Coby Tablet 7022 | 1125 | 1126 | 8127 Update ICS Android 4.0 - Is This True?

[ckorakas]

Hello All,

Just sharing part of my experience here

I am struggling to get my recently purchaced MpMan 1027 to run Skype using the front camera

That is all I want !!

It came with Android 2.3.3, which should be enought to do video calling through skype.

I initially tried to isntall skype through a recent .apk skype file found on the web. Worked but the tablet would look for the back camera and eventually make weird noises.

All other apps used (Fring oovoo etc) would behave similarly

I looked it up and tried to get a better ROM to flash the tablet with as support would not care responding, hoping that a better rom would enable skype to use the front camera

I initially tried a better gingerbread bake proposed for Coby Kyros MID1024 (http://www.androidtablets.net/forum...rbread-android-2-3-mid1024-23.html#post230862) only to realise that my tablet was not compatible (even though other MpMan 1027 owners claimed success...)

After a lot of forum search i realised the tablet is probably a MID1125 (similar to the Coby Kyros 1125)

Looking for a way to upgrade the ROM (hoping it would allow to use the front camera) ...the easy sollution was the ICS Rom update offered by the Consumer Entertainment Products for Home, Office or On the Go! | COBY

I fiddled with the serial as mine was not recognised, using the one from the video

The rom started downloading (very slow) and installed the upgrade by itself

To my surprise the tablet was fitted with ICS 4.1.1

That was the end of the good news

The wifi is constantly dropping (no more than 2 mins connection at a time) - i have not found any app that can fix this

The behaviour of the tablet is very unstable

I often have screen reversals (like watching your pad in a mirror!)

The silver home button is not working (only the return and menu buttons work), and the soft button (bottom tray) not responding either

The tablet hangs very often (many different way the tablet freezes ... the most impressive happended when in one occasion when I pressed the app drawer icon (top right corner) and I heard a squirking sound then black screen and nothing. In some cases a power-off power on will do the trick, in other cases you need to press the reset button

What is more ... the front camera is still not recognised !!! (with no known video chat app, skype, oovoo, fring etc)

Of course the camera itself works as I can take pics and record video through the camera app

What a waste of time and money !!

They are right !! You get what you pay for !!

even though the 180 Euro payed for this piece of junk is no way a bargain... I hope to get a refund for it but not sure I will manage since I already flashed it with a different ROM (does that void guarantee?)

My advice : If you are an unlucky MpMan 1027 owner and you need video calling ability ... forget it ! get a refund and buy a Tablet that is certified and guarantee to handle video calls !

The MpMan as well as others like Coby, Archos and the like that produce these cheap tablets and clones are just cheating on non-expert consumers that will assume that a tablet with a front facing camera in the center, will handle video calls ... what else ?? take pictures or films of yourself??

HELP!

If any one has any solution for this MpMan 1027 to have it do proper video calling I would realy like to hear about it !!

Otherwise I will try to revert to 2.3.3 (god knows how) where at least the wifi doesnt go off all the time ...

If there are other MpMan users out there, what is the ROM you recomend using ?

Here the hardware specs

1. Before flashing (still in 2.3.3)

Android System Info reads:

CPU ABI: armeabi-v7a
API LEVEL: 10
MAnufacturer: Telechips
...
Hardware: m801_88
Board: m801_evm
Brand : Telechips
Device: m801
Display: MID1125 20111028
...
Model: MID1125
Product: MID1125

2. After Flashing (ICS 4.1.1)

**the values that changed are in bold**

Android System Info reads:

CPU ABI: armeabi-v7a
API LEVEL: 16
MAnufacturer: Coby
...
Hardware: m801_88
Board: em102
Brand : Coby
Device: em102
Display: GreenDemon_v1.0.0002
...
Model: MID1125
Product: Coby_mid1125

------

AAARGHH!!

 

[ckorakas]

Hello I updated my MID1125 (MpMan 1027) to ICS 4.1.1 through the german site
Tell me what you need for the zip.
Beware that this is not stable on my machine ... http://www.androidtablets.net/forum...s-android-4-0-true-post231142.html#post231142

I didn't do a back-up of the previous ROM (2.3.3) as i thought the site would just download ... infortunately it ran the update by itself on my machine ...

I didn't do any of the rooting processes that i see (with CWM, booting from the SD card etc)

Is there a way to go back to 2.3.? ... Considering the instability I get on the tablet I guess the specs are not up to it (then on the other hand why Coby released an ICS update for it?)

Thanks for helping !

 

[AFPT]

OUT OF MEMORY NOTIFICATION AND 4.1.1 UPDATE:

Yesterday my tablet (8127\MP827) started showing a message saying it was running out of memory... i went to settings and noticed that the 256MB available for apps were almost full so i started un-installing some apps but i the free space kept disappearing!

after some research i foung that as i un-installed apps, the app "System Updater" was taking all the remaining free space! It was downloading an update in the background!

i finally managed to free enough space (it needed about 98MB) for it to finish the download and it asked me to install the update!

