Yes but that doesn't help anything thx to ASUS' encrypted bootloader partition....
Excuse my ignorance but isn't that removed when you unlock it with the tool they provided?
[HOW-TO] Unbrick your Transformer Prime (or not)
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Excuse my ignorance but isn't that removed when you unlock it with the tool they provided?
What I think he is referring to is if someone flash the stock ASUS firmware from asus support website. That would flash the lock bootloader thus bricking the system. Not sure why tho>
Just curious if the devs think it will become possible to unlock (a Honeycomb version) and install a ROM from the microSD card.
In early January I bricked by Prime where it won't boot up. Because it doesn't boot to the home screen, the device doesn't mount the drives. As a result, I don't have access to use ADB.
I just want to know if it's worth waiting, or if I need to RMA the device back to Asus.
Thanks!!!
In early January I bricked by Prime where it won't boot up. Because it doesn't boot to the home screen, the device doesn't mount the drives. As a result, I don't have access to use ADB.
I just want to know if it's worth waiting, or if I need to RMA the device back to Asus.
Thanks!!!
This is the sad thing about android.... I've always asked myself "why can you brick an android device in the first place"? Can't brick an apple that I'm aware of. You can't brick a microsoft machine, you can always get back windows. It just boggles my mind!
Someone please enlighten me!
This is because people are flashing/patching pretty much the equivalent of the BIOS in these cases.
google "flashed bios wont power on" to see the equivalent bricked PC cases that people have had.
With PCs tho, its easy to pop the bios chip and replace it with another etc.
Ipad can easily be bricked after jailbreaking. seen tons of them from Ipad forums. Actually even worse for them. no way to recover at all. have to send Ipad in. then once they realize you jailbroke it, warranty voided. Lol
Sounds like a software brick. Can you access the stock recovery? If so then you could flash the stock ASUS firmware.
MasterZen88,
I can access the stock recovery. How do I flash the stock ASUS firmware from there? The only options I am aware of require ADB access to move the blob file using the dd command or launched from Settings/Check for System Update screen.
Update: I probably want to make sure we're clear on access to stock recovery. I can get into the area where I can wipe data and perform a cold reboot. If I press Vol+ instead, I get Android with an exclamation point.
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I also am having the same problem. Also I was wodering if it is possible to install android on an sdcard nd create a boot script for it. So people with bricked devices could boot from SD? Then use the unlock tool to unlock and install cwm? Then flash from there.
anthonyalberto helped me out. The trick is that the firmware installed from the microSD card must be a later version than the one installed on the Prime.
Thank you very much for your assistance.
There should be an option to update via a file on the microsd, but I don't know anymore how to do that exactly...
Try putting the inner zip of the full asus .14 update to a micro sd, put it in the prime and boot the stock recovery (the one with the android)
lol my browser fooled me
glad to see it's working again
Hey could you pass that information along im having the same issue n i cant use the recovery due to the red exclamaiton point.
is there a specific name that we have to rename the firmware file.im still on 9.4.2.13 if someone could help it would be much appreciated. if its like anyother stock recovery the file has to be renamed so.
~globed
I will explain my specific situation as a reference to everyone.
At the time ICS was released in January, I was one of the folks who had trouble with the firmware upgrade to ICS. There were workaround suggestions posted on the forums. I attempted one of the procedures and it bricked my Prime. At the time, no options were available to unbrick the Prime. I didn't have access to ADB because the Prime would hang during the boot up process. The boot process was not getting to the home screen, so I had no option to reflash. As an aside, I purchased another Prime and held on to this one waiting for the unlocked bootloader. It turns out I didn't need too wait...
The firmware version I was on was 8.8.3.33 (Honeycomb 3.2)
What I had been doing was:
1) Download the 8.8.3.33 firmware (I only did this once)
2) Extract the UpdateLauncher_US_epaduser8_8_3_33.zip file
3) Inside the extracted UpdateLauncher_US_epaduser8_8_3_33.zip is a zip file called: US_epad-user-8.8.3.33.zip
4) I renamed the file to EP201_SDUPDATE.ZIP
5) Used my PC to copy EP201_SDUPDATE.ZIP to my microSD card's root directory
6) Inserted my microSD card in the Prime
7) At the same time, I pressed Power and Vol (-)
8) Once the text appeared in the lefthand corner, I let go both buttons, waited a second, then pressed the Vol (+) button.
