the bootloader and that's when I borked something up. It would still boot into ICS just fine, but I couldn't get into recovery. I decided to try downgrading to Honeycomb 3.0.1 using the "unstable" update.zip, but that just ruined everything as now I'm completely stuck. I can't boot at all, it just hangs at the black screen with white Acer letters and red "boot verification failed" in the top left corner. Recovery gets me the dead Android image with the black exclamation point in a red triangle.
I have looked all over and I've read dozens of XDA threads...and I'm sure I'm missing the one thing I need to do to fix this, but heck if I know what it is. I have the Acer drivers installed on my computer, I have a variety of tools (nvflash, blackthund3r's apxflash, etc) waiting to be used if necessary.
So, please, I implore you...treat me like I'm dumb and walk me step-by-step through whatever it is I need to do to get my A500 back up and running! Thanks for your help!
UPDATE: Many hours later, I fixed it! I did another update using the full, stock image of Acer_A500_7.006.01_COM_GEN2 (just guessing about whether it would work or not) and it seems to have done it. Sure, I'm back on Honeycomb 3.2, but it worked. And then I was able to use AfterOTA to root and get the CWM bootloader on there.
So my next question: what do I need to do in order to get ICS? Can I just flash an ICS ROM from CWM, or do I need to update the bootloader in some way?
Thanks!
moonlightinwhite said:
I can list any number of things that I've done/tried, but there have been so many! I'm not a noob when it comes to flashing ROMs, but I'm a new to the Acer Iconia Tab A500 and that's the problem, I think.
Anyway, I got the A500 with Honeycomb and I let it do the ICS OTA. No problem. Then I rooted it. No problem. I got to here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=31546261#post31546261
Then I decided to change the bootloader and that's when I borked something up. It would still boot into ICS just fine, but I couldn't get into recovery. I decided to try downgrading to Honeycomb 3.0.1 using the "unstable" update.zip, but that just ruined everything as now I'm completely stuck. I can't boot at all, it just hangs at the black screen with white Acer letters and red "boot verification failed" in the top left corner. Recovery gets me the dead Android image with the black exclamation point in a red triangle.
I have looked all over and I've read dozens of XDA threads...and I'm sure I'm missing the one thing I need to do to fix this, but heck if I know what it is. I have the Acer drivers installed on my computer, I have a variety of tools (nvflash, blackthund3r's apxflash, etc) waiting to be used if necessary.
So, please, I implore you...treat me like I'm dumb and walk me step-by-step through whatever it is I need to do to get my A500 back up and running! Thanks for your help!
UPDATE: Many hours later, I fixed it! I did another update using the full, stock image of Acer_A500_7.006.01_COM_GEN2 (just guessing about whether it would work or not) and it seems to have done it. Sure, I'm back on Honeycomb 3.2, but it worked. And then I was able to use AfterOTA to root and get the CWM bootloader on there.
So my next question: what do I need to do in order to get ICS? Can I just flash an ICS ROM from CWM, or do I need to update the bootloader in some way?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes and No.
Now that you are on HC 3.2, you're going to need to do the process again.
IE: Unlocked Bootloader and CWM
The problem you had at first, is that when you flashed the UNL bootloader and CWM, you missed 1 tiny step. (lot of people forget to do this) And that is to delete the boot-recovery.p file from the /System. If you do not, you can install CWM, however, when you boot into stock ICS, your CWM gets overwritten. Another little trick from Acer
In the Dev Section, in the stickies part, Civato posted a link to a full ICS Stock Root Rom, With all the nasty stuff removed. (bootloader, recovery files). Download it, put it on your Ext Sd card.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=31572588&postcount=6
Then do the unlocked bootloader + Cwm again. Only THIS TIME, when it finishes, boot the tab immediately to CWM (vol- and PWR). And install the modified stock rom, or one of the custom roms.
Don;t forget to get your HC UID number written down before starting the process. Also it's good after ICS to get your ICS UID number also written down.
MD

[Q] Unbricked & rooted 3.0.1 - can't update to ICS or JB.

