Is This Iconia "Dead and Gone?" A210-10G16U

My Iconia A210-10G16U has an Android booting failure I can't match with any other Iconia series user. Initially it's not surprising the reset button simply resets the failure, and the failure message in the upper left of the usual ACER logo screen is hardly uncommon:

Booting failed
Bootloader vjB-3fb8d45: Starting Fastboot USB download protocol

It's after that things get weird. When I use the combination of buttons Power, Volume -, Volume + necessary to begin "Booting recovery kernel image" instead I get this:

Entering boot menu mode
Booting failed
Bootloader vjB-3fb8d45: Starting Fastboot USB download protocol

My next step was the more difficult reset involving a combination of buttons and toggling the screen lock. I tried this multiple times with and without a microSD image of my A210's current OS. And once again I was back to:

Booting failed
Bootloader vjB-3fb8d45: Starting Fastboot USB download protocol

Knowing Android rather well, I fully believed my Iconia could not be truly lost. But I'm now thinking it may be time to hand it over to an electronics recylcer. I realize an Android 4.1.1 tablet is well outdated. But I'm consumed by this challenge. One last clue I can offer is that it went to sleep set on a seemingly harmless web page with a microSD inside. I had been downloading DIY jpegs to the microSD. When I returned to resume about an hour later, the Iconia was fully unresponsive until I realized I had to hold the power button for a full five seconds to get it to silently power off.

Accepted answers

billsey

Yup, it's sounding pretty hosed. I'm betting the boot BIOS is corrupted, so it's trying to boot an image from a USB connected diagnostic device. Probably something only the factory has access to, and likely they've tossed it for this old of a model. What you need is a functional one with a busted screen so you can swap motherboards. Though I'm betting a new tablet would be better in the long run.

All comments

billsey

It could be a corrupted boot drive. You might try reinstalling the latest upgrade image force the support site. If it'll reflash from the zip file it might come back.

WJB-2

Well the latest and final upgrade image from the ACER support site is on the microSD I mention above. I easily upgraded the A210 with it a few years back. But now when I reinsert the OS upgrade microSD and re-follow the instruction to reach "Booting recovery kernel image" I can get only the following:

Entering boot menu mode
Booting failed

The key seems to be "Entering boot menu mode." It's as if the unit wants to find the recovery kernel image, but fails as it immediately follows with the words: "Booting failed." Then immediately appear the words "Bootloader vjB-3fb8d45: Starting Fastboot USB download protocol." The tablet then freezes at the ACER logo screen with those words in the upper left corner, and would remain so all day if not powered down. Since booting failed, there's no capability to scroll with the volume buttons let alone choose any funtion with the power key.

Bootloader vjB-3fb8d45 is addressed on these community pages, with some users able to overcome a problem and others unable. I may well be in that latter group but will keep looking for answers -- for now. Perhaps removing the battery or finding a PC-based solution, though I doubt the latter is available. Thanks for chiming in!

billsey

Yup, it's sounding pretty hosed. I'm betting the boot BIOS is corrupted, so it's trying to boot an image from a USB connected diagnostic device. Probably something only the factory has access to, and likely they've tossed it for this old of a model. What you need is a functional one with a busted screen so you can swap motherboards. Though I'm betting a new tablet would be better in the long run.

IronFly

your last resort can be a search on XDA community.

WJB-2

A210 Epilogue: "It's Dead, Jim."
After taking ACE Iron-Fly's advice to check XDA Developers, the only input received was similar to ACE Billsey's original suggestion. So as a last last resort I asked if a local phone repair shop by wildest chance had a tool to assess "Starting Fastboot USB download protocol."
No was the owner's expected answer. "It's some type of software problem," he said, adding an operating system reinstall and perhaps more was needed. Since only the factory could achieve that given the booting circumstances, the owner ended with the obvious: better to buy a new unit.

So, while any fix for my A210's boot failure is conjecture, the phone repair guy's thoughts not withstanding I lean towards ACE Billsey's motherboards swap that I've marked as a solution. But in this case it's a "potential solution" as the lowest cost I've seen for a used board is $24 that I'd rather put toward one of the hot new Iconia's coming from ACER.
So it's time to accept it. ACE Billsey's A100 wins! (Curse you Red Baron! Man Wink ) To that end I contemplated a new thread seeking comparisons of Iconia life expectancies. But I've backed off the idea because of unquantifiable variables. The first variable would be overall hours of use, followed by use intensity during those hours meaning internal heat. But as unlikely as it seems I do wonder if something came across the open web page or the power line to kill the A210 literally in its sleep. As noted earlier, it was still on AC after having just been recharged -- though I never leave it on while being charged.

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