How to update our Acer Iconia Tab A500

I have the above tablet currently running with the following specs;

Android 3.2.1
Kernel 2.6.36.3+
Build ACER_A500_7.014_01_COM_GEN1

I am having problems with it (specifically play store crashing) and I have read articles that it is obsolete and no good anymore. Before I throw it away I was wondering if I can upgrades it first. Going to the Acer support site it seems there is a version 4.0 for WW GEN1. Seems I am at COM_GEN1, I see under version 3.2 there is an image (WW_GEN1) that can be applied to COM1_GEN1. I am hoping that if I apply this, I can will then be able to apply the 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

Assuming this is all correct, I am having problems finding the documents for the upgrade. When I am at the support site and choose 3.2 as the version, I see 4 categories (Driver, Documents, Application and OS). OS is where I find the image to upgrade to WW_GEN1 and it says to download and read the upgrade manual from the document page, but when I click Documents the only thing I see is documents on kernel documents and a User Manual, but not Upgrade manual.

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philetus

Acer_AV041_A500_RV05RC01_PA_CUS1. seems to be the Official a500OTA ICS upgrade
see https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1624908
"Before I throw it away " you could give this a try. There is nothing else. Has been nothing for years.
If you want to try it, download it, rename the zipped file to update.zip
2/ place the file on the micro sd card
3/ turn off the tablet
4/ press the down volume key and the power button at the same time until the tablets turns on
5/ the iconia will start the upgrade process by itself.
Wait. It may take a while or it may fail.

glrider

Thanks a lot for the response. Clicking on the link you provided and I see there was a link to an update.zip which is no longer valid. Is this what you mean when you said download it, and rename it to update.zip.

I downloaded OS_Acer_7.014.01.041.203.01.WW.GEN1_A32H_A.zip earlier and noticed that when I unzipped it, it contained an update.zip. Sorry I am a little confused as to what exactly I am supposed to do.

philetus

No, at Acer https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/3851?b=1

Date:

2014/09/05

Version:

RV05RC01.RV21RC03.PA.CUS1

Vendor:

Acer

Size:

434.2 MB

Download

glrider

Thanks I see it under O.S. A off topic question, do you know if micros SD cards are the same for a tablet as they are for a computer. I got one that fits in the tablet, but I can't get it to fit in the computer at all. It seems it is shaped just enough to not fit.

philetus

Micro sd on right. To put this in my laptop, I have to put it into the adapter on the left and I have a slot it goes in.
You don't have to put the card in the computer. Have you ever connected the tab to your computer?
https://computing.which.co.uk/hc/en-gb/articles/115002555705-Transfer-files-from-a-PC-to-your-Android-tablet-by-USB

glrider

Thanks very much for your hep. Charging the tablet, going to eat dinner and then will see how I make out. I'll let you know.

glrider

hi philetus,

Sorry for the delay.....more important things came up and I could deal with this as soon as I would have liked. I got the tablet connected to the computer okay and followed the instruction your provided. When the tablet first turned on there was a screen with the some verbose text and then I was provided with the Android icon with a yellow triangle inside with an exclamation mark. I left it for a while and when I came back to it, it had completed booting, but looking at settings I still seems to be where I was before. I guess that means it is not going to work?

glrider

Do I need to get to gen2 first?

philetus

Try something else. See the second poet down here,
https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/499284/acer-a-500-how-to-upgrade-android-software-need-step-by-step-as-not-too-computer-smart

glrider

So I downloaded the second file and then had a look at MDEM post. With the first file I downloaded I didn't unzip, I just copied it to the SD card and renamed it to update.zip. It seems you have to unzip the file at the root level of the SD card. Do you still want me to try the second download or give the first a show again with it unzipped?

philetus

Since you have directions for the second one, try it and then, if they seem similar, the other one.

glrider

Okay I unzipped 3-OS_Acer_AV041.A500.RV21RC03.WW.GEN1_A40I_A.zip and ended up with SD_Acer_AV041_A500_RV21RC03_WW_GEN1.zip. I placed this on the SD card, but still got the same android icon with the yellow triangle. I am not sure what MEDM means by 'What I had missed was that one had to unzip the site file onto the SD card then load that into the machine.'. I am not sure if he kept unzipping untile he had a set of directories and coied that to the SD card, and not sure what he means by 'load that into the machine'.

glrider

So that didn't seem to work either. I read down further and realized that due to a request of someone he tried to give a more detailed approach to what he did. He put the chip in his computer and unzipped the file to it. I can't do that because the chip doesn't seem to fit in my computer. I just connected the table to my computer's USB as you suggested previously. I would be surprised if unzipping it to the SD card would be different than unzipping to the computer and then copying to the SD card. In the end the SD should have the same contents.

I am still a little confused as to what the boot is looking for on the SD card, a zip file or a group of upgrade directories.If the text stayed on the screen long I could write down what it says.

glrider

philetus,

I want to thank you so, so much. I am forever grateful for the amazing people out there that man/women these online forums to help the less knowledgeable people. My wife came up with the brilliant idea to hold a magnifying glass over the screen and I was able to get the first three lines. Line 3 refers to update.zip. I just left the zip file named the way it was as per MEDM's instruction. I tried renaming as per your instructions and viola things worked exactly as the way they are suppose to. I am now at Android 4.0.2, kernel 2.6.39.4+, image version Acer_AV041_A500_RV21RC03_WW_GEN1, and Build number Acer_AV041_A500_1.066.00_WW_GEN1.

A note for other who might read this and have the same issue. am going to try rename it and try again. I am not sure if the upgrade would handle a ziped zip file but hear is exactly what I did.

1. I downloaded the zip file from https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/499284/acer-a-500-how-to-upgrade-android-software-need-step-by-step-as-not-too-computer-smart
2. I unzipped this file which gave me another zip file.
3. I connected my tablet with the same usb cable I use for my android phone
4. my computer recognized the table including the SD card that was inside it.
5. Using my computer I copied the zip file I got from unzipping the first file and copied it to the SD card, and renamed it to update.zip. The SD card I used came with a Mirror Cam I purchased but never worked so it did have three other directories at the root level. This did not seem to matter.
6. Power up the tablet by holding the power button and the volume down key (top left of the tablet)
7. When I felt the tablet vibrate I let go of the power button.
8. when the lines of text disappeared from the screen I let go of the volume down button
9. Watch the cute android icon do his magic. The upgrade took about 5 minutes.

philetus

Glad to hear it worked.

billsey

Yeah, those machines would look for a file specifically called update.zip in the root of a SD card that was formatted FAT32. If you miss any of those they would get confused. Some of the downloads Acer put on their site were already named right, some were named the version number, some had update.zip zipped with a text file as version number, some had version number zipped in another zip. I think they had a different guy putting it together each time, and either no one made docs for the process or no one read the docs from their predecessor.

steve23

thank you billsey and philetus & co, you have saved me from ditching my A500. I understood from elsewhere that the A500 was simply too old to be of use- like me. I will try the steps that philetuswent thru and give this ol girl another try

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