[Q] Change SKU from CN to US or WW, how?

UoMoTaLpA · Jan 7, 2014

Hi kids, as per title, my issue is quite simple: I (unfortunately) live in China, and my pad came with CN firmware. I realized that it also came with no gapps installed, and that's a bummer. I'm about to root it, so I'll be able to install gapps as system apps manually one by one, but that's a huge waste of time and it's not an elegant solution, too.

This said, how can I -SAFELY- change my SKU version from CN to WW or US? After rooting, can I do the manual update procedure and put the unzipped FW from Asus in the microsd card etc etc? Or is there some other way?

P.S. I'm not planning to install any recovery at the moment: I actually received my pad last week, and I hard-bricked it in 30 minutes following the recovery install guide in the dedicated thread (too lazy to link it now, but it's just out there in the other forum - I didn't follow the now locked one, I followed the other one, where so many people seemed so happy with the result -__-). Luckily either the seller of my tab or the asus service desk he sent the tablet too were too dumb to realize I dabbled with it... and they restored the system for free although you could see UNLOCKED on the screen at boot

anyhow that's why I'm NOT installing recovery now, not until there's a tested "official" version I can just slap in with ROM Manager. So, do I need a recovery to change my CN to WW or US? Or it can be done some other way?

Cheers!

Alta1r · Jan 8, 2014

UoMoTaLpA said:
Hi kids, as per title, my issue is quite simple: I (unfortunately) live in China, and my pad came with CN firmware. I realized that it also came with no gapps installed, and that's a bummer. I'm about to root it, so I'll be able to install gapps as system apps manually one by one, but that's a huge waste of time and it's not an elegant solution, too.

This said, how can I -SAFELY- change my SKU version from CN to WW or US? After rooting, can I do the manual update procedure and put the unzipped FW from Asus in the microsd card etc etc? Or is there some other way?

P.S. I'm not planning to install any recovery at the moment: I actually received my pad last week, and I hard-bricked it in 30 minutes following the recovery install guide in the dedicated thread (too lazy to link it now, but it's just out there in the other forum - I didn't follow the now locked one, I followed the other one, where so many people seemed so happy with the result -__-). Luckily either the seller of my tab or the asus service desk he sent the tablet too were too dumb to realize I dabbled with it... and they restored the system for free although you could see UNLOCKED on the screen at boot anyhow that's why I'm NOT installing recovery now, not until there's a tested "official" version I can just slap in with ROM Manager. So, do I need a recovery to change my CN to WW or US? Or it can be done some other way?

Cheers!

Not sure if you can, but if you could i think the only way would be to an offical Asus ROM with a different SKU manually via fastboot. But since you already had problems installing a custom recovery this might not be for you.

I think remembering when i owned the TF300 and Jelly Bean (or was TF101 with ICS?) came out that the only way at first was to flash the US-version of the ROM (since WW wasn't out yet). Which is what i did and i hadn't any problem. A week or so later when the WW version came out I went back to WW.

But i'm really not certain anymore. Maybe someone else knows if it's possible or not.

AngryDinosaur · Jan 8, 2014

Not possible

Sent from my SGH-T889 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

malos1984 · Jan 9, 2014

actually it is if rooted and have cwm or something.

it will let you flash any firmware. though there are risks of bricking.

I did the same on my old acer was an AU now it`s ww because ww had less bloat ware and the 4.1 had been out for 2 months and au didn`t get it and i was impatient

AngryDinosaur · Jan 9, 2014

malos1984 said:
actually it is if rooted and have cwm or something.

it will let you flash any firmware. though there are risks of bricking.

I did the same on my old acer was an AU now it`s ww because ww had less bloat ware and the 4.1 had been out for 2 months and au didn`t get it and i was impatient

flashing official firmware for a different SKU will cause issues

malos1984 · Jan 9, 2014

AngryDinosaur said:
flashing official firmware for a different SKU will cause issues

only if the hardware is different i.e. dock jpn has diff buttons. some brands have diff wifi hardware depending on region etc.

however in the case of au and ww acer the tab is the same besides pre-loaded bloatware.

as is the case for most of the versions of tf701. cn jp and TW would probably not be wise to go to ww or us due to the dock but i can`t be certain.

It might just mean the language ime buttons won`t function but it might also mean the dock won`t function at all.

Alta1r · Jan 9, 2014

malos1984 said:
only if the hardware is different i.e. dock jpn has diff buttons. some brands have diff wifi hardware depending on region etc.

however in the case of au and ww acer the tab is the same besides pre-loaded bloatware.

as is the case for most of the versions of tf701. cn jp and TW would probably not be wise to go to ww or us due to the dock but i can`t be certain.

It might just mean the language ime buttons won`t function but it might also mean the dock won`t function at all.

I'm pretty sure i did it, but i didn't have a dock, so it was the tablet only. Didn't run it that long either, like 3-4 days, so maybe it was too short to see what didn't work anymore...

I was trying to find back the post here on XDA, but i think it has been rewritten when the WW-version came out.

AngryDinosaur · Jan 9, 2014

What's beneficial to flash a different sku Rom?

Sent from my SGH-T889 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

UoMoTaLpA · Jan 10, 2014

Benefit is that on CN SKU I got no gapps and in return I got a boatload of chinese crapware. No google play. No maps. No gmail.
I'm actually struggling with the vendor to take it back, since as it is now, it's actually nothing more than a paperweight:
-Bootloader can't be unlocked, since the unlock software calls home to Asus, and my SN is not recognized.
-Since bootloader is locked, I can't root.
-Since I can't root, I can't install Gapps, I can't do basically anything.

Would a working nvflash let me fix all this? Or with a locked bootloader I'm definitely screwed? Would it be worth the wait?

malos1984 · Jan 10, 2014

if ur sn is not recognised then its a knock off or stolen from asus factory imo

i would force a refund

UoMoTaLpA · Jan 21, 2014

malos1984 said:
if ur sn is not recognised then its a knock off or stolen from asus factory imo

i would force a refund

...and in the end that's what I did. I loved the concept, but the actual thing was crippled. I leveraged the double-SN-thingy and the hardware connector issue, and after some discussion I got my refund. Bought a note 10.1 2014, not what I wanted, due to lack of keyboard and battery life, but it seems it's the second best tablet around (in my opinion).

I would have been happier with a working Asus, but problems were too many. At least the note does what it promises, even though it promises "less", and I never even used the S-pen once since I unboxed it.

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[Q] Change SKU from CN to US or WW, how?

UoMoTaLpA

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Alta1r

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AngryDinosaur

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malos1984

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AngryDinosaur

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malos1984

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Alta1r

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AngryDinosaur

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UoMoTaLpA

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malos1984

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UoMoTaLpA

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