Won't turn on, won't turn off

[MacBett]

Scroll Essential.

Bought it on eBay so taking it back isn't an option.

Used it a week or so, and then it had a funny turn while I was turning it on, told me the battery was nearly flat, so I plugged it in, and it froze while turning on, on the balloon screen. It wouldn't move past the screen, and when I tried turning it off it would power down but it didn't put up the 'you're turning off' screen. Had several goes at this without success. Left it to recharge completely, no effect. Left it to drain completely in the hope that it would turn off, no effect.

Tried the paperclip in the reset hole, no effect. I got the same power down, but when I turn on again, it still freezes on the balloon.

Searched for help here and other places, cursed a bit and did a factory reset. Reloaded everything (and that was a problem for another thread!), everything seemed fine.

Gave it a week and it did it again.

This time I'm wondering if what caused it was that I picked it up awkwardly and hit the on button, but not for long enough for it to start completely. That's just a guess.

I really don't want to do another factory reset and reload everything, set up my email accounts again, rebuild my To Do lists from scratch, etc, etc cont page 94 because I hadn't yet worked out how to do my backups. I've never had any android device before and I'm not particularly tech-savvy, I was working stuff out slowly.

System Recovery 'reboot system now' lands me in the balloon screen again, never moving on. Do I have any options other than another factory reset? And can anybody suggest what's causing this?

[Trashcooky]

I have no idea what is causing your problem but if you can get it running again by doing another factory reset and then install titanium backup and perhaps clockwork mod as well (if you can find the right links on this forum) then at least you can make some form of backup. apps and settings with Titanium and/or a compllete image with CWM.

This will make it easier for you to restore your apps/settings etc if it locks up again.

Failing that, it depends how brave you are to open up the case and see if there are any obvious faults.
(Some tablets are renowned for having badly soldered joints.)
At the end of the day, if it is bricked anyway then you haven't got much to lose in trying to fix it. I wish you every success.

[MacBett]

Did another factory reset. Reloaded everything. Dead waste of time. This time I got a week and now it will pass the balloon screen and the Android logo, and sometimes the unlock will work and sometimes it won't. Sometimes it knows if it's charged and sometimes it doesn't. Fifteen seconds or so after unlocking and it rotates back through the android logo and the lock again. I'm not opening the case - that's beyond me, although I take your point about having nothing to lose, but I'm not tech minded - I couldn't find a sufficiently basic set of 'how to root' instructions to allow me even to do that. I'm afraid I've bought a pup! Which is a shame because it was my first tablet, bought so that I could see if I would use one at all, and I have to say I'm put off, disinclined to buy another of any type and certainly disinclined even to look at another Scroll.

[Trashcooky]

It is shame that your first android experience has been a bad one as it can be the source of enormous pleasure be it just playing games or for the more bravehearted, modding the system and installing customised ROMS.
I suppose that the only consolation you have is that the Essential is the cheapest to buy so your losses could have been much higher.

Is it too late to claim under the warrenty ? it should have 12 months and if it has caused you all this trouble it sounds like you have a good case for the item not being fit for purpose.

I hope this doesn't put you off android alltogether.
The Excel can now be picked up for around £80.00 with Ice Cream Sandwich and it is well supported on this forum.

[MacBett]

Well, neither of those is for me - I'm not a gamer, and the very idea of modding anything brings me up in a rash. I want things to work the way I'm told they're going to, preferably first time! I like Android well enough, I have a nice new Android phone and I'm having to keep a tight grip on myself to stop me adding this app and that app and and and... I'm just wanting to keep calm until I find out what I want to do with it, rather than having everything all at once!

I deliberately bought cheap - second hand so no warranty and not actually worth following up, I don't think - just in case I found I didn't like it or didn't use it. I was prepared to trade up later if I found I did. I'm annoyed and frustrated but in the grand scheme of things, nobody died, and it didn't cost more than I can afford to lose, however little I wanted to.

[Trashcooky]

Not so bad then.
Don't dump it in the bin yet though because the parts may have a value on the "items for sale" subforum.
Cases and screens and even batteries are not easy to get hold of.