I have really enjoyed -and appreciated!- the work that folks have done here...been using this forum a lot since Oct - thanks!
But now I could use some help. I've managed to brick my gtab to the WSOD. I've searched and tried -several times- the different unbrick methods, particularly nvflash, but no avail - I must be doing something stupid/wrong.
The gtab boots to a white screen, whether 'normal' or 'APX mode' boot. If I connect with nvflash, sometimes it reads the USB drive, sometimes not (using Vega drivers under Win7/64). USBDeview shows an active connection as storage device.
Nvflash starts flashing, then (apparently) hangs; after 15 minutes, no change....
Since everything's white on white, all I can do it go by the 'symptoms' on my PC.
I didn't see anything specific to this in searches, and have tried (all?) other methods in the threads....
Anyone have any ideas?
Sorry to make my thread be a request for help, since I've really enjoyed lurking on the XDA boards for some time.....special thanks to you, Roebeet!
Thanks,
I'm no expert but I've had to use nvflash a few times already
APX should be a black screen (backlight off).
I assume that you can't turn off the tablet by holding the on/off button
for a long time (around 8 seconds or so)??
Perhaps you should let the battery run down completely until shutdown
(if the screen is locked on that shouldn't take all that long).
then try apx/nvflash again ...
Thanks for the fast response....
1. I have used APX mode before when it was a black screen...that's not happening, now. But I can power/+ and it boots into a mode (albeit white screen and possibly white font) that nvflash recognizes and proceeds to flash...or so I think.
2. I have tried full-power-drain to where there's no response from the unit at all, until I charge it, at least a little. Have done that several times, no difference.
3. when I turn the unit off (holding in power button), it will turn off.
If I power up in 'WSOD APX' mode, and keep holding the power/+ buttons, it will eventually toggle off (black screen) for under a second, then start up again with WSOD.
Pretty brick.
Thanks again for any/all advice.
Marc
Power on and Volume Up is Recovery Mode, which is why the screen isn't going back off like it should.
Power on and Volume Down is APX Mode. Try this and nvflash.
Sorry for the error - and thanks!
When I go into APX mode (-), nvflash will start and then hang (no response). I must be doing something dumb/stupid (like the power/+ (!)), but it's hung.
Thanks to all for your continued help...
You're welcome. I don't use windows for nvflash so I can't really help there other than to say to make sure you have the correct driver loaded and use the bekit 1105 image.
This: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=861950
is your best bet for referencing what you need.
Yep...used that/those, as well....
Maybe I'll just boot up Linux and see if that'll work....
Thanks for your help
I've found Linux to be much easier for me ;-) Let us know how it works out.
Thanks - I've now tried it several ways, including Ubuntu and W7/64....
bat file now executes, creating partitions and copying img files, and ends normally. At that point, the driver loses the connection and then regains it. There is no change on the gTab screen, even after 5 min.
Powering back on -normally - goes back to WSOD, with a flash of black screen (less than a second) about 30s into it, then return to WSOD (although dimmer). Stays there (stopped it after 5 min).
Powering back on into Recovery mode - same symptoms as normal power on.
Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks again for everyone's time and consideration!
I had installed TNT Lite v 4.3.0 a couple of weeks ago and it was working pretty good. But today my tablet has gone into a bad state. Every app that I run results in FC. Even the ADW launcher EX that I had selected default is crashing. It then gives me the options: ADW Laucher, ADW Launcher EX, and the regular Launcher. The plain ADW Launcher also fails, but fortunately the regular Launcher still works so I can access the apps.
But unfortunately almost every app that I am trying fails. The only one that doesn't fail is the Web browser. The Settings starts and I can access Applications menu but once I choose say System Applications, after that if I try to choose some other option such as Installed Application, it crashes as well.
Last night however when I started the tablet the battery was probably down and while it was powering it up, it turned off and then restarted by itself and then turned off, without reaching the lock screen. I don't know if it has something to do with all this.
What do I do now? Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks.
