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Ampe A10 Firmware Upgrade

65K views 32 replies 15 participants last post by  The Kingsman 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Ampe A10 Firmware Upgrade Mod v1.1 (29/11/12) + Root 1.58b

Yo guys, today I will talk about dell'Ampe A10 Quad Core and how to upgrade the firmware on a stable version by removing the ROM inside china .. (You have to check the version you have on your Ampe before, but on occasions this was the last original firmware 1.58b you can proceed with the same procedure to remove the apps Chinese and optimize your system) that implements the latest version 1.58b rooted significant changes such as:

- play store fix
- build.prop tweaks
- removing apps in China, let me know if they recur
- new bootanimation
- busybox installed
- based on firmware 1.58b HiApad
- framework-res.apk modded to 4% battery alert
- systemUI.apk deodex
- Mobile Standby disabled

NOTE:

* THIS PROCEDURE MAY BE ON ALL THE CORTEX A9 CPU FREESCALE AS PRINTS A10, HiApad, SANEI N10 *

** WARNING! THIS PROCEDURE MUST BE DONE USING AN EXTERNAL SDCARD IF YOU'VE TAKE IT WHY THE MEMORY 16 GB INTERNAL MEMORY IS HOW TO VIEW AND ONCE MADE I WILL WIPE ERASE ALL FILES **

*** LATEST VERS. OF PRINTS ARE IN DEFAULT WITH A10 1.58b SO NEED A RESET ONLY FOR REMOVAL OF CHINESE APPS AND FOR THE ROOT ***


Installation:
Proceed with the download do the following:
Firmware 1.1 - http://freetexthost.com/xkqegww4nu - password: osrescueteam
Root 1.58 - https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B654sEr8KR45V0w4anlTa2Q4OUE

- Extract all
- Copy all files in the home of the external sdcard replacing the boot.img file with the one inside the. Zip root.
- Put the sdcard in the tablet and turn it off
- Press and hold Power + Volume -
- When you see the message disappear Ampe A10 release the power button and hold the Volume - button
- Once in recovery select wipe data factory reset and wipe cache
- Now select update all image files and wait .. Installation takes about 2 minutes
- Once we perform a reboot, the first boot will last a long
- Procedure completed once you start the phone and store are rooted and google store working fine.

Enjoy
 
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#2 ·
Hi Gus,

I get my Ampe A10 Quad Core on Monday or Tuesday. It'll come rooted, and contain the very latest rom upgrade. I'll let you know how it's working and whether I will need to upgrade using rom 1.58b. The dealer assures me that future upgrades will come directly from Ampe directly to the tablet. I Hope that this will function as it did on my zt-282 (C94) so that I lose nothing when the upgrade has finished.

Interestingly, I will have access, not only to my C91 and Ampe, but over the next week or so I should also have access to a Zenithink C94. I Plan to do a comparative review of all of these, and let you know what I think.
 
#5 ·
I'll age with the last comment. When you try to open the rar files, there are rar files within them. Then trying to figure out what should, and should not be placed on the external sdcard is a little difficult. I appreciate all your help.

Rob
 
#6 ·
I had promised a comparison review of my Zenithink C91, the Zenithink C94 and the Ampe A10. I had the chance to have hands on with the C94 the other day, and had a chance to put the C94 through it's paces.

Now, I have to tell you, up front, that I have a Zenithink C91 that I really enjoy. It is a very well constructed, and capable tablet. I will come back to this in a few minutes. Just let me say that my experiences with the C91 have mostly been extremely good and have made me very pre-disposed to like Zenithink's products.

Saying the above though, my first impression of the Zenithink C94 was not very good.

1. There were no instructions in the box.
2. There were no micro to regular usb cables that came with it.
3. My friend, who had bought the tablet, had turned it on, there was a ui error notice, and due to the fact that the default screen shut off was only 1 minute, effectively, at his skill level left him with a bricked tablet.

