Inherited an Original (Broken?) Nexus 7

miseryguts

Member
Aug 31, 2012
39
0
From a young Nephew that's probably tweaked it one too many times..

There doesn't seem to be any damage to it, but it doesn't ever boot just showing the Google logo & an unlocked padlock.
If I hold the power/volume buttons for a while I'm taken to 'Team Win Recovery Project v2.2.1' I don't really understand much of what is here, but if I go to the reboot menu & choose one of the options it says 'No OS installed! Are you sure you wish to reboot?'

Is there anything that someone who doesn't have a clue (that would be me) can do to fix this or is it only fit for the trash?

Thanks.
 

Traveller

Administrator
Staff member
Jun 16, 2012
2,858
982
The fact you can get into the recovery means this may be fixable. Team Win Recovery Project, or TWRP for short, is a custom recovery partition which can be used to install custom ROMs. It sounds like your nephew wiped the system completely out of it using the wiping functions in the recovery. The good news is, that assuming the system partition can still be written to, you can place a ROM on the tablet relatively easily. All you should need to do is connect the tablet to a PC and download a custom ROM in the form of a .zip file to the Nexus 7 storage. From there, you should be able to go into TWRP, select the option to update from zip, then install the ROM.

Here is an article that should be of help to you: Top six custom ROMs for the Google Nexus 7 | Reviews | CNET UK
 

miseryguts

Member
Aug 31, 2012
39
0
The fact you can get into the recovery means this may be fixable. Team Win Recovery Project, or TWRP for short, is a custom recovery partition which can be used to install custom ROMs. It sounds like your nephew wiped the system completely out of it using the wiping functions in the recovery. The good news is, that assuming the system partition can still be written to, you can place a ROM on the tablet relatively easily. All you should need to do is connect the tablet to a PC and download a custom ROM in the form of a .zip file to the Nexus 7 storage. From there, you should be able to go into TWRP, select the option to update from zip, then install the ROM.

Here is an article that should be of help to you: Top six custom ROMs for the Google Nexus 7 | Reviews | CNET UK


Many thanks.. I've a problem though, my PC isn't detecting the Nexus 7 as a connected device/drive, even though I'm getting the pop up notification/green tick to indicate it's connected.. in Devices & Printers it's under Unspecified as Android.
I've tried different cables & all the Usb ports on my Desktop but unfortunately it hasn't worked.
 
Last edited:

Traveller

Administrator
Staff member
Jun 16, 2012
2,858
982
Load up the recovery and look for an option to mount (access) the storage. Do this while the tablet is connected to the PC. That should allow you to access the storage.
 
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