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Kobo arc7HD Android JB (2013), REFURB, $29.99 + $7 S&H

  • Last Updated:
  • Oct 7th, 2017 11:52 pm
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Deal Addict
Nov 15, 2006
2171 posts
874 upvotes
when i updated to the cwm backup, it installed su and kingsroot was gone. it was just to facilitate the process at the beginning.
it's not flashing but i still find that it improved my battery life a lot during sleeping mode, so i'm happy :)
Sr. Member
User avatar
Aug 31, 2007
541 posts
103 upvotes
Mississauga
thevoid wrote: Have you had any crashing issues on Cyanogen? Still on stock at the moment, but I'm considering install custom since some apps don't work due to 4.2.2 being so old.
None at all. But I have to side load a lot of apps that require GPS that normally was available on stock rom...
Cheezer88 wrote: You need to install cm and replace the build prop.

I used it to watch shows and shut down when not in use. Everything seems good so far.

The developer that created the hd10 did not have hd7. It was not that popular.
I tried to clone many different devices but it never works, can you share your build.prop file?
Deal Addict
Jun 6, 2013
3507 posts
4189 upvotes
I picked up the white ones i bought (2 hd 7) today.

Brand new unit, with brand new power adapter and additional USB cable!

Image
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Deal Addict
Jun 6, 2013
3507 posts
4189 upvotes
I rooted it using towelroot v1

then i installed titanium backup (TB)

I used TB to unstall the launcher

now I cannot boot into the tablet because it has no launcher to boot into. so i am stuck forever at the kobo screen

i could go into the recovery by pressing volume down and then power up

but a wipe data/factory reset doesn't do any good, because it is a rooted device, so the launcher cannot be brought back using factory reset.

i also don't have SU access with adb shell as when i try to sideload something, it would always abort.

what can i do at this point?

is there anything i can do under "apply update from ADB" to make this tablet working again?

after waiting forever, it boots into the system, but i cannot start any program, because there is no launcher...it's basically a black screen with 3 soft buttons (back, home, and the one that brings up recent apps), showing battery and time.
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Sr. Member
User avatar
Dec 30, 2008
841 posts
545 upvotes
Could you flash the stock ROM?
It fixed my tablet when it bootlooped.
You can find the stock ROM in the Kobo XDA thread.
Deal Addict
Jun 6, 2013
3507 posts
4189 upvotes
cats_on_burners wrote: Could you flash the stock ROM?
It fixed my tablet when it bootlooped.
You can find the stock ROM in the Kobo XDA thread.
i did try it, you are referring to this right?

https://github.com/kobolabs/Kobo-Arc7HD

i tried to flash arc7hd-ota2-kernel.tar.bz2

it did not work.

recovery.img - [Click for QR Code] (6.54 MB, 1622 views)

also didn't work.
Last edited by Glancealot on Oct 3rd, 2017 9:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Sr. Member
User avatar
Dec 30, 2008
841 posts
545 upvotes
Hmm I don't think so.
I'm referring to the stock image of the kobo arc 7hd.
You're trying to flash the tablet instructions (kernel) not the stock rom.
I was able to push it through ADB without root.
It's somewhere in the XDA thread.

Edit: idk where I got the stock rom, I can't look right now. I'll try to pm you the link to my back up this evening, don't hold your breath. Your best luck is to search in the XDA thread for the stock image.
Newbie
Sep 22, 2017
10 posts
I received my 10HD yesterday. Its took too long to charge yesterday (switched on wifi and installed apps while its charging) - about 7 hours or so to come to 96%. The screen is gorgeous.
The wifi reception is also pretty good. Connects to my Shaw 5G network and was downloading the apps extremely fast.
Battery discharge is also fast when connected to wifi. Face With Tears Of Joy Will observe the pattern for a couple of days.

Apps open up fast, but the wake button does not instantaneously wake the screen & lock screen takes about 2 seconds to unlock. Did anyone else experience the same ?
Youtube lags a bit on 1080p, but not all the time. Viewing in 720p is smooth as butter.

All in all I feel that its a pretty good tablet just for the display alone.
Deal Addict
Jun 6, 2013
3507 posts
4189 upvotes
so i managed to fix my kobo arc 7 with cats_on_burners's help, thanks buddy.

i have a question for all of those folks who managed to do what was described in post#4 of this thread:

i now have a rooted device with usb debugging enabled, with custom kernel image recovery( called cwm-based recovery v6.0.2.8) instead of the stock one (called android system recovery <e3>)

what's next? it is a good tablet but the screen would self-adjust very slightly every couple of minutes, which is very annoying, the screen is also very bright even when i adjust brightness to minimum. no screen dimming app seem to work on it.

i am quite frustrated and don't know how to make the best out of this nice little device!

