[Q] apx flash utility usb boot recovery driver

dibb_nz · Dec 8, 2012

svavrek said:
Okay. Rooted the A500 this afternoon... got ready to flash the first step from blackthund3r's APX Flash Utility... I have the drivers, up to date, and clicked "No" to go back and get them (accidentally) and now it is sitting still saying "Acer Iconia APX Mode" in the upper left screen in white text with a nice green ACER logo in the middle, but it isn't doing anything and the APX tool says "Waiting for 4 seconds for the tablet to enter the bootloader", but the tablet is not entering such a bootloader... What now?

BE VERY CAREFUL WHAT YOU DO NEXT....YOU MAY END UP BRICKED!!!
i'm writing up a post now - if u have done something take a note of what!!

Once the flashing process has stalled like this AND your tab is stuck in "bootloader mode" which you are, the tool won't work.
It will get stuck at "nvflash resume" cmd window and sit there
I've just run the tool and clicked no where you did.
If I tried running the tool again it would just 'hang'
I tried running civatos manual nvFlash and that would hang too.

So this is what I did....
on yr pc go to the "safely remove hardware icon" in the system tray...
choose "eject APX device"
disconnect the usb cable and turn your tab OFF
make sure it is by checking the power LED light is OFF
then i simply rebooted.
heres where things got interesting..
It booted into the v8 boot screen??? and then booted normally into android.
I checked the bootloader version using Acer Recovery Installer
It tells me I am still on the unlocked ICS bootloader : 3.14-MUL
So....
I knew I still had root, else ARI wouldnt have opened...but to be sure I ran root using "simple method"
only because blackthund3rs tool didnt recognise my tab???
then went in and renamed "recovery-from-boot.p" file which overwrites the custom recovery with the stock one
and used ARI to flash cwm 1.7 - cos "fastboot" didnt recognise my tab either -
rebooted straight to recovery with no probs!!!
PHEW!!!!!

It seems if you click no at the "are you ready to flash" window, theres really no way to continue....
None of the tools seem to work...most times reinstalling the drivers works...but thats a hassle!!!
I was just trying to find a quick and dirty way of NOT getting stuck in APX or Download Mode....

not sure how i ended up on the v8 unlocked bootloader??? so i'm gonna reflash the v8 and cem 1.7.3 just in case...

good luck with it!!!!

Zoandroid · Sep 12, 2013

This just doesn't work. Period.

I can't believe this has ever worked for anyone.

I spent 12 hours today digging on the internet and trying various things. NOTHING worked the way it is supposed to, including APX Flash and A500 Manager. When I connect my A500 to my WinXP notebook, it is running Thor ICS v 170 still using the HC bootloader, (has been for years) I never see the typical USB connection interface we used to see in Windows. Ever since Android dumped USB Mass storage, it will "connect", and you can transfer files, but it does not work like it used to. I hear the "USB connected" tone, then immediately the USB DISCONNECTED tone, even though it is connected and files will transfer. My Galaxy S3 phone does the same thing connecting to my Win7 PC. This A500 won't even try to transfer files to the Win7 PC, so I always use the notebook when I need to do something with the A500. But it is impossible to put my A500 into APX mode. So when I have it connected this way and try to use APX Flash or A500 Manager all I get is unhandled exception errors.

I even got it to install the USB Boot drivers on my notebook once by using the method of holding the reset button and the power button. But ever since then, Windows is basically blind to the A500, even while transferring files to and from it. Makes no sense to me. Those errors all say something about not finding files. Obviously these apps are looking for something on the A500 and can't find it because it never enters APX mode no matter what I try. So I am giving up, until someone can come up with a simple way to upgrade the bootloader to ICS. None of the methods I found worked, and I tried to figure out many of them. Extremely convoluted guides that are barely understandable. Rooting and installing a ROM is a piece of cake compared to the hoops needed to be jumped through for this. There HAS to be an easier way.

dibb_nz · Sep 12, 2013

Believe it or not...

Zoandroid said:
I can't believe this has ever worked for anyone.

I spent 12 hours today digging on the internet and trying various things. NOTHING worked the way it is supposed to, including APX Flash and A500 Manager. When I connect my A500 to my WinXP notebook, it is running Thor ICS v 170 still using the HC bootloader, (has been for years) I never see the typical USB connection interface we used to see in Windows. Ever since Android dumped USB Mass storage, it will "connect", and you can transfer files, but it does not work like it used to. I hear the "USB connected" tone, then immediately the USB DISCONNECTED tone, even though it is connected and files will transfer. My Galaxy S3 phone does the same thing connecting to my Win7 PC. This A500 won't even try to transfer files to the Win7 PC, so I always use the notebook when I need to do something with the A500. But it is impossible to put my A500 into APX mode. So when I have it connected this way and try to use APX Flash or A500 Manager all I get is unhandled exception errors.

I even got it to install the USB Boot drivers on my notebook once by using the method of holding the reset button and the power button. But ever since then, Windows is basically blind to the A500, even while transferring files to and from it. Makes no sense to me. Those errors all say something about not finding files. Obviously these apps are looking for something on the A500 and can't find it because it never enters APX mode no matter what I try. So I am giving up, until someone can come up with a simple way to upgrade the bootloader to ICS. None of the methods I found worked, and I tried to figure out many of them. Extremely convoluted guides that are barely understandable. Rooting and installing a ROM is a piece of cake compared to the hoops needed to be jumped through for this. There HAS to be an easier way.

this has worked for hundereds of peeps - instead of blaming the tools, maybe you should be asking "how come it's not working for me"????

if you get the drivers installed correctly, you won't have an issue UNLESS yr tab is one of those with the faulty memory chip.

the auto tools work fine AS LONG AS the drivers are installed CORRECTLY, you won't get anywhere until they are...

Rooting and installing a rom was a piece of cake becoz you're running a tegra-owners rom . If you got issues you probly get more help on their forum.

If you want to flash one of the roms from here on xda you're gonna have to jump thru hoops to unlock the bootloader...

Your biggest problem is windows not recognizing the tab....this again, as always, is a driver issue.

Why do you even need the unlocked bootloader???? You have the tegra owners rom which doesn't require it, maybe you're asking the tools to do something which they aren't designed to do?????

Zoandroid · Sep 12, 2013

. Why do you even need the unlocked bootloader???? [/QUOTE said:
So I can run one of the ROMs here. I wanted to try the 4.3 ROM that I found on here, and I even flashed it today, but when it stuck on the Acer logo I read in its thread that one needs the ICS bootloader. Honeycomb is pretty much a thing of the past. I've been using rooted ICS on the tablet for a long time. I probably "should have" updated the bootloader a long time ago, so resolved to try to do it today.

I'll try re-installing the drivers on the notebook and see if that helps. I thought they were working OK, but perhaps not.

Thanks for your tips.

---------- Post added at 01:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:33 AM ----------

OK, I downloaded and re-installed the Acer A500 USB driver Acer version 1.06.1500. I then connected the tablet to my WinXP notebook using the Acer A500 USB cable. It connects as a Portable Device. There is no "Safely Remove USB" icon in the task tray. Looks pretty much the same as it did earlier today. Is this what I should be seeing?

A500 Manager was able to detect the A500. APX Flash tool could still not see it. I tried using A500 Manager to go into APX mode. Along the way, the notebook detected and installed the Acer USB Recovery driver. Then it disconnected A500 Manager and it now said "No A500 connected".

So I disconnected the cable, rebooted the tablet, and started over. A500 Manager now sees the A500. Using it to try to go into APX mode. It killed the display on the tablet, (which could mean it is in APX mode) but then A500 manager now says "No A500 connected" again.

Is there any reason I should not have the power connected to the A500? ( I do.)

Do I need to do the Dump my BCT step? If I try, it will hang APX Flash with an Unhandled Exception error.

So this still is not working for me. When I want to try again, I have to hold the A500 power button for several seconds until it vibrates, and then it boots. Was it actually going into APX mode?? I wish there were a better way to tell. I've tried unplugging its power connection now and am starting over.

Nope. Trying to get into APX mode with the A500 Manager, which detects the A500 in normal mode, and debugging on, disconnects the A500 as soon as it leaves the "Entering APX Mode in 1...." screen and shows "No A500 connected". From there I can't do anything.

Any more ideas? (What do you mean by "faulty memory chip" and how do I tell if it has one?)

Zoandroid · Sep 12, 2013

SUCCESS!

:cyclops:

I think I finally have it! A500 Manager shows the Bootloader Version as 0.03.14-MUL. Is that correct for the ICS bootloader?

I hate USB. Always have. Always will.

