Utterly Stuck, Confused and a bit Desperate ! Trying to rescue Ampe A83 Tablet

[ClemFandango]

hi,

I've been at this for a few hours with no luck and i'm out of ideas.

I've got the Ampe A83 Quad Core 3G 7.85" Android 4.4.2 Tablet and I was trying to upgrade the stock android 4.4.2 to something newer. I figured out that the recovery needed to be unlocked before I could properly flash anything so I used the MTK Droid Tool.

Even though the link from DX states that it's an MTK8382 chip, the droid tool identified it as MT6582 and said the MTK8382 was "fake" so I started trying to look for MT6582 Roms.

I used the tool to create and install a custom CWM recovery, which worked and I can access to do the usual data and cache wipes, although since posting this initially I can now no longer access recovery but this might be due to the battery needing charging, which i'm currently doing.

I also used the tool to make a backup before i did anything else as well - it contains the various img files - boot.img, recovery img e.t.c... and everything else.

Now i've tried at least a dozen different roms for MTK devices and NOTHING WORKS. I've had a number of errors trying to install cyanogen but i've also had roms that appear to have successfully installed but when I reboot, nothing happens - the device is stuck in a boot loop but, thankfully, i can still get back to the recovery.

That in itself is no longer the issue really, because i'm now at the point where I just want to restore the device to how it was before I started trying to update it but i'm really at a loss as to what to do now.

The part that i'm worried about is that I didn't use the IMEI/NVRAM button which, seemingly, also performs a backup.

If it helps, I did use the tool to "Prepare Backup for Flash Tool", which worked, and I've downloaded the SP Flash Tool but i'm a bit hesitant to do anything at the moment in case I go one step too far and brick the tablet, partly because all of the guides i've read about using SP Flash to restore say that Preloader, and DSP_bl have to be unchecked before you do anything and I don't actually have the DSP_bl field as an option to even uncheck.

Any help would be most welcome, thankyou. For clarity, i've also posted this on XDA Forums because i'm genuinely desperate here - it's not even my tablet and I was - initially at least - confident enough to offer to update it for a friend.

Update:

It now appears to be stuck in what I can only describe as a "charging loop". I've plugged it in to mains power and I see the Battery Charging Symbol on the screen in the centre. It stays there for 10-15 seconds and then vanishes. A few seconds later it's back and the cycle repeats - over and over and over again. I can't even work out if it's getting any charge at all.

I've tried holding down the volume minus key and power for varying lengths of time but nothing happens. Same goes with the volume plus key and power and various other combinations.

It all seems to stem from when I had it in recovery earlier today and chose to reboot the system, thinking - stupidly - I could power it off. I assume since there's no active ROM on the tablet, it's basically rebooted in to 'nothing'.

 

[webworkings]

Have you considered taking the tablet back to its original software?

 

[ClemFandango]

Have you considered taking the tablet back to its original software?

Thanks for your response. I'd dearly love to take it back to the original software but I can't. I can't do anything on it at the moment.

I left it plugged in last night when I went to bed and it's been plugged in the mains for over 5 hours and nothing has changed. i still get the battery charging symbol on the screen that cycles in and out and there's zero indication that the tablet has even taken any charge at all - obviously this could potentially mean that the cable I have isn't capable of carrying a charge, but I'm fairly sure that wouldn't be the case.

All I can think of to do now is to leave it unplugged to see if i can somehow fully drain the battery and then try plugging it in again.

It's a sealed case on this tablet as well so there's very little chance I could get in to it to manually pop the battery without causing it some kind of damage - although if the tablet is well and truly bricked then I suppose that in itself wouldn't actually matter ..

 

[ClemFandango]

I'm going to have to consider this a dead tablet now. it's not even giving me the battery symbol and i've had it plugged in to the mains for over 14 hours.