yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tcrews:
Okay, have had my Gtab since late November, initially rooted it and installed Google services (market and gmail), later flashed to TnT-lite 2.2 then 3.1.4. Flashed over to Vegan b5.1 recently everything was great......

Then I mistakenly "updated" ClockworkMod Recovery and it's been a crash and burn ever since.

Got the Magic Mis-Match or whatever and tried to correct that has now made my Gtab a non-functional paperweight.

I can NVFlash the stock image (or even the NVFlash of TnT-lite 1.02) and the tablet will boot after the flash and function. Power it off (or do something that requires a reboot) and the tablet will no longer function. No power on (that I can tell), can't boot to recovery......and if I plug the tablet in to the PC I can NVFlash it and it boots. It's like it's stuck in APX mode now. I just have to plug it in to the PC, no Power + Volume- combo.....just plug the USB in and run NVFlash. It boots (to whatever I flashed) and will run until I power it off or try to reboot.

I've pulled it open and pressed the reset button, I've drained the battery until the OS shut the tablet down and then waited about 24 hours until trying anything again....neither of those changed anything...

Is there anything else I can try besides throwing it against a brick wall?

I'd really like something to completely wipe/format/repartition the tablet completely back to factory and start over......

Getting APX mode to function is not a problem......so I can NVFlash it but what I've tried so far has not worked (it doesn't delete the data partition, etc..as I reflash and it's right where it was before I turned it off).

Windows or Ubuntu methods are fine....I'd just like to get this tablet functional again.
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] siidheesh:
Your tablet is bricked

I`m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but im afraid your tablet has been bricked, meaning that irreversible damage has been done to your device after tampering with it. Any wrong steps and your device becomes a paperweight. You have now choice but to get a new tablet or phone. You cant send that in for repair as flashing a custom rom would have voided your warranty, sorrry :(
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tcrews:
With APX mode still accessible I do not believe the tablet is "bricked" at this point.

Something is preventing it from "booting" normally though it can boot after an nvflash.
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] siidheesh:
you are using nvflash to install a temporary firmware onto your device. however, the original firmware on you device has been damaged beyond repair and the only solution is to use a hardware debug board and hook it up to somewhere in the motherboard of your tab and do stuff even i dont know how to.

that is the meaning of bricked!!!
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jimcpl:
Hi,

Did you look through this thread:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.x?t=865058&highlight=stuck+apx&page=2

Sorry to hear about your plight :(...

One of the suggestions there was, after you NVflashed to stock, to install Z4root and then root it. There was another post about holding both volume + and - while powering on.

I kind of agree that if you can NVflash, you should be able to unbrick-ify it. If none of those things work, maybe roebeet or rothnic can help?

Sorry if this is not too helpful...

Jim

P.S. Question: Are you sure/do you know if you might have one of those few "320" units, the ones with the 1GB RAM instead of the 512MB RAM? I seem to recall that roebeet said that those are partitioned differently, and that the stock NVflash wouldn't work with them, so maybe that might explain why? Just a thought...
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rayden25:
IT IS NOT BRICKED. You need to go to the development forum and read about nvflashing all partitions back to stock. As long as you can get into apx mode you haven't bricked it. Most likely your partitions are screwed up. Yoour recovery partition seems to be wiped and possibly your boot partition too. Your tab doesnt know what to do when you turn it on so it goee to apx. There is a thread in devekopment that shows you how to go back to stock with all partition

HERE IS THE LINK

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=861950
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rayden25:
WRONG!:eek:
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jimcpl:
With what little I know (still learning) about the Gtab, I agree with what rayden and some others have said. The Gtab is probably one of the few (maybe the only one) tablets that have the tools to be "almost" unbrickable.

Just about the only thing that is not there is a JTAG port (and there's probably one there that hasn't been unearthed).

Hopefully we aren't all wrong about that :)...

JMHO...

