Is my tablet bricked?

[ebne0018]

Hi everyone. I bought a Cboy 9740 and I wanted to root it for Gapps. I followed the instuctions in the forum and I used adb to install cwm recovery and then install gapps. For some reason gapps only partially installed so I did what others had done and restored a backup I took with cwm and then tried gapps again after moving my adb backup and the cwm backup off the internal storage. Again, gapps only partially installed. So I tried to restore again, but this time the cwm backup was on the micro sd card I installed in the device. The restore failed at restoring system. To make matters worse I accidentally reset the tablet by pushing the power button instead of the back button. The tablet started and displayed the COBY logo and then went blank and then displayed the coby logo again. Through some magical combinations of buttons I managed to get back into cwm again and this time I did and update from zip of Coby_9740_root_gapps.zip. The install looked good, but again on restart the coby logo displays, tablet goes blank and then the coby logo again.

so, is this thing dead?

If not, does someone know a good reliable way of booting these into recorvery. While doing the adb and cwm install I went through system settings, backup/restore to force the tablet into recovery. Only once have I managed to get the tablet into recovery through button presses and I have tried almost every combination of buttons I can think of.

My adb backup looks good. all the file open with winrar. Is their a way to get them back onto the table?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Traveller]

Since being plugged in to AC makes accessing recovery somewhat difficult, on battery power press and hold volume -, then press and hold power. That should be all you need to get into CWM.

 

[ebne0018]

Since being plugged in to AC makes accessing recovery somewhat difficult, on battery power press and hold volume -, then press and hold power. That should be all you need to get into CWM.

Thanks for the reply. I can't tell you how many times I have tried that combo. Nothing seems to get me into cwm. Could have installing Coby_9740_root_gapps.zip messed with cwm?

 

[Traveller]

No, since the Google apps packages only add files to /system/apps and /system/framework. That key combination is the one I use and it works every time. If none of the various key combinations out there will do the job, unless you get lucky by doing something non-standard such as letting the battery completely die before trying to get into CWM, you may have no choice but to get the tablet exchanged.

 

[ebne0018]

Thanks everyone. I sent the tablet back and I should be getting a new one tomorrow. I would like to try and get gapps working again, but I have a couple of questions:

1. When I do the initial backup and then the cwm backup should I have a microSD card installed in the tablet?
2. It seems other users are have problems getting gapps onto the 9740 where the install only partially completes. Should I use the Coby_9740_root_gapps.zip instead of trying to install just gapps? Should I do the gapps method but delete the optional folder from the zip?

Thanks

 

[Traveller]

1. Yes
2. When I installed the Google apps on my 9742 all I used was the Google apps package from Goo.im Downloads - Browsing gapps and didn't have to do anything truly special except be patient. I also didn't remove anything from the package.

However you go about it, make sure you have a system dump of this new tablet made after rooting but before attempting to install ClockworkMod, in case you need to go back for whatever reason. Once you have ClockworkMod installed, make a nandroid backup of the ROM without the apps on it, then make a second nandroid backup of the ROM with the apps on it. This way you have a means of getting back to the beginning should you have issues.

 

[ebne0018]

Traveller1701-

Thanks for the help. So I got the new tablet today and I used adb to root it and everything went fine. I am leary to install gapps though because I don't think the /system folder has enough space. It is only showing 8m free. This is similar to other problems people have run into with this tablet. I have not installed anything on this tablet and all I have done is enable usb debugging mode. I haven't even connected it to WIFI yet!

So, do I need to delete some apps first? I uninstalled adobe flash but that didn't help.


1|shell@android:/ # df
df
Filesystem Size Used Free Blksize
/dev 407M 44K 407M 4096
/mnt/asec 407M 0K 407M 4096
/mnt/obb 407M 0K 407M 4096
/system 251M 243M 8M 4096
/data 1G 89M 1G 4096
/cache 503M 8M 495M 4096
/mnt/private 15M 4K 15M 4096
/mnt/extsd 483M 177M 305M 8192
/mnt/sdcard 4G 22M 4G 4096
/mnt/secure/asec 4G 22M 4G 4096
shell@android:/ #

 

[Traveller]

Uninstalling Adobe Flash wouldn't help because that's in, I think, /data/app and not /system/app. You need to delete files from /system/app to free up room. For example, on my 9742 I removed the following files from /system/app:

Calculator.apk
Calculator.odex
Calendar.apk
Calendar.odex
Email.apk
Email.odex
Exchange.apk
Exchange.odex
LiveWallpapers.apk
LiveWallpapers.odex
LiveWallpapersPicker.apk
LiveWallpapersPicker.odex
OneTimeInitializer.apk
Provision.odex (redundant with Google apps installed)
QuickSearchBox.odex (redundant with Google apps installed)

If any of these are in system, you might want to remove them as there are updated versions on the Play Store:

Aldiko
eMusic
ES File Explorer
ES Task Manager
GetJar/SlideMe
YouTube Video Player (Unnecessary with the YouTube app installed)

Apparently you have more system apps than I do, which is why you are having issues installing the Play Store.

 

[ebne0018]

So I deleted a bunch of apps and ended up with about 50MB of space on /system. Removed facelock from the the gapps install and then installed the zip file. Everything went fine and I even created an error report and I didn't see anything that looked like a failure, except for the facelock install.
I have run into two problems though:

1. After restart, the play store was availalble as was the ability to add a google account. However, most google apps were not showing up in the play store. Nor were the games I wanted to add for my kids. I assume this is because of my build.prop. I tried modifying the build.prop and put the model as a Nexus S and the manufacture as samsung, wiped the cache and then tried again, but still no dice. Now the play store thinks I have a Coby Nexus S. Do I need to make more changes to the build.prop?

2. Some gapps are still not working. Youtube says I need googleplayservices and then takes me to the store to install it but then it says it isn't for my device (I assume this is related tot he build.prop problem). When I check the /system/app folder it is listed and when I check the running apps it shows up too. Do I need to do something else to get playservices running properly?

Thanks!

 

[Traveller]

Download my Play Store tweaks and install them through ClockworkMod. However, as with anything else, make a nandroid backup in ClockworkMod before you do this. I included a replacement build.prop from the Mobiz ROM for the 9742 in the zip file that tells the Play Store that you're running a Samsung Galaxy Tab. Given your tablet is the same size all the tweaks should work to improve Play Store compatibility.

 

[syous]

Sir, I also did a gapps update via cwm but I didn't see any Google Play Store on Coby 8042. When I try to install a Google Playstore APK, it closes after registering a Google Account. My mistake was I made a back up after the GAPPS update. Any solution to fix the problem? Thanks in advance.

**If Im going to do your advice in the previous post, ho wcan I delete APK files in system/app?

 

[Traveller]

Use ES File Explorer to remove APKs.

 

[syous]

Use ES File Explorer to remove APKs.

Thank you Sir Traveller for the fast reply. I already installed the Google Play on my tablet but the Google Calendar sync doesn't seems to work even it is auto sync on my settings.. The store indicates that I need to download the latest Google Service but it doesn't recognize the device. Again, thank you for your time and effort on this one.

 

[Traveller]

This isn't compatible? Could be a build.prop issue since I don't have this problem and use a modified build.prop file. Installing a custom ROM for your 8042 should solve this.

 

[syous]

Sir Traveller1701, i tried to install custom ROMS via CWM recover(e.g. Aurora ICS 4.0.3 Mobiz V.2 Modified to Work on Coby 7042 and 8042 and 8042 4.0.4 by Vampirefo) but after the flashing, the touch screen became unusable. Any advise? Thanks again.