Revive your Garmin-Asus A10 after deadly “Close the battery cover” message
I recently nearly bricked my Garmin-Asus A10 phone. The case is very common: Root the phone, using it for a while and then perform a master reset. Then after all, the only message “Close the battery cover to complete first time setup” appears. And you seem can do nothing with your phone.
It took me almost a month leaving my phone out in the dust with that shitty fault. I even bought a new phone, a Motorola Defy which pleased me so much, d’oh, but that’s a different story. Now is the part you might want to know.
I decided to give it one more try this morning. Here’s all the steps I find nescessary to reproduce the sequence:
– Insert your SIM. You need a SIM with G/E/H (read: Internet access) working out of the box with your phone before.
– Make a call from another phone to the number of the above SIM. Line will be busy but you’ll see one notification from your A10.
– Pull it down, open it and you’ll have your Phone, Contacts screen opened.
– Go to Contacts, press Menu and the Accounts
– Add a Google account, Next, Next, Agree blah blah and then voilà, you regain access to the launcher.
– From here, you still can’t reflash your phone with the original .update. To do it, plug it to your computer, turn on ADB (USB debugging) and Unknown Programs from Applications Manager.
– Install Z4Root.apk via ADB, re-root the phone if it’s not rooted.
– Type those lines:
adb shell
su
mount -o remount -r -w /dev/block/mmcnandblk0p3 /system
/system/bin/busybox cp /system/bin/busybox /system/xbin/busybox
– Reset your phone, copy the original .update file to /sdcard/Garmin/Update folder and perform an update.
You might notice a request Superuser permission from your phone. Allow it 🙂
Good luck with that 😉 If you have any questions, don’t hesitate.
Hey thanks for this but …….when you say ‘type those lines’….(the all important lines to fix this issue)……..WHERE do you type them ?
Hello there drcspy. You have to install adb on your computer and type those lines in your command line console. Google it around if you’re not familiar with these terms 🙂
thanks very much for the awsomely quick reply my friend. I did try that and it made no difference……….maybe I did it wrong….. ? Anyway I sent the phone in to the service agent as the bluetooth had quit on it also. I reset it back to factory original before I did that – hope they cant ‘see’ somehow that i’d rooted it as that may void the warranty……….the guy at the telecom shop said he’d never seen that ‘close cover etc’ error…
NOt too sure of the exact details but the techs gutted the phone then installed new hardware appararenty there ws a big fault
Thanks! You are life-saver. I love this phone and since I rooted it I can’t seem to get Bluetooth working, so decided to reset to factory just like you, and got this battery cover thing. You instructions were a great help in recovering my phone.
Once again thanks heaps!
I have a Problem I cannot Get into my phone, as I have forgot my pattern and I dont use gmail so i cant recover it with email. Im just wondering how i can restore it to factory settings.?
You can enter recovery mode by holding volume down while turning the phone up.
When in recovery mode, press Vol up + down to bring the menu up and then wipe data. Your contacts and SMS will be lost though.
Hello everyone, I not only have the problem of the message “to cover ..” I also uninstalled a few app system, so after doing a hard reset, my phone crashes during initial setup, but the real problem is that following the official garmin, I can not run the official installation of the rom, there are other ways to install the official rom? (I used the system to place. update in garmin / update but when I remove the usb cable nothing happens)
sorry my bad english
hi i have the same problem and upto reroot is ok and then when i type su it asks for permission and then when i say yes it says sorry the appln superuser process.com.noshufou android.su has stopped please try again
Hi all,
Finally I’ve fully revive my A10, included BT that was totally death after rooting.
First of all, I can’t tell you how to restore at all (Master Clean), but after doing that and had problems how to solve them.
I think that the main problem is busybox, by trying to do a master clean you’ll probably get an unstable state (with /system/sbin not containg sh command and so on).
