[HOW-TO] Unbrick your Transformer Prime (or not)

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Jesushasadroid

Senior Member
Oct 11, 2010
722
44
Hollywood, FL
my is bricked option 1a style...it only boots into cwm recovery...it doesnt have a backup nandroid...where can I find the stock zip 3.2 to flash via cwm and get it back going again..thanks
 

grneyez

Senior Member
Sep 3, 2009
736
119
Have a question regarding backup & reset.

When I go settings,backup & reset, factory data reset it it causes a Brick 1A. Why does it cause a brick when this is done? How come when I hold power/vol down and get to the stock data wipe and chose wipe it restores the tablet to original stock but does not cause it to brick? Anyone have any idea as to why?
 

mtotho

Senior Member
Oct 29, 2010
361
104
Union, NJ
Have a question regarding backup & reset.

When I go settings,backup & reset, factory data reset it it causes a Brick 1A. Why does it cause a brick when this is done? How come when I hold power/vol down and get to the stock data wipe and chose wipe it restores the tablet to original stock but does not cause it to brick? Anyone have any idea as to why?

Because it erases your rom and you have nothing to boot into?

Where are you 'factory resetting'?
 

grneyez

Senior Member
Sep 3, 2009
736
119
my is bricked option 1a style...it only boots into cwm recovery...it doesn't have a backup nandroid...where can I find the stock zip 3.2 to flash via cwm and get it back going again..thanks

If it docent need to by stock 3.2 you can use this which is ICS

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1518462

---------- Post added at 07:05 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:01 PM ----------

Because it erases your rom and you have nothing to boot into?

Where are you 'factory resetting'?

But does it not have the factory rom on it? How come before rooting/unlocking bootloader when I do a factory reset thru settings it does not erase the rom? Also, why is the rom not erased when you use power/vol down and you don't go into CWM and reset with the stock reset?

The reason I am factory resetting is I want to return the tablet and exchange for another. Screen bleed spread out further on the screen,making it very noticeable.
 
Last edited:

Diamondback

Retired Dev Committee Lead / Retired Senior Mod
Jan 17, 2010
4,476
6,631
virtuous-ten-studio.com
Because it erases your rom and you have nothing to boot into?

Where are you 'factory resetting'?


No.




Have a question regarding backup & reset.

When I go settings,backup & reset, factory data reset it it causes a Brick 1A. Why does it cause a brick when this is done? How come when I hold power/vol down and get to the stock data wipe and chose wipe it restores the tablet to original stock but does not cause it to brick? Anyone have any idea as to why?


This is probably because not Android wipes the device but the recovery.
So Android tells the recovery to error on the next restart but the stock recovery is not there anymore and CWM does recognize the "wipe" command.

Therefor the bootloader always loads up the recovery because the wipe command was never executed nor cleared.

Gesendet von meinem Desire HD mit Tapatalk
 

grneyez

Senior Member
Sep 3, 2009
736
119
No.







This is probably because not Android wipes the device but the recovery.
So Android tells the recovery to error on the next restart but the stock recovery is not there anymore and CWM does recognize the "wipe" command.

Therefor the bootloader always loads up the recovery because the wipe command was never executed nor cleared.

Gesendet von meinem Desire HD mit Tapatalk


Ok, I understand that. Now is there anyway to truly go to stock 100% if one chose to do so?
 

grneyez

Senior Member
Sep 3, 2009
736
119
well wipe data in CWM and format the sdcard.

Gesendet von meinem Desire HD mit Tapatalk

Maybe I dident explain corectly. If one wanted to go back completly to stock, meaning stock recovery not CWM? So when someone had to go settings,backup & reset, factory data reset it would normally wipe the data, and not brick like using CWM.
 

mtotho

Senior Member
Oct 29, 2010
361
104
Union, NJ
No.







This is probably because not Android wipes the device but the recovery.
So Android tells the recovery to error on the next restart but the stock recovery is not there anymore and CWM does recognize the "wipe" command.

Therefor the bootloader always loads up the recovery because the wipe command was never executed nor cleared.

Gesendet von meinem Desire HD mit Tapatalk

Lol sorry, I am now looking at my prime's settings menu and I understand what he was saying :p, just didnt understand it correctly first time through
 

Diamondback

Retired Dev Committee Lead / Retired Senior Mod
Jan 17, 2010
4,476
6,631
virtuous-ten-studio.com
Maybe I dident explain corectly. If one wanted to go back completly to stock, meaning stock recovery not CWM? So when someone had to go settings,backup & reset, factory data reset it would normally wipe the data, and not brick like using CWM.

You can try flashing the stock recovery with a blob.
Extract the SOS file first from a stock blob and repack it (ONLY THE SOS FILE) to a new blob.
You should be able to flas that blob then to get a stock recovery.
 

grneyez

Senior Member
Sep 3, 2009
736
119
You can try flashing the stock recovery with a blob.
Extract the SOS file first from a stock blob and repack it (ONLY THE SOS FILE) to a new blob.
You should be able to flas that blob then to get a stock recovery.