Jim
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rayden25:
You really dont need a jtag because of the apx mode. Apx is almost like jtag in a sense, it gives you direct access to flash what you need to. Thats why his tab will boot the one time but something else is borked up. The more i think about it the more i feel he has a messed up recovery partition or boot partition. He was playing with clockwork when this all started which gets flashed to recovery. If he flashes a stock recovery partition he should be good.

Oh make sure to take any update.zip off sdcard so when you do get recovery back it doesnt flash something else.
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] demo4o1:
Yea that sux dude. I be worried when I'm flashing roms of this happening. Sum ppl flash just anything just to do it.

Sorry about ur device..
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jimcpl:
Tcrews,

BTW, there's also an IRC channel where some folks hang out:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=888465

If someone's there they might help.

Jim
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tcrews:
Yep, that got me flashed back to a stock image and even to a TnT-lite 1.02 image. Still not able to boot without flashing first.

Tried that as well. At end of root it asks to reboot, and then I'm back to having to use NVflash to bring it back up.

I just checked the back, model is UPC300-2 2.

I'll keep playing. Someone posted in another thread here that they had the same issue (having to use nvflash to boot) but then posted they fixed it (but without what they did other than using ADB). I've PM'd them to see exactly what they did so I'm hoping they respond.
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jimcpl:
Sorry to hear all that :(... Can you post back as you progress, as it might be helpful to others here. Also, have you tried the IRC channel, to see if there's anyone there that might be able to help?

Jim
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rayden25:
Dude, TNT Lite does not have a recovery partition in it. That's why it's not "sticking". You need to update with something with the recovery partition in it. None of the custom roms flash the recovery partition. You need to use one of the stock roms direct from viewsonic or nvflash from the link I posted. Trust me. It will work.
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tcrews:
I've done all that...I thought I had mentioned it in the first post...

Basically I can NVFlash anything, but power off or attempt a reboot and nothing...until I nvflash again.

I started with the stock images...then NVFlash of TnT-lite 1.02 (which includes Clockworkmod), then threw in the system.img from the latest TnT.....nothing "sticks".

I'll flash the stock TnT and get an update notification that 1.1-3389 is available....download that....and when it reboots to install.....nothing. Have to flash again something to get it to boot. Also if I don't download the update and just power off or install something that forces a reboot....nothing.

It's very close to being used for target practice now.... :)

(it's downloading 1.1-3389 again since I just did another nvflash

(below is what I get every time I nvflash)
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tcrews:
and as an "just now" update...accepting the install of 1.1-3389 shuts down and leaves it down and unable to boot until I nvflash.
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tcrews:
I just noticed above (and while doing it a few times just now) it formats 2 and 3 but doesn't send the images...it starts with sending file: part4.img

Anyone know what partitions BCT and PT are?

the gtablet.cfg file has them with part2.img and part3.img which are in the same folder with the other images..

[partition]

name=BCT

id=2

type=boot_config_table

allocation_policy=sequential

filesystem_type=basic

size=3145728

file_system_attribute=0

partition_attribute=0

allocation_attribute=8

percent_reserved=0

filename=part2.img

[partition]

name=PT

id=3

type=partition_table

allocation_policy=sequential

filesystem_type=basic

size=131072

file_system_attribute=0

partition_attribute=0

allocation_attribute=8

percent_reserved=0

filename=part3.img
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jimcpl:
I think that this has a partition layout info:

http://tosh-ac100.wetpaint.com/page/Partition+Layout

BCT = boot configuratin table

PT = partition table

Jim
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rayden25:
I'm sorry, I didn't understand that you did a full NVFLASH restore, but something obviously still isn't right. I am 100% confident the device is not bricked. It just needs to have a full restore and it should be good.

Where did you get the recovery files from? How are you running them? Windows or

Linux?

I am commited to getting this thing to work again. It's a challenge that has me thinking like crazy! :D
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tcrews:
Oh...it's already drove me crazy!

I got them from the same thread you had linked.

I've done it on both Windows 7 (64 bit and 32bit) and Ubuntu 64bit 10.04.

It's frustrating in that it boots after the flash, everything works but I can't power it off or reboot it.

Once it shuts down....it's down. Screen doesn't flash from pressing power....no recovery to boot in to (stock or otherwise)....just plug it in and either nothing (then press volume - and power and watch for USB activity as the screen doesn't flash or anything) and then I can nvflash to it.

Once I nvflash and boot...I can adb access it, use wifi, etc....but that's it.
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rayden25:
OK, I think I got it. Here is another thread on NVFLASH full restore:

http://forum.tegratab.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=18

On the dropbox.com links are two different "roms" to upload. They have two different partition structures. Flash one of them, if it doesn't work, flash the other. Let us know.
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tcrews:
yeah, Brint K.'s drop box is the one from the earlier link too....so same files.

I just did the 46 one a few minutes ago......no change. Boots and then power off its done.

I flashed again, set the screen to never turn off and will let the battery drain (again) and then will wait until Monday to try anything again. I really don't feel like opening it to hit the reset again though that will be my Monday night effort.
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rayden25:
Wow, so you did both sets of files and same thing happened?
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tcrews:
Yep. nvflash is all success......device boots. Power off or something "reboots" it....dead, until nvflashed again.

Just an FYI....my "data" never gets wiped....ie, any apps I've installed are still there, my WiFi access points are still configured and the last wallpaper I set is still set. If I flash the system.img from TnT-4.0 I get the latest OS version, if I flash the ones from the dropbox I get the notification that an update is available. So the system is changing....but user data is not.

Maybe the boot.img isn't getting properly reformatted/overwritten ??
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jimcpl:
Hi,

I was looking at your log above and the cfg file, and it does look like it's not even trying to send the part2.img and part3.img. I don't know enough about nvflash to know if that's correct or not, but as you mentioned, there are part2.img and part3.img files, so it seems like it should have sent those 2 files also.

Have you tried the IRC channel? I'm sure that if you get ahold of somebody like roebeet or rothnic, they'd be able to tell you.

If it ISN'T sending those two files, which are the BCT and PT, that might explain why it doesn't boot after power on, i.e., the partition table hasn't been populated.

Again, sorry if this is not much help, but try the IRC channel.

Jim
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rayden25:
Either the boot partition or thhe recovery partition. I don't know which one comes first when the device is booting.
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jimcpl:
Hi,

I just found this thread:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=873989

in the 15th December 2010, 11:21 AM by StirCwazy, he has a log of when he ran Nvflash, and it looks like yours, i.e., no sending part2/3.img, so I guess that is probably ok.

There's also a post from roebeet, on that thread, where he said something about part9.img being the recovery partition, and possibly replacing that with recovery.img?

Jim
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tcrews:
I've replaced part9.img with bekit's Clockworkmod recovery image as well with no change.

I am going to let the battery die again.....I've flashed so many times I can't remember if I nvflashed something full (and correctly) and then tried to reset the device or not. So battery drain.....try again.....if no then open and press reset and try again.
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rayden25:
Did you try to manually nvflash part 2 and 3?

nvflash.exe --bl bootloader.bin --download 2 part2.img

Nvflash.exe --resume --download 3 part3.img
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tcrews:
Just tried.....fails.
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tcrews:
Anyone know the boot partition number?

Maybe I need to do an nvflash --setboot N ??
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tcrews:
Will in the meantime I've substituted the Veganb5.1 system.img in place of the nvflash gtablet system.img.......so I have Vegan b5.1 running.....that is until I power it off.

I've redownloaded/reinstalled a few of my apps from the Market....all that stuff stays every time I flash so why not.

I just can't power it off, can't reboot it....can't apply any "patches" as those would get washed away flashing the system.img.

Got a 2460 on Quadrant...LOL

Oh well...powered on, and plugged in for now.....
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] roebeet:
I did a quick scan of all the posts, but I think you hit on the root of the problem from the beginning - it sounds like the reboot / power up function is not getting you to a "normal mode", it's powering you up to APX mode. That's the reason why you can keep reflashing it.

