BLU Advance A4 Rooting and Custom ROMs - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi friends, I've got a phone model for the cheapest I could possibly find that was New. Bought it on a whim for $30 on amazon (at the time) not giving too much thought to what value it had hardware-wise as I wasn't planning on using it as a daily driver, instead wanted to just see what the possibilities of it were as a little practice for android rooting and installing custom roms as I'm really not too experienced in the android field, but I wanted to learn.
Apparently I chose the wrong phone to learn on, since this thing has next to ZERO content on these forums or anywhere else on the internet in any capacity as far as reviews, custom development, forum threads, even customer questions.
The main drawback being that trying to look up anything for this phone will give you results for a different BLU model, the BLU Advance 4.0, since they have such similar names. Since I have this BLU Advance A4 here now, I have scoured the internet trying to find anything specifically for this model phone and found nothing, which is frankly surprising given that this was at one point the cheapest and still is one of the cheapest new android phones on amazon so you would think that people would use something like this to learn on without much care for bricking it.
So I'm here to make a thread for this model and for anybody else who has this model who is wondering the same as me. What, if anything, can I do with something like this? Why is there not more discussion about this model? I know there have to be enthusiasts trying to to a lot with little hardware, and a phone like this would be a prime example of a phone begging to have a lightweight rom thrown on it for learning and kicks. I will continue to try and do what I can with it while I wait for responses to this thread, please anybody who has any feedback besides "buy a different phone", give me something. I already to have a phone but I'd like to learn android hacking/customization on a different android phone before risking turning my main driver into a brick and I believe playing around with a cheap throwaway phone to see what it can do will be fun.
BLU Advance A4 (ADVA4)
Android 6.0
Chipset: Mediatek MT6570
CPU: Dual-core 1.3 GHz Cortex-A7
GPU: Mali-400 MP1
RAM: 512MB
Storage: 8GB+64GB mSD
GSM: 850/900/1800/1900

Griphen116 said:
...I've got a phone model for the cheapest I could possibly find that was New...for $30 on amazon (at the time)...wanted to just see what the possibilities of it were as a little practice for android rooting and installing custom roms...wanted to learn...playing around with a cheap throwaway phone to see what it can do will be fun...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Excellent plan! Luckily, I found your post before I bought 1 of these phones - so I thank you for this!
Worth noting, I came here hoping to buy this cheap phone as a dedicated music player (running, house audio driver, etc) but am also disappointed (but not really surprised) that there doesn't seem to be any prior effort at rooting or working on custom ROMs.
Edit: Have you tried this, or looking for google hits on hardreset.info, androidmtk.com, and cyanogenmod-roms.apk.cafe (I can't post directly links yet, sorry)? While not much, I did find a few other sites too listing firmware, if you already have the phone it's worth tinkering with it and see if you can get anyway. Good luck, and do report back if you do try!

ando en busqueda es la rom para este smartphone, podrias subirla??

