Brand new owner of 8650 in trouble

[Jani]

Hello to all! I got Wondermedia 8650 yesterday and I quite like it, but immediately ran into a problem.

I ordered the WM8650 through eBay with a very affordable price. (The postage costs from Asia to Finland were actually much more than the actual cost of the item.) After a couple of weeks waiting, I picked it up from the local post office yesterday. I was happy! It's got Android 2.2 installed and everything seemed to be running ok, but then of course I had to meddle around with it and try stuff. I installed App Planet and tried to update Flash from 10.1 to 10.3, but it didn't succeed. So Flash ceased functioning. I browsed for info and found out this thing called "rooting". I tried Androot with no success, but z4root seemed to do the trick. I managed to remove the Flash and install the 10.1 back. So it's fine, but now some apps just shut down without warning. F.ex. The Browser, Skyfire, App Planet and some other too. I don't know if this got something to do with rooting or not, but it's annoying. I unrooted it and even removed the z4root altogether with no results to crashing. I have also uninstalled every app I installed and even the files that I had moved to the local disk.

Would the factory reset be the thing to help me out, or what should I try next?

Or maybe try another OS?

I am not completely sure which steps I got through in order to get in this state and if the rooting and/or the Flash problem are the important ones. One thing led to another and you know how it goes... Anyway, I'd like to know what is causing the unexpected app shutdowns and what can be done about it.

Thanks for help in advance!

 

[Jani]

Some updates to situation: it seems it was the Flash that was causing troubles. I uninstalled it completely and now there are no crashes. I also found out that the tablet was rooted already when purchased. After unrooting it, the menu was missing the unroot-option, which was already present when I first time launched z4root. Also it said something about su-directory... Did not then really understand it's meaning.

I should probably to try and install the Flash 10.1 again from a file. I tried it already at some point with no success.

Now the product in question is working almost alright, except many apps in App Planet don't want to install. After choosing something from the apps list, it stays in the loading screen forever and nothing happens. I thought it might need the rooting (again) and I did it (again), but it didn't help. Any idea why some apps don't want to install? Or more precisely, don't want to show the install screen at all?
I installed the Superuser app but I don't know if it's any good. How can I be sure that there are no user access blocks present?

And then some other questions:

Is there a way to set up Browser so that YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. does not redirect automatically to m.youtube.com?

It seems my tablet does not vibrate at all, even though I have set it to vibrate always. Can it be fixed?

Which App Market Apps do people use, besides App Planet and the official Android one? (Which I have no access to.)

After reading many posts about failed firmware updates, I decided not to do that. For the moment anyway. Firmware update and OS change are different things, right? Firmware goes to flash rom and OS goes to drive?

Oh, one other thing: reading pdf's with Adobe Reader is horribly slow. It draws documents much slower than I read. I guess I just have to settle to that?

Here's some info which may or may not help finding answers:
Kernel: 2.6.32.9-default
Build: generic-eng 2.2 Froyo v1.2.3-20110409.211203

 

[TheRealGibra]

Jani -

I also just received my WM8650. I don't know much (if anything) about rooting. I've looked into it for my Samsung Moment phone, and for my new tablet, but it's all greek to me.

As for Android Apps I use the Amazon AppStore. I haven't tried App Planet, but I will look at it. The pre-installed app market doesn't seem to have any of the apps that I want or need.

Good luck!

I just found this post: http://www.androidtablets.net/forum...ps-do-you-use-general-your-wm8650-tablet.html

 

[Jani]

Hi TheRealGibra. First reply to my post, wohoo! I am not alone!

I think I am getting a hang of this tablet, a bit by bit... I guess I can sort out most of the stuff by myself, but I want to share my experiences so that somebody might get some help if needed. Currently I'm trying to find a way to connect the thing to my PC. I do not have a female-female -USB cable, so I am running a virtual hotspot in Windows and managed to connect Android into it. Next step is to access Android using PC, as soon as the Android SDK have done installing all the required stuff and I have found out how it works.

A word for advice to you: if the flash animations are working, do not try to update it.

 

[jamiesk]

I got a tablet this week too. 7inch,blue light,green headphone.