edit: i figured out how to dim the screen, install f.lux and choose tegra color driver! the screen still self dims/adjusts but at least it's not bright at night anymore
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Newbie
Sep 5, 2009
76 posts
45 upvotes
Toronto
Quality control is severely lacking. Got a 7HD with no ac adapter, usb cable and a huge yellow line running through the entire screen. I now remember why I don't buy refurbished.
Deal Addict
Jun 6, 2013
3507 posts
4189 upvotes
tuffenough wrote: Quality control is severely lacking. Got a 7HD with no ac adapter, usb cable and a huge yellow line running through the entire screen. I now remember why I don't buy refurbished.
the return is hassle free and they even refund you the $7 shipping charge, which is why they have such a high rating despite lemons like the one you got.
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Deal Addict
Jun 6, 2013
3507 posts
4189 upvotes
I finally figured out this tablet, enjoy, guys!

Kobo 7 HD (K7H) is probably the cheapest (so far) FHD tablet that you can get in the history of tablets, I bought mine (refurbished 16GB, but appears to be brand new) a couple days ago for around $40 CAD.

Here are the steps I took to make my K7H into a bookreader with full browsing capabilities with a superb battery life.

***start of preparation***

(you need to re-perform preparation if you screw up and brick your K7H at any time during this guide)

download mfastboot-v2.zip from here

https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=95916177934532795

if this link above expires, google mfastboot-v2.zip and i am sure you can find a valid one somewhere.

the zip is 1.36MB and should contain the following 7 files:

AdbWinApi.dll
AdbWinUsbApi.dll
linux-fastboot
mfastboot.exe
osx-fastboot
aapt.exe
adb.exe

**extract all contents to a new folder on your desktop, let's call this folder HOME folder from now on.**

next, download

http://download2.kobobooks.com/apollohd ... ota339.zip

if this link above expires, google update-ota339.zip and i am sure you can find a valid one somewhere. it is 382MB.

and copy/move it into HOME folder

fully charge your kobo

reset your kobo by pressing the power on (PO) button and then immediately pressing the volume down (VD) button, you should then be brought to K7H's system recovery interface, choose wipe data / factory reset by pressing VD twice, and then press PO. then pressing VD 7 times until you are at "Yes", then press PO again. then wait for it to finish.

next connect your kobo to your PC with the USB cable that came with K7H. on K7H, press VD once to select "apply update from ADB", press PO, and you are brought to a waiting screen, at the same time, the computer will install necessary drivers needed. on PC, hold down Shift key and right mouse click in HOME folder and select "Open command window here" (make sure you don't have any file highlighted), in the command window, type

**adb sideload update-ota339.zip**

this should bring you to this screen within the command window on your PC

https://i.imgur.com/WxsAxGH.jpg

one comment: feel free to disconnect and reconnect K7H to your PC a couple times if you encounter error messages such as "error: device not found" "daemon not running" etc after you type adb sideload update-ota339.zip

on K7h, it will install the firmware and a couple of yellow lines will appear and the final yellow line should say "Install from ADB complete."

https://i.imgur.com/JhWHt2U.jpg

next, reboot system now should be automatically selected, simply press PO to restart your K7H.

***end of preparation***

your K7H will be stuck at the Kobo screen for a while, be patient. once your tablet is booted up, you need to go through the whole registration/update process. this part doesn't require any guidance, although it may appear you can only do this with a kobo account, so register one on your PC.

once you are in, press the bottom right icon to go to apps, select settings, scroll to the bottom, select

"about kobo arc 7HD", tap on "build number" 7 times to activate developer options.

go back to settings by press the back-up key at the bottom left corner, scroll to bottom

select "developer options"

checkmark "USB debugging"

uncheck "verify apps over USB"

go back to settings by press the back-up key at the bottom left corner, scroll to bottom,

select "security"

checkmark "Unknown sources"

uncheck "verify apps"

now download **tr_old.apk** from here and save it into HOME folder.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/attach ... 1404980556

if this link above expires, google tr_old.apk and i am sure you can find a valid one somewhere.

on pc, hold down Shift key and right mouse click in HOME folder and select "Open command window here"(make sure you don't have any file highlighted), in the command window, type

**adb install tr_old.apk**

again, feel free to disconnect and reconnect K7H to your PC a couple times if you encounter error messages such as "error: device not found" "daemon not running" etc. please note that, you can use this method to install WHATEVER app onto your K7H, even ones not meant for android 4.2.2, as long as you can download the apk of the app, you can get apk of apps by using google or from certain reputable sites like https://www.apkmirror.com/ or https://apkpure.com/ or https://www.apk4fun.com/ and etc.

