Old Slate 7 2800, super bricked

[Ruf3]

Hi all! I've got a Slate 7 that I got while it was in working condition, but foolishly I agreed to let it update itself OTA. After that, I got only an ever-spinning bootlogo, but could get into the recovery menu.

After then flashing the update.zip (~260MB) for this model, from HP's servers (and it was hard to find! so many broken links!) the last thing I saw after the update installed was something about 'writing rk loader bin' which flashed by just before it rebooted again. (Can I be a famous person for bricking the virtually-unbrickable RockChip system? 😉 )

Now, it's dead to me. When I plug in a sufficiently powerful charger (2/3A, made for USB3 charging) the screen lights up. If I push no keys, the 'hp' logo flashes by and then it's all black, just backlight. If I hold down any combination of the volume buttons, the 'hp' logo stays on the screen, forever. Like, overnight forever. Also it appears not to charge anymore, when the power is pulled, it shuts down within seconds.

All helpful pages say 'hold down Power+VolumeUp' but on this model, when I wanted the recovery menu after the OTA softbricked it, I had to hold down Power+VolumeUp+VolumeDown. Just a FYI.

What can I possibly do now to push in working firmware, short of having an expensive data service force it into the flash chip itself (not worth it)?

If I plug it into an USB3 port on my desktop, that ought to provide enough power for it to run, while updating. But not even getting a recovery menu means I'm kinda boned, I think, because I can't give it the command to sideload or SDcard-load an update ... also if I do, I still only have HP's update.zip, which caused this problem to begin with. (Sure, maybe something went Horribly Wrong during flashing, and reflashing the same file might work. I'd even be glad for that chance to try it!)

Hopefully,

Henrik

[The_Fossette]

@Ruf3,

Welcome to the HP Support Community!

I see that you have already tried all the relevant troubleshooting steps. However, I recommend you follow the steps in the below article and check if it helps.

https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-slate-7-tablet/5373939/document/c03678325

Let me know how it goes and you have a great day!

If you wish to show appreciation for my efforts, mark my post as Accept as Solution. Your feedback counts!

Cheers!

[Ruf3]

I'm afraid not. As I said, I cannot even get a Recovery Menu now, after previously having installed the 'update.zip' from an SD card in an attempt to revive the tablet after the OTA update made it unbootable - but at that stage I at least had a recovery menu. Now I don't even have that. Appearing much like the SD-card update overwrote even that 'low level' recovery bootloader part.

Leaving the tablet plugged in just makes it stay on and not accpet charge - it's impossible to turn it off. For a 'really hard reset' I even opened it up and disconnected the battery for a short while, but that seems to have had no effect.

One thing of note is that the tablet according to the power LEDs on the chargers I have (one QC3 and one 'lower power but still up to 2A), it draws about 0,40A of power, but only on the QC3 charger will the screen stay continuously on. On the slightly weaker charger, or connected to a computer, the tablet keeps blinking on the screen and hp logo, then go black, then blink on again etc. Like it's trying to start up but immediately dies from not having enough power.

Is there anything else I can do with the tablet opened up? I don't suppose there's a magical hidden 'force a boot-loader reset' button or component that can be toggled? 🙂

[The_Fossette]

@Ruf3,

I recommend you contact support as it looks like a hardware issue.

Here is how you can get in touch with tech support.

1)Click on this link – www.hp.com/contacthp/

2)Select the product type.

3)Enter the serial number of your device or select let HP detect your product option.

4)Select the country from the drop-down.

5)You should see the HP phone support number or Chat option listed.

Cheers!