[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] CPUzX:
Hello.

I recently bought a Chinese Mediatek 'pbablet' phone/tablet combination; running Android 4.2.2 Model: MTK6572.

Due to it being cheap, it was ideal so I thought, for flashing and development, however I maybe wrong.

However I cannot get it into recovery mode. It won't display the menu when holding down volume + and the power button when powering on.

When pressing these two buttons together on start-up, it actually remains a black screen, and it won't turn on after doing this, and I have to keep pressing the tiny reset button on the side of this device every time I attempt to enter recovery, to get it to turn on as normal again.

Pressing and holding volume - and power at the same time on start-up brings up "Factory mode" (in Chinese) and has no options available for flashing/ROM/ functions, except 'testing' the devices' hardware. This phone doesn't have any other physical buttons except power, volume + and -

I am able to successfully enter CWR by flashing it with MTKDroidTools and rebooting into the recovery mode (while powered up and in the android OS) however I still cannot get into CWR or any recovery mode at all while powering up with power and volume +

I just want to be able to enter a recovery mode on this device, to ensure no future issues and doubts upon the unfortunate events of a permanent brick. My idea is to flash this phablet with ParanoidAndroid; or cyanogenmod, and I could try doing this with a software reset, but then what if the ROM is incompatible, and totally bricks it? Then I have no way in hell to revive and reflash, because I can't access the recovery mode anyway.

I have came to the conclusion that it maybe due to the filesystem, potentially due to it's fbifs, that is the cause to no recovery mode, but what if it's ext4, does any of this make a difference.

Is there any way to make this device open the recovery menu while powering it on?

When I attempt to enter recovery mode while powering up with volume +, the device is basically a brick, until I press reset. It doesn't respond at all. The only way to enter recovery menu is by booting into android resetting the device into recovery mode via an app.

What's the deal with this, please can anyone guide me out of this noob pit, and make progress to this issue? Thank you.

Device Info -

Hardware : MT6572

Model : MT6572

Build number : ALPS.JB3.MP.V2.0

Build date UTC : 20131104-123514

Android v : 4.2.2

Baseband v: MOLY.WR8.W1315.MD.WG.MP.V1, 2013/09/18 03:24

Kernel v : 3.4.5 (breaze@urbetter-Linux6) (gcc version 4.6.x-google 20120106 (prerelease) (GCC) ) #10 SMP Thu Dec 19 09:40:47 CST 2013

Uboot build v : -----

LCD Driver IC : 1-hsd070idw1

Scatter eMMC -

PRELOADER 0x0

MBR 0x600000

EBR1 0x680000

NODL_PRO_INFO 0x700000

NODL_NVRAM 0xa00000

NODL_PROTECT_F 0xf00000

NODL_PROTECT_S 0x1900000

NODL_SECCFG 0x2300000

UBOOT 0x2320000

BOOTIMG 0x2380000

RECOVERY 0x2980000

SEC_RO 0x2f80000

NODL_MISC 0x2fc0000

LOGO 0x3040000

NODL_EXPDB 0x3340000

ANDROID 0x3d40000

CACHE 0x2c740000

USRDATA 0x43f40000

NODL_FAT 0x96b40000

NODL_BMTPOOL 0xffff00a8

preloader 0x0000000000600000 0x0000000000000000 2 /dev/misc-sd

mbr 0x0000000000080000 0x0000000000000000 2 /dev/block/mmcblk0

ebr1 0x0000000000080000 0x0000000000080000 2 /dev/block/mmcblk0p1

pro_info 0x0000000000300000 0x0000000000100000 2 /dev/block/mmcblk0

nvram 0x0000000000500000 0x0000000000400000 2 /dev/block/mmcblk0

protect_f 0x0000000000a00000 0x0000000000900000 2 /dev/block/mmcblk0p2

protect_s 0x0000000000a00000 0x0000000001300000 2 /dev/block/mmcblk0p3

seccfg 0x0000000000020000 0x0000000001d00000 2 /dev/block/mmcblk0

uboot 0x0000000000060000 0x0000000001d20000 2 /dev/block/mmcblk0

bootimg 0x0000000000600000 0x0000000001d80000 2 /dev/block/mmcblk0

recovery 0x0000000000600000 0x0000000002380000 2 /dev/block/mmcblk0

sec_ro 0x0000000000040000 0x0000000002980000 2 /dev/block/mmcblk0

misc 0x0000000000080000 0x00000000029c0000 2 /dev/block/mmcblk0

logo 0x0000000000300000 0x0000000002a40000 2 /dev/block/mmcblk0

expdb 0x0000000000a00000 0x0000000002d40000 2 /dev/block/mmcblk0

android 0x0000000028a00000 0x0000000003740000 2 /dev/block/mmcblk0p4

cache 0x0000000017800000 0x000000002c140000 2 /dev/block/mmcblk0p5

usrdata 0x0000000052c00000 0x0000000043940000 2 /dev/block/mmcblk0p6

fat 0x0000000051440000 0x0000000096540000 2 /dev/block/mmcblk0p7

bmtpool 0x0000000001500000 0x00000000ff9f00a8 2 /dev/block/mmcblk0

Sorry for being such a noob, I don't know if any of this information is useful in the slightest.