Nexus 7 2012 WiFi dead following over-the-air upgrade to Android 5.0.2. Any hope?

[esternin]

My Nexus 7 2012 edition, 16GB, WiFi, at Android KitKat 4.4.4, suddenly slowed down in everything. I rebooted, and it started to update. I had left it in "adb oem unlock" after the last manual update (when going to 4.2.2) but otherwise it was a "stock" install and bootloader, and was working just fine August 2014-Jan.3, 2015.

It completed the auto update and became "soft-bricked", i.e. in a loop (turns on, coloured dots dance, turns off and reboots). I went into a recovery mode (Vol- & Power, then Power and Vol+) and tried to adb sideload (from a Linux box) the manual update (nakasi-LRX21P-from-KTU84P) without erasing the user data. The sideload would complete the transfer but fail on install. I returned to recovery mode and did a factory reset, and repeated the sideload. This time it worked, and the Nexus rebooted into a fresh Android Lollypop 5.0.0. I connected it to WiFi, entered my google credentials and asked it to restore user data and apps. Almost immediately it detected a system update (I am assuming 5.0.2, but there was no information), retrieved it, seemingly installed it and proceeded to restore and "optimize" my 97 apps (I have no idea where 97 is from, I probably have 25 non-standard apps, but whatever). I put it into its cradle and let the screensaver kick in, the clock showed up.

When I came back a few minutes later, the clock was frozen, no response to taps. I pressed and held the Power button. That was the last time I saw a light from the tablet. No response from any keypresses, long or short. I opened it up, disconnected the battery, let it sit (drain the capacitors) for a few hours, pressed and held Power. Reconnected the battery. Nothing. It's a complete hard brick. adb devices does not see anything (I tried to blindly perform the same sequence of button presses that would take me to recovery mode - assuming it's a video problem only - and failed).

It's as if the over-the-air (OTA) update from 5.0.0 to 5.0.2 (?) totally erased/damaged the bootloader itself.

As you can see, I am a reasonably experienced user, but I am out of ideas. Anybody has any suggestions?

 

[312capri]

Amazingly, I upgraded my 2012 Nexus 7 using the OTA from Lollipop 5.0 to 5.0.2 yesterday and my tablet started going into an infinite series of reboots. I would never even see the opening screen. Using the power and down volume buttons I selected factory reset... now I have the proverbial dead brick. Where to go from here?

 

[312capri]

Amazingly this morning, after a day's hiatus, I decided to see if my Nexus 7 (2012) would reboot. Wow, it came alive and is now reloading my apps from the Google Play Store. Don't know what happened... but I'm happy!

 

[sniffs]

My Nexus 7 2012 edition, 16GB, WiFi, at Android KitKat 4.4.4, suddenly slowed down in everything. I rebooted, and it started to update. I had left it in "adb oem unlock" after the last manual update (when going to 4.2.2) but otherwise it was a "stock" install and bootloader, and was working just fine August 2014-Jan.3, 2015.

It completed the auto update and became "soft-bricked", i.e. in a loop (turns on, coloured dots dance, turns off and reboots). I went into a recovery mode (Vol- & Power, then Power and Vol+) and tried to adb sideload (from a Linux box) the manual update (nakasi-LRX21P-from-KTU84P) without erasing the user data. The sideload would complete the transfer but fail on install. I returned to recovery mode and did a factory reset, and repeated the sideload. This time it worked, and the Nexus rebooted into a fresh Android Lollypop 5.0.0. I connected it to WiFi, entered my google credentials and asked it to restore user data and apps. Almost immediately it detected a system update (I am assuming 5.0.2, but there was no information), retrieved it, seemingly installed it and proceeded to restore and "optimize" my 97 apps (I have no idea where 97 is from, I probably have 25 non-standard apps, but whatever). I put it into its cradle and let the screensaver kick in, the clock showed up.

When I came back a few minutes later, the clock was frozen, no response to taps. I pressed and held the Power button. That was the last time I saw a light from the tablet. No response from any keypresses, long or short. I opened it up, disconnected the battery, let it sit (drain the capacitors) for a few hours, pressed and held Power. Reconnected the battery. Nothing. It's a complete hard brick. adb devices does not see anything (I tried to blindly perform the same sequence of button presses that would take me to recovery mode - assuming it's a video problem only - and failed).

