Help Rollback from ICS?

[Mrhelper]

If you wan't this version of ICS to run cleaner and more stable prior to the inevitable "fix" patch for ICS from Acer, avoid task/app killer applications (don't kill anything). Check any "performance improvement" apps you may be using to make sure that app kills are not being issued. What I have also seen happen repeatedly after testing this ICS update for a few days (since 4/27/12), is that the g-sensor stops working, and the log then shows a constant stream of MLUpdatData error (code 26) messages. This then appears to be a of cause system sluggishness, screen flashes, various application problems, system lockups, icon issues (blank/incorrect), etc. An obvious early symptom is the loss of automatic screen orientation, progressing into more severe symptoms as you try to use apps. Power off/on will not clear this. The only reliable way I've seen to clear this g-sensor problem once it starts is the hardware reset (pin hole).

After now having studied the Android OS more closely, I don't see any good reason to manually kill apps on the A500 anyway. If apps are acting that badly, the best course appears to be removal, not killing.

The OS should be handling this problem better, and the next patch will probably fix this, but if you want to avoid the related problems in the mean time, don't kill any apps.

By the way, if you don't kill any apps, ICS on the A500 is very fast and very nice. I'm having fun discovering the cool features.

 

[chismay]

guys i cant say much right now as im at work but if you have recovery try the flexreaper rom its ics but SOOOOO much better and you have the acer ring STANDARD!!! ill post more about it later srry i havt been around been flash-busy lol 4amers every night.

 

[mremixer]

If you wan't this version of ICS to run cleaner and more stable prior to the inevitable "fix" patch for ICS from Acer, avoid task/app killer applications (don't kill anything), and don't use the ICS app manager to force close apps. Check any "performance improvement" apps you may be using to make sure that app kills are not being issued. I've found that this A500 ICS version does not tolerate users manually killing apps. (I have not tested to see whether auto force closes cause this also, but that seems possible, so in that case I would not run any force closing apps.) What I have now seen happen repeatedly after testing this for a few days, is that manually killing apps in this version intermittently causes the g-sensor to stop working, and the log then shows a constant stream of MLUpdatData error (code 26) messages. This then appears to be a of cause system sluggishness, screen flashes, various application problems, system lockups, icon issues (blank/incorrect), etc. An obvious early symptom is the loss of automatic screen orientation, progressing into more severe symptoms as you try to use apps. Power off/on will not clear this. The only reliable way I've seen to clear this g-sensor problem once it starts is the hardware reset (pin hole).

After now having studied the Android OS more closely, I don't see any good reason to manually kill apps on the A500 anyway. If apps are acting that badly, the best course appears to be removal, not killing.

The OS should be handling this problem better, and the next patch will probably fix this, but if you want to avoid the related problems in the mean time, don't kill any apps.

By the way, if you don't kill any apps, ICS on the A500 is very fast and very nice. I'm having fun discovering the cool features.

No app/task killers so this is kind of irrelevant for me, screen orientation seems to be fine, maybe slightly slower than before I Can't Stand ice cream anymore but not majorly.

In the last 24 hours my machine has gone from being a 50% brick to a 90% brick so I've tried the pin reset & gained some functionality, still nothing like before ice cream (honeycomb) but (& I still need to check some things) I'd now say it was a 20% brick so a definite improvement but as I say still got some apps to check etc & I'm left wondering if it will hold or will I need to keep doing the pin reset? Only time will tell lol

The wireless/wifi is still nowhere near as good as before, browser still takes forever to load a page but the freezes & app crashes seem to have dissipated for now.

Like to say thanks to all so far for the help & info, but I don't think its cut & dried as yet

 

[mremixer]

OK just thought I'd report back & keep the thread updated.

Only way I can get any functionality is by doing the pin hole reset every couple of hours. Which can't be good to do this consistently.

Am considering getting in touch with Acer & giving them a week to provide a fix or I will be returning the damn thing.