The android animation would run for about 20 second, then come up with an Android laying down with an exclaimation point.
Based on another suggestion I read earlier today, I followed the same procedure, except instead of using the firmware for 8.8.3.33, I used 9.4.2.7.
In 9.4.2.7,
1) I extracted the file contents from the US_epaduser9_4_2_7UpdateLauncher.zip file
2) Located the US_epad-user-9.4.2.7.zip file
3) Renamed the US_epad-user-9.4.2.7.zip file to EP201_SDUPDATE.ZIP
4) Copy the EP201_SDUPDATE.ZIP to my microSD root directory
5) Then ran the same procedure as outlined above.
It appears the Prime checks if the version of firmware is newer than the one already installed. It worked like a charm.
In your case, I recommend downloading 9.4.2.14 from the ASUS support site and attempt the procedure. Make sure you use the microSD card and not the /sdcard directory on the Prime.
Let me know if you have any other questions.
Thanks for the response man. it unfortunaly did not work. im going to try fastboot and downgrading. iff not it looks like warrenty time
Okay we successfully un-bricked a Brick 3 just now.
Updating the thread tomorrow.
Updating the thread tomorrow.
Okay we successfully un-bricked a Brick 3 just now.
Updating the thread tomorrow.
I almost had a heart attack
Me too
ASUS did really screw up this unlock thing... Almost nothing works, everything bricks your Prime etc
Me too
ASUS did really screw up this unlock thing... Almost nothing works, everything brick your Prime etc
Well shall we discover a 4th brick? I can test some more things, hopefully things that only cause brick 3 or 1
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138Hey guys,
I just wanted to put some information together on how to recover your bricked Prime (if possible).
DISCLAIMER
I am in no way responsible for what you do with your Prime, even when you are following these (my) instructions.
There is always the risk of making it worse and this risk is completely down to you!!!
Currently we know 4 states of bricked Primes whereas 3 are more or less widespread.
- Brick 1a: You unlocked your Prime with ASUS' tool, did some stuff to it (like flashing a custom ROM) and now it always boots into recovery instead of your ROM.
You can't select to boot to fastboot or anything else. No matter what you do it's always the recovery. (happening to many users)
-> Please go to Option 1a
- Brick 1b: You unlocked your Prime with ASUS' tool, did some stuff to it (like flashing a custom ROM) and now once you want to boot your new ROM it shows you the bootanimation but suddenly tells you something about an "unsuccessful encryption" (it's a real android screen, with a touch button etc.)
Once you hit the "Reset" button it restarts but you can't boot the ROM anymore, you are now caught in a CWM loop (much like Brick 1a)
-> Please go to Option 1b
- Brick 2: When booting up your Prime hangs at the splashscreen (the screen with "EeePad" in the middle) and tells you something about an "unrecoverable bootloader error" (happened so far to at least 4 users)
-> Please go to Option 2
- Brick 3: (After messing around with your Prime in recovery it won't boot any ROM anymore, you can however still access fastboot and the recovery)
Update: This particular brick happens due to a bad kernel flash. If you are flashing kernels via the ASUS /staging method, make sure /staging is unmounted before flashing stuff to it, otherwise it WILL faill and brick.
Update 2: It seems we can't use the old fix for this brick anymore. Sometimes it does more bad than good.
->Please go to Option 3
Option 1a
Don't be afraid, your Prime should be recoverable. This is the good news. The bad news is, that you need quite some knowledge of ADB.
