• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

How to Get Help

W

Wumples69

Lurker
Hi
I just received my tablet today. Reviews on it said it was easy to get started. Should of been my first clue. I bought a Cobalt Tab S800 8 inch; Android 4.0 It came on, I plugged it in to my computer and immediately there was a problem. I didn't have a drive for it. Looked online and the only reference I found about this tablet was the ads on eBay. I found sites that said android driver downloads but thought I'd get some feedback as to which android driver and what are good sites to check for info on tablets. I found this one, so if anyone can help, I'd appreciate it.
 
Hello and welcome aboard. ;)

Here's hoping you'll find the answers you seek on here.

<> I've moved your thread to our Android Lounge area <>
 
I have the same issue. Need to root this thing, it's full of bloatware and odd things.
does yours have a small dark square with a white disc inside that acts as home on tap and menu on double tap and that can be dragged to several places on the edges of the screen?
 
Most of the time when you plug a tablet in to the computer it will automatically search the internet for a driver and install it, it just takes a few minutes, you have to be patient. If I were you I would try plugging the tablet in again and wait at least five minutes while it auto searches for a driver. If this does not work I will look and see if I can find a driver for you.
 
Yeah, I tried, no luck. But no worries! I found working drivers! USB Drivers Windows 7 - Vista - 64Bit (just change the 64 to 32 if needed) Pointed the device manager at them and presto! All is well. This thing was actually already rooted. Now I just need to find a ROM that won't destroy it. any Ideas? It's A Boxchip A10 Cortex A8 1ghz, 1gb ram, 8gb rom, 8", Front cam, Wifi, USB, HDMI. (pretty good for $90) I cleaned out most of the junk but there are still some mysterious things...
WallHaxx said:
a small dark square with a white disc inside that acts as home on tap and menu on double tap and that can be dragged to several places on the edges of the screen?
Click to expand...
 
Thatdude888 said:
Thinking about buying one of the cobalt's are they worth it / easy enough to root?
Click to expand...

not really sure as this is an off brand tablet. here is my view on off brand tablets:http://androidforums.com/android-lounge/631594-off-brand-phones-tablets-worth-low-cost.html

to me they are just not worth it. too much trouble with little or no support.

your better off with the nexus 7 then anything else. you can even get the samsung galaxy tab 2 for cheap now days as well.
 
Hey I was wondering if there would be anyway possible for you to do a full image dump and upload it. I didn't backup my tablet and flashed a different rom to it and it is now bricked :(. I would greatly appreciate it if you could dump the stock rom from your tablet thanks!

P.S. If you can't get it dumped can someone please atleast identify what this tablet is a clone of so I can download the firmware myself. Or give me a link to it please, I have looked everywhere. I know it is an Allwinner 10 processor.
 
Here is the link to the factory firmware.
you will have to use Livesuite, I don't care for the Pheonix flash
It's not bricked. let the tablet run all the way down so you can make sure it is off. then plug it in and let it charge for a few hours

here's how you flash it

hold the volume + for a few seconds
while holding the volume +, plug in the USB cable.....continue holding the volume + the whole time

press and hold the power button for just a couple seconds

while still holding he volume +

start Livesuite >>>>>> (WIN 7)....RUN AS ADMIN

A window will pop up....NOW you can release the volume button

The window will say you should format the tablet ....DO NOT FORMAT !!!!!!!!, it screwed up my touchscreen, it reverese from what it should be

just keep clicking Yes through the wizard
load the .IMG file when asked

the last window will open, if the button on the bottom right says connect. you are ready to flash
click connect and leave the tablet alone until it fully reboots.

If any devs want this to play with maybe make a custom rom....Please have at it.

The tablet is an Allwinner a10 system, there are from what I found, about 4 roms that will flash, but they are really buggy, i couldn'tget the WiFi to work.

Hopefully you won't have any issue with my Dropbox link, if so let me know and I'll email it to you

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/80778401/Cobalt Tab S800 Rom.rar
 
Hi, Cherokeeblood may I ask where you found this rom? I have been looking for cobalt firmwares with no luck. I have the S700 is it possible you point me in the right direction or something. I don't mean to highjack this thread just need a little help.
Any help is appreciated.
 
Believe it or not, I emailed the Cobalt electronics and they emailed the whole shabang to me with out question. I recieved a reply in about 2 hours after requesting it.
 
Found this thread on Google... I bought one of these s800 tablets for my niece for Christmas and something is awry.

Powers on, boot logos appear normally, then the screen goes to a scrambled blue fuzz type image that covers the whole screen. I wouldn't think the screen is shot, as the boot images are clear.

I downloaded the stock ROM listed above, but I have no idea how to use those chinese programs to try to reload stock firmware to see if that works.

When I use LiveSuite, it seems like it wants to start loading it, but it eventually pops up a window with no text in it and a big yellow triangle with an exclamation point. The help file is of no help, as it is all in Chinese.

Any help/advice/guidance would be greatly appreciated.

thank you in advance.
 
on these cobalt S800, flashing is somewhat tedious

Download the newest Live suite.... I think it is version 1.09

There is also a new version of Phoenix Suite out ( in English) 1.07
it has a small walkthrough when you go to flash

1.) shut the tablet completely off
2.) hold volume down button for about 10
3.) While holding the volume down button, plug in your USB cable
4.) Continue holding the volume down button, eventually a window will pop up
5.) you can release the volume down button now
6.) Read the message---->>>>> DO NOT SELECT THE FORMAT OPTION !
I selected the option that formatted, and now my touch screen is backwards
7.) It can take up to 15 minutes to flash, just let it go and don't mess with it until it reboots itself

I don't think you can brick these things, I have done about everything I could to do it.

If the thing doesn't start back up, you can hold the power button down for about 3-4 minutes, then release and press down again, this time hold it down until you see a dim light around the edge of the screen, release the power button, then press and hold the power button again until you see the light around the edge go out. You can then start over with the flashing process

by the way, I have tried about every Rom I could find on the net. Some are really great looking and work well with the exception, I couldn't get the Wi-fi to turn on and connect with any of them, so I'm back to stock until one of these great Devs decide to really dive into the firmware and make something that is stable.
 
The .img file in the link is not recognized by 7-zip, Poweriso, Winrar, or Imgburn. The file format is not supported. I know for a fact that the file is not corrupted because I've used it to successfully flash my Cobalt Tab S800 tablet back to stock using Livesuite. I also know that it is not in the ext2, ext4, tar, YAFFS2 or tar.ext4 file format.
I want to open the file so that I can make some modifications and then reflash it to my tablet.
I might be wrong about it not being any of the mentioned file formats but I tried like ten programs and they all gave me the same basic error "file format not supported".

I don't know how linking is handled on this site, but I really need some help with this. So here is another link to just the .img file and if anyone finds a way to decompress, extract, or unpack the img please let me know.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1e2t6cgvjm...alttabs800.img
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom