Hello All. I'm new to the forum as I just received my Acer A500 Mon. May 7. I was extremely excited until it started freezing from day one. I had read that this could happen with certain browsers ( I installed all of my favs, Opera Mobile and Mini, Dolphin HD and Xscope). But the problems with freezing and restarting happen all of the time (about every 15-20mins) and with any app open not just the browsers. I have tried taking off apps and putting them back on, soft resetting and two hard resets but to no avail. I also haven't upgraded to Ice cream because of every ones mixed messages so I'm still running 3.2.1 that it shipped with. Please any suggestions? And thanks to every one.
New Acer A500
- Thread starter ttjb
- Start date
Douvie
Senior Member
- Jun 10, 2011
- 1,030
- 71
I know that I was hesitant too. But if your tablet says there is an update available just do it. Your tablet will run smoother.
If you have sync'd isp based email - turn off the sync before upgrading.
The scroll lock button make sure it is unlocked before upgrading.
That is my advice.
All it takes is one bad application, and your system will start operating very poorly. Alternately, you could have been sent bad hardware, but that is less likely. You may be running too old of a version of Honeycomb, and should accept/install the Honeycomb system updates, but stop before installing ICS at this point in time. The latest Honeycomb alone may resolve your issues.
I disagree though that you should just install all of the system updates as soon as posted by the tablet vendor (Acer in this case). Some today who did that with ICS, and who are unwilling to accept or work around various app compatibility issues now regret doing that. It is a wise approach to do some research first as you have been doing. If you just plow forward and install the ICS update, you may find yourself worse off than you are now, where you not only have to resolve the problems you are seeing now, but new ones as well. Take a deep breath, and take your time.
What I recommend is that you first perform one final (hopefully) factory reset, and then install only the Honeycomb updates for now. There are many applications that are reasonably stable on Honeycomb, but that have not been made stable/compatible yet on ICS for the a500. There are some bugs in ICS, and some of these bugs mimic hardware issues. You will be better served to run your new tablet on Honeycomb for a few weeks or so prior to accepting ICS.
There are at least 1 or 2 Honeycomb updates that you should/accept install from Acer. Stop when you see the update containing a build name looking like Acer_A500_041.203.01_COM_GEN1, because that is the update for ICS. When you see that window with the ICS update, it will not say ICS, but is will also mention that Acer Sync will not be installed, etc. Getting all of the Honeycomb updates may solve your problem. As I wrote above, you may even get lucky and not run into problems if you install ICS, but I suggest you err on the side of caution and hold off on that for just a little while longer, again, because there really are some new OS problems with ICS that were not an issue with Honeycomb, and there are still several more stable applications avaliable for Honeycomb that are not stable on ICS. Some apps that ran great on Honeycomb will not run on ICS yet at all.
After you do the "factory data reset" and the Honeycomb updates, don't install anything else until you have time to test your tablet for a few days, and with your wifi AP/router. I've seen reports by users who found compatabilty issues with their wifi router hardware/firmware, so it's hard to rule that out as a cause.
Take your time becoming familiar with the tablet before loading any new apps from GooglePlay. You should install updates to any built-in apps, but don't install any new ones yet.
Now test it thoroughly with your internet setup. Use the stock browser, set up the stock email client, use provided apps. If you start seeing problems, try running for while with the wifi disabled. I realize that this severly limits what you can do, but if you find that you still see problems with these devices disabled on the current update of Honeycomb, then you probably have defective hardware, and will want to return your tablet for repalcement. If you determint that the problem only happens while wifi is on, consider trying it with a different wifi router/network/AP, and even with a different ISP -- such as a public wifi access point.
If you do not encounter serious problems testing with the latest Honeycomb and built in apps, then your tablet is probably just fine, and you will have to methodically look for the app or apps that are causing problems for you.
After you have taken a few days to test without installing new apps as decribed above, go slow, and install apps at a rate of just 1 per day ...if your patience can handle that. If or when you start seeing problems again, then you will have more reliable information on what may be the cause of what you have been seeing.
A few weeks after you work out the issues you are seeing, and feel ready for a new treat (and possibly a little challenge), then you go for the ICS update.
These are great tablets. I'm confident that if you take your time, and work through this patiently, you will be able to resolve this and will ahve a hard time putting your a500 down.
I disagree though that you should just install all of the system updates as soon as posted by the tablet vendor (Acer in this case). Some today who did that with ICS, and who are unwilling to accept or work around various app compatibility issues now regret doing that. It is a wise approach to do some research first as you have been doing. If you just plow forward and install the ICS update, you may find yourself worse off than you are now, where you not only have to resolve the problems you are seeing now, but new ones as well. Take a deep breath, and take your time.
What I recommend is that you first perform one final (hopefully) factory reset, and then install only the Honeycomb updates for now. There are many applications that are reasonably stable on Honeycomb, but that have not been made stable/compatible yet on ICS for the a500. There are some bugs in ICS, and some of these bugs mimic hardware issues. You will be better served to run your new tablet on Honeycomb for a few weeks or so prior to accepting ICS.
There are at least 1 or 2 Honeycomb updates that you should/accept install from Acer. Stop when you see the update containing a build name looking like Acer_A500_041.203.01_COM_GEN1, because that is the update for ICS. When you see that window with the ICS update, it will not say ICS, but is will also mention that Acer Sync will not be installed, etc. Getting all of the Honeycomb updates may solve your problem. As I wrote above, you may even get lucky and not run into problems if you install ICS, but I suggest you err on the side of caution and hold off on that for just a little while longer, again, because there really are some new OS problems with ICS that were not an issue with Honeycomb, and there are still several more stable applications avaliable for Honeycomb that are not stable on ICS. Some apps that ran great on Honeycomb will not run on ICS yet at all.
After you do the "factory data reset" and the Honeycomb updates, don't install anything else until you have time to test your tablet for a few days, and with your wifi AP/router. I've seen reports by users who found compatabilty issues with their wifi router hardware/firmware, so it's hard to rule that out as a cause.
Take your time becoming familiar with the tablet before loading any new apps from GooglePlay. You should install updates to any built-in apps, but don't install any new ones yet.
Now test it thoroughly with your internet setup. Use the stock browser, set up the stock email client, use provided apps. If you start seeing problems, try running for while with the wifi disabled. I realize that this severly limits what you can do, but if you find that you still see problems with these devices disabled on the current update of Honeycomb, then you probably have defective hardware, and will want to return your tablet for repalcement. If you determint that the problem only happens while wifi is on, consider trying it with a different wifi router/network/AP, and even with a different ISP -- such as a public wifi access point.
If you do not encounter serious problems testing with the latest Honeycomb and built in apps, then your tablet is probably just fine, and you will have to methodically look for the app or apps that are causing problems for you.
After you have taken a few days to test without installing new apps as decribed above, go slow, and install apps at a rate of just 1 per day ...if your patience can handle that. If or when you start seeing problems again, then you will have more reliable information on what may be the cause of what you have been seeing.
A few weeks after you work out the issues you are seeing, and feel ready for a new treat (and possibly a little challenge), then you go for the ICS update.
These are great tablets. I'm confident that if you take your time, and work through this patiently, you will be able to resolve this and will ahve a hard time putting your a500 down.
Last edited:
Douvie
Senior Member
- Jun 10, 2011
- 1,030
- 71
MrHelper, I haven't got the problem you're talking about. In fact the problems I do have has nothing to do with ANDROID at all. Maybe there is another issue here. Try disabling GOOGLE +. The moderator would also disagree with you as he has been encouraging everyone to upgrade.
I have not had screen lock problems - and I turn my tablet OFF. I don't leave tablet in SLEEP MODE for the simple reason that I forget that it is in SLEEPMODE and I forget that I need to give the power button a quick push. If one pushes it too long (1 or 2 seconds) the tablet get confused and won't turn on. So then One needs to push the POWER BUTTON in for 10 seconds which caused the shutdown and reboot. This is not an ICS problem.
I disagree there an ICS bug. Even with HC I didn't really have any problems to write home about. There was one issue that began after the 3.1 upgrade which was I couldn't play wmv files on the A500 even though I could play them on my HTC.
