Hard reset with no touch screen

[pastafarian]

Just sent back my N7 to Asus. Since the touch screen is non functional, I had to use the hardware method to accomplish a factory restore (wipe my data). Following Asus's official method doesn't work, the N7 will go to bootloader and that's it. I searched and found there's a flaw, you need to be connected to a pc in order for the bootloader to work properly and get you to recovery...fine. I also found all the guides I could find on the web were either wrong or at least poorly written which caused me much frustration. Here's what worked for me-

FIRST!!!- make sure you have the official Asus drivers installed, the default ones Windows installs won't work-

ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support-

Now, with the drivers installed and the N7 connected to a usb port ( you DON'T need to go into bootloader then plug in UISB as many guides state) and powered down (press and hold the power key)-


1- press and hold volume down and the power button, this should get you to the bootloader screen.

2-In the bootloader, select recovery mode using the volume keys (if the volume keys do nothing? The driver is wrong or you're not connected to a pc) and press power. After several seconds (not minutes as most guides state) you should see the Android guy lying on his back with a red triangle on his chest. If you don't see this screen, you need to re install the correct drivers.

3-press and hold volume up and then press the power key (the guides say to press and hold both or power then volume, neither worked for me and either did nothing or rebooted the device). This should produce the elusive recovery menu.

4- Using the volume keys, select factory reset and follow the prompts.

Sounds simple, right? It took many reboots and re tries till I found the correct order. Stupid hard for something that should be stupid easy. I hope this guide means nothing to you, because if it does you have a broken N7. Good luck!

 

[Turbojoe]

Thanks for a USEFUL post on hard reset. Sounds like having the ASUS drivers are key. I could have used this post after I broke the screen on my first N7. Unfortunately there are so many absolutely worthless posts out there from people that keep saying to use the steps ASUS says. They've obviously never tried it with success but the web search is polluted with these posts making it impossible to wade through all the crap to find something that works. I was finally able to wipe mine using a downloaded program but your way sounds much easier.

Joe