Related

[Q] CyanogenMod for Cube U9GT-2

Hi xda-Members,
I have a simple question:
Is the Cube U9GT-2 compatible with CyanogenMod?
I've got Gingerbread on my tablet, but I'm not really satisfied with this OS, maybe because it's developed for smartphones and not tablets.
Greets Meldamos
Hi.
Unfortunately I cannot help with your question. All I know is that some people are experimentinig with ICS (Android 4.0) on the U9GT-2, and there is a beta firmware for it if you would like to give it a try.
I am also thinking of buying one of these tablets. I found it for 230 Euros (=290 USD, =190 GBP). I was just about to press the "Add to cart" button when I saw your post.
What do you thing about this tablet? Do you have it long? Are you happy?
Also can you please PM me with the information of where you bought it from and if you were happy with the transaction (if it was an online buy)?
Thanks
Little review of U9GT-2
Well I have this tablet for 2-3 Weeks now and I don't regret it. I bought this tablet over an online-shop called cect-shop, because the support is in german and it has a warranty of 1 year. And there it costs 200€ with 25€ express shipment (there in 3 days from china to germany ^^) and 25€ toll. All in all I paid around 250€, much cheaper than here in germany where it starts at 350€ up to 700€ and not almost on a level of the capacity this tablet has. By the way if you ask cect-shop, they'll send you a stylus pen with your tablet for free.
The tablet uses Android 2.3 with Honeycomb style, not bad but could be better. The OS seems not to be build for battery saving, because the power runs of after 2-3 days in standby.
I asked the manufacturer about ICS and got the answer that they're working on it, but still need time to finish the compatibility with U9GT-2. They'll publish it on their homepage I think.
On the look it get often mistaken with an Apple iPad but it's not exactly like one. The capacitive display works fine, it discerns up to 10 fingers but you are not using 10 finger actually ^^
The sound is pretty good I think, even if I don't really know how the standard quality of tablets are. The big trouble is like I said the OS. But it's a thing you can change and does not affect the quality of this tablet.
If anyone has precise questions feel free to ask. I'm not good at writing a review.
Thanks for the valuable info.
Few questions more if you are kind enough:
1. Can you confirm the manufacturer's site? I have found one web address in China and never managed to connect
2. Can you confirm the thickness of it? Is it realy less than 10mm? Does it actually feel like an i-pad when you are carrying it around?
3. The material on the back side is it realy aluminium?
4. I have noticed that on different sites they give slightly different specs from cect.Ie pandawill gives a CPU of 1Ghz, thickness of 7mm and battery capacity 8000mAh, though cect gives 1.2Ghz, 9.7mm and 7600MAh. This is a problem with the Chinese sites / products / clones I guess... Nevertheless, since you are in Germany, you must have heard or seen an Easypix Easypad, have you? I am between the cube and the Easypad 970 (at easypix.eu). They look very similar. Do you have any personal feedback on that ?
5. Finally, does the screen look and feel like being IPS or not?
Sorry if I bother you too much, but it's the first time I buy a gadget withut actually testing or seeing one, so I am a bit concerned. Thanks
christis said:
Thanks for the valuable info.
Few questions more if you are kind enough:
1. Can you confirm the manufacturer's site? I have found one web address in China and never managed to connect
2. Can you confirm the thickness of it? Is it realy less than 10mm? Does it actually feel like an i-pad when you are carrying it around?
3. The material on the back side is it realy aluminium?
4. I have noticed that on different sites they give slightly different specs from cect.Ie pandawill gives a CPU of 1Ghz, thickness of 7mm and battery capacity 8000mAh, though cect gives 1.2Ghz, 9.7mm and 7600MAh. This is a problem with the Chinese sites / products / clones I guess... Nevertheless, since you are in Germany, you must have heard or seen an Easypix Easypad, have you? I am between the cube and the Easypad 970 (at easypix.eu). They look very similar. Do you have any personal feedback on that ?
5. Finally, does the screen look and feel like being IPS or not?
Sorry if I bother you too much, but it's the first time I buy a gadget withut actually testing or seeing one, so I am a bit concerned. Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay let's start:
1. Yes the manufacturer is available. There are also 2 supporter for questions available via skype. They're on workdays online so you can ask them directly. But there english seems not to be very good so better you keep your questions simple
2. I measured it now, I don't warrant than my results are exactly but they're 243mm x 190mm x 10,5mm (length x width x height). I have never had an iPad (too expensive for a tablet) but it feel very comfortable if I carry it around and it's not very heavy. I don't have a balance here but I think it's around 500-700 gram. Well it doesn't feel heavy for me that's all I can say actually.
3. YES it is aluminium and what a luck it is, because on the 3. day it got pushed against a aluminium pole and has only a really small dent left. A plastic hull would have cracked I think.
4. Don't look at the GHZ, many sellers push or fake them, maybe caused by stupidness or advertising. The U9GT-2 has a Rockchip 2918 CPU. Look for the specs on google. The battery is an advertising medium. I doesn't has 8000 mhA or even 7600 mhA. I has 2 x 4000 mhA batteries but they just sum them what they shouldn't do. Like I said the OS is not optimized for tablets and it really takes too much power in stand by. When playing you don't recognize the power loss. I played 3 hours a game called "deadly dungeon" (a dungeon crawler) and the battery has got from 63% to 49%. Well I've not saw the easypad, but they're exactly the same. They've got the same capacities and even the same OS. Throw a dice from 1-3 easypad and from 4-6 U9GT-2, that would be my solution ^^... Well I don't know if easypix is working on a ICS for easypad, just know that cube is working on it.