It's as if the over-the-air (OTA) update from 5.0.0 to 5.0.2 (?) totally erased/damaged the bootloader itself.

As you can see, I am a reasonably experienced user, but I am out of ideas. Anybody has any suggestions?

Seeing as how you are stock at this point, have you tried flashing the stock recovery image? (not the stock OTA)..

 

[esternin]

sniffs: perhaps I was not clear. I would happily re-flash a full 5.0.0 or a full 5.0.2, or even go back and re-flash a 4.4.4, but I cannot get any life out of the cold dead pad. I cannot power it up, in regular or recovery mode. No lights flash, no android logo, no dancing colour dots. Nothing at all. When it hung up during an OTA upgrade, I long-pressed Power button, it went dark, and has never responded to anything (Power short or long press, hold down Vol- & Power, hold down Vol- and Vol+ & power, etc.) since. By the way, the battery level at the time was just about 100%, it was sitting in a charging cradle, and the battery had been holding power just fine prior to the OTA.

I also tried something that a Nexus 4 user suggested somewhere: hold Vol-, Power, plug into charger while holding. Made no difference.

 

[esternin]

Here's my final exchange with Google. The lesson is to NEVER tell Google you popped the back off your device, or that your are intelligent enough to download and use the developer tools that Google offers. You must play dumb. It is understandable: the company must make money, but regrettable nevertheless, from the company that aspires do "do no evil". I would argue that encouraging dishonesty qualifies.

On 01/13/2015 07:59 AM, googleplay-support at google dot com wrote:
...
> Thank you for contacting Google.
> It is always suggested to update your device over the air to the newest operating system.
> The process of flashing a device with it's original factory image is usually reserved for when
> you have rooted or modified your device and need to go back.
>
...
It is precisely the unwanted OTA update that caused me to (a) lose my local files, as it started without a warning and without giving me a chance to save my files first; and (b) made my device inoperable. My flashing of the device with one of the Google-supplied images was an attempt to recover from that state. Had you supplied the direct 4.4.4 - 5.0.2 update file, I would have used that. Instead I had to go 4.4.4 - 5.0.0, expecting to then apply the second patch, 5.0.0 - 5.0.2. Before I had a chance to do that I stupidly connected to WiFi and the device again went through its OTA update, which then damaged it beyond recovery.

> I did read through your complete description of the issue and appreciate you taking
> the time to summarize what has transpired so far. However, aside from the device
> being out of warranty, it appears that it has also been opened and tampered with.
> This would unfortunately void your warranty if it was still valid. Without being able to
> offer any additional options via Google, I can only suggest contacting the manufacturer
> LG for further assistance. I have included some contact information below for your convenience:
...
The device is long out of warranty, and I did not expect any help from you. I only contacted you when I realized from stories on the web that Google has recognized its OTA update as defective and was extending the warranty for those caught in its failure.

What you are telling me now is that I should have lied, and simply told you that the device was bricked by the OTA update, without honestly describing all of my efforts to recover. What you call "tampering" is using my nail to pop open the back lid and unplug/replug the battery. I did not unscrew any screws or broke any seals, and the case does not contain a warning that opening it constitutes "tampering", so you are simply using it as an excuse to not face the inconvenient truth that your update is at fault here.

Fine. You do what you must to save your company some money.

I'll do what I must as a consumer: I'll never buy from Google again.
----------------------------------

I have not heard back.

 

[themeanapple]

You're definitely not alone. I think I'm having a similar problem. Ever since I upgraded to 5.0.2, my tablet would suddenly freeze (or give me something similar to a BSoD), crash and reboot, only to repeat this process almost immediately afterwards. Every time. I wish I could downgrade, but I have no experience at all. I'm just waiting for a miracle, or perhaps some small update that would fix this, I don't want to do anything that might permanently damage/brick my device. :'(

 

[Collin Norwood]

I had my Tablet running really slowly for a few days and then all of a sudden a bunch of grey lines filled the screen and it wouldn't turn on. I tried charging and nothing happened. As soon as I called support it turned back on and was working. later I'll clear the cache and see if the slowness gets resolved.