Ok here goes. Sorry for the long post but I want to give as much info as possible so I don't leave any of you in the dark about anything. Been working on / researching this for four days now to no avail.
My A500 which was running ICS 4.0.2 just randomly bricked itself one night, so I downloaded EUUs_SBK_Acer_A500_1.016.05_COM_GEN1 from here. It worked, but I really don't want to stay on HC 3.0.1 so I decided to go through the updates. It updated great, HC 3.1...3.2...then when the ICS update came along BAM it bricked itself again (stuck on Acer loading screen)
So, I decided I might as well root it, since I've always wanted to. Ran EUUS again to reset to HC 3.0.1 then ran gingerbreak. Installed Acer Recovery Installer and used Thor's recovery 1.7 I believe it was. Booted into recovery and tried to install update.zip from the STOCK Acer_A500_7.014.16_041.206.01_COM_GEN1.zip I downloaded and BAM bricked again...my tablet doesn't like ICS now all of a sudden? Strange...
I then downloaded NVFLASH from here and installed skrilax's V8 bootloader w/recovery. Booted into recovery great, wiped the partitions etc. and tried to install the same ICS update.zip. BRICKED again!!!! Back to the drawing board...run EUUS...3.0.1 again...
So after days of working on this I decided maybe my Tab hates ICS now for some reason unbeknownst to me. Not very rational (lol) but anyway. I saw the JB ROM that's been put up http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2239476&highlight=rom+ics and figured heck, why not, maybe the ICS ROM I have is corrupt. So I used NVFLASH, Skrilax's V8, and flashed the ROM...bricked again
I think the only thing I haven't tried is
I think I'm going to go crazy now.
Please help, I'm at wit's end.
More info:
I have acquired mmcblk0 (renamed to mmcblk0_start), my CPUID, and my SBK
I enable USB Debugging and Unknown Sources every time.
I have Windows 7, but also have UBUNTU installed on a Virtual Machine if the need arises.
Oh and I've booted into fastboot mode and run Babsector as well which did not help.
Hope I didn't miss anything. My brain is tired from working on this for so many days. I really want my A500 back! Either JB or ICS & rooted if possible!!!
Pareeeee said:
Ok here goes. Sorry for the long post but I want to give as much info as possible so I don't leave any of you in the dark about anything. Been working on / researching this for four days now to no avail.
My A500 which was running ICS 4.0.2 just randomly bricked itself one night, so I downloaded EUUs_SBK_Acer_A500_1.016.05_COM_GEN1 from here. It worked, but I really don't want to stay on HC 3.0.1 so I decided to go through the updates. It updated great, HC 3.1...3.2...then when the ICS update came along BAM it bricked itself again (stuck on Acer loading screen)
So, I decided I might as well root it, since I've always wanted to. Ran EUUS again to reset to HC 3.0.1 then ran gingerbreak. Installed Acer Recovery Installer and used Thor's recovery 1.7 I believe it was. Booted into recovery and tried to install update.zip from the STOCK Acer_A500_7.014.16_041.206.01_COM_GEN1.zip I downloaded and BAM bricked again...my tablet doesn't like ICS now all of a sudden? Strange...
I then downloaded NVFLASH from here and installed skrilax's V8 bootloader w/recovery. Booted into recovery great, wiped the partitions etc. and tried to install the same ICS update.zip. BRICKED again!!!! Back to the drawing board...run EUUS...3.0.1 again...
So after days of working on this I decided maybe my Tab hates ICS now for some reason unbeknownst to me. Not very rational (lol) but anyway. I saw the JB ROM that's been put up http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2239476&highlight=rom+ics and figured heck, why not, maybe the ICS ROM I have is corrupt. So I used NVFLASH, Skrilax's V8, and flashed the ROM...bricked again
I think the only thing I haven't tried is
I think I'm going to go crazy now.
Please help, I'm at wit's end.
More info:
I have acquired mmcblk0 (renamed to mmcblk0_start), my CPUID, and my SBK
I enable USB Debugging and Unknown Sources every time.
I have Windows 7, but also have UBUNTU installed on a Virtual Machine if the need arises.
Oh and I've booted into fastboot mode and run Babsector as well which did not help.
