Help with Android Acer A501 stuck in Acer bootup screen

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tilde

44 posts

Geek

#157668 9-Dec-2014 09:41

hi gkzers, i'm hoping that the android experts here can help me out. two years ago, on advise by gkzers on here i purchased the acer a501 tablet from dick smiths. it was a good deal and i've used it casually and for my boy to play his games etc.

fast forward to monday morning, i pressed the power button to wake the tablet up. i then found the touch screen non-responsive, and no buttons or apps seemed work. having had this happen very very sporadically before i thought "no worries i'll just reboot using power button".

went away for morning chores, and came back a while later to the acer logo on the booting screen. thought that was odd as it has been more than 10 minutes and figured i'll try and reboot again. came back after 20 mins and was still stuck on acer boot logo.

coming home from work i discovered that the tablet had turned off, not because it works but had completely discharged. i've checked that the tablet still charges correctly and tried the following.

1. reboot with power button
2. remove microSD and reboot with power button
3. remove SIMcard and reboot with power button
4. remove both and reboot with power button
5. use a paperclip to reset tablet via pinhole

none of the above works, and my last resort according to guides is to do a full reset which clears all data. seeing as my boy's saved game data is stored on the tablet, is there any other less destructive options that i can try?

p.s. i still can't believe that android don't have cloud saves for game apps.

timmmay

20575 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1192014 9-Dec-2014 11:03

Google "boot into recovery". Once you're in there you can do some kind of reset or perhaps load a custom ROM. Another option is a "hard reset" (google it) or a "factory reset".

vexxxboy

4244 posts

Uber Geek

#1192016 9-Dec-2014 11:05

try a full reset and does it matter about the saved game data as at the moment you cant play them anyway.

Common sense is not as common as you think.

Antzzz

190 posts

Master Geek

#1204228 26-Dec-2014 21:24

Ahh, the dreaded Acer boot screen of death... Unfortunately this seems to be a known problem with the A50x tablets, I spent many hours of attempting factory resets etc before giving in and calling Acer. The result of that saga is here - I argued that since this seems to be a well known and documented problem that they should fix it out of warranty under the CGA provisions for reasonable lifetime. Long story short after initially refusing they gave in and fixed it under warranty - the fix was a new mainboard.

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=97&topicid=138486

My last post in that thread gives the background to the problem and links to resources documenting the cause - a faulty Samsung flash chip. Interesting that yours has died at more or less the same age (2 years) as mine did - which makes it likely that the cause is the same.

Unfortunately I think you have no alternative but to try the factory reset, and if that doesn't work take it back to Dick Smiths (maybe with a printout of my thread...).

tilde

44 posts

Geek

#1220820 23-Jan-2015 14:42

Antzzz: Ahh, the dreaded Acer boot screen of death... Unfortunately this seems to be a known problem with the A50x tablets, I spent many hours of attempting factory resets etc before giving in and calling Acer. The result of that saga is here - I argued that since this seems to be a well known and documented problem that they should fix it out of warranty under the CGA provisions for reasonable lifetime. Long story short after initially refusing they gave in and fixed it under warranty - the fix was a new mainboard.

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=97&topicid=138486

My last post in that thread gives the background to the problem and links to resources documenting the cause - a faulty Samsung flash chip. Interesting that yours has died at more or less the same age (2 years) as mine did - which makes it likely that the cause is the same.

Unfortunately I think you have no alternative but to try the factory reset, and if that doesn't work take it back to Dick Smiths (maybe with a printout of my thread...).

thank you Antzzz, your post has been extremely helpful. over the christmas break/NY i attempted the hard reset multiple times with no success at all. reading your posts and the extended XDA links i gave up and today called acerNZ about repairing the tablet.

like you i got nowhere fast with 1st level support but luckily with your experience i insisted on being escalated to a case manager higher up. so now on monday i have a courier coming to pick up the tablet for delivery to Acer Express for troubleshooting. the case manager did warn me that because the tablet is so old (manufacturered in 2011), parts may not be available to fix it. but i'll cross that bridge when i come to it, right now it is a paperweight anyway.