Now with ICS I don't have a problem with wmv. So where is the "major bug?" Sir ?
I have not had screen lock problems - and I turn my tablet OFF. I don't leave tablet in SLEEP MODE for the simple reason that I forget that it is in SLEEPMODE and I forget that I need to give the power button a quick push. If one pushes it too long (1 or 2 seconds) the tablet get confused and won't turn on. So then One needs to push the POWER BUTTON in for 10 seconds which caused the shutdown and reboot. This is not an ICS problem.
I disagree there an ICS bug. Even with HC I didn't really have any problems to write home about. There was one issue that began after the 3.1 upgrade which was I couldn't play wmv files on the A500 even though I could play them on my HTC.
Now with ICS I don't have a problem with wmv. So where is the "major bug?" Sir ?
Last edited:
- Jul 6, 2011
- 1,978
- 503
I know countless folks with Transformers that had issues with ICS with random reboots, shutdowns and app crashes.
MOST of these were fixed with a factory reset (3 consecutive factory resets were more succsessful than 1) and even re-installing all of the same apps that were installed previously. Granted, there are still a select few that have issues after having done this and they have a NVidia driver issue with ICS that ASUS is still working on getting ironed out.
ICS is a completely new OS (like XP to Vista, Vista to Win 7, etc.) Many times real computers have remnants of the old OS when you upgrade and this can cause unwanted effects, especially with pre-installed programs. I much prefer doing a clean install when installing an OS on a computer.
Most Transformer folks who get BRAND NEW tablets, I recommend them to set up their tablet only through the setup on the tablet (not installing any apps or configuring more than a Google account), upgrade to ICS, Factory Reset 3 times, then set it up and start using it.
I am not sure if that is related to the issues here, but I can say that it can't hurt to try a factory reset and see if that helps fix the issues.
MOST of these were fixed with a factory reset (3 consecutive factory resets were more succsessful than 1) and even re-installing all of the same apps that were installed previously. Granted, there are still a select few that have issues after having done this and they have a NVidia driver issue with ICS that ASUS is still working on getting ironed out.
ICS is a completely new OS (like XP to Vista, Vista to Win 7, etc.) Many times real computers have remnants of the old OS when you upgrade and this can cause unwanted effects, especially with pre-installed programs. I much prefer doing a clean install when installing an OS on a computer.
Most Transformer folks who get BRAND NEW tablets, I recommend them to set up their tablet only through the setup on the tablet (not installing any apps or configuring more than a Google account), upgrade to ICS, Factory Reset 3 times, then set it up and start using it.
I am not sure if that is related to the issues here, but I can say that it can't hurt to try a factory reset and see if that helps fix the issues.
Douvie, I am a fan of ICS like you, and I agree that people in general should accept the update after checking the Google Play reviews for compatibility for apps they deem critical. My daughter deems Sims Freeplay critical, and when the ICS update applied, it would crash during startup on the a500 with ICS. It was running well with HC. (An update for that app was just delivered to Google Play yesterday -- so help may be on the way). I have assisted others with similar app problems, and there are clearly many apps that still will not run with a500 ICS that worked well with HC. I choose not to waste time on those apps until developers fix them, but for some, certain apps are more dear. I've stated repeatedly that the problems are likely in the apps, and not ICS, but that is little consolation to a 9 year old girl who's treasured Sims are now dying of starvation. If you've read many of my other posts in this forum and others, I've been defending ICS whenever I can. We are generally on the same side here.
This is a unique case though. A user has a brand new tablet, and has not yet had the opportunity to burn it in on the stable version of HC that you, I, and many others used. My main point here is to help this user and others with the same problem work through it methodically and patiently so they do not confuse hardware problems with what I consider to be minor ICS blemishes, but some others consider "not acceptible"... read some of my other posts on this. I also emphasize the importance of using discretion when installing apps, going slowly and testing carefully. Many who do not use this approach are now blasting ICS at every opportunity, and I disagree with them. If the user takes advantage of the same opportunites that you and I had, and tries the tablet first on HC, he can be more confident that his hardware is good, and if he later sees some app problem, he can then be confident in his purchase, and appreciate the tablet more.
