[Asus Padfone X and S] TigerC10:
[GUIDE] Asus Padfone S KK/L - Fix Brick/Bootloop, Converting TW -> WW, Root & Xposed

I've seen some people asking questions and I have solved some of these problems on my own. I personally have trouble remembering these steps too, so I thought it would be of benefit to keep them listed here.

Special thanks go out to Android File Host for graciously hosting the files. :D

First some downloads that we'll use later...

Stock firmwares:

https://www.asus.com/Phone/PadFone_S_PF500KL/HelpDesk_Download/

Recoveries:

CWM mirror

TWRP 2.8.6.0 mirror

TWRP 2.8.7.0_v3 mirror (seems to have issues flashing official FW files, may want to stick with 2.8.6.0 or CWM)

Step 0)

Save the flashable zips that you want to your external SD card. You can download any of the stock firmwares, but

if you're looking to convert your TW version to WW version

you'll need some of these patched firmwares:

UL-ASUS_T00N-TW-to-WW-13.6.5.35-user-PATCH.zip

UL-ASUS_T00N-TW-to-WW-12.2.2.43-user-PATCH.zip

UL-ASUS_T00N-TW-to-WW-12.2.2.41-user-PATCH.zip

UL-ASUS_T00N-TW-to-WW-12.2.2.37-user-PATCH.zip

UL-ASUS_T00N-TW-to-WW-12.2.2.27-user-PATCH.zip

UL-ASUS_T00N-TW-to-WW-12.2.2.21-user-PATCH.zip

UL-ASUS_T00N-TW-to-WW-99.99.99.0-user-wipedata%28DowngradeLtoKK%29-PATCH.zip

Here are some additional flashable zips for Lollipop (Ignore if you're installing Kitkat):

Root: BETA-SuperSU-v2.49.zip mirror

Xposed: xposed-v73-sdk21-arm.zip mirror

* You will want the xposed-v73-sdk21-arm.zip for Lollipop 5.0 (Asus FW 12.2.2.21-12.2.2.43 are all Android 5.0). You will also want to download XposedInstaller_3.0_alpha4.apk mirror if you are flashing Xposed.

Extra Goodies:

Unlock Bootloader: CrowLock_RC3.zip mirror

Playstation Certificates (to enable Remote Play in the Playstation App) mirror

Step 1)

Flash the CWM custom recovery (you can switch this to TWRP later, if you like).

There are numerous guides on how to do this, skip ahead if you've already got CWM or if you want to install it in your own way. Otherwise, you will need to download and extract the Android SDK Tools zip from https://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html#Other

Save cwm.img into the folder where you extracted the Android SDK Tools

Start the phone in bootloader mode by holding volume up and power

Connect your phone over USB to your PC.

Open your PC's terminal/command prompt and change directory to the location where you extracted the SDK Tools zip by issuing the cd command.

Issue this fastboot command (Mac/Linux):

./fastboot flash recovery cwm.img

Or issue this fastboot command (Windows):

fastboot flash recovery cwm.img

Once it finishes, power off your phone.

Step 2)

Boot into CWM by holding the volume down button and power

Step 3)

Wipe the cache/dalvik cache in CWM

Step 4)

Start installing the zips you want.

Unlocking the bootloader:

Flash CrowLock_RC3.zip

Fixing Brick/Bootloop/Missing Radios/etc.:

If you've bricked your phone, or gotten yourself into a bootloop, or you're missing some radio bands, or if you just want to start over from scratch - flash the 99.99.99.0 downgrade firmware. This will reset your user data, but also installs a complete version of the Android OS rather than just flashing updated files. It will install FW 11.10.7.18, the latest version of Kitkat (4.4.2) for the Padfone S. I've gotten into the habit of always flashing this first, since it seems to make everything more painless. If you're converting your TW version to WW, use the patch file I've listed above - otherwise use the official FW from Asus. You can use the patch file from above on any WW version of the phone as well.

Standard FW Install:

If you're not converting a TW Padfone to WW, go ahead and install the official FW from Asus at this point. You can use the patch files from above on any WW version of the phone as well.

Kitkat TW (Taiwan) -> WW (Worldwide) conversion:

To convert your TW Padfone S to WW Padfone S on Kitkat, you can flash any of the 11.x official WW firmwares. Yeah, it's that easy. No, if you have a TW version you cannot flash an 11.x WW firmware and then a 12.x WW unless you're using one of the 12.x patch files from above.

Lollipop TW (Taiwan) -> WW (Worldwide) conversion:

The WW stock firmwares 12.x META-INF/com/google/android/updater-script checks ro.product.device for the value "ASUS_T00N", and the TW version of the phone does report that while in actually in a running instance of Android. However, at recovery time the TW version appears to report "t00n" for this value. I'm not sure why this is, but if you don't want to trust my download (hey, I wouldn't blame you), you can download and extract the official zip from Asus and then alter the updater-script file check for "t00n" instead - repack the zip and put that on your SD card to flash instead.

Rooting Lollipop:

Flash BETA-SuperSU-v2.49.zip

And any other additional goodies you want (like the Playstation Certificates).

Step 5)

Reboot your phone. If you're going to flash Xposed for Lollipop, then after getting into the OS at least once reboot into recovery and flash xposed-v73-sdk21-arm.zip. Reboot again.

Step 6)

Go through your initial setup, setting up WiFi, logging into your accounts, downloading updates from the play store, uninstalling bloatware you don't want, etc.

Step 7)

Kitkat only: If you want to root your Padfone S with FW 11.x, install and run TowelRootV1.apk.

Step 8)

If you flashed the Xposed zip, you'll need to install its correlating APK: XposedInstaller_3.0_alpha4.apk - if you're on Kitkat you should be able to just run the standard Xposed app to install it normally. It's at this point that I install Rootcloak from the Xposed app to hide the root status from various apps.

Step 9)

Now you can flash TWRP if you don't want too keep CWM.

My favorite method of doing this is to install Flashify from the Google Play Store, and then from that app I flash the twrp_2.8.6.0.img file. Personally I don't flash things often enough to keep Flashify on my phone, so I uninstall it.

Step 10)

Final reboot, you're good to go.

I hope this helps some others out there that may have run into the same issues I did.