Dual Core Polaroid PMID720 at BigLots

[kevanfl1234]

Root_with_Restore_by_Bin4ry_v31 description in post #45 this thread

I may have loaded current play store with Firefox and ES FileExplorer and not from my phone.. I don't see it on my jump drive.. or email .. and I'm sure I did not use my adb..

I will look to see where it installed.. ie asec or system folder..

[kevanfl1234]

lonely pmid720

well I hope there is someone out there not giving up on this tab!

I have installed 'romdump' in my system/bin and copied my boot, system, and recovery IMG using dd in terminal to my exernal_sd..To my surprise I did not get any error messages.

Is this enough to create a recovery IMG using live suite somehow ? ... would I need the boot loader (seems I would ) and the NFTL-Part ( the largest file)

any help would be appreciated. .

more info..
bootloader mtd 0 - 4mb
logo mtd1- 8mb
aml_logo mtd2 8 mb
recovery mtd3 8mb
boot mtd4 8mb
system mtd5 1gb
cache mtd6 256mb
userdata mtd7- 1gb
NTFL_Part mtd8- 1.7gb

all above listed in partition info as:

Dev name - boot loader
Dev type - nand
Device - Internal Device ( mtdblock 0 )

[vrocko]

Still using it.

I've still got my dual processor Polaroid and I'm actually starting to like using it more. It's not that bad and does better with a battery saving app I downloaded. I've been able to watch full videos and live programs from my cable company so my first impression may have been a little harsh.

I did get another battery charger from Big Lots, the Uniden one that Hamloaf spoke of. It's a lot more portable and does a good job charging. I still use the bigger one I got but this one I can just stick in my pocket and go. Charges my phone, tablets and anything using a micro USB. Real nice.

Are the M series tablets ever coming out? I saw one site that said they had come out but the site was from the UK and did not have links for sellers. I've not seen anything else about them, except for sites that talked about M series at CES back in Jan., or anywhere that is selling them. What's the deal? Summer is over and they're still not out? Anybody got any updates?

Rich

[jeepsteve92xj]

New here. Reset question...

Hello, I am new here.
We got this PMID720 in July at BigLots. Was working alright - the GF pretty much uses it to play Candy Crush and check FB.

I did install the Google Play store the other day, and it was working.
But after freezing and doing a reboot, everything that has been installed since it was bought, is gone.

I used the USB and moved everything (pics and downloads) across to an SD card. However, the tablet claimed to be out of space. Tried another reboot, no change. Tried a FACTORY RESET. Nearly 3 hours later, the tablet has not recovered. The opening Polaroid splash screen is up and the spinning clock thing is spinning.

The reset button hasnt helped. holding the reset or powr buttons has not helped.

How does one force a reboot and reset to facotry if the thing will not boot normally?

Thanks
Steve

[whoshotjr2006]

hard bricked my tablet, working on fix

hey guys,

i noticed everyone has the same worry as me pretty much, that once your bricked you are pretty screwed. well i'm working on fixing that. using amlogic burn tool images for the novo 7 series tablets (which are a pretty close cousin to our 720,) im trying to unbrick my tablet. i mean, nothing on screen kind of bricked. not even able to get to recovery bricked.

since southern telecom and polaroid are no help (beleive me i have tried) im working on this almost completely blind. i now have an aml burn tool image which will boot to recovery from a black screen hard/deep brick, and am getting closer to android booting fully once again on my tab.

does anyone have any experience unpacking and repacking uImage-usb-burning? we are using the am8726-mxs chip, and i'm only finding unpack/repack scripts for m3 devices. my partition sizes are all wrong and im pretty sure the culprit is inside the temporary uImage that is being loaded in the aml burn tool steps. any help would be awesome, even if you guys just upload your romdump boot, aml_logo, bootloader, recovery, and logo .img's. also a system backup would be cool, just please use something easy to dl from, like mediafire.

i wouldnt get hopes up but wish me luck, im making progress and will definitely post more as i know more.

[shaunmt]

It looks like the tablet being discussed in this thread is a 7 inch Amlogic Meson6 board with a 1500 mhz dual-core Cortex-A9 v7? I'm guessing it has dual core Mali 400 GPU with HDMI out also?

I'd bet it is the exact same board used by Nextbook, Ainol, Onda, Prestigio, Master-G etc... the tablet is probably manufactured by Yifang Digital...

It can probably be rooted with Cydia Impactor. If not, I can probably make a modified stock android recovery to boot from SD card, if anyone wants?

If someone wants to root it and dump the ROM, I can probably create update.zip packages for it too?

ShaunMT

[jeepsteve92xj]

shipped! (soon)

I contacted Southern Telecom, and got an RMA since it seems to have bricked. Now it does nothing at all. I'll drop it to ship this afternoon.
On a side note, the GF tried to mess with it yesterday morning, including putting in the microSD card, which was no help, and then she lost the dang card. At least it WAS backed up before it bricked.


