[General Topics] Klydra:
Hello, y'all,

... First of all, please read this whole post carefully, before starting to work on your phone! Thanks! ...

recently, I wanted to update the Android version of my old Z500 with the help of lineageOS and TWRP.

Please note, that I'm not at all an expert on this topic, and if I'm using specific terms like "bricked" or "APX mode" wrong, please forgive me.

So, on my device, I had the plan of installing Android 6.0 on this phone using TWRP and a copy of lineageOS.

However, the recovery partition turned out locked and I accidentally overwrote the boot partition with the twrp.img.

This is my first time doing this, ok, and I read on a oneplus forum, that the boot partition could also be used, blah, blah, blah, silly me.

Anyways, now my device wouldn't turn on. After a while charging, the display turned on, but there was always just the low battery screen. When I got to the "Boot Selector" holding the power and vol + button, selecting fastboot, recovery or normal boot just restarted the device.

Anyways, now what do you need to "unbrick" the device :

- A version of TWRP [dl.twrp.me/Z500/twrp-3.3.1-0-Z500.img.html]

- A version of your desired ROM, for me lineageOS [androidfilehost.com/?fid=889764386195903470]

- SmartPhone Flash Tool, for me v5.1912 worked like a charm [spflashtool.com/download/SP_Flash_Tool_v5.1912_Win.zip]

- A copy of the Firmware Acer_AV0K0_Z500_1.012.00_EMEA_GEN1 (... GEN1s for single SIM) [dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/cin08ytkqmvr7c1/Acer_AV0K0_Z500_1.012.00_EMEA_GEN1.zip] (this was the hardest one to get because all the other downloads just included the .ispff dump file)

- A copy of the corresponding version of OpenGApps [opengapps.com]

- A copy of the MediaTek Driver Auto Installer (v5.1632.00; you know you have the right one when it resets the USB Ports in a CMD window at the end; INSTALL THIS FIRST) [mediafire.com/file/4ux1ytmzlxmpbjb/ROMProvider.COM_Driver_Auto_Installer_EXE_v5.1632.00.zip/file]

- A USB Charging Cable

- A PC

- Your Phone, obviously

Set up your PC :

1. Start by installing the MediaTek Driver Auto Installer. After that is finished, restart your PC.

2. Unzip the Firmware and the SmartPhone Flash Tool

3. Copy your ROM and OpenGApps on an SD Card.

Before you begin this operation, make sure you "get your device into APX mode".

Basically, it makes your device recognizable and flashable by the computer.

WARNING: DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK.

To do that follow these steps one after another :

- Plug your device into your wall power, NOT YOUR PC, and let it charge for about 30min, just in case. Turn it off if it's still on, although in my case, it turned off once I removed the charging cable.

- Remove the backplate of your device, unscrew the internal backplates 6 screws and carefully take the internal backplate off. If you're having trouble, just look for "Acer Z500 teardown" on YouTube.

- Carefully pull off the battery connector from the mainboard from up under. Be careful not to damage it!

- Once done, connect your device to your computer. You should now see the device as COM Connector in the Device Manager. If your device is disconnecting and connecting repeatedly, the driver must not be active. If you see no device connecting at all, remove it from your computer and after plugging it into the wall charger again, reconnect it to your PC.

- Once that's ok, disconnect the device again, and plug the battery back in.

- While disconnected, open up the SP Flash Tool, and under "Download", select the scatter .... .txt file from the Firmware Archive.

- Once that's done, all of the checkboxes in the ROM select should be active.

- Double Click on the Path of the "RECOVERY" row and select the TWRP.img. Then, change the mode from "Download only" to "Format All + Download" and hit the "Download" button.

- Plug your Z500 back in again, and you should see the flashing process starting.

- Once that's done, disconnect the phone and put the SD card with your ROM and OpenGApps in.

- Connect your phone to the wall charger again, and immediately hold the power and the vol + buttons down, till the Boot Options appear.

- Boot into recovery mode, and TWRP should start up. If it doesn't, reconnect your phone again and just let it boot for around 3min after terminating it by holding the power button and as soon as the screen goes black, also holding the vol + button. Once again select recovery mode, and now TWRP should defiantly show up.

- In TWRP, first, make a factory reset with the "WIPE" option. Then go to install and choose your SD card. First, install your ROM, then OpenGApps and reboot.

Now you should have a functioning Acer Z500 again!;)

Feel free to reply, if you have any questions!

Good luck,

Klydra.