A well known issue.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=896395
This is why I'm an advocate of people doing the partitioning right before they flash their first custom rom. This way, they won't have to wipe everything later on.
I could only wonder why people aren't mentioning this in every custom rom thread.
Thank you so much. Will try it out tonight.
Unfortunately it seems I have run into a worse issue (without even doing anything yet). Now when I power it on, it starts and shuts off within a few seconds, just shows the birds for like 5 secs and bang, black screen.
The tablet is fully charged (if I put it on charge the light turns green in no time). Looks like the battery is dead.
You might be dropping into APX mode. Do you know how to use nvflash?
Thanks for the reply. You are absolutely right. After multiple tries it did boot up and I was able to install clockworkmod and it all worked great. It wiped off everything but I could live with that. And I turned it off and back on and it was working fine.
But then it went back into the same mode - shutting off immediately after turning on. I decided to return this tablet thinking that it is bad. But before I would do that I thought to restore it or else Viewsonic won't honor the warranty. So I started reading the thread about restoring the tablet to stock using nvram flash. In that procedure it requires me to put the tablet in APX mode and that's when I thought that maybe it is going into APX without pressing the volume - button.
Anyway I was successfully able to flash nvram. Or so it said. I still have the output from the batch file. But now my tablet is totally bricked. It does not boot at all. No pretty birds for me.
I hope there is some way out of it. Please help.
Edit: After re-flashing and using a different file, it seems to have made it a little better. At least I am seeing the birds again. But the original problem of shutting off, or going into the APX mode without pressing Volume button, has returned. All I am getting is the birds for a few seconds and then black screen. I will continue to retry, and if I see it booting up successfully to the stock, this thing is going back to the factory.
1) What image did you use to nvflash?
2) What happened when the flash was finished? Did it boot normally at least once?
3) Does the screen just stay dark all the time now?
1) First time nvflash_gtablet_46_2010112600.zip and after that it did not boot at all. Only black screen. I flashed it couple of times, no avail. Later I flashed nvflash_gtablet_2010110500.zip. This at least recovered it enough that it shows the birds, but soon after the screen turns black. I have confirmed that it is going in APX mode. If I have USB cable connected to my PC, the PC reports discovering the NVIDEA APX device.
2) It hasn't booted normally since I flashed nvram.
3) No I get the birds, but after that it turns dark.
Ok. Using Bekit's 1105 image...
1) Replace part9.img with the recovery.img out of the clockworkmod installation zip.
2) Put the tablet into APX mode.
3) Type in the command to start nvflash but before you hit the enter key hold down the Volume Up key and continue to hold it down until the flash finishes.
4) The tablet should boot into clockworkmod recovery.
5) Repartition 2048 and 0
6) Clear everything (cache, data and dalvik)
7) You might need to re-nvflash at this point.
Thanks for your response. I tried it. Did not work. When you say Replace part9.img with the recovery.img, does it mean copy recovery.img into the NVFlash directory and rename it to part9.img or leave it as recevery.img. I renamed it to part9.img and backed up the original part9.img to part9.img.tmp. The size of recovery.img and the original part9.img are very different. I am confused. Please help.
K J Rad said:
Ok. Using Bekit's 1105 image...
1) Replace part9.img with the recovery.img out of the clockworkmod installation zip.
2) Put the tablet into APX mode.
3) Type in the command to start nvflash but before you hit the enter key hold down the Volume Up key and continue to hold it down until the flash finishes.
4) The tablet should boot into clockworkmod recovery.
5) Repartition 2048 and 0
6) Clear everything (cache, data and dalvik)
7) You might need to re-nvflash at this point.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, that is exactly what I meant.
Are you sure you're holding the volume UP key? Birds and then black screen is APX mode which is normally entered by holding volume DOWN.
Well it goes into APX mode even if I don't press any Volume button at all. That is the problem I am trying to fix. When I press power button (without touching the volume button) the birds come and then black screen. And this is APX mode because if I am connected to the PC it brings up an NVIDIA APX device on the PC.
