ShaunMT's Modified ROM for Nextbook NX785QC8G (Support Thread)

[graphdarnell]

Thanks again guys. I reformatted the slower card and it seemed to help quite a bit. The funny thing was that I formatted it with 3 separate apps in Windows that made no noticeable difference. But using Gparted in Linux eventually did. Go figure... The surprise: after the reformatting, Samsung did not fare any better than an avowedly inferior brand (PNY).

[shaunmt]

You are right, the format does not matter regarding speed, but the android system will only work with fat format, fat32, I recommend, along with most Android users, using Sandisk, or Samsung brand cards. They use better materials in producing their cards. And the biggest factor in read/write spead is what class the card is. For tablets and the new phones you should only be using a class 10 card or higher. That's that number inside the two arrows that form a circle on the card. Any lower class and you will notice big time drop offs in performance. And don't forget, if its a cheap card expect cheap performance, and the life span of the card will be dramatically shorter. I hope this helped you, good luck.

I agree... here is some additional info:

Things that might cause a speed difference between two or more cards:
1: Physical hardware component quality
2. Natural degradation from use
2: Card content: Both the types of files and the their location on the physical media (file fragmentation)

Card info:
1. SD class 10 is equal to Ultra SD class 1
2. Ultra class cards have the number displayed inside a U instead of Circle
3. Cheap unfamiliar brand name SD cards aren't worth a dime a piece... Stick with Sandisk, Samsung or Sony (Amazon almost always has good prices on at least one of these brands.

When you experience SD Card problems,
1. Backup and reformat the card
2. If that fails, replace it with a quality card

ShaunMT

[zMILWAUKEE]

Hi ShaunMT:

Just a quick question. Can you think of a reason why some sd cards just load more slowly than others? I've used two that posted the same speed (I used Crystal disk). Both are class 10 (read around 19x, and write at ~15). Initially I thought it might be the format (FAT32), but someone confirmed it shouldn't be a problem. Or should I just format the entire card before flashing? I can't see why that makes a difference but what do I know?

You are right, the format does not matter regarding speed, but the android system will only work with fat format, fat32, I recommend, along with most Android users, using Sandisk, or Samsung brand cards. They use better materials in producing their cards. And the biggest factor in read/write spead is what class the card is. For tablets and the new phones you should only be using a class 10 card or higher. That's that number inside the two arrows that form a circle on the card. Any lower class and you will notice big time drop offs in performance. And don't forget, if its a cheap card expect cheap performance, and the life span of the card will be dramatically shorter. I hope this helped you, good luck.

[graphdarnell]

Hi ShaunMT:

Just a quick question. Can you think of a reason why some sd cards just load more slowly than others? I've used two that posted the same speed (I used Crystal disk). Both are class 10 (read around 19x, and write at ~15). Initially I thought it might be the format (FAT32), but someone confirmed it shouldn't be a problem. Or should I just format the entire card before flashing? I can't see why that makes a difference but what do I know?

[shaunmt]

]I know this has not been answered directly, but does anybody know why Shaun's TWRP would not correctly back up "System" in Omar's rom, whereas his own CWM would?

Just guessing (I've never tried Omar's ROM) but there could be differences in the recovery.fstab files or in the partition mapping.

On a side note, I've disassembled the tab completely to remove the battery trying to find a cure for the short wires. I've soldered 2 pieces of a bigger gauge to the red and black wires to lengthen them a bit and now it seems to fit much better without straining. I don't know if the undertaking would have remedied the problem of random shut-offs, but the battery now runs down to under 5% before it sets off an alarm, whereas previously it would shut off at 50% or less.

That is an excellent fix, which would definitely be a permanent solution to most of the problems people have had.

I said "I don't know" since I've also installed an app that claims to rectify battery anomalies, and whether that was the real reason for the present behavior. But FWIW, I thought I'd just report out here in case anyone should wonder if it's a doable undertaking. It's not that complicated hardware-wise. One just needs to be patient. If anyone should have a question, feel free to ask.

It was probably the physical modification of replacing the battery wires that did it. I've never seen any of those battery calibration apps that actually work.

[graphdarnell]

I know this has not been answered directly, but does anybody know why Shaun's TWRP would not correctly back up "System" in Omar's rom, whereas his own CWM would? On a side note, I've disassembled the tab completely to remove the battery trying to find a cure for the short wires. I've soldered 2 pieces of a bigger gauge to the red and black wires to lengthen them a bit and now it seems to fit much better without straining. I don't know if the undertaking would have remedied the problem of random shut-offs, but the battery now runs down to under 5% before it sets off an alarm, whereas previously it would shut off at 50% or less.

I said "I don't know" since I've also installed an app that claims to rectify battery anomalies, and whether that was the real reason for the present behavior. But FWIW, I thought I'd just report out here in case anyone should wonder if it's a doable undertaking. It's not that complicated hardware-wise. One just needs to be patient. If anyone should have a question, feel free to ask.