5. Well I don't know what you understand of a "feeling" for IPS. It looks like a monitor how you see it everywhere today. Don't know if you still have a cathode ray tube (I have one), but there is a difference. Of course, the games are sucking because they're not build for 9,7" displays . Some games are smoother with the resizing, others are bad. But the quality of the display is very good. Of course, not standard on notebooks over 15,6" (which I prefer) but for 9,7" it's high resolution.
Hope my answer could help you and other people who struggle on buying a china-tablet
PS: I've got many friends who look suspect at the tablet, like it could break every second, and I'm just smiling and laughing about their prejudices.
Fantastic answers.
Thank you very much for your effort.
I will follow your advice with the dice after the holidays
Happy Christmas
christis said:
Fantastic answers.
Thank you very much for your effort.
I will follow your advice with the dice after the holidays
Happy Christmas
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
STOP!!! xD... Hope you did not buy it.
Forgot to mention that the EasyPad 970 can only use 8GB Flash HDD. U9GT-2 use 16GB! You get the double storage for the same price.
Sorry for my late answer, did not recognize the difference in the first place.
Sh*t. I bought one a few days ago
I generally know what NAND flash is, but not sure about its' importance. Mine still says 5.9 Gb free, after fully loaded with apps (I know they've got nothing to do with the NAND, but I can't seem to find a way how to run out of space in NAND). In any case, it is better to have double the capacity with the same cost, no matter what.
By the way, that NAND is some soldered microchip, or it can be a micro SD card on the motherboard so that it can "easily" be upgraded in the future if the need arises?
Nevertheless, I am happy with the tablet. Already rooted and experimenting. A couple of snags though, but I will find my way around them hopefully.
By the way, is there a way to hard - reset the tablet by hardware (since there is not a pin-hole or something)? Any combination of buttons pressed during power on?
The internal flash memory is installed in form of chips. Two in the Cube, as can be seen at tabletrepublic.com/forum/android-tablet-reviews/disassembling-cube-u9gt2-414.html, presumably one in the easypad. Apparently the 8GB of the easypad are partitioned in 0,5GB for apps and the rest for data while the 16GB in the Cube are partioned in 1GB for apps and the rest for data. I have read that by installing the cube firmware on the easypad 970, one can get 1 GB for apps, too. Personally, I think 8GB internally is plenty because media files (movies etc.) usually are stored on external SDHC cards anyway for fast swapping.
My 2 cents...
I recently bought one while I was in Beijing on holiday and was really amazed with the battery life with Android 2.3, considering I was streaming movies non-stop for 14 hours straight (in comparison with and iPad 2). The multi-touch keyboard sometimes has a lag although most the UI seems to be relatively smooth.
The camera located at the back also took decent pictures during day and night.
Overall this is a neat unit under $350.00 AUD considering most other units requiring a stylus or long fingernails to operate. I will be looking at rooting the device in a few weeks after I do a bit more research.
Let me know if you have modded your unit and your thoughts.
Thanks
Cube U9GT2 USB host controller issues
Hello everyone,
I'm hoping to solve a problem here, I just purchased a Cube U9GT2 Tablet 9.7
running: Android ICS 4.0.3 with a Kernel Version:3.0.8+.
With a build number: rk29sdk-eng4.03 IML74K eng-yangyun.20120108.124417 test-keys.
It came with an OTG/USB Cable and has both a USB and a USB/OTG port.
Let me just state this, I have tested all cables, ports and jump drives and have reformatted them to fat32, they were Fat32 also.
The problem I'm having is ICS can't see any jump drives I hook up to it. I installed a program from the Market called, USB Host Ctrlr. It ran a info check after install, and here is what it said:USB Host Controller Version Number:0.42 S3C USB Host Driver NOT Found! Root Hub Present. USB Host Mode is active.
I'm no developer or even a decent novas, but with decent instructions I can execute. Any ideas how to fix this, The price was Killer, when one is buying from a Chinese Company, the support is pretty limiting when you only speak English.
That's why the great price, I'm not complaining, I just want to get this resolved if possible.
In regards to the Tablet, I really like it a lot! pretty fast, smooth interface, easy to navigate, decent keyboard, (but I'm use to a smartphone).
It plays movies very nice, screen is plenty bright, It can use a Micro-sd card up to 32 gigs. Have not had any crashes yet, had it about 2 weeks. They have raised the prices about $13.00 I had to try one at that price, plus shipping was Free! I ordered it late on a Sunday night in USA, got it in 3 days DHL shipping, Hard to beat. Anyhow if anyone can help here, it sure be very appreciated. I would even be willing to pay something if reasonable.
If anyone is interested i can provide brand new AUTHENTIC CUBE U9GT2 at the price of euro 240.00.
The price include express shipping to all around the world (4-5 business days).
I am sending from European country so residents of EU will not pay additional taxes or VAT !!!
Let me know.
pashiamas said:
If anyone is interested i can provide brand new AUTHENTIC CUBE U9GT2 at the price of euro 240.00.
The price include express shipping to all around the world (4-5 business days).
I am sending from European country so residents of EU will not pay additional taxes or VAT !!!
Let me know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pls check your PM

