[Acer Iconia A500] rainbow4:
MOSCOW DESIRE IS THE HERO OF ALL MANKIND!

Or at least my hero for helping me to salvage my bricked A500. Here's my story and the fix he gave me. I am a total NOOBIE, so I'll give it to you in noobie terms.

Background

Wanted to try a tablet for the first time and not invest a lot of money in case I hated it. So, I went to Craigslist and bought a used Acer Icononia A500 for $100 U.S. It worked great for about 90 days and I fell in love with it. Then, one day.... ACER LOGO only! It would only boot to the Acer Logo.

I tried to hard reset pin hole, I tried the Power Volume+ slide the orientation switch to reset - and I got NOTHING!

So, I went on Google - asked the question and ended up on this forum. (Which is probably HOW you ended up here also!)

Getting some help

When I first started reading about the fixes - I got all kinds of techno-babble. Words like "ECCUID" and others that I had no clue what they were talking about. So, I was totally confused and just asked in desperation "Can't I just pay someone to fix this thing?" That's when Moscow Desire came to my rescue.

He basically told me to "chill out" (very politely) and talked be through the two major possibilities - which I am describing in NOOBIE language with no promises that this really what he said - but it sounded like : A) Software glitch, causing motherboard to not fully launch the operating software or B) motherboard hard failure.

In the event, it was just software - he gave me the following "fix" to try. SO HERE IT IS!

The Fix!!

Here is what Moscow told me to ....

"For starters, lets do some simple stuff first. Following is a link to some ICS update files. There are 4 of them. I have already de-crypted them. Now, download each to a individual folder on your PC. You will see they are numbered. This is to keep them separate so you know which is which.

Now, choose one of them (really doesn't matter which one, but maybe start with the highest number first). Rename it to "update.zip" (make sure it is not "update.zip.zip" as this is a common mistake. If your PC doesn't show the .zip extension, just rename it to update)

Now, copy it to your external SD card. Power on your tablet holding Vol+ (or minus) and PWR. Continue pressing until you see text about installing the update in the upper left corner, then release. We'll see if it installs all the way. If after 15 minutes it doesn't (it may stop at about 25%), then PWR off, and rename and copy the next update file, and try that one. Might have to try all 4, so make sure your tab is fully charged.

If none of these install all the way, then life becomes a little more difficult......

Links to my server (large files 300+mb) (Note: these were live links - but because I don't have enough posts to post links, I replaced the "http" with SWV. You'll need to replace the SWV with http)

http://d-h.st/Zf8

http://d-h.st/2cm

http://d-h.st/gw8

http://d-h.st/KXI

Try that."

BUT WAIT - LET ME FILL YOU IN ON WHAT I DID - THAT MADE IT WORK FOR ME!

Do it this way!

1. When you go to the download sites - watch out - there are some "paid" spam downloaders there that want you to install a bunch of crap! Look for the plain, gray colored, download button. Don't click on any of the green or colored ones or you are screwed!

2. Once you do the downloads - you can expect to probably have to try each one - I did and it was the third one down (in the Windows File Explorer naming sequence). I can't tell you the name of which one, because I had to rename them as directed. I should have made a screen shot, but I didn't think of it.

3. RENAME THEM ON YOUR COMPUTER FIRST. This is what caused me so much initial trouble as I couldn't get the files to copy over to the SD card correctly. Now, you'll have to rename one, and if it doesn't work in a few moments, you'll have to rename it back to something else, and then try another one.

4. Format your SD card each time. I didn't want to risk having some residual files on my SD card - so I re-formatted it "quick format" each time BEFORE I copied the file over.

5. Copy the renamed file to your SD card and insert it in the A500 SD card slot.

6. Hold down the power button and the volume rocker (left or right side) - until you see wording start to appear on the top left side of the screen. Let go then and watch and see what happens.

7. The words told me it was erasing all data. Then it told me it was going to load the recovery icon.

8. It then loaded the green android robot! Note: Twice before it got to the robot and then the robot was on its side, layng down with an "i" icon on its belly. In other words, that recovery did NOT work. So, I started the process all over.

9. When it works - you will know it! The robot stays up and you can see a progress bar going across the bottom! Mine did not hang up, once it started to reload. Moscow did say it COULD hang up. So, read his instructions above.

AND THAT IS IT!

My tablet appears to be working fine now - I'll go start playing with it and downloading apps - but I think I am there!

Also, I am going to donate to Moscow Desire - because I would have PAID for this fix. You should do the same if it fixes yours.

My name is Steve Vance and I am thrilled to have been able to do this WITHOUT a ton of knowledge. The toughest thing you'll have to do is the "renaming" thing.

I hope it fixes your bricked A500 the way it fixed mine.

GOOD LUCK ALL AND THANKS MOSCOW DESIRE!