It Just NEVER Fails...

[leeb]

This week I paid for a '4Gb Superpad 8' which arrived today.
It was advertised as 'NEW (open box)'...
5v unit... came with a USB cable - MIGHT connect to PCs and MAYBE interface thru adb !?

All-in-all I am quite pleased with this one... ICS 4.0 and (seemingly) a lot faster than those Ive bought in the past...

except

There seems to be a HAIR caught between the display panel and the touchscreen!!!

SO?

I have to open the BRAND NEW (to me at least) Pad up... and attempt to disassemble the screen from the front shell IOT clean up somebody's quality control issues...

Not going to hassle the seller about this tho... with all the bubbles on the screen protective cover (which COULD have been removed and replaced, I kno) it was easy to miss the issue with a cursory power-up.
I know... I missed it too... until I pulled the protector off.

Oh well. At least I can save off a working ICS and transfer it to a 16Gb card!

EDIT: Oh... forgot to mention... It has a CWM-type recovery (3e) that doesn't work... but that's okay too! I am certain that I have a version that WILL... AND allow it to save/restore partitions too!

TAKE THAT, InfoTMIC!!!

 

[leeb]

Box-to-BRICK in less than 15 hours!

Yes folks, last nite I managed to
Get home,
Screw up the software (plugged it into the laptop BEFORE powering it on... why, I don't know!),
Search for a few hours for AllWinner update software,
Begin a restore,

and

Pulled out the too-short USB cable while it was installing... trying to reach something!!!

FULL-ON Brick... absolutely NO response at all.

I DID manage to get the hair out from between the screen and touchscreen. The screen comes out quite easily without too much flexing of the frame to damage the thin glass of the touchscreen.

Some good that does me.

I'm beginning to believe that I am not SUPPOSED to own these things...

 

[leeb]

Okay, here is what I learned about the SP8 I owned for less than 24 hours,
(other than the fact that I should have just set it on the ground and stepped on it!)

YONESTOPTECH BC-1003, with AllWinner A10 CPU,
4x Hynix 256Mb = 1024Mb RAM,
1x Hynix 4Gb NAND Flash,
1x INTERNAL TF card slot (empty),
Soldered-in battery of unknown capacity, (took nearly 8hrs to initially charge)

There was a clockworkmod-type recovery (3e) installed that did NOTHING... buttons were wrong, only SELECT worked and it was PWR, not HOME...
Device was already rooted, adb working

Apparently when I connected it to the laptop before powering it up, I managed to scramble the NAND...
It normally would bring up a battery charging level when connected to the charger, and apparently that (initrd?) was wiped out. Instead, when the charger was plugged in, the pad would start a normal power-up and just sit at the 'shiny' ANDROID...

So I spent 3-4 hours searching for solutions and found some posts that mentioned a program called LiveSuit(e?) that updated the AllWinner configurations.
... and an image that, while not 'original' was receiving good reviews and was still ICS...
Found it, downloaded it, swore at it, and finally (with another VERY HELPFUL post that explained the AW update 'access code') started the update.
... and tried to reach over to get the (VERY SHORT) charging cord,
... and out came the short-azz USB cable (they supplied) from the port!!!

Plugging it back in did no good, and from that point on, I could only stare at it.

So, at 0330 (usually in bed by midnite), only 14 hours after I opened the shipping box, I had a nice, new BRICK (with a hair-free screen!) .

The YONES people have a website up now, and I have contacted them about getting the software I needed, but I may see if they can fix it.

I am so disappointed in myself...

 

[leeb]

After leaving the 'dead horse' to charge up overnight, I arbitrarily decided to try the reload again.

and

IT WORKED!!!

It is now sitting quietly on the charger and Im getting ready for bed.


Somebody on Slatedroid said that is almost impossible to brick an AllWinner A10...

Apparently it is true!

 

[leeb]

Thought I should share what I've learned about this pad so far...

The power-off connection to the laptop was NOT the cause of the 'bootloop'.
While at work, I updated its files (bwo Google PLAY) and installed some things I wanted. One of them was my favorite BusyBox version. As it installed it told me there was one already, but IT was newer and I didn't give it a second thought.

After the miraculous recovery last nite, I did the usual configs/updates and installed it again. Sure enough, when I rebooted it had blown up the 'poweroff battery display' and looped at the shiny ANDROID logo...

So, after the 2nd recovery I again did the configs/updates and installed all BUT the Busybox.
It is still working as of leaving for work today.

SO?

* Something about the BusyBox I installed wiped out some VERY IMPORTANT stuff... tho I don't really want to know what. Will have to watch for such problems later.
* The INTERNAL TF card is being reported as SDCARD2... will have to see if something can be done to get the media files pointing to THAT device instead of the smaller internal NAND.
* The recovery version (3e) supplied by the machine is TRASH... it will not respond to ANY button BUT (PWR)... so the only available function is REBOOT. Going to connect a full keyboard and see if something will make it move, and attempt to replace it with one that works.
* The CPU is not that much faster, speed-wise (throttled down to 1ghz), but the extra 512Mb of RAM certainly makes for more pleasant operation.
* GPS works but the connector end of the antenna broke off when trying to remove it... so I will have to survive without it. I am disappoint.
* AFAIK all other functions are working correctly.
* Noticed that the SCREENLOCK NONE selection has disappeared. Very disappointed, but will live with it. I guess.

and, NO HAIR in the screen! Hooray!