Shipping on 10/24/2013, lets see how long until it comes back...

[darandnik]

PMID 720

OK folks, first time poster... I've had this tablet for I think 6 or 7 months now, it drove me nuts for about a day, I've rooted modded, hacked, slashed, everything I've ever owned, you need to go get bin4ry v3.1 new method... after you set it up on you computer, hook up the tablet and let it run its magic...you will have to watch the tab while you are running it because it will want you to create a restore point... just let it run its course... when its finish you will have a full rooted tablet with super user... after you are finished with that, download 1mobile market. From that market download file manager... after putting on file manager... start file manager, go into settings and give it root permissions, check both bottom boxes....now your going to need a com.android.vending.apk I think 4-1-1 is fine... Google it you'll find it...now you will need onetime initializer.apk and googleloginservice.apk and googleservicesframework.apk should be able to find all these on Google... after you get ahold of all these items you will need to get into your system menu on your tablet through your file manager, and add all your apk's in your apps folder... restart your tablet and sign in to Google play store, hope this helps...

[whoshotjr2006]

It looks like the tablet being discussed in this thread is a 7 inch Amlogic Meson6 board with a 1500 mhz dual-core Cortex-A9 v7? I'm guessing it has dual core Mali 400 GPU with HDMI out also?

I'd bet it is the exact same board used by Nextbook, Ainol, Onda, Prestigio, Master-G etc... the tablet is probably manufactured by Yifang Digital...

It can probably be rooted with Cydia Impactor. If not, I can probably make a modified stock android recovery to boot from SD card, if anyone wants?

If someone wants to root it and dump the ROM, I can probably create update.zip packages for it too?

ShaunMT

hey ShaunMT,

the chip in question is the amlogic8726-mxs, where the onda, ainol, etc tablets seem to use the 8726-m6 chip. seems to be the same specs, just different chip. this is a full touch screen device, no buttons except power and reset, and I have tried unsuccessfully to boot from sdcard, as it seems a volume button is the trigger event.

i'm attaching recovery.img and boot.img in a zip if you would like to take a look at them. the closest other tablet i could find with any sort of update zip for it is the zenithink c71a. i can provide the rest of the /system dump if needed, and zenithink hosts the firmware files for c71a. i did see a file in the recovery.img that defines the keylayout for touchscreen events in recovery.

some other news, making my own uImage-usb-burning binary i can get the polaroid logo back up from a deep brick black screen. just cant get any further than that at the moment. tablet now acts like it wants to boot or at least load into recovery, but just wont make that jump for some reason. hopefully we can figure out something further in the way of unbricking these tablets, if anyone knows how to mess with uImages and aml burn tool please contact me so maybe we can work together, because we all know polaroid/southern telecom doesnt give a crap about us beyond the initial sale.

[shaunmt]

hey ShaunMT,

the chip in question is the amlogic8726-mxs, where the onda, ainol, etc tablets seem to use the 8726-m6 chip. seems to be the same specs, just different chip. this is a full touch screen device, no buttons except power and reset, and I have tried unsuccessfully to boot from sdcard, as it seems a volume button is the trigger event.

i'm attaching recovery.img and boot.img in a zip if you would like to take a look at them. the closest other tablet i could find with any sort of update zip for it is the zenithink c71a. i can provide the rest of the /system dump if needed, and zenithink hosts the firmware files for c71a. i did see a file in the recovery.img that defines the keylayout for touchscreen events in recovery.

some other news, making my own uImage-usb-burning binary i can get the polaroid logo back up from a deep brick black screen. just cant get any further than that at the moment. tablet now acts like it wants to boot or at least load into recovery, but just wont make that jump for some reason. hopefully we can figure out something further in the way of unbricking these tablets, if anyone knows how to mess with uImages and aml burn tool please contact me so maybe we can work together, because we all know polaroid/southern telecom doesnt give a crap about us beyond the initial sale.

m6 and mx seems to be the same thing. I think mx is just a marketing term. My nextbook is an MX but all the stock firmware files refer to an m6. These are all basically the same tablets mass produced by Yifang Digital and sold wholesale to a variety of vendors who rebrand them.

Bootloader and recovery can both be run from external SD card. You just need to name bootloader as u-boot.bin and recovery as uImage_recovery. The SOC attempts to load them from external SD before loading them from NAND.

The AML burning tool is only good for making bricks unless you have the proper factory burning configuration files for your exact device.

ShaunMT

[whoshotjr2006]

m6 and mx seems to be the same thing. I think mx is just a marketing term. My nextbook is an MX but all the stock firmware files refer to an m6. These are all basically the same tablets mass produced by Yifang Digital and sold wholesale to a variety of vendors who rebrand them.

Bootloader and recovery can both be run from external SD card. You just need to name bootloader as u-boot.bin and recovery as uImage_recovery. The SOC attempts to load them from external SD before loading them from NAND.

