A500 bricked - head spinning from reading all the "bricked" threads - need guidance! - Acer Iconia A500

A500 bricked - head spinning from reading all the "bricked" threads - need guidance!
Hi I've got a bricked A500. I have the CPUID and SBK.
I've read so many posts and threads about unbricking with so many variations on how to do it that my head is spinning. So I'm looking for a bit of guidance as to where to turn. So, yes, I did do a search on this forum and others. There's so much similar but different information out there and few seem to actually take you through the entire process beginning to end with no gaps or assumptions. I've tried several and Blackthunder's tools seems to get me the closest.
Symptoms:
Black screen. Power light will light.
Whether I reset, or hold the Vol and Pwr buttons down or not, the screen remains black and no vibration. Did this repeatedly - no difference.The device does show up as A500 on my PC (after loading USB drivers). But if I open it, all I see are two "video" folders and one "audio" folder. So the PC can see something on the tab but not much is there.
I downloaded Blackthund3r's APX flash utility and his A500 manager. I cannot get any of the bundle downloads to work from his flash utility. I just get msgs about there being problems with the links. Many of the links on this forum didn't work so I found some via Google search. So I downloaded a few of the more promising looking .a500apx files, as well as some bootloaders only.
As per one of the threads, I also ran DotNetDetector and loaded the USB drivers.
With both Blackthund3r tools, I do get the msg "A500 Detected in APX Mode" although the tab screen remains blank. When I start up the flash utility the tab vibrates, I now see the Acer logo, and "Entering Acer Download mode" at the top left.
I tried doing the full flash, as well as doing the specific file selection and only selecting the bootloader. In either case, the tab screen does not change (Acer Logo, etc). It gets through Stage 1 of flashing bootloader and goes to Stage 2. The flash tool remains at "Flashing" with the green bar partway across. Then it just sits there. The Command prompt window just keeps refreshing with "NWFlash started [resume mode]. I let it sit all night and nothing else happened. The DOS window just keeps refreshing with the same message. No errors, no completion.
One difference if I do the full flash. It gets stuck with the bar about 25% green. If I do the bootloader only, the bar is only about 75% green.
What am I missing?
Thanks!

Related

Are you stuck on ACER screen, trying to flash ROM/Bootloader? This will get you back.

Ok, I will try to make this short.
I have asked MD to host the file if he can (just sent a pm).
So you were trying to update your boot loader V8 etc... and it's not working or you did something wrong and now all you see is the ACER logo and your tablet will not boot past it.
This is what you do.
1 my mistake was made when I copied my CPUID from ADB devices and it had a space at the end so when I pasted it into the SBK tool/app it gave me the WRONG SBK# because of the space at the end. It took me a few hours because the APX Flasher tool would look like it was installing BUT my screen was blank. You HAVE to see the ACER (green color) with little white text top left on your screen. If not you did something WRONG likely your CPUID is WRONG or like me the generated SBK# was wrong (due to the space at the end)
2 So, go here and download this file from here http://d-h.st/0x7 (thanks MD for hosting) or you might find it here
post #426
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1307539&page=43
unzip the file
you WILL need to know your CPUID and also put a 0 (zero) at the beginning of your CPUID and make sure there is no space at the end.
2.5 put your tablet in APX mode, power it off, get a paperclip and press down the reset button, hold it for 3 seconds now press and hold the power button for 2 seconds (until it comes on) then let go of the reset then let go of power. It will go black but it will be in APX mode. The led power light will be on.
3. follow the info here, see screen shots. Don't worry about step 5. just continue on because you are stuck on the acer screen.
http://www.acertabletforum.com/forum/acer-a500-development/1538-tut-revert-ota-3-2-back-3-0-1-a.html
4. When you run the PBJ20upgrade.exe that you will find in the file after you unzip it...just follow the directions.
5. important...you MUST WAIT about 5 minutes because it will try to read your tablet as if it is booted up into a ROM. Just wait and you will eventually get to continue and it will install HC with THOR recovery.
6. now after it reboots follow the rest of the V8 boot loader guide.
You have the info above to get your tab back to working HC with CWM recovery. Just follow the guide: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1622425
* additional thread for files
but the one link above worked for me and contained the pbj20upgrade.exe util to run from your pc
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1816560
* how to get your cpuid
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=25429111#post25429111
I think it's good that you pulled some older info out. Should make it easier to find now.
Sometimes, the really good info gets pushed back to who knows where. And if you don't know the exact search terms, it can be difficult to find.
I think TD's tool might be mentioned in a couple of threads, but lately, it's good to have more than one reference.
MD

[Q] A500 Stuck At Silver Android Screen

I got in an A500 that had a weird yellow icon in the upper left. I wish I would have paid more attention to exactly what it said, but it was a small yellow icon, squareish and, to the best of my recollection, it said something like "NO FILE SYSTEM" or something like that.
Anyways, I followed a thread that I started where Moscow Desire helped me a LOT..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2131327
And was able to obtain my UID and SBK (thanx MD!! ) and went about trying to resurrect this A500..
I was able to get a bootloader installed... A black screen pops up at boot with
SKRILAX_CZ's bootloader v8
Booting Primary kernel image
But then it just sits there at the silver ANDROID screen. The ANDROID will blink a couple times and it shimmers, meaning it is not frozen. But I have left it at that screen for 10-20 mins with no change..
I have tried putting on various update.zip files but it either immediately pukes with a dead ANDROID or it just boots to the same silver ANDROID and sits there..
I have been able to boot into recovery once, did a wipe and reset and then it just went back to the silver ANDROID screen...
Any suggestions for what I can try next??
Thanx
Update info on this...
I have a working A500 so I loaded up PUB RECOVERY and did a back up of that A500 onto an SD card thinking I can simply RESTORE it to this one that is puking at boot...
I got an error message saying it couldn't format or restore /data.. I did an ADVANCED RESTORE and did each section one by one, /flexrom etc etc.. Everything copied over except /data...
Does this mean the partitioning is frak'ed???
Success!!!
I guess I was doing the right thing, but just needed the right combination of tools..
I used Black Thund3rs' APX Flash Tool and downloaded Bundle #11 from his "Bundles" Library..
Everything installed and, upon rebooting, it booted up fine..
So, woot!! Good to go!
Michale