I think I was taken :(

I bought a Nextway Fast 9 X from spemall.com as shown here:
http://www.spemall.com/Nextway-F9X-...PS-Screen-2G-Ram-1-5GHz-4K-Video-Black_g.html
After fully charging the tablet I started using it and it froze. I then restarted it and its froze a total of 5 times. Its had errors with the launcher, when opening the apps tab all the images would look like the background but pixelated.
Here is a link to the pictures i took: http://s1232.beta.photobucket.com/user/xstingstreetx/library/Defective
Next, I was able to disable some things for the tablet to run properly without crashing. However, this thing score terrible on benchmarks and is VERY slow moving. The processor is actually 1.08Ghz not 1.5.
I was able to root it thanks to Bin4ry see here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1886460
Video by Bin4ry see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7EpkrCq1gfM
I was able to overclock on the stock kernel and such to 1.152 stable.
I was hoping someone could help to develop ROMs, Kernels, etc to make this thing work better.
Any and all ideas or feedback is appreciated.
Things that I didnt notice when I bought it is: I dont believe there is bluetooth or GPS
Also the GPS and blutooth either does not exist or possibly the software in the tablet just doesn't work with it.
xstingstreetx said:
Also the GPS and blutooth either does not exist or possibly the software in the tablet just doesn't work with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so you bought a non-brand cheap chinese tablet and now you want someone to develop a ROM for it ?
edit: wait. that is not that cheap. why on earth would you buy a non-brand tablet with a budget at 200$?
krankdroid said:
so you bought a non-brand cheap chinese tablet and now you want someone to develop a ROM for it ?
edit: wait. that is not that cheap. why on earth would you buy a non-brand tablet with a budget at 200$?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well no other tablet has competitive specs that I found. However I didnt know this tablet wasn't a 1.5 Ghz quad core as listed on the sellers site.
xstingstreetx said:
Well no other tablet has competitive specs that I found. However I didnt know this tablet wasn't a 1.5 Ghz quad core as listed on the sellers site.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if something sounds to good to be true. it probaly is..
sad to say the chances of someone making a ROM for non-brand products is pretty slim, since most ROM are created on the basis that a device is widely bought and used. Of non-brand phone and tablets there are such a variety that developing for them makes no sense.
Get your money back if you can, and get a branded device. For 200$ you can get a Nexus 7.
if you want the same size and format of the one you got, look around for what samsung, acer, asus, hell even what Point Of View have to offer..
Sorry, but you won't like it -
The main disadvantage of buying a no-brand device is although it may work better the known brands, in case of a fault (software or hardware), you're on your own.... Not many users have flashed/fixed/used this device. So if you brick it, get a bootloop or find a bug, not many can help you.
Not speaking about the variety of ROMs...
I've been there.... I've bought a no-brand phone and after a year it's main PCB failed. I couldn't find a replacement part and had to throw the device away.
Anyway.....
Use the device, enjoy and don't brick it
Sent from my digital submersible hovercraft.
xstingstreetx said:
Well no other tablet has competitive specs that I found. However I didnt know this tablet wasn't a 1.5 Ghz quad core as listed on the sellers site.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the moderators will give me permission, I can give you a link to where there are 4 custom ROMs for this tablet. I have installed the BETA4 and it better utilizes the Retina Display (unless you have bad eyes, and there is one geared for that one as the defective one you are using does). I honestly don't know if your problem can be helped with software, but it might... I can also give you a link to the newest stock ROM and a Windows app to install it. I would rather get permission first to post 2 direct links... one is to Arctablet (and you can do a Google or DuckDuckGo search and find it by the way) and the other one is to a tablet distributor who was good enough to create download links and instructions on how to use the hokey Chinese installer. The question is though, is your problem hardware or a botched ROM?
