Nexus 7 (2012) freezing & crackly/hot speakers

[rhiaction]

I've been having problems with my 2012 32gb Nexus 7 for a few months that have got drastically worse lately. The tablet had been occasionally 'freezing' (unresponsive to all touch and volume buttons) the only thing that works was to do a soft reset - the tablet would then often work for a few days but now it has become hours/minutes/seconds before it freezes again. I had tried a full factory reset which worked for about a week before the problem resumed.

Last week I had problems with the external speaker going very quiet and crackly. A few days later the unit became very hot in the speaker area (almost too hot to touch) and there was a faint (worrying!) burning smell. After this the tablet would only turn on while plugged in. Since then it has been working on and off (with the same freezing problem) but last night it got really hot at the base of the unit once again. I bought the tablet around Nov 2012 so am well out of warranty - I'm hoping someone can help with the following questions:

1) Does anyone have an idea what the problem is (I have posted in another thread of a user having the same problem but haven't found out the cause)
2) How much does Asus charge for out-of-warranty repairs? It seems it would cost ?45 just to send it to them to look at, with parts and labour included it would probably not be worth sending it to them for a fix
3) Assuming I can work out which part(s) need replacing, is it feasible to do this myself?
4) I bought the tablet from PC World. Even though the 12 month guarantee has expired, do they have any responsibility under the sale of goods act in that you should reasonably expect a tablet to last longer than 18 months?

Many Thanks in advance

 

[rhiaction]

Anyone at all able to give me some advice on what the problem might be?

 

[snakester9]

If you're thinking of potentially repairing it yourself you might as well pry the back off and see if you can see any actual scorch marks or damage around the speaker, charging port or battery connectors.

The back pulls off just like a phone with a removable battery and just snaps on and off.

Beyond that I'm not really sure.

Sent from my 831C using Tapatalk

 

[OsirisGuy]

Hello there! I've registered just to reply on this. I don't have a solution for you, sorry, but you're not alone.

Short version: I've run into the EXACT same issues (most threads I've seen have slightly different problems). Figured for the price I'll wait for the new one at the end of June. I also found a good deal online so I bought one, but still waiting to see what happens at Google I/O.

Long version: I too received my Nexus 7 (2012) back in December 2012, and about a month ago I was finding that it seemed to be randomly turning off, or in a few instances restarting and always freezing. I thought if I went into an app or two quick enough, it seemed to remain on (perhaps it was an app causing the crashing?), but soon enough I learned this wasn't the case. Plugging in the USB charger seemed to help, but I don't know if I can actually confirm this. I can say that I had the ASUS dock which did not seem to matter as well. I would need to hold the power button for about 12 seconds to reboot. I was able to boot into the bootloader, with minimal problems (some slow responses at times but would otherwise work). Cleared the cache from here, and rebooting was getting worse, however, I never tried a factory reset. I was noticing a crackling sound as well, but thought I was imagining it or looking for something wrong. A few weeks ago I felt the speaker area was extremely hot, so I tried muting the speakers; no improvement. Popped off the back plate (might as well since it's out of warranty) and it seemed the speaker cones were heating up. The speakers were sourcing some constant current, which should not be happening. I removed the speakers and still no improvement. Admittedly, I began to tinker - seemed like I had nothing to lose. The tablet had a bit of a drop before all this, but didn't suffer even a scratch. It did sound like something was loose inside, but again I had no immediate tablet problems and I couldn't tell you if the rattle was there previously (sounded like the front camera for reference). During tinkering, the zip connector for the power/volume controls popped off, and my unsuccessful attempts to reattach it turned into it flying off and getting lost. Now I can't even turn the tablet on.

I too did look into ASUS support for repairs during this but lost patience quickly navigating the site. If you say that I'm looking at ($76 US) just so they can look at it, I might as well start looking into a new one. Google is expected to release a new tablet in a few weeks and even if I don't want to spend that, the Nexus 7 (2013) should be getting some big discounts to clear inventory (and sure enough deals are popping up now).

Anyway, I apologize for hijacking your thread, but wanted to point out it has happened to me too.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! What you both are describing sure seems like some kind of hardware flaw or failure. It's not something we see described on these forums, so hopefully it's a very rare occurrence--but of course, that's no real comfort to you!

To answer one of the OP's questions, a 12 month warranty is a 12 month warranty. So if the thing goes belly up 12 months and one day after you bought it, you'll always be out of luck.:'( (Unless you purchased it with a credit card that extends the warranty automatically, like American Express.)

 

[cotoman]

I had the same problem. I did a factory reset and after it wiped everything clean it came to the initial setup questions. Name, time zone, etc. Once that is completed, it begins installing all of your same apps, data, etc. When it completed it still had all the same problems. I went into settings and factory reset again. This time however, I unchecked the box that says backup all of my data onto Google Servers. Apparently, whatever was causing the freeze ups was contained somewhere in my backup. Restoring also restored whatever was causing the problem. A corruption in some file or an undetected virus that three different antivirus and malware scanners never found. So, after turning off the automatic backup to Google servers, I reset again and when the process completed and I entered the initial setup questions, it only installed programs that are part of the system like email, gmail, google maps, etc. It did not restore any of my email accounts. I had to do it manually. It also did not install all the remaining apps I had before. Now it works fine again with one exception. The speakers still crackle so I am guessing that whatever started the problem originally burned out something in the speaker system. I hope this is helpful. I just joined Android Central before I posted this so I do not yet know how to reply to the many others with the same problem. If you know how and want to cut and paste my message here so that all can see it, please do so.

 

[cotoman]

I had the same problem. I did a factory reset and after it wiped everything clean it came to the initial setup questions. Name, time zone, etc. Once that is completed, it begins installing all of your same apps, data, etc. When it completed it still had all the same problems. I went into settings and factory reset again. This time however, I unchecked the box that says backup all of my data onto Google Servers. Apparently, whatever was causing the freeze ups was contained somewhere in my backup. Restoring also restored whatever was causing the problem. A corruption in some file or an undetected virus that three different antivirus and malware scanners never found. So, after turning off the automatic backup to Google servers, I reset again and when the process completed and I entered the initial setup questions, it only installed programs that are part of the system like email, gmail, google maps, etc. It did not restore any of my email accounts. I had to do it manually. It also did not install all the remaining apps I had before. Now it works fine again with one exception. The speakers still crackle so I am guessing that whatever started the problem originally burned out something in the speaker system. I hope this is helpful.