I'm now on 4.1.1 but the update wipes everything so be careful!

 

[Kiiv]

@afpt : What do you think about the stability of this new version ?

 

[AFPT]

i haven't spent a lot of time testing but i already came across the same problems it had before:
- slow and unreliable wifi
- occasional freezing when starting to play a video or anything with sound
- keeps turning the screen on randomly

and 2 new problems:
- the mirror image bug already reported on another thread
- can't install titanium backup pro key from market

i guess Coby just decided to go straight to 4.1.1 and left the bug-fixing for later...

the interface is smoother tough...

 

[ryancut]

i haven't spent a lot of time testing but i already came across the same problems it had before:
- slow and unreliable wifi
- occasional freezing when starting to play a video or anything with sound
- keeps turning the screen on randomly

and 2 new problems:
- the mirror image bug already reported on another thread
- can't install titanium backup pro key from market

i guess Coby just decided to go straight to 4.1.1 and left the bug-fixing for later...

the interface is smoother tough...

How did you get the market installed?

 

[satyendra986986]

is any one facing problem with moving apps to sd card in jelly bean

 

[ckorakas]

there are many steps you need to take before performing the rooting explained there

like find the propoer Device Drivers and install them, Install Windows powershell, install ADB etc

Will soon post a tutorial on these and what worked for me

Now looking for a Honeycomb or ICS rom to Downgrade from Jelly Bean (4.1.1) on my MID1125 which is unstable and doesnt allow still the front camera to be used for video calls through skype

 

[ckorakas]

This tutorial will help you Root your Device and install teh tools needed for you to back up your syestem, before experimenting with "better" ROMs ...

This is only tested on a MID1125 device (mine is actually called MpMan 1027, but it seems to be almost identical to Coby Kyros MID1125)

Once you will have done what follows backing-up and flashing new roms or the roms you had previously backed up should be fairly easy

Gaining root access to your device will also help you run on it apps that wont run otherwise.

Beware that there are not always ROMs out there for your device. See if you cand find the one you are looking for first, read what others experienced with it and then decide if it is worth spending the time.

This tutorial It is based on ressources found here and in other forums

Many thanks to the people that put the effort to walk us through the tricky parts of what is quite easy on other devices

It was a fun trip and learned a lot but definately not worth my time as the one thing I was set to do was to have the front-facing camera to work with skype video conferencing and that is still not possible ...


Any way here you go


+++++++++++++++

MID1125 Rooting and back-up walkthrough for newbies


A lot of the info below is based on
http://www.androidtablets.net/forum/android-tablet-q/28483-tutorial-how-root-coby-kyros-1125-a.html

I just completed it and added fiew missing pieces that were not in the scope

in most of the tutorials I have seen there are many assumptions as to the set-up of your PC or your skills. I have tried to cover most of the steps you need.

!!Use at your own risk!! I wont take blame or responsibility if you brick your device.

GETTING STARTED
Make sure you have a full hour or more

I use Windows XP

Add an micro-SD card in the external card slot after you have formated it in FAT32 (1gb is enough)

Plug-in the tablet to power supply, boot it, go to settings, developper > enable USB debugging

1. Install/ update the Drivers on your PC
Before anything else you need to make sure that your Device is correctly recognised by the PC

Go to ADB Drivers | Coby Kyros MID Tablets

download and unzip the drivers

(you can follow the same steps for your device, just need to find the right drivers for your device)

To update the drivers : go to Start>Contro Panel>System>harware>device manager

locate your device in there (migh have a yellow ? over it) ... right click on the device and select Update Drivers

In the wizard click the update from specific location (not the automatic way) and then in "add location" browse to the folder were you unzipped the drivers ... it will scan for the new drivers and istall them (can take up to 5 min)

Once this is done, in the device manager your device should now be renamed to "Android Composite ADB Interface"

2. Install ADB (Android Development Bridge)

Now what you need is to be able to control your device through your PC via the USB cable as there is not an easy combination of keys (none that i know off) that works to put the device in maintenance mode (usually in mobile phones it is power+down volume).
Also before flashing with a new ROM its a good idea to get a copy of your current system so that you can flash it back if you dont like your new Rom.