1) If isn’t rooted (I don’t think so), root it. Personally, I follow this: http://theunlockr.com/2010/10/26/universal-android-rooting-procedure-rage-method/
2) Check if you have installed busybox on your /system/bin (ls -l do the trick). If not download, push and install it in /*system/bin
3) With adb open a shell (adb shell). If you get errors on silmple command like “ls” check your path (with set command or echo). Set priority to /system/bin instead of /system/xbin
4) Finally, remove (ore make a backup) /system/xbin and /system/sbin and link it a new one on /system/bin. In command:
su
mount -o rw,remount -t ext3 /dev/block/mmcnandblk0p3 /system
cd /system
mv sbin sbin_backup
mv xbin xbin_backup
ln -s /system/bin /system/sbin
ln -s /system/bin /system/xbin
mount -o ro,remount -t ext3 /dev/block/mmcnandblk0p3 /system
reboot
Et voilà, BT works and no more “Close battery cover” message.
Hi Marco,
Basically my method is the same as what you described.
But I wonder how can you revive the phone? Is it from “USB Polling” interface? I’d be glad if you send me the guide via my email.
Regards.
Hi slump,
I get “USB Polling” msg just 1 time, and a reboot solved the problem.
I assume that you have a working phone as described on the top of the post, I mean with “Close battery cover” message.
AFAIK this is un unlucky phone… with a good hardware but no mods, basically due to the fact that to Asus and Garmin doesn’t allow you to load custom roms and in second hand ’cause nobody has written a modded rom!
Anyway, once rooted my phone works great… CPU Tuner set maximum speed when display is turned on, I can use wi-fi tether (that’s why I’ve rooted it) and everything works fine (BT not working was the reason ’cause I tried to do a master clean).
I’ve got no guide to send you… if you have questions ask them, If I can reply I’ll do.
Marco
Hi,
I have managed to get the close cover error also, rooted the phone, was working well, but some time later decided to do a master clear, now the error…….
Managed to get the phone going with the setup google account, and have ADB setup on the PC, but how do I get the phone in debugging mode if I can’t get into settings as the error message is on the screen???
I can connect the phone via usb interface, tranfer files, but adb does not list any devices?
Thanks.
Hello there Phil,
On the back cover of the phone, there’s a little magnet attached with black tape. Find it. I once let it drop and it show the message about back cover all day.
P/S: I don’t have the phone anymore (just gave it to my sister).
hi,…i would like to thank u for u’r solution,…it work on my garmin asus a 50,….
Hello Slump,
Thank you for your hints about how to revive a Garmin A10 to the original factory state.
I have the same kind of problems as most users describe here: i.e. I have rooted my phone and then uninstalled some key ROM Apps (but stupidly forgetting to back them up beforehand…) The result now is that some original Garmin Apps are not functioning properly and crash at launch…This is why I need to revert the entire software (Firmware?) to the “out of the box ” state.
I followed your procedure through adb shell, but I don’t know precisely how to do an update at the end of the procedure…where is this .update file you mention? Can’t find it anywhere on my phone, can’t find it either on the internet or at Garmin Support.
I did find another update at Garmin Support site, but it is not the same version as my original (and current) software on the phone (V5.0.71). Hence the update dialog comes up, but then it says the this update is not valid for this device. Damn!
So, where do I get the proper firmware update file? Is it somewhere inside the system or ROM as a backup for flashing the phone again?
Thank you for your help
gtournier
Hi gtournier,
First you have to know what version (and country) of your phone is. Then go to the Garmin site and download correct version for it. If it’s an .exe file, find a way to extract the .update file from it.
I think you can find that information under the battery. I don’t have the phone anymore so I can’t check it.
Good luck.
Thank you Slump.
So, essentially you are telling me there is no backup of the original factory ROM inside the phone itself…This is very bad news, as I was not able to find it anywhere on Garmin Support/Download sites. It originally came with Android 2.1Update1 (as opposed to 1.6 for the former versions). I have found several update files for 2.1 but they seem to correspond to other countries or markets (i.e. Malaysia, India…). None of these updates would be accepted by the phone; and even so I fear that if it had worked, I would have ended up with Indi language or Malaysian characters.