It does not have Bluetooth or GPS. My Archos outdoes it in that way, but it is a true quad-core retina display and mine works very nicely... nicer now that I have the better use of the resolution available. Its wildly vivid. I honestly can find no real issues other than a few I had from not wiping the thing before I flashed it (oddly it suggested I not do so... which caused me grief w/Google Play eventually). It comes rooted, and if you have one of those that are like partly-rooted or whatever some call it, do a factory reset and it will come back fully rooted. The ROMs of course are all rooted. I have a cheap 10.2", which honestly if I had not had something else would have given me ulcers, but hey... I only paid $14 for it from Quibids (including bid prices), so I can't complain. This one cost me around $150 with a few extras, so a little grief I can handle. But so far... those are interesting words... so far, it is actually very impressive. My daughter has a boyfriend who is an Apple fanatic, and he's kind of fixated on it from certain similarities to what he is coveting these days.
I have it going at 1.2ghz (quad-core), although I have gotten it up to just under the 1.5ghz it claims (1440). It will do it, but I wouldn't bet on its stability. It comes at 1.0 preset from manufacturer, but is easily changed with the cpu app of your choice. I use Setcpu... works for me. It has 2gb ram... can't complain.
I read some arguments on the cameras, but I don't see it... I took some pics tonight of my daughter on her way to a costume party... they are the best thing I have this side of my Kodak. I'm sure it takes better video than the Kodak though. Anyway... its responsive, sharp, and does what I want. You have to buy a Bluetooth dongle for next to nothing to have Bluetooth though for some bizarre reason it shows its there. The one page that I mentioned gives advice along with pics on how to do some interesting mods to it. It is capable of more than they shipped it with. I am sorry that you are having troubles with yours... I don't know if you still have yours or not. I've only had this a few weeks. If you are interested, let me know... and if the moderators allow it, I will post links.
I hate that you have had such grief with yours. If I can help, I am willing.

[Q] Rooting Galaxy Note II clone

Hey everyone,
I came into possession of this chinese Android smartphone built to mimic the Samsung Galaxy Note II (it looks like a pretty decent rendition actually) and I wanted to see what could be done with it.
The device claims to be running Android 4.1.1 but it's a blatant lie as evidenced by the total lack of the Holo Theme and other telltale signs, unfortunately every single app both on device and on the desktop seems to be fooled by this, the closest I got to it spilling the beans was a "API Level 10" which would place it around Android 2.3 if I'm not mistaken. In fact, the diagnostics screen claims this to be MocorDroid2.3.5.
The phone itself calls itself GT-T7100, and ADB names it mt_gt_t7100, under Software Version I see MT6577-TC611-EN-2PIN-V04, I assume MT6577 refers to that one motherboard that seems to be found in many of these devices, and plugging it on the computer reveals its USB device name to be "Spreadtrum Phone", the vendor id is 0x1782
Using all these clues I was able to identify him as this little guy here
www (dot) szrming (dot) com (slash) en (slash) Products (slash) T7100 (dot) html (can't post links)
Which seems to be a variant of the much more popular N/H7100 where the jokers were like "Let's reduce the onboard RAM to 256MB" so yeah, pretty painful. It takes like two apps to slow this thing down to a crawl.
I wanted to maybe upgraded it to a newer version of Android or at least root it so I can get rid of some stock apps that are always running and eating away the limited RAM, so I tried looking around but none of the "one-click" rooting methods seem to work, not even those designed to work for that version of Android.
I have found that one guide that claims to work for all phones using the SC6820 processor but I kinda stopped there because I need to flash it and I'm not sure I can correctly identify the ROM since I'm not even 100% sure it's the T7100 I found there.
I'm posting this in the hopes that somebody has the same model or knows enough about ROMs to tell me if there's some kind of "generic" one that could work with this particular phone considering the chipset it's using
Thanks in advance