The AML burning tool is only good for making bricks unless you have the proper factory burning configuration files for your exact device.

ShaunMT

this isnt an m6 or mx though. when you open the tablet and look at the chip, it says mxs. there may be similarities between the m3/m6/mx and mxs chipsets, but completely different chips. different partition maps and file systems for one, different partition sizes, different storage partition (4gb or 8), no bt or gps chips on mxs, different screens. thats just off the top of my head since its been a few days since i had my mind wrapped around it. and im pretty sure the wifi chip is different from the m6, from what i have seen tearing apart roms from all the m6 devices to try to piece together a solution here.

beleive me i have tried just about everything to get my tablet to run again, and the mxs chip and m6/mx chips are just different enough to cause headaches. i have already tried the method you mentioned about renaming bootloader and recovery on a tf card, and no go. if one of these pmid720s can still get to recovery, thats great. something can be done with it. but with a hardbricked tablet here, aml burn tool has been the only progress i have seen thus far.

[shaunmt]

this isnt an m6 or mx though. when you open the tablet and look at the chip, it says mxs. there may be similarities between the m3/m6/mx and mxs chipsets, but completely different chips. different partition maps and file systems for one, different partition sizes, different screens. and im pretty sure the wifi chip is different from the m6, from what i have seen tearing apart roms from all the m6 devices to try to piece together a solution here.

beleive me i have tried just about everything to get my tablet to run again, and the mxs chip and m6/mx chips are just different enough to cause headaches. i have already tried the method you mentioned about renaming bootloader and recovery on a tf card, and no go. if one of these pmid720s can still get to recovery, thats great. something can be done with it. but with a hardbricked tablet here, aml burn tool has been the only progress i have seen thus far.

Wish I could offer more advice. I've never actually seen any labeled MXS.

Am I correct that you're able to boot to recovery? That should mean you have a working bootloader and recovery? You just need boot image and system folder then? It looks like jeepsteve dumped the stock files from his device awhile back if he is still around?

If not, I might be able to create a ROM that could be flashed from recovery. Most of the hardware related stuff is in the bootloader, boot and recovery and boot and recovery are nearly identical.

[whoshotjr2006]

Wish I could offer more advice. I've never actually seen any labeled MXS.

Am I correct that you're able to boot to recovery? That should mean you have a working bootloader and recovery? You just need boot image and system folder then? It looks like jeepsteve dumped the stock files from his device awhile back if he is still around?

If not, I might be able to create a ROM that could be flashed from recovery. Most of the hardware related stuff is in the bootloader, boot and recovery and boot and recovery are nearly identical.

nope no recovery at this point, just bootloader. almost there, just not quite. i actually have the tablet back to polaroid bootlogo, and it acts like it wants to jump to booting system or reboot to recovery, but just hangs. no adb output, so the only way to really see what its doing would be maybe jtag? im going to try a few more things and see what happens. i've tried 3 different sd/tf cards of varying sizes over 4gb, so im gonna look for one smaller and see if anything happens with the sd update method. also gonna diff the c71a firmware update to the system dump from pmid720.

if you have the ability and a guinea pig from one of the other posters here to create twrp or clockworkmod touch recovery for our tab so we arent completely hosed when the day comes that android wont boot, that would be absolutely excellent of you. we would all appreciate you greatly.

[shaunmt]

nope no recovery at this point, just bootloader. almost there, just not quite. i actually have the tablet back to polaroid bootlogo, and it acts like it wants to jump to booting system or reboot to recovery, but just hangs. no adb output, so the only way to really see what its doing would be maybe jtag? im going to try a few more things and see what happens. i've tried 3 different sd/tf cards of varying sizes over 4gb, so im gonna look for one smaller and see if anything happens with the sd update method. also gonna diff the c71a firmware update to the system dump from pmid720.

if you have the ability and a guinea pig from one of the other posters here to create twrp or clockworkmod touch recovery for our tab so we arent completely hosed when the day comes that android wont boot, that would be absolutely excellent of you. we would all appreciate you greatly.

I'm working on CWM / TWRP. If I succeed, it will be easily ported to different variants. Does the polaroid use UBIFS for system and data like most of the other Amlogic tablets?

[whoshotjr2006]

I'm working on CWM / TWRP. If I succeed, it will be easily ported to different variants. Does the polaroid use UBIFS for system and data like most of the other Amlogic tablets?

nope, uses ext4. heres the recovery.fstab from the tab. hope it helps.

# mount point	fstype		device			device2/bootloader	mtd		bootloader
/logo		mtd		logo
/aml_logo	mtd		aml_logo
/recovery	mtd		recovery
/boot		mtd		boot
/system		ext4		/dev/block/system
/cache		ext4		/dev/block/cache
/data		ext4		/dev/block/data
/sdcard		vfat		/dev/block/mmcblk0p#	/dev/block/cardblksd#
/media		vfat		/dev/block/media