I got to thinking about all I have read through the years about the USB ports (and in fact all serial ports, dating back to RS-232 ports) on notebooks usually NOT meeting the actual specifications for which they were designed, most notably that they don't provide anywhere near the proper voltage and current to work many USB devices. The more I thought about that, I realized this whole issue for me could simply be a matter of having chosen to use a notebook. I keep my notebook specifically NOT upgraded to Windows 7, because certain things I need to do, including working with Android devices, often work better from XP than from the permissions-infested environment of Win7. So it is my go-to for things like ADB. Usually.

I decided to try this again using my Win7x64 PC. And I believe I have succeeded! But there were issues along the way I'd like to mention to help anyone else in my situation.

First and foremost, the program windows of both A500 Manager and APX Flash tool do not render properly on either my WinXP SP3 notebook or my Win7x64 PC. One button is barely visible as only a a tiny line, and others (based on the online pictures I saw researching how to use these tools) do not appear at all on my screen.

A500 Manager sometimes loses its text display across the bottom, indicating whether the A500 is connected and which mode it is in. On my notebook when entering APX mode it never changes from "No A500 connected" to showing it is connected in APX mode. On the Win7 PC it did show that, after showing it was supposedly not connected even though it was.

APX Flasher does not display most of the text, for example on the Manual APX mode tab, so I can't read all the instructions. Neither of these windows will resize. I even tried using a tool called ResizeEnableRunner on them, which works to resize most of these types of windows. The fellow who made that utility said if it doesn't work it is because the programmer did not follow the guidelines laid out by Microsoft for making a Windows application when he designed the window. Because these won't resize, and obscure their text and controls, I am thinking they may have been created for some specific resolution of display (that may be uncommon to what I use here).

With all these hurdles, I had to guess my way through running these two utilities. And I could not utilize the "Dump my BCT" feature. Doing so freezes on the "Staging and backing up BCT" message and throws an un-handled exception, requiring me to start all over again.

Using this bootloader I finally got the 4.3 based ROM running that I wanted to try. Even has working GPS (which TICS v170 never had for me).

dibb_nz · Sep 12, 2013

Zoandroid said:
So I can run one of the ROMs here. I wanted to try the 4.3 ROM that I found on here, and I even flashed it today, but when it stuck on the Acer logo I read in its thread that one needs the ICS bootloader.

you are correct, you got stuck on the acer logo b/c you're on the old HC bootoader. All the xda roms require skrilax_cz unlocked bootloader.

OK, I downloaded and re-installed the Acer A500 USB driver Acer version 1.06.1500. I then connected the tablet to my WinXP notebook using the Acer A500 USB cable. It connects as a Portable Device. There is no "Safely Remove USB" icon in the task tray. Looks pretty much the same as it did earlier today. Is this what I should be seeing?

There are 2 lots of drivers you need...Acers and those from the android sdk. there's a mini zip you can download if you don't already have the sdk installed. Get them here. Extract them to a folder on C: somewhere so they are easy to find. There are 2 executables in there adb.exe and fastboot.exe. In order to 'run' these you need to open a command prompt ON THE FOLDER that contain them or by navigatijng to the folder within the command window itself....you cannnot 'run' them by just clicking on them.

A500 Manager was able to detect the A500. APX Flash tool could still not see it. I tried using A500 Manager to go into APX mode. Along the way, the notebook detected and installed the Acer USB Recovery driver. Then it disconnected A500 Manager and it now said "No A500 connected".

I'm hoping this will be resolved once you have the adb/fastboot drivers.

So I disconnected the cable, rebooted the tablet, and started over. A500 Manager now sees the A500. Using it to try to go into APX mode. It killed the display on the tablet, (which could mean it is in APX mode) but then A500 manager now says "No A500 connected" again.

Ok, apx mode is defined as "black screen but power light is on" the usb icon on your pc should show "apx device". IF this is what you see thats good carry on, dont worry what a500 manager sees....are you seeing these windows????

on your tab it should display something like "acer iconia download mode"

take a look at the pictorial here are you seeing these windows etc??

Is there any reason I should not have the power connected to the A500? ( I do.)

Your power cable do you mean, yeh it won't hurt and the last thing you need is to lose power while flashing,

Do I need to do the Dump my BCT step? If I try, it will hang APX Flash with an Unhandled Exception error.

