RCA Tablet exhibiting some weird behaviour after not booting

[dheianevans]

The missus has an RCA tablet that she plays a few games on. Had it for a couple of years. If I remember correctly it's orphaned at Android 5.

Yesterday, it froze, so she forced it off by holding the power button for a while. She was unable to power it on.

I said i'd take a look and took it to my home office. Tried booting into recovery mode with the power button and volume up. Nothing. Screen stayed black. Tried it all afternoon but by the end of the day it was still not doing anything. Plugging it in wouldn't even show the animated battery. I figured it was time to start looking for a new tablet.

Fast forward to tonight. I'm working on my computer when out of the corner of my eye I quickly see the animated battery display flash on. Then the screen goes black. I decide to plug it in again. Screen is black. Go back to work. Grab a coffee and when I come back the screen is displaying the recovery menu. Now remember, I haven't hit the recovery boot button combination in about 12 hours. Yet here we are.

I choose reboot device. It gets to the powered by android boot screen and sits there for about ten minutes. I force it off figuring I'll go to the recovery menu again and wipe cache. But it won't start. Ten minutes later I look over and it's stuck in the boot menu again. It's acting crazy and I'm not sure what to do. Like how the heck did it get to the recovery menu 12 hours after I did the button combo.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[webworkings]

It needs to be looked at by a tech. There isn't a simple fix here. Sounds like there are a few things going on, including hardware issues.

 

[dheianevans]

Thanks.

I did d a factory reset/data wipe and it booted back to the recovery screen. Contacted RCA support with a detailed step by step email. Their response was to tell me that I should try a factory reset, despite the fact that I told them I had already tried that TWICE. I love when support people just regurgitate page one of their binder.

The tablet had exhibited no issues before this. Not dropped, submerged or beaten. Screen is fine. So it's just weird that it suddenly goes into this recovery menu endless loop.

 

[webworkings]

OH don't get me started on the non-help help support people. I was in support for a long time and I can't stand when I call somewhere, after trying everything and narrowing down the problem to their end (like say ISP or cell service) and they argue with you and don't listen. That is why I got out of that line of work, because I couldn't stand being one of the rare few that actually helped people.

Alas, things happen. Devices get issues even when you did nothing. It is a sign of the times. While things are more advanced than they used to be, they are often more cheaply made as well.