[Other SmartWatches] opticallan:
K18 (K8 3G round) launcher does not respond - problem solved

Issue description:

K18 hangs up during dial/face change. Freezes, then responds to all buton presses but launched does not start. There is a message "launcher is not responding: wait-exit". Whatever you do, it ends up with black screen. OS is operational, watch accepts phone calls, long press of the middle button pops up menu etc.

When connected to USB port, PC reports storage and watch displays dialog asking if storage mode is to be activated. Only no launcher, hence no watch :(

With top and middle buttons pressed for long, watch reboots into boot menu and allows to choose fastboot, recovery (with ADB option)

Challenge:

Using MTK Droid and SP Flash Tool requires some drivers to be installed. Then firmware and some settings were not clear for me from the begining.

I had no idea what fastboot and ADB are :)

Launcher2.zip is not APK that I could try to use. Moreover no idea how to run APK from watch side.

I had NO ROOT, I was not sure about USB Debug mode being activated

So, typical problem caused by the device itself, not by curious user :).

Solution that worked for me:

Having some experiences with IT and mobile systems I am PATIENT. It was said here many times but I repeat: be patient, get prepared, be sure you know what you want to achieve. DO NOT panic. OK, I could not use my watch over the whole weekend. Man, new toy stayed at home for so long...

First, I installed drivers.

ADB driver was easy and worked from scratch, though I did not need ADB finally. Sideload was working, file was being transferred but then installation was interrupted on the watch side. Same driver was in use for Fastboot. but similarily it was only interesting that watch connects and sends back its name "mt6572v1_phone" ("fastboot devices" command)

Now:

I. MediaTek PreLoader USB VCOM Port, version 1.1123.0.0 worked for me (I run all proces on Server 2008 R2 64bit). This driver gets "activated" for a while and then disappears. This is OK (thank you, Pablo, for hint here)

II. I had Error 10 message when installing DA VCOM Port Driver. It was the most frustrating as I needed to run MTK Droid to retrieve IMEI. Finally it worked and watch got connected but frankly speaking I do not why :) LOL. It works now. And I did not need it finally for the process I conducted: see below for details.

III. SP Flash Tool connection settings is USB, not UART. Just in case if anyone would have concern here.

I had cradle connected all time, only lifted watch to disconnect and reconnect.

As I had problem with conencting MTK Droid, I did something different.

1. Run SP Flash Tool, selected Android Scatter file I found in this thread

2. Clicked in RECOVERY field and selected Recovery_TWRP_2710_W806.IMG (Note: unpacked IMG! :) - initially I selected ZIP and watch rebooted with Chineese characters but still alive).

3. Selected ONLY checkbock at RECOVERY (all others unchecked), then pressed DOWNLOAD button

4. Connected watch.... Hurray! Got downloaded!

5. Reboot with top and middle buttons pressed for long... and got TWRP from this thread running.

6. Cleared cache and rebooted

.... LAUNCHER IS BACK!

In a meantime also MTK Droid got connected, so I created my own scatter file. I also recorded all phone details.

As I did not want to play too much (it was 3:00AM already) I decided to install OTA (mentioned in this thread as reflecting forum achievements), to get some improvements "official and safe" way.

Interesting to note: I downloaded it, started installation, but rebooting was ended up with TRWP_2710 screen. Then I selected reboot button and got back to my old OS (09.Oct.2015).

So, I run SP Flash Tool again, repeated steps 2-4 as listed above only selecting RECOVERY.IMG from W806_ReadBack_151104 unzipped.

It got flashed and then OTA upgrade worked.

My K18 is up and running again with official OS. The only IMG file I flashed was RECOVERY.

Summary:

1. I want to say THANK YOU, Mates, for sharing your experiences and time.

2. I have operational flashing environment :) - and I will not leave it alone.

3. K18 is VERY nice piece. This is my first smart watch (I had some fitness things before, including Misfit that also showed time, but this is really a watch). I selected it as I wanted a watch with full round display, after hunting for Huawei and Heuer. What I like the best K18 is cheap, so I feel no fear to try playing with it now and get it customised.

4. Again, for all folks with bricked or malfunctioning K18s: do not panic and be patient. Think about small steps that lead you toward the solution, do not try to flash full system at once without understanding what you are doing.

5. I have to say one more thing here: do not expect anyone can give you one simple answer to solve your problem. Answer is here on the forum, but it is you to read some threads, collect software, try it (I did some tries with drivers more than 20 times before it worked). And good luck.

I am going to explore this watch now, following your ideas and experiences. If, by any chance, I find anything interesting, I will share it here.

But first, I am going to get my own ROM backup now :)