Nexus 7 Resurrected!
Jul 11, 2017 11:54:37 GMT
Post by tyrednexited on Jul 11, 2017 11:54:37 GMT
We have an old Nexus 7 Tablet (1st Gen) that was originally SWMBOs, and fine for a good few years until it became "half-bricked" by an upgrade from KitKat to Lollipop.
This was a common problem, with performance taking an absolute nosedive (even turning it on and getting a WiFi connection might take 5 minutes!).
Various remedies including clearing data and cache, factory resetting etc. were suggested on the web for the many people affected, but they made only negligible difference. The device was thus relegated to sitting around, offering to act as a remote for the TV or my music streaming devices, but still so slow that, by the time it was ready to perfom some function, you'd forgotten what you'd turned it on for (and there is only a little bit of "poetic licence" there).
As the Nexus 7 is a nice device, SWMBO inherited my 2nd Gen version (scratched and repersonalised) as this has been entirely unaffected by successive android upgrades, and I bought a slightly more clunky Asus one for my own use.
Anyway, with a bit of free time yesterday I revisited some instructions on how to re-image the device (without rooting it) with a factory KitKat image, and, selecting the last of those released, decided to have a go. (After all, the worst that could happen was turning a half-brick into a brick!).
The instructions were a little lacking, and the process whilst under way could have been somewhat more informative (such that, at a few points I thought I had bricked it, and struggled to restart it and repeat steps). Eventually, however, the thing burst into life with the desired KitKat image.
Now it's configured, instead of being as sluggish as Wayne Rooney playing for Everton is likely to be, it is as responsive as Nobgag's mutt reputedly is as dog shows!.
It is now fit for its (relegated) purpose. All I need to be sure of now is that I don't actually (re-)invoke the upgrade to Lollipop that it keeps thrusting at me (I've managed to hide/inhibit the notification, so that's the first step!)
I are pleased!
.....and given the process involved running a utility on Windows, I've also learnt one little thing about that (or probably more correctly, that and the underlying DOS) that I didn't know before.
This was a common problem, with performance taking an absolute nosedive (even turning it on and getting a WiFi connection might take 5 minutes!).
Various remedies including clearing data and cache, factory resetting etc. were suggested on the web for the many people affected, but they made only negligible difference. The device was thus relegated to sitting around, offering to act as a remote for the TV or my music streaming devices, but still so slow that, by the time it was ready to perfom some function, you'd forgotten what you'd turned it on for (and there is only a little bit of "poetic licence" there).
As the Nexus 7 is a nice device, SWMBO inherited my 2nd Gen version (scratched and repersonalised) as this has been entirely unaffected by successive android upgrades, and I bought a slightly more clunky Asus one for my own use.
Anyway, with a bit of free time yesterday I revisited some instructions on how to re-image the device (without rooting it) with a factory KitKat image, and, selecting the last of those released, decided to have a go. (After all, the worst that could happen was turning a half-brick into a brick!).
The instructions were a little lacking, and the process whilst under way could have been somewhat more informative (such that, at a few points I thought I had bricked it, and struggled to restart it and repeat steps). Eventually, however, the thing burst into life with the desired KitKat image.
Now it's configured, instead of being as sluggish as Wayne Rooney playing for Everton is likely to be, it is as responsive as Nobgag's mutt reputedly is as dog shows!.
It is now fit for its (relegated) purpose. All I need to be sure of now is that I don't actually (re-)invoke the upgrade to Lollipop that it keeps thrusting at me (I've managed to hide/inhibit the notification, so that's the first step!)
I are pleased!
.....and given the process involved running a utility on Windows, I've also learnt one little thing about that (or probably more correctly, that and the underlying DOS) that I didn't know before.