The bad news is that I don't think I've ever seen this problem before. I've messed up my device to the point where the bootloader was borked, but bekit's image has saved me every time. part 2/3 do seem to get skipped on mine, as well.

Stupid question, and apologies if this has been asked already -- is the volume button stuck? Maybe it's rebooting into APX because the device thinks the volume down is being depressed. You'd probably see that when you boot, as the volume would be muted and you wouldn't be able to fix it. Just a thought.
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jimcpl:
roebeet,

That (stuck Volume button) is an interesting thought!

tcrews,

After you've flashed with Nvflash, and then power off, and then power on, with nothing plugged in, does the screen just show the Gtab "birds" screen, then go to a black screen? I just tried going to Nvflash at boot on my Gtab, and that's what I saw (there were no msgs on the screen saying you're going into APX mode), so I'm just confirming...

Also, are you running the nvflash from a Windows or from a Linux machine? If so, can you post the contents of "dir" (for Windows) or "ls -al" (for Linux) for the Nvflash directory?

I'm just wondering, because when I was fooling around with Nvflash awhile ago, I got some different results from others, so I'm wondering if there might be different versions of Nvflash floating around.

Jim
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tcrews:
No, unfortunately its not stuck as I thought of that too. I am at a loss on this. I still believe its recoverable, I just don't know how currently.

Of course I would have a dock and case w/keyboard on the way....

Posted from my bricked Gtab...
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tcrews:
No birds...just a black screen the entire time...no flash on the screen to even show power, I just see USB activity and then run nvflash.

I've done it on windows 7 (32bit and 64bit) as well as Ubuntu 10.04 64bit. Same results. I may pop it open again and hit the reset button while it up and running.

Posted from my bricked Gtab...
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jimcpl:
So, basically, without pressing any buttons except just pressing the power button, it just goes immediately to a black screen, with no other screens?

That's weird, at least compared to my Gtab.

I haven't worked much with nvflash, but if roebeet comes back, that missing "birds with white background" screen may tell him something.

Can you post the "ls -al" from your Linux machine where you ran the nvflash. Just in case. I think roebeet uses primarily Linux for his work, so maybe he can compare the directory listing to yours.

Jim
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rayden25:
I am still thinking it has to do with the recovery partition. I believe that recovery runs before boot. That's how you get into recovery when the volume + is pressed. I am really confused at this point though. Even if recovery was messed up, you would still get the birds screen. Did you try the Nvflash boot command? That might work, boot partition should be 10.

As a side note, the birds logo is on its own partition, 6 or 7, depending on which "version" of partitioning you have. So when your tab boots, it's not even seeing that. It's like the bootstrap is gone, but that's where You lose me. I know nothing about what is supposed to tell the tab what to boot and where.

Maybe manually formating every partition and then updating them. Maybe something in the script is not formating your partitions completely? There is a MBR partition, maybe that has something do with it?
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tcrews:
If I remember correctly pressing just power will connect to USB, but the screen is black. Pressing power when holding down Volume - will show the USB as connected to APX and I can flash. Screen is always permanently black until an nvflash of a system.

Will post my "ls -al" when ever I get to it....

Posted from my bricked Gtab...
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jimcpl:
Hi,

On my stock Gtab (never any firmware except OTA updates):

- If I do power+Volume+, I get small text saying "Recovery key detected" and another line, then the screen with the cardboard box and the down arrow. This is stock recovery mode, where it tries to load the update.zip using the command file in the /sdcard/recovery directory.

- If I do power+Volume-, I get the birds screen, then completely black screen. This is when the Gtab is in APX mode, and can take an Nvflash via USB.

- If I do just power, I get the birds screen, then the GTablet screen, then the TapNTap screen, then the TNT Home screen.