[Q] What tab do I buy? Need a quad core that has the BEST customisation? PLEASE help

Hi guys
Ive bricked my crappy little it9011 by modifying build.prop, pushed the old one back and still bricked! RUBBISH DEVICE!! Anyway, I cant be bothered with it now so im looking for a new tab. Im needing (and I say needing as I have the worst tab in the house (my 5 & 7 year olds have better and my 73 yo mum has the best!) and im the most techy!! ) something better for as little cash as possible
Im thinking rockchip 3188 (better than an A31?). Thing is, some of my familys tabs use rk3066 and there are a HELL of a lot of apps that dont work on them NOT good for someone like me who runs a lot of apps.
I know the 3188 beats the a31 on paper, but, in the real world, if apps dont work on it then its very limited. Ive seen the posts about them rolling out 4.3 to the 3066 and 3188 but is that ALL devices?? I doubt it very much. So, what do I go for?
I was thinking a samsung? I have an S4 and an i3 laptop so seems like a samsung tab would be a follow on. They are expensive though, but, custom roms a plenty
Ive seen some spurious 3188 tabs on ebay but the spec means nowt without some real-world experience (compatible apps, rooting, cwm, etc)
Lets say I have a budget of £175 (id prefer £150 but to include Samsung stuff it needs to be a little higher), What would you guys say I should get?
I play games, use social media and also develop software. So im into all levels of android. What do you guys think is a good all-rounder for that money? My mums rk3066 10" cost £60 and has an Antutu benchmark of just over 10k so Im looking for over 20k+ for this money. Also, no 4.1 rubbish (As if any rk3066 running android 4.1 will EVER get an upgrade to 4.3, lol).
Freelanders look good as does a samsung tab, but, how much better are they than a cheaper chinese one for the money? I want cheap but dont want a crappy yaffs2 file system like the infotmic crap! Standard system with cwm/twrp option and custom rom option only
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated
Chris

Possible to port an ARM Android rom to the Intel Atom version for the same device?

Hello all,
I just bought a Transformer Pad TF0310C (after a bunch of research it looks like it is the Best Buy exclusive version of the TF103C which unfortunately has an Intel Atom quad core, 1gb ram, 16gb storage), I am guessing there probably are no roms, or really anything at all for this device (spent an hour or so yesterday trying to find any and all I really found were posts of people trying to figure out what this device equivalent was to try and see if the roms will work for it)? I wish I had researched a bit more before I bought it, but too little too late (it was only $85~ so no huge deal). Assuming there are no roms for it, is it possible to adapt a current rom over to this architecture? It comes with KitKat on it already, so there is at least one stock rom that is out for this device, but is it possible to somehow take a rom from the sister device that has an ARM architecture, and port it over to be used on the Intel based tablet?
I am familiar with linux, several programming languages (not an expert in any, but definitely know enough of each to get any job done that I have needed thus far), manipulating devices to suit my needs, etc, so I feel that if I had enough documentation and resources available I could get something going, as long as someone with more experience tells me that it is indeed at least possible. There are probably going to be quite a few more people who are going to be looking for them as well as this device is currently a "best seller" on woot.com as a refurb, so I am hoping to try and help not only myself, but possibly the community as a whole by trying to provide at least a rom for the device, if nothing else, it will be a great learning experience for me.
Thanks all!

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