Well, the first thing I did was to shut off the tablet and reboot it. This is where I discovered that there was, indeed, a Ui error. At that point, I reset the tablet. This did not correct the error. Then I set the screen to never shut itself off, and while in the settings, did a hard reset that wiped the tablet. This took care of the problem. We now had a fully functioning Zenithink C94, or so I thought! What would my friend have done without someone who knew what he was doing? This first experience with the C94 had dampened my enthusiasm for Zenithink. Putting this in perspective then, let's move on.

Now, having what appeared to be a fully functioning C94, let's look at appearances. No one has, till now, answered the question as to whether the C94 has a glass screen or not-Yes, it has a glass screen. The overall heft and feel of the C94 is quite good, and screams quality. Everything fits extremely well and has the little touches that give an overall comfortableness and solidity to the tablet. In fact, I found the C94 to be very attractive. The white plastic back was no problem, as my C91 also has one.

The ports on the Zenithink are good as it has two USB ports, HDMI, headphone, and mic ports as well. It also has a reset. These all fit well. I wish they had kept a full sized USB port but Zenithink chose to drop it.

I really don't like the positioning of the ports on the C94 along the top of the machine. I wish they had placed these along the right hand side.

Another problem is the positioning of the On/Off and Volume switches along the upper back right hand side. They are smaller than I'd have liked , but were beautiful there. If you try to buy a case that will fit it, you're out of luck unless you get a very expensive case that allows some serious customization. Seriously, the appearance of the tablet is quite pretty. It is only about half the thickness of my C91 as it is, it is about a ½ inch shorter and a ½ inch wider than the C91, though the screen size is the same as the C91. It lacks the icons that are along the right side of the C91, instead only has standard ICS icons along the left bottom of the screen. That's right, in spite of what you might have seen and heard, the C94 is still running under ICS 4.0.3. In spite of the advertising, Zenithink shipped the tablet before they had Jelly Bean fixed for it. It also has an 8 gig nand ram drive. When you boot the machine up it operates smoothly. There was very little time between pressing the on button and boot up. I was impressed. I found very little in the way of apps pre-installed, and had to load everything my friend wanted in the way of software. All of this came from the Play Store, and had no problem downloading, installing or operating. However, on that particular day the Store would not download Antutu or Quadrant to do speed tests. I think it was because the Zt/I. MX6Q was not registered with them yet.

By the time I got through doing my work that night, his tablet seemed to work very well indeed. It's very fast and capable. The inability to find a case for it, and the placement of the ports would put me off. I'll have more to say later, but my C91 compared very favourably against the C94, though it didn't appear to be anywhere near as fast. The battery life seems to be very good. Since this time I have found out that the firmware is very poor. There is no Bluetooth recognition, nor do either of the USB ports work.

I have sadly recommended that my friend return the tablet for the following reasons.
1. The tablet came without cables or instructions.
2. The UI (User Interface) was corrupted before he ever touched it.
3. The advertising clearly stated that the tablet had Android 4.1. It did not! It came with Android 4.0.3.
4. It was advertised as having two working USB ports. Neither of these work.
5. I discovered that there is no provision for Bluetooth on this tablet even though this was one of the selling points in the advertisements.

Even downloading the latest firmware did not help these problems. These issues carried on to the new firmware which was flawed in the same way, in fact, the firmware upgrade clearly states that it is a beta version of Android 4.0.3..

The hardware appears to be good, but the firmware is shoddy, and only partially functional.

Since I had owned an Upgraded Zenithink C91 I really thought that Zenithink would market a good tablet here. I am severely disappointed because of the firmware they marketed it with. Because of this they have been selling nothing but an expensive toy and I can't recommend it.
--------
On the other hand, A couple of days later, I got my Ampe A10 Quad Core.

I opened the box, and saw the tablet. After removing this, I went through the rest of the contents. There were an inexpensive set of earbuds, a male USB to male micro USB cable, and a female USB to micro male USB cable, and two pieces of paperwork. One of these was an operation manual, and the warranty info. Both of these were in Chinese, and didn't help at all.