Thanks for the info. Thats a little bit over my head, unfortunately I don't have that much knowledge to do what you have suggested.
 

digger42

Member
Sep 28, 2010
11
2
Help

I'm stuck in CWM when I reboot. When I hook the tablet up to the computer and use adb, I get the error "device not found."
It is the same computer that I used before the problem, so the drivers are installed.


Any help would be appreciated.

Please disregard. If I had taken the time to read the whole thread, I could have found the answer was the Universal Driver Pack.
Thanks
 
Last edited:

RoninX

Member
Nov 8, 2008
8
1
Ulm
Thanks for the info. Thats a little bit over my head, unfortunately I don't have that much knowledge to do what you have suggested.
and how can i flash back cwm from stock recovery? my prime is booting with brick 3. and now i have stock recovery (wipe data and fastboot?) now i need cwm back, but flash cwm sos file does not work (it says okay after flash) but i have no cwm back :-((

any ideas ?
 

JPxM0Dz

Senior Member
Sep 6, 2010
551
33
Ok guys I think I'm stuck on brick3

Prime boots into recovery only - I can flash rom, but after flash it continues to go back into recovery

I have no clue how to use adb shell, but willing to learn if someone can walk me though - I read the thread though and I'm still confused how to set it up.
I have downloaded and installed SDK files for windows and latest java. I have also installed the universal beta drivers. Prime can be seen in device manager as adb device. But that's as far a I can go. When I click on adb.exe or fastboot.exe they popup on the screen very quickly then disappear. Like I said, obviously have no idea what I'm doing here and definitely willing to compensate anyone willing to help out for their time and efforts

Thanks!

I'm currently running CWM v5.5.0.4 and Virtuous Prime 9.4.2.15 v2
 

JPxM0Dz

Senior Member
Sep 6, 2010
551
33
lol no one wants to touch this one eh?
No worries! I'll pickup another Prime and throw this one in the closet :)


Sent from my SGH-I717R using xda premium
 

paddycr

Senior Member
Jan 25, 2012
659
156
OnePlus 8T
lol no one wants to touch this one eh?
No worries! I'll pickup another Prime and throw this one in the closet :)


Sent from my SGH-I717R using xda premium

This might be a really dumb question but are you opening adb from Command Prompt? If you double click on either adb.exe or fastboot.exe from Windows they do open and close really quickly. If you open Command Prompt to navigate to wherever your file is using the cd command (so "cd path/to adb"; obviously put your own path in!). Then type "adb" and the sucker should open. Once adb is open all you have to do is cut and paste Diamondback's commands into adb. I think that the boot.img attached to the OP that you are pushing to the sd card has to be in the same folder as adb in Windows (I might be wrong on this but I am sure someone more knowledgeable will correct me).

Sorry if I have misinterpreted your question (noob warning!). Hope that helps and good luck with the debricking.
 
Last edited:

JPxM0Dz

Senior Member
Sep 6, 2010
551
33
This might be a really dumb question but are you opening adb from Command Prompt? If you double click on either adb.exe or fastboot.exe from Windows they do open and close really quickly. If you open Command Prompt to navigate to wherever your file is using the cd command (so "cd path/to adb"; obviously put your own path in!). Then type "adb" and the sucker should open. Once adb is open all you have to do is cut and paste Diamondback's commands into adb. I think that the boot.img attached to the OP that you are pushing to the sd card has to be in the same folder as adb in Windows (I might be wrong on this but I am sure someone more knowledgeable will correct me).

Sorry if I have misinterpreted your question (noob warning!). Hope that helps and good luck with the debricking.

Yeah I did try this, but I think I've been entering in the wrong path location.
I will try throwing everthing into a folder on desktop and retry
Thanks for your input as you've been the only one to step up to try and help ;)

Sent from my SGH-I717R using xda premium
 

JPxM0Dz

Senior Member
Sep 6, 2010
551
33
Ok I finally figured out adb shell and got it up and running, just having issues pushing image file to sd via cwm as per the instructions in first post

Yet another hurdle ;)
 

downshift1

Member
Mar 11, 2008
6
1
For those who have been having issues with the adb not seeing your device with either the Asus or the naked drivers I had the same issue.

I ended up doing it the old fashioned way (aka the long way) by actually installing the SDK tools step by step. It was the only way I could get it to recognize my 1a bricked device after hours of trying a dozen different drivers.
 
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  • 138
    Hey 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 3 :)
    6
    Not sure if you have the same problem that I had(stuck at eee pad screen with no access to recovery). I used fastboot to flash recovery and stock boot.blob to resolve the issue.

    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
    stuck on Brick options 1a
    adb devices cannot see my device
    does not show up in device manager
    But I do have at other devices "Full Android on Emulator"
    Any Help
    Thanks

    Try instaling these drivers here manually please

    http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1426502

    Adb should work fine afterwards :)
    2
    Okay I added a 4th brick to the list. It's a variant of the first Brick and it is recoverable :)
    2
    Okay we successfully un-bricked a Brick 3 just now. :)
    Updating the thread tomorrow.