To recover your Prime (most likely) you need the following:
- A working ADB setup (please google that if you don't have it, "tutorial setup adb" or something like that should do the trick)
- The USB-Cable to connect the Prime to your PC
- A few minutes time
Now do the following:
- Make sure your Prime is in Recovery mode (CWM)
- Open a cmd line on your pc
- Type: "adb shell"
- You should see a "#" now
- Once you have that "#", please type: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p4 bs=100 count=1 and press [Enter]
- Now type: dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/block/mmcblk0p3 bs=16 count=1 and press [Enter]
- Exit the shell and reboot your Prime via CWM
- It should not reboot to CWM automatically now. It either boots your ROM or is stuck at the splash screen. If it is stuck, boot to recovery and install any ROM you want.
Option 1b
Good news, this brick should be no problem.
Basically you need to first do Option 1a, but don't reboot the Prime just yet.
- After executing the dd commands, you need to reboot your Prime to the bootloader menu and NOT the ROM itself.
- To do this you need to reboot your device while holding down the Volume_Down key.
- Once the white text in the top left corner appears release the buttons.
- Now don't press anything until you can see a menu with 3 icons, an Android symbol, an USB symbol and a Wipe Data symbol.
- Select the Wipe Data icon with pressing Volume_Down twice. Now press Volume_Up twice to reset the device to factory state.
- WARNING: OF COURSE THIS WILL DELETE ALL YOUR DATA!!!! EVEN THE INTERNAL MEMORY AKA SDCARD!!! CURRENTLY I DON'T KNOW ANY OTHER WAY TO RECOVER FROM THIS BRICK!!!
- After the wipe is done, you should be able to flash a new ROM or boot the existing ROM
Option 2
Sorry, but your Prime is most likely hard bricked.
This can happen if you try to apply a stock blob file after you installed CWM. There is currently no way to recover from this.
Option 3
If you are in this situation (Prime doesn't boot but you can access both recovery and fastboot) please go to #asus-transformer on freenode and ask for help there. We currently don't know if you can recover from this state.
Do not, I repeat, do not try to flash a stock ASUS ROM/blob file.
Doing this you will most likely hard brick your Prime.
We now found a way to un-brick this one too
This one is a bit more risky, so make sure you follow all instructions with a bit of extra care.
Update: It seems the old method for this brick could make things even worse on some Primes.
On some primes this can be easily fixed, however putting this in a guide could do more harm than good.
Troubleshooting
- Problems getting ADB to work in recovery mode? Only seeing something like "Full Android on Emulator" in the device manager instead of your tablet?
Well I have a posible fix for you: Got to this thread and download the drivers. Then override the drivers for the Emulator device manually with the new ones. ADB should work now
--- Read here how to prevent future bricks and other common problems ---
Bits & pieces
You might want to have a look here for a possible solution for some bootloader errors (It's from a TF300):
http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=44244313&postcount=12
Credits:
thx to kmdm for his solution on Brick 1a and Brick 36
Holly Sweet Baby Jesus!!!!!
Thank God!!! *Breaths sigh of relief*
Problem/Issue:
- Was on AOKP Milestone 5.
- Installed TWRP Recovery via fastboot (over CWM).
- Made Backup.
- Installed CM9, played with it for a day or so.
- Wanted to go back to AOKP... Restored TWRP Backup
- Upon Reboot, stuck at boot screen (EEE Pad Screen).
- No recovery, only options were wipe & fastboot
- Flashing either version of recovery yielded no results... still stuck.
Solution:
- Download AKOP Rom zip again to computer. (or which ever particular rom you restored).
- boot into fastboot
- flash recovery via "fastboot -i 0x0b05 flash recovery recovery-clockwork-touch-5.8.1.8-tf201.img" <--- CWM Touch Version
- Extract boot.blob from Rom .zip
- flash boot.blob via "fastboot -i 0x0b05 flash boot boot.blob"
- reboot via "fastboot -i 0x0b05 reboot"
BOOTING UP & Recovery Access!!!3
Try instaling these drivers here manually please
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1426502
Adb should work fine afterwards2Okay I added a 4th brick to the list. It's a variant of the first Brick and it is recoverable2 - Brick 1a: You unlocked your Prime with ASUS' tool, did some stuff to it (like flashing a custom ROM) and now it always boots into recovery instead of your ROM.