[zMILWAUKEE]

Many thanks to both the Dev ShaunMT and Milwaukee. I downloaded the thing and flashed with TWRP. Worked smoothly. In the process of cleaning up. Happy holidays everyone.

Your welcome, just glad to help out. It's forums like this that make the Android community the best out there.

[graphdarnell]

Sounded like it should work... guess we will find out if he posts anymore questions.

Many thanks to both the Dev ShaunMT and Milwaukee. I downloaded the thing and flashed with TWRP. Worked smoothly. In the process of cleaning up. Happy holidays everyone.

[shaunmt]

No problem Shaun, I love messing around with Android and learning as much as I can, and its devs like you that make that happen. Did I explain everything right in the previous post about TWRP backup. Thanks again for your hard work on an outdated tablet. Do you plan on working any further on this rom or maybe a marshmallow base rom, or any ideas on the latest TWRP build. Thanks again....

Sounded like it should work... guess we will find out if he posts anymore questions.

[zMILWAUKEE]

No problem Shaun, I love messing around with Android and learning as much as I can, and its devs like you that make that happen. Did I explain everything right in the previous post about TWRP backup. Thanks again for your hard work on an outdated tablet. Do you plan on working any further on this rom or maybe a marshmallow base rom, or any ideas on the latest TWRP build. Thanks again....

[shaunmt]

First you need to boot into TWRP, and do a backup. Not sure if it matters but select all the boxes in the back up options. Next unzip this upload and copy and paste all the files into your TWRP folder on your ext. SD card. It will ask if you want to overwrite existing, select yes. When you go to paste these files, go to your ext sdcard, click TWRP, click BACKUPS, click 0000000000000000, click whatever you named your backup, and the next screen shows all actual backup files, just copy and past mine there, make sure you select yes to overwrite existing files. When that's done just boot tab into TWRP and restore. I hope this works, if it don't let me know. Good luck

Thanks for helping support my projects.

As I'm sure you've noticed, I've been rather busy with real life lately.

[zMILWAUKEE]

First you need to boot into TWRP, and do a backup. Not sure if it matters but select all the boxes in the back up options. Next unzip this upload and copy and paste all the files into your TWRP folder on your ext. SD card. It will ask if you want to overwrite existing, select yes. When you go to paste these files, go to your ext sdcard, click TWRP, click BACKUPS, click 0000000000000000, click whatever you named your backup, and the next screen shows all actual backup files, just copy and past mine there, make sure you select yes to overwrite existing files. When that's done just boot tab into TWRP and restore. I hope this works, if it don't let me know. Good luck

[graphdarnell]

@zMILWAUKEE: Thanks a lot for your reply. I've been busy with other stuff and didn't know it until tonight. Hence the belated response. Anyway, it would be fantastic if you could upload yours somewhere I can download. It would save me a bunch of headaches trying to fix an intermittent problem. Again,thanks and happy holidays.

[zMILWAUKEE]

I''ve flashed the RKimage successfully, then the TWRP recovery. I even flashed the patch correctly. Somehow, however, I couldn't get the rom zip file to flash correctly. It finished OK, but the first time would get stuck at the FreakTab splash, then the second one, stuck on NextBook. Here the animation stopped after a few seconds. Since I can't re-flash the RKimage without undoing the patch, I wonder if (1) there's a way to backup the current OS with TWRP, flash the patch, then restore the backup while maintaining the patch setup; or (2) flash the zip rom by any method other than TWRP, like with fastboot for instance. I think I read somewhere that the patch process would back up the current setup then restore it, but don't know whether that would require additional steps, as I don't see any mention of them. Any help would be greatly appreciated..

Just boot into TWRP and wipe everything from the advanced wipe menu, don't worry the parameter patch will stay, so wipe cache, dalvek, data, and sd card, and reflash the rom. Sometimes it takes two or three flashes for the rom to boot fully. Or if you want I can do a TWRP backup of the rom for you and you can just use that. The parameter patch I used was the larger one. I have already debloated and did some other things like got replaced that dumb launcher with the action 3 launcher. Did some other things to it to, and runs better than Shaun's original rom. Just let me know and I'll post the backup for you.

[graphdarnell]

I''ve flashed the RKimage successfully, then the TWRP recovery. I even flashed the patch correctly. Somehow, however, I couldn't get the rom zip file to flash correctly. It finished OK, but the first time would get stuck at the FreakTab splash, then the second one, stuck on NextBook. Here the animation stopped after a few seconds. Since I can't re-flash the RKimage without undoing the patch, I wonder if (1) there's a way to backup the current OS with TWRP, flash the patch, then restore the backup while maintaining the patch setup; or (2) flash the zip rom by any method other than TWRP, like with fastboot for instance. I think I read somewhere that the patch process would back up the current setup then restore it, but don't know whether that would require additional steps, as I don't see any mention of them. Any help would be greatly appreciated..