I do not recall writing anywhere that there are major bugs in ICS. That seems to be a misquote. There are bugs in all software though, and ICS is no exception. Most of the problems I've seen since the update to ICS have been in applications, not the OS. There is one sensor related problem that some are seeing (http://androidforums.com/acer-iconi...veral-a500-ics-related-symptoms-problems.html), and as I wrote in another post on this site, may even be related to differences in a500 hardware builds, but it is associated with ICS regardless. Just because you don't see a problem does not mean that other users do not, or that others do not consider certain applications essential that are not yet compatible with a500 ICS.
HC has naturally had more run time, has had several patches to fix bugs, more apps have been tested with it and repaired for it. ICS for the a500 has not gone as far down that path to higher stability yet. Users with new tablets encountering problems as described above by ttjb deserve the opportunity to try the same stable HC as you and I did, and the opportunity to work through the learning curve as we did.
My suggestion stands. New tablet owners should proceed carefully and slowly when stepping into the vast Android ocean, especially with brand new unproven hardware, and that applies to ICS upgrades also. Keep in mind that all I suggested was testing on HC for a few days/weeks, instead of just diving in head first without knowing where the rocks are. After proving the hardware, the next step is ICS. Users will want/have to do that soon to continue getting support in the long run. I have never suggested otherwise. Full deployment of ICS makes sense for the overall a500 community of users also, who will benefit from the increased detection and resolution of problems resulting from having more users test and report legitimate issues with the product.
Here's one last thought on this topic. I would not have even found this forum if I had not been having problems after the ICS update that I had not also seen with HC. I went to this and a few other forums because I had problems related to ICS -- not necessarily caused by ICS, but related to it. After looking around and finding that I had company with my specific problems, and not answers for all of them, I decided I could also provide help as well as accept help. I have been doing my best to accomplish that.
Last edited:
Excellent advice!
Douvie
Senior Member
- Jun 10, 2011
- 1,030
- 71
Ah Sims free play and 3. Well sympathy there.
.
But this is coming across like that because new users get on the forum and see all the problems we deal with, and in many cases solve. They only see the problems though incorrectly surmising that ICS is a problem. We know differently.
Yes and of course ICS has it bugs and problems. Not all the apps would be compatible. Many would have to be rewritten. However, on the whole I've done a fair bit of app testing over the pass +72 hours and the result has been flawless. I wonder how many applied the UPDATER UPDATE which was a requirement before the ICS update was applied.
As I have suggested in the past, only for the newbie to insist that all he wanted to do is root his tablet(encouraged by a few on forum), something I happen to disagree with. I could have rooted my tablet but my tablet does everything I wanted it to do - and it has been reliable. Others would encourage the newbie to take these hazardous steps while I tried to take the conservative approach. And it has gone wrong on occasions. Also I did not want my ACER thinking it was an ASUS.
I had known of the ANDROID FORUM for some time. My initial problem was keyboard controls and since then I help when I can. Same white knight approach.
Last edited:
- Thread starter
- #9
Thanks to everyone that replied. Especially Mr.Helper 
I decided to return the device to Acer and hopefully they won't take forever to return or exchange my device. I think I unfortunately received a device with hardware issues because I purchased one for my wife as well and never had any issues with her A500. It was a completely different experience with the use of our tablets that made mine overwhelmingly negative. I also decided to stay with the Honeycomb on our tablets until I.C. irons out a few of their issues.
Want a clean experience as possible so I don't have to hear my wife complain about not spending more and getting the dreaded Ipad. Thanks again.
I decided to return the device to Acer and hopefully they won't take forever to return or exchange my device. I think I unfortunately received a device with hardware issues because I purchased one for my wife as well and never had any issues with her A500. It was a completely different experience with the use of our tablets that made mine overwhelmingly negative. I also decided to stay with the Honeycomb on our tablets until I.C. irons out a few of their issues. Want a clean experience as possible so I don't have to hear my wife complain about not spending more and getting the dreaded Ipad. Thanks again.