Asking the Garmin Support for Switzerland, they told me they could not provide the requested update file and I would have to return the phone to them for service.
What version of this update were you using yourself and for what country? Where did you dowload it ? Would your procedure work for flashing my phone with an update file not the same as the original?
FYI the version I have is V5.0.71 and there is no indication for country but only a mention EUOM V1.0.8 (probably meaning Europe OEM market with no particular mobile operator – SIM unlocked).
Anyway, thank you very much for your help!
gtournier
Hi again Slump.
Just on the technical side of it and for my own knowledge, what does your procedure do exactly and why is it needed (is the original update file not enough for flashing the ROM again)?
And what exactly is this mmcnandblk0p3 file for? Is it some kind of image of the internal flash memory?
Regards
gtournier
One more comment and question.
Does anyone else still reading this thread have the same European market A10?
Does anyone have this update file I am looking for (V5.0.71) or else would know where to get it ?
Again, Thank You all for this very valuable thread
gtournier
Hi gtournier,
I was using a Singaporean version of the phone, and I can download it from garminasus.com easily. Unfortunately I don’t see any Swiss version for it available, after having checked these websites, both German and French version.
For my method, it simply re-copy busybox to its original version and make the phone function properly because without or using a wrong version of it will lead to many errors. FYI, busybox is a set of linux commands compacted in one binary and is a vital part for any Android phone to perform systematic actions.
In your case, try harder to find the update file for it, or you can try to override version check of update file in the system. People have successfully doing it here, but that method still requires the original update file. However, in my opinion, you can try to patch the Update.apk (I don’t remember the exact name of it) to bypass this check also.
Best,
slump.
Thank you Slump for this valuable info.
There was no “Swiss version” per se; as this Garmin A10 was manufactured for the European Open Market. Hence it was originally not locked to any telephony provider and it contained the Garmin maps for all European countries. Localisation was possible for all countries and languages it was sold into. This software build is A10:2.1-update 1/ERE27/A10-V5.071-user-20101027EUOM.
And this is the damn .update file I need for flashing the device back with it’s original ROM…but can’t find it anywhere!
I have found the Canadian update, which adds French and removes Spanish. I seriously considered using it, but then I would be stuck with Canada/USA maps (of no use for me here…).
Don’t know what to do now. Either I can find this update file somewhere and flash my device with it, or else I will have to return the phone to Garmin Service for them to do it.
gtournier
I put a nieuw magnet in the batery cover, and now it works fine
Hello Slump and Marco,
thank you so much for the tutorials you both have provided, they sweetened my day. My A50 has also been stuck at this message.
Beside my best wishes to you and all out there with this little nagging problem I want to contribute something to the matter: The day before I found your blog I was able to get into the launcher without a SIM card. I just pressed on the emergency call button and back/home without a pattern and suddenly the lockscreen shew up. Yesterday I tried to reproduce it but failed: The lockscreen shew up but after sliding the phone returned to the emergency call screen.
I hope one might come in handy with this information.
Best wishes to you all,
Alexander
hi.slump
I managed to regain access to my home screen using your above instructions.I’m very familiar with adb but however,I can’t manage to get rid of the battery cover error may you please explain step by step what and how I should punch it in once I have gone into adb shell mode.thanks
when I tried to remount my phone it displayed that act is not permitted and busybox and xbusybox are read only files pls help me to overcome this problem I am using A50
hai,
i am using garmin asus a50 and facing same problem with my update file.
but when i tried this trick when i tried to remount my phone it displayed that permission is not granted. and busybox and Xbusy box are read only files please help me to overcome this problem
From what you said I guess you didn’t root your phone properly. Try using z4root like my suggestion from the post and make sure you type the command precisely.
sure I rerooted my mobile and I tried nearly 10 times
Thank you very much, Marco!