The SDK plugs into my phone, PC=host, phone=device ( like a USB stick ) but the ports on the tablet are also PC, so I dont think this is possible.

I have flashed mine - and eventually got a good ROM

Firmware=OS and flash memory=NAND

So you put the firmare/OS onto the flash/NAND.

To upgrade the Android OS you need a 2G SD card, download the new ROM/firmware/OS, then expand/untar/unzip it onto the SD card on a PC/laptop. Switch the tablet on and it starts to upgrade the OS. If you see "upgrading to OS 2.2 .... " for more than a minute, then its the wrong ROM. It should take about 3 minutes to upgrade and there will be a display within 20 seconds which tells you its doing the upgrade.

I would not recommend doing this ATM if you are going Ok with the tablet. I have had an Android phone for nearly a year, and use the SDK a little bit, so I know a bit about the OS.

Good luck !!!

 

[Jani]

Thanks, jamiesk! So the OS goes to the ROM, right. That's the info I was not sure about. Maybe it's better not to mention firmware and OS in the sentence for not to be too confusing. Also Flash (swf) and flash (rom).

Mine got blue led too, cool!

I sort of gave up on the SDK stuff for the night now. But yeah, I suppose I have install some kind of client to the tablet too... Got to find out about it tomorrow. (It's night here now.)

I'm pretty sure I will not be updating the OS soon, it is working pretty alright, except for the slowness. But I guess I have to tell myself once more that this thing has the power of a PC of maybe 1999 and have to treat it like one.

What's the deal with SD mentioned all the time in the menus? Is it the miniSD slot on the side? It must be quite common accessory, as there are apps (f.ex. ZombieBooth) that refuse to run without it.

 

[Jani]

Hmm, my tablet has a physical problem: the power plug does not function anymore, because the pin the middle of it has gone deep inside the MID. Got to find out how to open the sucker. As there are no screws anywhere, have to just use some muscle power... scary. I took a few photos of the machine: https://picasaweb.google.com/kivisola/MyNoNameAndroidTablet

If anybody got clues how the physical opening of the machine could be done the best way, please give a hint!

 

[Jani]

Status update: it seems it was not just the pin that was off, but the whole plugging-in-part inside the device is loose. I mailed the guy who sold me the gadget and I really, really hope they send me a new one.... He already replied me in good spirit asking for some more info, so I got my hopes high. Let's see what happens. So, at the moment I cannot use any MID at all. :-(

 

[jamiesk]

Thanks, jamiesk!

Your welcome

I'm pretty sure I will not be updating the OS soon, it is working pretty alright, except for the slowness. But I guess I have to tell myself once more that this thing has the power of a PC of maybe 1999 and have to treat it like one.

lol .... just 1999 ?

What's the deal with SD mentioned all the time in the menus? Is it the miniSD slot on the side? It must be quite common accessory, as there are apps (f.ex. ZombieBooth) that refuse to run without it.

I dont know. I got a 2g one as its SD , as the 4G are SD HD - so the flash only sees the 2G ones. Thats how I flashed it.

 

[phatphunk]

Hi Jani! I hope you get an exchange for your unit. I got this tablet 2 weeks ago. I've had some adventures with it though, during the first week I've had Unit A, and silly curious me, bricked it during attempts to install a more efficient firmware! Unit A just won't start anymore =( I've tried searching for solutions, but all seem to point to using hardware methods, which sadly, i don't have access/expertise (JTAG override, etc) So, I went out and bought a 2nd unit (Unit B) last week! It came installed with the latest factory firmware of 1.3.0 and it runs so much smoother than 1.2.3! They seem to have resolved the gremlin that keeps taking up CPU cycles every second.. This is a nice little tablet, and I do hope you get to enjoy it to the fullest!

 

[phatphunk]

.. and yes, agree with what you said, If it ain't broken.. don't fix it!! lol

 

[Jani]

phatpunk, thank you for the kind words. I can't wait to get a new one! The update sounds promising.

There is a slight possibility for me to try to fix the broken tablet, but the case of tablet has not been designed to be opened easily. And another thing is to solder the loose part back without causing further damage. But I perharps I'll try it anyway, as there is not really anything to lose.