Don't get me wrong before this ICS update I loved my A500 but this experience has seriously harmed my view of android.

I feel that rooting would probably fix the issues BUT why should I be forced to void my warranty due to Acers incompetence.

I will update if I hear anything from Acer (not expecting it though).

 

[Ranukano]

Unaware of where you went wrong in the update process, however my tablet updated quickly and without issue and came with improvements and disappointments.

My system runs faster, and apps open quicker, and less slow down and voice recognition seems improved for both English and Japanese.

However my let downs are YouTube and hulu plus. YouTube runs fine for the most part with a small hiccup every so often in video rendering, and hulu plus on the other hand just refuses to run currently. other than that it is running better than before. Non rooted, and non modified and no factory default or system restore.. I also don't have many system altering programs; just games, and study material.

I just typed this entire thing using the tablet at a fast rate and experienced no slow downs.

Btw not to shoot you down or anything, but i work in the tech industry and i remember my old customer service days, and most of the time when something went horribly wrong with a small percentage of devices, it usually wasn't the company's fault, but more often was the consumer base,

 

[mremixer]

Thats just it I didn't go wrong. Standard update procedure.

Again same as you nothing on tablet like task killers/managers/system tools etc to "confuse" the update etc yet nothing works the same.

- Keyboard usage: Very hiccupy, freezes constantly (no keyboard app, just the one with the tablet.
- YouTube: Freezes & crashes randomly
- Email: Freezes & crashes randomly
- Most Apps: Freeze & crash (including launcher, again standard no other launchers)
- Disappearing icons, screens, blackouts, hanging, non responsive touch.

On the positive side battery life has extended tremendously but I suspect thats from the lack of usage due to the issues rofl

 

[dbldipp]

I'm a week into my ICS update. t first it was a seroius piece of crap. Buggy, nothing worked the way it should.Couldn't view the tablet on the PC , it was flashing files, what files you could see. GPS was dead and most programs and apps were worthless. Last Sunday I did a factory reset in hopes it would take me back to Gingerbread. Didn't happen tho. I thought I had backed up everything on the cloud, didn't happen either.
What it did do was basicly a clean install and mad does that make a difference. It's working beautifully now. The way it should. As I tried to redo all my apps I was finding many that said they weren't available for my version of Android. So that might be alot of your peoblems , the apps aren't ab le to run on ICS. My maps program that I use is ALK Co Pilot. It was normally dependable as can be. ICS killed it real good. After reset, it takes a few clicks on the icon but after it does boot, it works better then before the ICS update.
So I'm a happy camper now that I have a better grasp of what and why. I hope y'all are able to get your machines working as good as mine turned out to be.

 

[mremixer]

Final effort to get it working, took the plunge as has been suggested a few times & have done factory reset, not happy as have lost gaming data, notes, links etc BUT....

TADA... It is (touch wood) working very well so far... still getting the odd screen glitch but overall I am actually seeing & experiencing what many of you have since the update.

So, I'm not saying it will work for everyone but a factory reset seems the way to go, I backed all my piccys to dropbox first & took screenshots of some info I couldn't back up from the calendar so I could put that back & took the plunge, glad I did

Thank you all for your patience & help & I hope to learn more on android as things move on for the moment forgive me I have an addiction to feed thats been starved for approximately a week, MY APPS NEED ME! sys & again many thanks for helping & listening to me gripe.

 

[splatoid]

I also use Flexreapers build and its awesome non of the trouble your experiencing.

Forum TegraOwners • View topic - FLEXREAPER-R14 ICS 4.0.3 Acer OTA 1.033.00 (2May2012)

of corse you need to root your tablet first. But Its isnt very difficult.

Here's some more interesting reading.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1622425

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1209988

http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1136

Hope this give you all something to think about...

 

[Graffen]

Yes.... brick your tablet and/or void the warranty......
Not much to think about really?

