Help Off-brand Chinese tablet - Stuck in fastboot

[nikolas]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...tailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1#productDetails

I bought this tablet via a company gift card to mess around with in my free time. Came with 4.4.2, firmware v4.6 and A31s Quad Core 4-Cortex A7 1.4GHZ GPU 8-SGX544M.

This tablet has **NO** volume buttons - just home and power.

What happened:

- Original plan was to install 5.0.2

- Downloaded Android studio, all packages, SDK, etc.

- Installed universal ADB driver, everything was working fine. Opened ADB in command and set the tablet to boot in fastboot.

- Tablet entered fastboot (android logo in center of screen, which i presume to be fastboot), but ADB lost communcation with device.

- Dug through the entire interwebs for information - tried reverting USB drivers to win7, updated to windows 8.1 from 8.0, just about everything. I am now convinced the drivers are solid, i've tried just about every driver out there. My next logical step is/was to somehow get the tablet out of fastboot (since the only instance of ADB communication with the tablet was out of fastboot), but I can't figure out how since I have no manual method of doing so (no volume buttons) and ADB/fastboot cannot communicate with it.

I would very much appreciate any useful input!


(ADB path is properly set in environmental variables)

 

[Pugs1957]

Make sure your cable is not connected when you go into fastboot

 

[nikolas]

Can you elaborate?

 

[Pugs1957]

Make sure your cable is not connected when you put your device into fastboot, only connect when its in fastboot. When in fastboot your device may not be recognised so your PC should update the drivers. If not prompted to install drivers check out devices in control panel on your pc and there is likely to be an unrecognised device. From there you should be able to install drivers

 

[nikolas]

Make sure your cable is not connected when you put your device into fastboot, only connect when its in fastboot. When in fastboot your device may not be recognised so your PC should update the drivers. If not prompted to install drivers check out devices in control panel on your pc and there is likely to be an unrecognised device. From there you should be able to install drivers

The device has been stuck in fastboot for 2 days now. When I connect it via USB to windows, device manager shows it has the correct universal ADB driver installed.

The issue is that ADB and fastboot are not seeing the device. In command, I get a perpetual "waiting for device"

 

[iowabowtech]

Adb likely won't work in fastboot mode so that's not unexpected. You may need a different driver altogether for fastboot which may be difficult on a chinese tab. If you haven't yet tried the PDAnet drivers, they seem to work for the vast majority of devices when all else fails. Typically you don't even have to run the program, just download it and it comes packaged with an additional package of drivers. So after you have it on your machine, try leaving the device plugged in while still in fastboot mode, reboot the pc and hope they apply upon reboot.

I'm guessing you've already tried using the 2 buttons you do have to reboot the device. My best guess would be long pressing power for up to 30 seconds. In that event, I would probably disconnect the device when trying it.

 

[nikolas]

Adb likely won't work in fastboot mode so that's not unexpected. You may need a different driver altogether for fastboot which may be difficult on a chinese tab. If you haven't yet tried the PDAnet drivers, they seem to work for the vast majority of devices when all else fails. Typically you don't even have to run the program, just download it and it comes packaged with an additional package of drivers. So after you have it on your machine, try leaving the device plugged in while still in fastboot mode, reboot the pc and hope they apply upon reboot.

I'm guessing you've already tried using the 2 buttons you do have to reboot the device. My best guess would be long pressing power for up to 30 seconds.

PDAnet drivers were what allowed me to communicate with the device initially in order to enter fastboot mode (Android logo in center of screen?).

I can apply the PDAnet drivers to the tablet once I plug it in, but I still have no software communication beyond being able to apply drivers to it in the device manager. I tried long pressing both buttons in many different combinations, even took the tablet apart to find some sort of clues inside.

I then realized it might be possible to format an SD card and boot off the SD card in order to command the device to leave fastboot mode. Is that possible? Has anyone heard of that?

 

[nikolas]

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