Now if I press the Volume UP button along with the power button, nothing happens, not even the birds come up.
So the fact that the recovery.img (3.7k) is much smaller than part9.img (16k) is ok? Or I am doing something wrong.
Any ideas?
I was thinking about formatting the gtablet. Please let me know if this is the right move, or there is something else I could try first.
shah123 said:
Well it goes into APX mode even if I don't press any Volume button at all. That is the problem I am trying to fix. When I press power button (without touching the volume button) the birds come and then black screen. And this is APX mode because if I am connected to the PC it brings up an NVIDIA APX device on the PC.
Now if I press the Volume UP button along with the power button, nothing happens, not even the birds come up.
So the fact that the recovery.img (3.7k) is much smaller than part9.img (16k) is ok? Or I am doing something wrong.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A little more than "It did not work" would be helpful.
What step failed? Please tell me what happened after each step.
Did you get into CWM and repartition?
Did you get everything cleared?
What happened when it rebooted?
What was the original filename of the image you tried to flash?
What version of clockworkmod do you have installed?
Have you ever used ROM Manager?
All of this is important and no one can help you if you don't provide enough information.
Oh, I am sorry. Here are the answers to the questions you asked:
What step failed? Please tell me what happened after each step.
Ans: Out of the 7 steps you provided, the steps 1, 2 and 3 worked fine. It is the step 4 that failed (and of course I can't proceed with the steps anymore). In other words I cannot go into clockworkmod recovery.
Did you get into CWM and repartition?
Ans: No I was not able to do so. If I press power and Volume Up key at the same time, nothing happens, screen remains black, not even birds come up.
Did you get everything cleared?
Ans: I believe you are referring to step 6. No, I could not get to that step.
What happened when it rebooted?
Ans: Nothing showed up. Because when Volume Up is pressed while it is powered on, nothing shows up on the screen.
What was the original filename of the image you tried to flash?
Ans: Actually first time nvflash_gtablet_46_2010112600.zip (and this is before you provided the 7-step recipe - see post #6, 7, 8 of this thread) and after that it did not boot at all. Only black screen. I flashed it couple of times, no avail. Maybe that was my mistake. I chose a wrong file. Later I flashed nvflash_gtablet_2010110500.zip. This recovered it enough that it shows the birds now, but soon after the screen turns black (goes into APX mode).
What version of clockworkmod do you have installed?
Ans: v08
Have you ever used ROM Manager?
Ans: No. What is it?
I really appreciate your help.
What happened at the end of step 3?
Did you start holding the volume UP before you pressed the return key for the nvflash? If not... go back and do it again.
Did you continue to hold it until the flash was happening? You must continue to hold it down for at least 5 - 10 seconds after the flash starts.
When the flash was done did it say "Recovery Key detected" on the screen? If it didn't say this that is an indication that you didn't hold the volume UP key long enough.
If all of the above was done correctly and did happen but you didn't get to clockworkmod then what did you get? Did it look like stock recovery?
It sounds to me like you did the nvflash then tried to reboot into recovery.
Its unbelievable. Tonight when I powered it on it started booting up normal instead of going into the APX mode. I was glad. The stock UI came up, but some of my apps like Quadrant, File Expert etc were still there. It also notified me of the Update 3588. So I downloaded it and started installing it. Pretty soon it rebooted itself (sooner than I thought - I don't know if the remaining installation was supposed to happen after the reboot).
But instead of booting up into 3588 it is unfortunately gone back to the same old issue - the birds followed by black screen - aka APX mode. It never booted up after that. No matter how many times I tried to reboot, it goes into APX mode just like before. I don't know what caused it to complete bootup. One thing I noticed was that the battery was totally drained when I started tonight. I don't know if the drained battery somehow took it out of the APX mode. But now it has a little bit of charge because of hooking up to power supply. I have disconnected the power supply and will leave it in APX mode over night and try it again tomorrow when the battery would be totally drained and see if it boots up fully.
To answer your questions though:
What happened at the end of step 3?