The tablet itself is very nice, and extremely beautiful. It booted right up, and I have just loved using it ever since. Yes, there are battery problems, but my dealer is writing a new rom right now that addresses this. In the meantime, Juice Protector has extended the length of the charge to more than four hours. The tablet is extremely well constructed and has a 16 gig internal nand drive. Everything on it works to perfection, and the Play Store is working wonderfully as well. There were programs that either were not completely compatible or were not listed on the Party Store at first, but like Rom Toolbox, which was not there one day, but was the next, compatible versions appear overnight. After running the tablet with more than 180 different apps now, I am really impressed. This is a lightning fast tablet that looks beautiful, and operates wonderfully. The ports are all positioned nicely, fit nicely, show real quality engineering. The screen is a 1280x800 wonder, this is not a higher definition, but larger format screen that really looks good, and makes the tablet about an inch wider than my Zenithink C91. The one drawback is that the screen is made of plastic rather than glass. A good screen protector goes a long way though. Also, the cameras on the tablet could be higher resolution(They're both 2gig cameras), but they have made it easier to get photos when I want them.

The tablet is incredibly fast, runs just about everything you throw at it, and is able to run circles around my Zenithink C91.

For my money, this is the tablet that should have been. It's the best. By the way, Freescale, the manufacturer of the chip set, has promised a soon delivery of a working version of Android 4.1.

The Ampe A10 Quad Core is inexpensive, but a quality tablet that I can heartily recommend-The Ampe A10 Quad Core.
 
#7 · (Edited by Moderator)
#8 ·
Hi. I am newbie here. I just bought this ampe quad core tablet. It is a very good tablet but I having problem connect the tablet to my lcd tv via hdmi cable. The tablet detect the hdmi cable when I plug the cable into the tablet but the tv doesn't project anything. It just goes blank. I can assure you that my lcd tv and hdmi cable is okay. Does anyone facing the same problem? Thanks.
 
#9 ·
Sorry, I am not using an hdmi cable with the Ampe. Let me have a couple of days to talk with my dealer and I'll get back with you.
Hope you have had a wonderful Christmas and thanked The Lord for His incredible gift.

Blessings,

Rob
 
#12 ·
Hi, another neebie in tablets with some questions.
I just got a AMPE A10 and I'm experimenting those issue regarding the battery life (a lot of popups saying that battery life is less than 7% and short battery life) and the issue with a lot of app not being compatible on the Google Play Store.
My question is: Will there be an "official" upgrade from AMPE to adress these issues? Is there any danger in doing the above procedure? Will it solve those issues?
Does it upgrade Android to Jelly Bean??

Thanks again for the help and wish you all a happy new year

Andre
 
#13 ·
My guess is that Ampe will not roll out an update to remedy the battery life issue and wierd battery metering etc. But you never know. I don't really see any danger in doing this procedure. But of course, if you do anything wrong then you would probably have a problem. And no it is still ICS. This procedure does not really cure the Play store compatability issue. Basically what you get when doing this procedure is a rooted Ampe A10 Quad Core with some tweaks and fixes.
 
#14 ·
Thanks for the reply. Just another quick questions. Internet wifi speed seems to be slow on the A10. When I do a speed test I only get about 0.5 Mbps. My internet connection is 10 Mbps and I get those results on the same test on my notebook and on my Android Phone. Is there any config that I need to do on my A10 for it to get full speed ?? I know it's not the test since downloads are also at low speed.
Again, thanks for the help.

Andre
 
#16 · (Edited by Moderator)
Internet speed is dependent on a number of factors. Not least of these is the carrier you use, the type of service you get from them, and the present load levels. My service is fairly slow. This morning I'm downloading at 3.29 mips, and uploading at 1.25 mips. Sometimes these speeds are much better than this so I know that this reflects the load on the system. Sometimes even the way you turn your tablet has to do with the speed of your internet connection often the places I go have business class internet and are blazingly fast.

Rob
 
#23 ·
looks like ppl have moved on from this thread. I would love to find updated files and a good flash procedure. all the files in this thread are old. I have found the newest 4.0.4 from ampe website, but i'm getting a file errors in boot procedure when i'm using the sd card as a flash. file errors on files 1 and 5
 
#26 ·
I'm sorry guys, I didn't know that there were any Ampe A10 Freescale Quad users here. It sounds like you are all experiencing the same problem though, and maybe I can be of help.