2.1 Install Windows Powershell
first you need to install "Windows PowerShell 1.0 English-Language Installation Package for Windows XP (KB926139)" / google for it you will land on MS website page where you can download the .exe / install it

2.2 Install ADB
once that is done go to

How To: Install ADB and Fastboot on your Windows computer for use with your Android phone | dotTech

to see how to install ADB on your PC. The instructions a very well done, follow them

Tip. It mentions editing a PATH variable ... if there is no PATH, create a new Variable, name it PATH and add variable value C:\WINDOWS\system32\windowspowershell\v1.0\;C:\And roid

hit save

You now have ADB on your PC

Test it through the comand prompt (start>run>cmd enter. Now you are in the comand prompt, type adb devices, enter


[If you see an error "device not found" it means that your have not installed on your PC the correct device drivers or that they need updating : normally the step 1. above should have done the trick already otherwise look on google to find drivers for the MID1125]

Now test ADB again ... should work


3. Rooting the device
Now that you have these in place you are able to Root your device

there are 2 ways to Root your device

the short way and the long way, obviously try the short way first

3.1. SHORT WAY

If you are lucky Superoneclick will work for you SuperOneClick | shortfuse.org

download and unzipp the tool

Try now to run the superoneclick tool by doubleclicking on the superoneclick.exe in the forlder where you unzipped it

click on ROOT and let it do its thing ...

If you are lucky you are already done!! Check in the app drawer to find the Superuser App

If you have it your are ROOTed!

Otherwise read below ...

I was not luck and got stuck on step 5 of superoneclick for some reason

Now you have to go through the long way ...


3.2. The LONG WAY

download the zip file here and follow the instructions in the read-me file

Free File Hosting - Online Storage; Upload Mp3, Videos, Music. Backup Files

Now that you rooted the tablet you can run apps that need root access and / or find custom ROMs you can use with you tablet

before you flash new roms on your device ...
(that is a lesson learned: i skipped this step and now I can't revert) ...

3. Take a back-up of your SystemNOTE: I had this working but had previously followed the 3.2 Long way which includes installing CWM 4 on your device (clockworkmod). There might be other valid ways to do this.
While you have the tablet plugged through USB on your PC, fire up your command line prompt

start>run>cmd enter.
Now type

adb reboot recovery

The system reboots into ClockWorkMod recovery (an orange interface)
Use the volume +/- buttons to navigate in it ... in case you get stuck just run the cmd comand again for a fresh session

select through the menu back-up and restore > back-up

The back-up will be saved on the sd card

To restore a previously backed up rom just select in the interface
back-up and restore > restore

HEre is also a nice video that can show you a "cleaner" way

The difference is that he gets into recovery mode by pressing a combination of keys whereas you do the same through ADB

Worked for me !

4. Flashing a new ROM on the MID1125

here my story on how i did flash the device and why I wish I hadn't as the ROM i flashed it with is still half baked

http://www.androidtablets.net/forum...pdate-ics-android-4-0-true-11.html#post231142

The END or TBC ?
+++++++++++++++


Now looking for HoneyComb or ICS 4.0.3 to test
Currently Running 4.1.1 Jelly Bean, updated through cobygermany.de ... unstable and wi-fi almost doesnt work at all

All this adventure I got in to, just to get this MID1125 (I wish I never had bought) to do skype video calls ... still not there ...

If anyone has found a sollution please point me to it!

Thanks !

 

[JonsZX2SR]

Downloaded the Jellybean upgrade from the Coby Germany site. Tried to install it from ICS 4.0.3.

Install is stuck in Fastboot or FWDN mode right now, depending which button I hold down during rerset.

Need to connect to a PC. Does anyone have a stock MID1126 2.3.3 recovery file ?

Also Win XP doesn't recognize the USB connection. Does anyone have the USB drivers for Win XP ? (I'll try Win 7 tomorrow.)

Thanks.

 

[essjayar]

I have the last ICS upgrade, but no - cannot find any GB backups Was looking for myself! Try booting with no SD card, sounds simple but often caused it to stop on boot.

 

[JonsZX2SR]

I had the ICS 4.0.3 upgrade but decided to take a shortcut to Jellybean. What i should have done was insert a blank microSD card and a factory reset on ICS 4.0.3. I think what happened was I ran out of space during the downlod and install. Everything I did from there made it worse. I suspect I am about to learn a lot about Android.

So I'm stuck on bootup in Fastboot mode. I can't even shut off the tablet, but must let the battery run down. At least i was able to connect the tablet to a laptop wiith an USB cable and install the Google Fastboot interface in Win 7.

Any tips, help or links to posts would be appreciated at this point. I suspect I need to install clockwork and see if I can get a stock GB 2.3.3 or ICS 4.0.3 backup file to proceed.

Thanks.

 

[Kiiv]

Which model have you got?

 

[JonsZX2SR]

Kyros 1126. I would install any factory backup, GB 2.3.3 or ICS 4.0.3 to get the tablet back up. I'm still learning to work with Android and need a little help and guidance.

I removed the microSD card. made no difference. Is there a way to install an OS on the microSD card and boot from the card ?

Thanks.

 

[Kiiv]

You'll have to flash a ROM via clockworkmod. You can boot clockworkmod via fastboot but you have to find someone who can dump a working system for 1126.
Maybe you should create your own thread to ask people.