The screen went black and after that it stayed black. No CWM.
Did you start holding the volume UP before you pressed the return key for the nvflash? If not... go back and do it again.
Yes, I did.
Did you continue to hold it until the flash was happening? You must continue to hold it down for at least 5 - 10 secondsafter the flash starts.
Yes, I continued to hold it all the way until the flash completed and the screen went black and quite some time after that.
When the flash was done did it say "Recovery Key detected" on the screen?
I don't think it did.
If it didn't say this that is an indication that you didn't hold the volume UP key long enough.
So I guess I need to give it another try. Tomorrow I will try to reboot the tablet again and if it continued to go into APX I will do the nvflash one more time.
If all of the above was done correctly and did happen but you didn't get to clockworkmod then what did you get? Did it look like stock recovery?
A black dark screen. No CWM or stock recovery.
It sounds to me like you did the nvflash then tried to reboot into recovery.
No at the time of nvflash I held the Volume UP button and nothing happened. Since then I have been trying to bootup or put it in CWM Recovery but only thing the tablet wants to do is go into APX mode.
So I guess my theory of "drained battery takes it out of the APX mode" is correct. I tried to reboot the tablet several times but it just kept on going into the APX mode until the battery was completely drained. And then it started booting up normally but it went into some installation (probably the stock 3588 that I had downloaded in the previous successful bootup). And then the green android with the exclamation sign came and the exclamation sign was rotating for a second or two and then stopped. And it looked like it was hung. I waited for a minute or two but nothing happened, so I pressed one of the buttons, I don't know if it was Menu or Back button, and all of a sudden clockworkmod recovery screen came up.
I have attached the picture of the screen. It still shows the green android with the exclamation sign in the middle of the screen, along with the CWM Recovery.
One other thing I noticed and I am not sure if it is normal is that if I choose say Reboot System Now from CWM menu and it shows like 10 entries with many No's and only one Yes. I can only use the volume Up + button to go down, if I try to go up using volume Down - button it does not go up. Is that normal? Is the only way to go is go down using Voume Up button in CWM menus? I have a feeling that my Volume Down button has gone crazy and it is not functioning properly and that is what is causing it to go into APX mode at the startup as well.
Anyway I first attempted "Apply SDCARD:update.zip" hoping that it might continue with the stock 3588 installation, but that failed. You can see the messages in the picture. Then I tried the Factory Reset and it was successful. I then rebooted the tablet. But now again it keeps on going up into APX mode. I will have to wait until tomorrow for it to completely drain battery again and then try to reboot again.
Any ideas? I know it is overwhelming and the behavior is very weird. At this point I am trying to bring it back to the stock firmware so that I can get this tablet replaced under warranty.
There are quite a few things that are not acting normal from what I see here.
Did you try to repartition 2048 and 0? If not, I would start with that then I would format everything and re-nvflash a stock ROM onto it. That might clear things up. If not you could be looking at a hardware reset.
Hi all -
I was attempting to load Cyanogen onto my Gtab. Seemed to be going well. I downgraded from TnT 4349, got clockworkmod on and tried flashing CM. Not exactly sure what happened but I never got CM running.
Now I can't boot into clockworkmod after running nvflash. Tried it dozens of different ways. Here's the cycle of what currently happens:
I power down my Gtab. Put it in APX mode (Power + Vol Down). Hear USB connect on my computer, dont' see the birds logo, just black screen.
Run NVFlash batch file. Gtab screen comes on, "Entering NVFlash recovery mode / Nv3p Server". NVFlash runs successfully according to its read outs.
Gtab reboots, goes through loader screens, and is up and running. TnT works fine.
Power down. Try to get into recovery (Power + Vol Up). Hear USB connect on my computer, nothing happens. Black screen. If I press power again, I hear the USB disconnect sound. If I hold it down for 10+ seconds, I hear the USB disconnect sound, a short pause, then the USB connect sound again.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
I've tried flashing every version of TnT I can find, with/without clockworkmod, nothing works. As soon as I power down my device, it won't turn back on. Just a black screen and the USB connect sound.