First, I own an Ampe A10 and just dearly love it. More about the reasons why later.

The Ampe/Haipad/Sanei Freescale Quad are all produced by the same manufacturer for different markets and are exactly the same tablet. The problem though is that this particular tablet has been produced with two different screens with somewhat different properties. This is not real obvious and the manufacturer has not made it easy to figure out.

Unfortunately, the manufacturer is not real good at communication in English and has some strange ways of doing business using a Chinese model.

Any way, it seems like all of you have the new screen and tried to install the firmware for the old screen. This has strange, but predictable effects. A washed out, pixelated, or random snow like effect is not uncommon. If you look here, you should find the proper firmware for your tablets.

https://docs.google.com/folder/d/0Bz06i2R7yGmZNzlic25OeUJxVmM/edit

The third item down should solve your problem.

This is the R1-5_1.64_W2-signed.zip

If you look in the Settings menu on your tablet under About, the build number should have a "W" in it. Anyway, there are a few tips I want to give you about properly installing your firmware.

1. If you haven't done so already, buy a micro sdhc card for the USB slot on your tablet.
2. Install Titanium Backup on your tablet. Do a complete backup to this external card.
3. Download the software above to the tablet.
4. If you haven't done so already, download a good file manager that allows you to unzip filesto your tablet.
5. Move the firmware zip file to the external sd card.
6. I strongly suggest though it isn't absolutely necessary that next you look in "Settings" again, go to Backup/Reset, check both boxes and do a Factory data reset. This will erase everything on the main card and restore to Chinese language. After the tablet reboots, if you don't speak Chinese, go to settings again, look at the 6th item from the bottom, click on it and look for English.
7. Now, re-download the file manager, and use it to open the external card, and unzip the firmware file to the main directory of the internal sd card. Having done this, shut the tablet off.
8. Finally, while holding down the right volume button(-), press the power button till the penguins appear. Let go of this button. When the upgrade screen appears, let go off the power button.
Your tablet should look right now, and you can re-download Titanium Backup, then restore your files from your external sd card.

I'll check back in a day or two and see how you are all doing.

Blessings,

Rob
 
#27 · (Edited by Moderator)
I'ma give this a go. I let you know if I end up with a fully functional tablet or a vaguely tablet shaped hole in my drywall. XD

EDIT: I don't think it did anything for me. I keep getting some md5 errors. My screen was already OK since I rolled back to the v1.64 W2 4.0.4 release. If I apply 1.58 then try your 1.64 it might work out somehow. Get the benefits of the fixes in the previous version plus the not washed-out screen.
Has anyone had success with this yet?

EDIT: I think I might be able to get this installed with an unsigned version. I just tried to 'apply update from sd card' using the signed zip and I got a signature verification error.

EDIT: After goofing around in ADB for a bit I decided to reinstall the non W2 1.58. Then I pushed the most recent W2 recovery. I had recovery mode up and running without the need for unsigned images and then had it install the 1.64 W2 version. The initial Ampe loading screen is still washed out. But everything else seems to be working fine. Haven't tested BT but the market seems to behave.
 
#29 ·
Yeah still washed out initial screen. Big whoop. As long as it doesn't hurt anything I'll deal.

BT Does work OK but it seems to cut out a lot, especially if the tablet or headset move. Both moving at the same time is an excellent reproduction of the sony cd walkman experiance from the early 90s during a brisk walk. Trying to bring up the paired device's settings crashes the settings UI. The BT support on the device itself might be part of the problem. It also likes to play through BT while there is no device paired and the range is limited to 25 or so feet.
Do you think there's a way to tweak Bluez? Get some more range and stability out of the stack?
 
#30 ·
I tried the R1-5_1.64_W2-signed.zip update, but it seems that ZIP file is missing the MD5 files (and maybe others?) - as I get the MD5 errors when performing the update. This which washed out screen makes the tablet unusable, it's not just during boot up. although, the recovery screen works ok (only). Can anyone point to another copy of this firmware that includes the MD5 files?

THanks!
 
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