Yes you do...does it actually hang, or can you move on to the next window...take a good look at the link I posted and tell me if you're using the tool the same way

So this still is not working for me. When I want to try again, I have to hold the A500 power button for several seconds until it vibrates, and then it boots. Was it actually going into APX mode?? I wish there were a better way to tell. I've tried unplugging its power connection now and am starting over.

Nope. Trying to get into APX mode with the A500 Manager, which detects the A500 in normal mode, and debugging on, disconnects the A500 as soon as it leaves the "Entering APX Mode in 1...." screen and shows "No A500 connected". From there I can't do anything.

Any more ideas? (What do you mean by "faulty memory chip" and how do I tell if it has one?)

i'm starting to get a bit confused myself, lol...the best way to tell if its in apx mode is the power light, is it on?

As far as the tab disconnecting, get the other drivers on your system, disconnect yr tab from the pc, reboot PC wait for boot into xp before connecting your tab again. Lets make sure you can see the apx device listed in device manager or usb icon in your system tray.

The other thing you want to be aware of running the tegra owner rom is that some folks have had issues flashing the unlocked bootloader. And have had to a complete data wipe to get booting again...this means you will LOSE ALL YOUR DATA....can you boot into recovery still??? Might pay to do a backup and then a full wipe

Zoandroid · Sep 13, 2013

Thanks, dibb_nz, for the useful information. But I was able to get things done by switching to my PC to use the A500 Manager and APX Flash tools. I don't know anything about the mini-sdk files. I did not use anything like that. I do have my notebook set up for ADB and Odin stuff, and normally have used it several times with various Android devices I've owned to do anything along the lines of rooting or flashing files. This was the first time I had to switch to the PC to accomplish my goal. Windows 7 and its "permissions" crap too often cause me grief on such things, so I keep XP around for stuff like this.

Yes, I see the windows you are showing, (but not correctly rendered like you have), on either my notebook or PC. Here is a collection of screen shots showing how the windows have obscured and missing text, buttons overlaying text, and almost completely missing button on the opening window for APX Flash tool. I just guessed and clicked on that thin "line" to see if it was a button (I've seen this before on some other poorly coded Windows programs). Stepping through the Flash Tool was by guess and go the whole way since I could not see everything. (Note I took this collection of shots AFTER I was successful, and so I do not have the tablet connected at this time, so it shows not connected. But this is what they looked like as I made the process work on my PC).

dibb_nz · Sep 13, 2013

Soooo, r u all good then???

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 4

Zoandroid · Sep 13, 2013

99%

I'd like to be using TWRP 2.6, but for the life of me the best I can get to work is 2.1. Maybe this ROM doesn't support 2.6. Neither goomanager nor Acer Recovery can make 2.6 stick. And although I got the Win7 PC to talk to the tablet, it won't see the tablet if I boot it into fastboot, so I can't try using ADB to flash 2.6.

dibb_nz · Sep 13, 2013

Zoandroid said:
99%

I'd like to be using TWRP 2.6, but for the life of me the best I can get to work is 2.1. Maybe this ROM doesn't support 2.6. Neither goomanager nor Acer Recovery can make 2.6 stick. And although I got the Win7 PC to talk to the tablet, it won't see the tablet if I boot it into fastboot, so I can't try using ADB to flash 2.6.

check the twrp thread - someone posted a patch in the last few pages somewhere.

Zoandroid · Sep 13, 2013

dibb_nz said:
check the twrp thread - someone posted a patch in the last few pages somewhere.

You mean a patch because of the problem like I was having?

---------- Post added at 04:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:42 PM ----------

I found what they had here.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1592677&highlight=twrp&page=5

Post # 216

It is not a patch, but a copy of TWRP 2.4.4 that does run on the A500. I flashed it right from TWRP 2.1.3 and rebooted to recovery and viola! Plus, as I had hoped, it HAS the "name the backup" on the fly feature.

THANKS!!

Apparently there is some reason 2.6 won't work on the A500, at least with certain ROMs.

Heads up alert! This TWRP 2.4.4 version has a _______ "power saving" feature set by default to turn the display OFF in the middle of what you are doing after a short period of time! Always gives me that warm fuzzy feeling when I am working on something critical, turn away to type some notes on my notebook, and turn back to find the display suddenly gives all appearances that the device has DIED. I can't imagine why ANYONE would ever want this, but thankfully there is a SCREEN button on the home screen through which you can set this time delay screen blanking to NONE.

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[Q] apx flash utility usb boot recovery driver

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