I've been searching xda-developers for a solution for days now. Every fix I try that sounds remotely like my problem has not worked. Tried the FORMAT Nvflash as well.
From what I've been reading, it sounds like I am "stuck" in APX mode. Is there any way to definitively get out of APX mode?
Running Windows 7 64 bit, going to try the process from Ubuntu but not very hopeful it's going to make a difference.
Any help would be sincerely appreciated!
Spoke a little too soon...
I must've finally entered the magical combination of search terms, because I finally stumbled across this post:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1038689&page=12
K J Rad's method got me part of the way there... The big secret is:
Hold down the Volume Up before running NVFlash, and keep holding down for a few seconds after it starts.
Once NVFlash finishes, my GTab displayed that a recovery key had been detected! And I got into recovery!!
NVFlash hung up on Step 9 of Part II... and I started to panic... But after another round of repartitioning, clearing data/caches, and a little more fiddling... I am now the proud owner of a GTab running Bottle of Smoke Honeycomb! That reboots and everything HC is bad a$$... A little shaky stability wise but awesome to see what's to come.
Much thanks to this forum and all who spend their time troubleshooting tricky devices like these!
Good Evening,
I have a Padfone 2 wwe running stock firmware and locked boot. Yesterday the phone just stopped charging and wont turn on normally. This is what happens:
When turning the phone on: Shows the empty battery icon and then immediatly reboots. This leads to an infinite loop. I've had it going through this loop for hours, no help.
When put the phone in the dock nothing happens. If I try to turn on the phone while in the dock the white spinning circles, usually shown when docking the phone, is shown for a few seconds then it turns off again.
When unplugged from power source I cant access neither recovery mode(power+vol down) or CSC/fastboot mode (power+vol up).
When plugged in to power source I get into CSC/fastboot mode. If I connect the phone to a computer I get a ASUS Fastboot loader devide. However ADB don't find the device when I use the ADB devices command. (Tried following the Tutorial: Un-Bricking Padfone 2 (and possibly other android devices): http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2256977&page=4 guide)
When plugged in to power source I get to the first menu in recover mode (Recovery/Restart). However if I select Recovery the phone dies and the reboots again.
I've tried unplugging the battery for 30 seconds and then plugging it back in again, no help.
So my question is if you think a new battery will solve it or if I should try something else?
Thank you all!
I've seen a few other similar threads, so apologies if you think I didn't search. But all those other threads appear to be with a rooted phone. This phone was not rooted or modified in any way. It was fully stock from T-mobile.
It belongs to my 12 year old daughter. She is not technically savvy, so I believe her when she tells me she wasn't trying to root it ("What's rooting?" she said). Here's what she said happened:
She was at a friend's house. Used the phone until the battery died, no abnormal behavior by her or the phone before the juice ran out. Went to plug it in, the greyed out battery with a loading indicator came on the screen as soon as she plugged it in, and a few seconds later, the LG boot logo appeared. It showed for approximately 10 seconds, went to black, and then started the LG boot logo again. It's been in that boot loop every since.
We have to pull the battery to turn it off. The battery and SIM card have been pulled for hours at a time. I tried the hardware keys to get to stock recovery (volume down + pwr. Wait for boot logo, release and press power while still holding volume down). Recovery will launch, but as soon as I choose the restore option, it goes back into the boot loop.
Tried the many-times-posted sequence to flash stock recovery. When I hold volume up and insert the USB, the initial screen for download mode shows up, stating to keep holding volume up until you see the download screen. After about 5 seconds or so, it starts the boot loop all over again.
Only thing out of the ordinary was applying a recently pushed update from T-Mobile.
Here's a link to a video showing the loop, the recovery mode, and download mode: https://youtu.be/eRmXqFoz5iY
Even though the phone is under warranty, T-Mobile wants $20+shipping to replace it. I'd like to try to fix it before I pay them for breaking my daughter's phone. Any help is greatly appreciated.