Hope I didn't miss anything. My brain is tired from working on this for so many days. I really want my A500 back! Either JB or ICS & rooted if possible!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow I thought I was the only one who had this issue. My A501 was working fine on Evil-A V2 (4.1.2) for many months and decided one night to crash and now stuck on V8 boot screen. Ive tried everything however I can get it to boot up on a 3.2 update.zip file.
The only recoveries I can get to work are TWRP 2.5.0.0 (on secboot)
Now I cant get it to flash anything other than 3.2.
It is formatted with ext4 partitions
whenever I try to flash it reboots to ACER download screen but the flashers wont get any further than that. (loads Acer boot recovery driver ok)
Any ideas?
Nice to know I'm not the only one. I hope we get some answers!!
*sigh* My situation has gotten worse. Now TDv4/EUUS won't roll back my device and my tab won't go past the recovery bootscreen (Just says "TEAMWIN" on the screen) That is the ONLY recovery that NVFLASH will flash to my device now, for some reason none of the other recoveries will go back onto it.
My stress level has gone up 800% from working on this. I don't have the money to buy a new tab. I really need to get this one working again.
:crying:
Pareeeee said:
Nice to know I'm not the only one. I hope we get some answers!!
*sigh* My situation has gotten worse. Now TDv4/EUUS won't roll back my device and my tab won't go past the recovery bootscreen (Just says "TEAMWIN" on the screen) That is the ONLY recovery that NVFLASH will flash to my device now, for some reason none of the other recoveries will go back onto it.
My stress level has gone up 800% from working on this. I don't have the money to buy a new tab. I really need to get this one working again.
:crying:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
have you tried lightspeed v8 bootloader and rom? that's the only thing that worked for me. then I could updatw to twrp and jb.
Sent from here
LPMatt said:
have you tried lightspeed v8 bootloader and rom? that's the only thing that worked for me. then I could updatw to twrp and jb.
Sent from here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think my MB is failing/has failed. Either that or something I flashed to it was badly corrupted.
Now my tab has stuck itself in apx mode, bootloader won't load, recovery won't load, every program I have (nvflash, TDv4, EUUs, Babsector, etc) fails. Babsector gives me the fatal error "command 12 NvError 0x120002" and "setting device: 2 3" which I've read means that the tab is shot. Adb.exe tells me the device is not detected, even though all the drivers are installed correctly.
I'm pretty bummed because I don't have the money to buy another tab at the moment, and I used it ALL the time, took it everywhere with me.
On the up-side, I've done some research and it seems if you disassemble your tab and sell the working parts (things like the screen, metal back panel, internal speakers - obviously NOT the MB though!) individually on eBay you can make a bit of your money back.
Can anyone direct me to some good links/video tutorials for dis-assembly?
whoops... I just started a new thread with a very similar issue... My tab also just involuntarily bricked itself... I've made some progress but it's still in bad shape... I don't know about you guys but I had been running at a steady 50% overclock; do you think that could have led to this?
Sorry Man
No @rwilpstra....my a500 is overclocked to 1504 ghz and it runs just fine......as for you pareeeee....Sorry man.....your device is gone....no apx...no fastboot....no recovery.....it's beyond minor corruption....it's like you somehow managed to corrupt every single part of the memory and every partition that there was on your device....you're better off disassembling it.:crying::crying:

[Q] stock bootloader, recovery, rom?

hey guys I've been searching for hours and cant seem to come up with a way to flash the stock bootloader for the A500.
I've got skrilax cz's v8 with CWM recovery v5.5.0 thore2002ro and want to go 100% out of the box back to stock. Is there anyway some one can point me in the right direction or give a little instruction. (its been years since ive worked on this and I'm filling a little noobish)
I've been working with afterota v1.09 because I actually still had it on my computer and it seemed like a good bet but I can't seem to get it to boot into apx mode I've uninstalled and reinstalled the drives I've got to be missing something.

Categories

Resources