 

[kristalsoldier]

Thats just it I didn't go wrong. Standard update procedure.

Again same as you nothing on tablet like task killers/managers/system tools etc to "confuse" the update etc yet nothing works the same.

- Keyboard usage: Very hiccupy, freezes constantly (no keyboard app, just the one with the tablet.
- YouTube: Freezes & crashes randomly
- Email: Freezes & crashes randomly
- Most Apps: Freeze & crash (including launcher, again standard no other launchers)
- Disappearing icons, screens, blackouts, hanging, non responsive touch.

On the positive side battery life has extended tremendously but I suspect thats from the lack of usage due to the issues rofl

I can relate to this. But my problem is limited to some apps. Regrettably, the gmail app is one of them. The keypad has massively improved and so has battery life. I am resisting doing a factory reset...too much of work. But eventually I may have to.

 

[splatoid]

Yes.... brick your tablet and/or void the warranty......
Not much to think about really?

Its all a mater of importance to the individual of course.
One person may not have the resources to get a second tablet and some may.
So for me I have been this way for most of my life and I think I only get all the gadgets I have just for this purpose.
If I couldn't tweak my stuff it wouldn't be worth it to me.

 

[mremixer]

Thought I'd come back and report

After the initial hiccups (see earlier posts) & biting the bullet on a factory reset, I'm 5 days in & still have some minor issues but nothing like it was.

The only outstanding issues at the moment are a "blinky" screen occassionaly & I have to connect wifi manually all the time on a reboot/switch on (kinda weird that auto connect seems to have gone) but its at least usable now.

No problems with apps & it does seem to be better than honeycomb, so overall looks like I'm an Android fan again

 

[kristalsoldier]

Thought I'd come back and report

After the initial hiccups (see earlier posts) & biting the bullet on a factory reset, I'm 5 days in & still have some minor issues but nothing like it was.

The only outstanding issues at the moment are a "blinky" screen occassionaly & I have to connect wifi manually all the time on a reboot/switch on (kinda weird that auto connect seems to have gone) but its at least usable now.

No problems with apps & it does seem to be better than honeycomb, so overall looks like I'm an Android fan again

Yeah...well, I must also add that though I considered doing a factory reset, I found that over a few days the tab and ICS have settled down. Everything appears to be normal, the Gmail app now working fine, battery I think has marginally improved, nothing wrong with the wifi, but I do find that booting up does take some time (more than what remember from HC 3.2.1) is back to normal though some of the games still don't work, but I am not really concerned about that.

All in all ICS on the A500 is fine - and in my opinion, it just feels better than HC. But then again, I am not exactly a "power user"!

 

[D-U-R-X]

I went down the root and install a custom ROM route... I am running Taboonay's ICS ROM and had the same auto-connectivity issue with my A500, but a quick download of WeFi Pro and now I connect automatically (on first connection, it asks what sort of connection it is - public, home, work) without any problems.

 

[mremixer]

Have come back to update again mainly due to reading in another post that its supected to be non ics apps that are causing the problem.

Well I'm not saying thats not a possibility BUT after my factory reset I reinstalled everything from before the reset & all seem to now work fine, so for me at least I don't fully agree with blaming the issues on non ics apps/developers.

Personally I think there is a flaw in the update procedure but the blame is being shifted over to developers for not updating apps quick enough, just an opinion.

Oh & my a500 is still running smooth after the initial 2 weeks with a brick its a pleasure to have a working device again.

 

[dbldipp]

A month after the update and I'm going back to the origonal 3.2. It keeps tellimg me I'm out of drive space... keep removing apps and anything I can and it continues to tell me I'm out of space. I have barely any apps and have NOTHING on the drive accept what I use for my job. All the Google crapware keeps crashing and I'm just over it. I can get no human at Acer to talk to me and I keep loosing the arguements with the answering machine an it hangs up on me. I've given up ever buying another Acer product.!!!