[Q] Trying to fix my A500

Hi, I have acquired an Acer Iconia A500 that was previously rooted(Or so I was told) and ran fine for months until recently. Now it only boots to the Acer Screen. Ill list what I have done so far to try to remedy this problem.
Reset
1. I hold Volume Up, Turn on the power, and switch the Rotational lock on and off until "Erasing Userdata and UserCache (I think, I see those two lines but don't really remember exactly what they were)
2. The device resets and gets stuck at the Acer boot menu.
Load an Update.zip from my sdcard.
1. This method just gets me to the Android guy with his chest open and a red exclamation point above his chest.
I apologize if threads like this already exist I have been searching for hours on how to fix this problem. If anyone is able to help that would be great!

[Q] Acer a500 wont boot

hello, I recieved an acer a500 from a friend, because he couldnt make it boot.
I looked around these forums, looking for an answer but nothing seems to work.
First of all, this is an european acer A500 tablet,
when I power it up, it comes the ACER logo, with a red writing in the left corner > Boot verified failed
so I tried all the factory resets possible combos, power and volume up, but nothing works.
I downloaded from this site various update.zip files, put them one by one in the SD, and tried loading them with the power and volume button, but what happens is, first it comes the ANDROID logo loading, then on the ANDROID logo comes a RED triangle, and nothing happens.
I dont know what O.S was installed here.
I also managed to get to another screen while pressing the reset buttons,
thats a black screen, with this writing in the corner > Bootloader v0.03.12-ICS: Starting Fastboot USB download protocol
That-s all I managed to do, but nothing works for me, so could someone point me out a working update.zip file, or something, to unbrick this A500 please
if needed, i managed to get the UID code with ubuntu, and the SBK key
i-m still trying all the update.zip i can find on these forums, and so far, only one managed to get me a loading bar under the Green Robot, instead of giving the RED TRIANGLE error, but after 1hour, the loading bar is stuck on like 25%
help me pls
Either babsector.rar file and flash a custom ics rom. Or the tdv4 file, which will flash an HC Rom for you.
You will need a pc, the drivers and cpuid, instructions and downloads in the root guide in my sig
Sent from my HTC_PN071 using Tapatalk

Question adb & fastboot not detecting phone. Bootloop w/ "--any key to continue"

Context
I was attempting to root my nothing phone (1). I initially got stuck into a boot loop after Flashing the patched boot image & rebooting the phone. I was following the tutorial here. I then followed this guide to attempt to get my phone out of the bootloop. I was able to access the adb & fastboot commands but the phone would keep restarting. I then started "STEP 4: Flash the Nothing Phone 1 firmware via the Fastboot commands" and failed to flash the odm partition. I stupidly ignored the very important warning to not exit the process halfway. I fastboot rebooted and then was greeted with a screen with: the nothing logo in the middle unmoving, the "powered by android" phrase, and nestled into the top left corner in very small font, "--any key to continue". The front of the text was cut off from the rounded corner of the screen.
Now:
When I press any of the buttons on the phone, the phone will go black and then immediately do a short vibration and turn right back on to that screen. If I hold the power and volume down buttons, the same thing happens even after holding it for almost 5 minutes. I can shut off the screen by holding just the power button for a few seconds but the phone will only turn on with the original error I had. When accessing the console on both my windows 10 PC and Linux laptop, the adb and fastboot commands are no longer able to detect a device. Neither of my computers can detect that the phone is even plugged in.
What I've tried:
I tried using a USB 3.0 fix: but failed
Running the commands on Linux: failed
nothing phone(1) fastboot flash by @sh4tteredd: failed
a slew of others that I've forgotten by now.
A common theme between the failures of all of my fixes is that the phone will not be detected by my computers. This was not a problem before I bricked the phone.
What are some solutions that might help me here?
Don't blame yourself. The phone hard bricks if you look at it wrong. This forum has several posts about the issue. Only solution is to send it to a support center.
coomac said:
Don't blame yourself. The phone hard bricks if you look at it wrong. This forum has several posts about the issue. Only solution is to send it to a support center.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no, this isnt hard brick. hard brick= no recovery, no fastboot, only edl
Gamer_Mida said:
no, this isnt hard brick. hard brick= no recovery, no fastboot, only edl
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you read the post? There is no recovery or fastboot in this state. There are several posts and videos of this on this forum. I even posted one myself.
coomac said:
Did you read the post? There is no recovery or fastboot in this state. There are several posts and videos of this on this forum. I even posted one myself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if it appears on the screen in fastboot press any button to turn off, it means that the bootloader is accessible, even if attached to the pc it does this thing, it is always accessible, therefore, it is not in hard brick
anyway it happened to me too, I know you also tried the usb 3.0 port, but this thing happened to me on another phone, I just changed the port and it worked (on the same pc)
It doesn't appear on the screen in fastboot. It's not the same as what you got on your Xiaomi phone even though the text is the same. Here you go. I don't mean to be rude but a quick search would have saved us this discussion.

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