I don't remember if you tried this, but I was wondering: If you download one of the official TNT upgrades (maybe the latest, 3452), then:

- Put the upgrade file at /sdcard, and rename it to update.zip

- Add an /sdcard/recovery directory

- Add the command file to /sdcard/recovery

Then, power off, and power+Volume+, and get the small text then the cardboard box. That is SUPPOSE to read in and update the system from the update.zip.

Jim
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rayden25:
I think you have that wrong.

Pwr + vol+ = Recovery

Pwr + vol- = APX

At least on my 2 tabs. When going into recovery I see the white birds screen, when going into APX I don't. He is not getting the white birds screen at all., not even when he powers on with nothing pressed or white the vol+ pressed. That's the root of the issue, something is stopping it from booting.
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jimcpl:
I edited it, but you were too quick to read it :)!

Jim
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tcrews:
Correct...never se the birds and the device will only "boot" APX mode. Flash an image and I have a working device until power off/reboot.

Something is borked so a boot doesn't happen...

Posted from my bricked Gtab...
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] roebeet:
x2.

I've wiped the bootstrap at least once, and got it back up and running - not sure if I used the script for that, I might have restored each partition manually.

Blank screen at boot is the key, you aren't even seeing the birds. Try the manual partition restore, like this:

./nvflash --bl bootloader.bin --download 2 part2.img

And repeat for all the partitions. 3 and part3.img, etc.
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rayden25:
Hey said he tried that and part2 and part 3 fail. They will not upload manually or with the script.
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jimcpl:
roebeet,

As rayden mentioned above, I think that tcrews tried to do the nvflash for part2.img and part3.img manually and failed.

Is it possible that even with the batch file doing the formatting, that the partition table is still messed up (I don't know why that would happen, but...)?

Would it help do diagnose if he (tcrews) did an nvflash -getpartitiontable, to see what that shows?

Just a thought here...

Jim
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tcrews:
Correct. Will try again though...

And failed...

Flashed the Veganb51 system.img back and back to my "semi" functional tablet.....just don't power it off or try to reboot it.

I just ordered another...I had promised this one to my wife when I got something newer (like the Motorola Xoom or such) and it being in this state......well I couldn't get me a new one without something to give her. I also didn't realize how much I had grown dependent on it for things I used to do on my phone but don't care to do now because of it's small screen size.

I'll continue screwing with this one, hopefully there is something I can nvflash to it that fixes the MBT or whatever......

Will definitely be taking suggestions on what to try.....
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] rayden25:
I suggest you throw in the towel and send it to me.... I still think it's recoverable right now, but just don't know how. It's easy for me to say looking at it through my tablet's screen though. I'm out of ideas for the moment.
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tcrews:
Yeah...I think its still recoverable but how is the question still.

Hopefully somebody will find the answer if I don't.

Posted from my bricked Gtab...
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tcrews:
Just an update...

Anyone who is comfortable with nvflash...

I have two Gtabs now, the "defective" one and a brand new stock out of the box one.

Any nvflash suggestions to "pull" the partition info, or whatever else, etc.. from the stock one to try flashing to the defective one?
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] tcrews:
Oh...one more thing I just noticed...

did a --getpartitiontable on both tabs...

Good one has

and my "defective" one has

which is backwards. I also noticed the gtablet.cfg file has them listed like my "defective" one.

Suggestion switching the .cfg file around (switching image6 for image7, etc..) ?
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jimcpl:
There were 2 different files on the dropbox site. I think you're suppose to use the one w/o the 46?

I never looked at what the different was between them, but maybe that is it?

Try unzipping them separately, and compare the .cfg.

Maybe you have the .cfg from the 46 file mixed up w files from the non-46 one or vice-versa. Is that possible?

Jim

P.s. MSC is the /misc dir, but not sure what BLO is...
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jimcpl:
Still you should try the IRC channel...
[G Tablet Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] jimcpl:
What does part 8 look like in the good .cfg vs. The bad .cfg?

Also what are sizes of the part6.image and part7.image files you have/tried to flash?

Jim