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Help Nexus 7 fault - hardware or software issue?

D

daffyduck

Guest
Okay, so the same fault has occurred on my Nexus 7, both when rooted running a modified stock ROM and when unrooted with completely stock ROM. Its coming to the point where I am thinking of having to return the tablet under warranty to Asus.

The fault is this and only seems to show itself after a few weeks of use.

At this point, the tablet seems to shut itself off and become difficult to switch back on again. In actual fact, the only way wake it is to plug it into the mains. Then after a bit of effort it can be turned on again. Upon boot into the homescreen, after under 30 seconds, the screen goes black with either some pixel activity like occasional sparks on the screen or complete white and black horizontal lines moving across the screen and sometimes accompanying electronic noise. In both cases, the tablet becomes very hard yo switch back off and back on again.

In actual fact, the only way to get the tablet working again for another period is to factory reset when stock, or wipe and reinstall custom ROM when rooted.

So a couple of questions for you:
  1. 1. Has anybody else had this type of fault and how have you resolved it?
  2. 2. This sounds to me like a hardware fault but I cannot work out why a reset stops it for a number of weeks before happening again. Or could it be a software bug.

In my 4 years of having Android devices, I have not had issues like this before .
:(
 
I just experienced that exact same thing. Battery down to 5%. A weird noise, like a high-pitched buzz came from the thing after a few minutes of being plugged in. And it was deaddeaddead.
My NX7 is not rooted. I tried to do a hard reset - and got as far as ordering a complete wipe when the screen went black with 2 faint vertical stripes of white pixels - then nothing. A few minutes later, the pixels came back. I left it plugged in for a few more minutes, and it booted itself back up, and started charging normally. I keep looking at it to see if it misbehaves, and so far it's behaving. The full wipe did not take, btw.

With the latest OS upgrade to 4.2.2 (?), we don't need to have the tablet plugged into the computer to give it a hard reset. So you may want to try that (hold down power button, volume up and volume down simultaneously for a bit.

I got as far as contacting ASUS and have received my RMA insructions to send it back to them. But - if it's behaving, I may just let it slide. Dunno.

If you bought your tablet straight from Google, they'll be happy to help you on the phone.

Good luck, and keep us posted on how you're doing? I was sure I had somehow fried my battery, but it appears to work OK again - so now I'm really confused.
 
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Okay, it's good to know that others are having the same issue and I am pretty sure its a hardware bug. As it's got a 12 month warranty period I am sure (I didn't buy direct from Google but just through a retailer), I have rooted it this morning and installing custom ROM so I can easily restore the tablet if the issue happens again.

What I will do is see how long before it reoccurs and then update the post, so we can see how long and how intermittent the issue is.

Then, it gets sent back to Asus with the information I have found out, so that others can also decide whether they need to replace theirs if it is a hardware bug.

So, will update the post when it reoccurs!
:D
 
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Hi, there hasn't been any repeat of the problem so far on the Nexus so far, other than occasionally the power button seeming a little sensitive some how and the screen shutting off quickly and needing to press the power button again to get the screen back on.

So, still okay - running rooted with MoDaCo custom rom (JOP40D build).

Any problems your side @FlyingPigL
 
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Probably will do but I'm reluctant to lose my Internet workhorse for a few weeks :(.
Putting it back to stock and unrooted is a five minute job, so that's not issue. Will try and ring Asus this afternoon.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
God speed :)
I didn't know you can unroot it, it was my fear lol, since I bought it 3 days ago I'm scared to break it
 
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God speed :)
I didn't know you can unroot it, it was my fear lol, since I bought it 3 days ago I'm scared to break it

Unrooting is the simplest you can imagine, and I've had a few android devices now (all have been rooted). It's just an application to download on your laptop and does virtually everything for you.

Back to the original thread subject of mine, I stumbled on this thread while testing my new Tapatalk app http://androidforums.com/showthread.php?t=594627.

Sounds really familiar symptoms to me. Need to read through the whole thread carefully to work out the root cause.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
 
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._., so sorry to read..
changing subject, is there an easy way to root my nexus 7? without spending all day on the computer doing it :c

This should be what you are looking for, it's what I have been using since rooting (need to download again as my laptop has finally given up the ghost - dropping onto porcelain tiles at home probably didn't do it much good in terms of lifespan!).

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1766475

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
 
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Now officially rooted, thank you :p
btw, if I unroot it do I still get to use my warranty?

If you need to use the warranty, just unroot it and you will be fine. I've heard of people having rooted devices and warranty has still been honoured.

The only danger is the devices bricking itself, meaning that your cannot unroot the device before returning it but as long as you are careful and don't do anything stupid, it should be fine. The rooting tools I gave you does have some functionality to help you with a device that will not boot but I've never had to use it.

Also, as I said, I've been rooting devices for almost 4 years now and I've never been not able to get myself out of a problem, the forums are a bit help here and especially on XDA.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
 
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root is just a apk installed on your system which is easy to remove as any app you install onto your device. in fact if you search on play market for a unrooter you will find several apps to uninstall it for you. the real issue here is to lock your tablet before sending back to asus.

Ah yes, sorry forgot about the locking bit :rolleyes:

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
 
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Okay, bit of an update for anyone slightly interested :p

I think a lot of the issues I was having are software related and maybe to do with the stock rom.

The worst issues were when the Nexus was running complete stock.
Improved was running MoDaCo modified stock rom.
I am now running MoDaCo Cyanogenmod custom rom and I have not had many of the issues as frequently at all (screen shutting off unexpectedly, crashes, etc.)

It's very possible I am wrong but Cyanogenmod for me seems really good.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk HD
 
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