 

[splatoid]

Im sorry your having such a rotten time with your tablet. It sucks to put that king of money out just to have to fight with it all the time. Have you tried to clear out your cache? Have you already tried a reset? You could go to the XDA site and see if someone there has any ideas for you. Civato is real friendly and has a lot of knowledge on these matters....

 

[puddlejumper40]

I updated to ics about a week or 2 ago every thing works great except my internal mic don't work but I can live with that I guess but it still bugs me and then again it could always be worst than it is

 

[dbldipp]

Im sorry your having such a rotten time with your tablet. It sucks to put that king of money out just to have to fight with it all the time. Have you tried to clear out your cache? Have you already tried a reset? You could go to the XDA site and see if someone there has any ideas for you. Civato is real friendly and has a lot of knowledge on these matters....

I went to XDA and followed someones directions for clearing my cache... Guaranteeded.. upppers, sure did...wipped my drive clean to factory reset! Lost everything I had on my tablet. So now I am setting here in Chicago with no map program...isn't that sweet? I was going to do a reset this week end when I got home. Was even contemplating doing a reinstall of Honeycomb. Guess I don't have to worry about that now. I can use the gboogle maps, tho not for truck routing. Just have to watch the data useage there. But it will get me home. I tried Acer Support and they SUCK BIG TIME . Guess what brand of anything I'll never buy again?

 

[mremixer]

@dbldipp

Sucks yes But any apps you had before can be got again, go to Google play store & click the little down arrow with a line under it (of course this accessing through the native play app not by web browser) then click all that will give you a list of all apps you've had so you can reinstall any that may have gone missing.

Its a couple of weeks now since I did my factory reset & yes I lost all my apps but (& I'm a bit vague on exactly how now) I went into settings & found a restore/backup option that did the vast majority of them in one go.

Of course any apps you got from elsewhere won't be in the list so you will need to seek those out manually.

Hope that helps some.

 

[dbldipp]

Last week end I did my factory reset and was so messsed up... But I think it finally is working the way it was intended. 3 factory resets and reinstalls. All week things were working right so I strated reinstalling apps. Alot of the apps weren't able to work with ICS so I went into my collection of over 7000 apps to see what I could find that did work. Found lots of them that do work the way they wereee intended. So for now I'm ok with how it's going. My maps program is still a bit on the edgy side. Works after some coaxing, but once I get it to boot it works better then HC did.

 

[Mrhelper]

Dbldipp,

Several people on various forums have confirmed that the problem you are likely seeing when you run Copilot is actually a problem with GPS on the a500/a200/a100 series. The only relationship between the problem and Copilot is that Copilot uses GPS. The apparent bug in ICS is merely exposed by Copilot, and not caused by it.

Since the ICS 4.0.3 update, every time anyone with one of these devices uses the GPS, numerous files are written to /data/gps and never deleted. With frequent GPS use, this eventually exhausts all of the free space on the internal storage, until you clean it up with a Factory data reset, or use root privilege with a file manager to manually remove the files from /data/gps. Someone who uses GPS frequently, like a commercial driver, for example, is more likely to encounter problems sooner, as you did. I have confirmed that this condition is also present on my a500.

 

[dbldipp]

Thank you for your sage advice. I'm kinda between a rock and the proverbial hard place. I use my gps daily, all daqy and most of the night... my days are 14 hours long. I'm glad someone found the cause, but now what could be the fix? I really don't want to have to do a reset once a month nor do I want to chance rooting it and making it into a brick.... Best bet would be to revert back to HC, we didn't have any of these problems with HC.

 

[dbldipp]

OK.... I bit the bullit and did a go back to HC. I bricked it at first but with help from others, including Mrhelper, I have a tablet that is working the way it was intended. I'm back to 3.2.1. It's not easy but well worth the trouble. There were lots of nice features on ICS I will miss but untill they fix the bugs I'll stick with 3.2.1.