now go to apps on K7H, open the new app towelroot, press the "make it rain" button and wait for K7H to reboot, **now your K7H is rooted.**

now on K7H, search for **SuperSU** by CodingCode from the google **play store** that you can access by going into apps (again, press the bottom right icon to go to apps), sign in using your google account, it should be the first result returned. please note that, your Kobo might restart on its own, as it is busy updating all kinds of softwares now that you signed into the playstore, as its CPU is quite slow and is easily overwhelmed. once things settle down, open SuperSU, press start, choose continue when it asks for binary needs update, choose normal when it asks the other question.

next, download **recovery.img - [Click for QR Code] (6.54 MB)** from here into HOME folder.

https://forum.xda-developers.com/showpo ... ostcount=4

assuming your K7H is still connected to your PC, on PC, hold down Shift key and right mouse click in HOME folder and select "Open command window here"(make sure you don't have any file highlighted), in the command window, type

**adb push recovery.img /sdcard/**

then type in the command window

**adb shell**

then type in the command window (make sure the screen of your K7H is turned on)

**SU**

a box will popup on K7H (i.e., look at your tablet), make sure you select "GRANT"

then type in the command window (by the way, you can always right click and select paste when you are in the command window)

**dd if=/sdcard/recovery.img of=/dev/block/platform/sdhci-tegra.3/by-name/SOS**

Next, in the command window press Ctrl key and C key as if you are copying something

then type in the command window

**adb reboot recovery**

now your K7H will restart

you will notice that the interface is different from earlier during the preparation step, "reboot system now" should be highlighted, press PO button, press VD 7 times to highlight

"Yes, disable recovery flash"

then press PO button.

**now your K7H has the Recovery Mod.**

next. search for nova launcher from the play store that you can access by going into apps

(again, press the bottom right icon to go to apps) and install the free one.

once it's installed, press the HOME folder button of your K7H (middle button of the three virtual buttons on bottom left), select Nova launcher and make sure you select Always.

now go to play store and search for **titanium backup** install it. run it and select "GRANT".

go through some menus where you always press "OK".

if you ever get stuck at the Kobo screen with three dots for a while, just connect K7H to your PC, hold down Shift key and right mouse click in HOME folder and select "Open command window here" (make sure you don't have any file highlighted), in the command window, type :

**adb shell input keyevent KEYCODE_HOME**

please note that the above command is case sensitive, i.e., KEYCODE_HOME must be capitalized

last thing, the screen is really bright at night, even when i adjust the brightness to minimum. so i figured out a way to adjust it further. install **f.lux** either through adb install or through app store, change the color driver to **tegra** and you are good to go.


if you are an advanced user, you can use **titanium** to uninstall A LOT of things.

i am not advanced, but through some trial and error, i managed to delete a lot of things, such as the drop down menu when you swipe at the top, and a lot of other things. doing this helped me extend the battery life to 10 days ([2 day 14 hour * 4](https://i.imgur.com/YNBwXMk.jpg)) with daily book reading and / or light browsing before bed, the standby battery life is around 20 days.

the system navigation bar also takes up a lot of screen real estate with its default status bar(top) and navigation bar(bottom), the difference is night and day, compare the following two images:

first is on a K7H where I got rid of both the top bar (no need for it really), and bottom bar (replaced system UI with [this app](https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... atus&hl=en))

second is on a regular K7H.

(don't pay attention to the large font, I set my text to large under accessibility)

https://i.imgur.com/WsH7IDC.png

https://i.imgur.com/HrcMsC7.png

the top bar and bottom bar together take up around 13% of screen real estate by my calculation.

btw, I learnt how to take SS of your tablet screen under adb (the above 2 SS are not taken with a camera like earlier), hold down Shift key and right mouse click in HOME folder and select "Open command window here"(make sure you don't have any file highlighted), in the command window, paste the following code and the screenshot should be under your HOME folder.

adb shell screencap -p /sdcard/screen.png
adb pull /sdcard/screen.png
adb shell rm /sdcard/screen.png

here is a SS of K7H running Moon+ Reader Pro

https://i.imgur.com/YC9mX7t.png
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Deal Addict
Jun 6, 2013
3507 posts
4189 upvotes
BTW guys, the post above was written for reddit, so the format is a little messed up.

here is a SS of my tablet's interface

https://i.imgur.com/fnrYNC9.png

I use moon reader and chrome to read books, use chrome to do light surfing, and can watch 4k youtube videos if i want to.

here is a screenshot I took while playing a 4k youtube video

https://i.imgur.com/e2m5UoS.png

gotta love the dimension of those pictures: 1200*1920. Winking Face

for completeness, here is the CPUz report.

https://valid.x86.fr/a/citm4v

lol it plays hearthstone fine, but due to one of the many things i deleted using titanium, i cannot log in (hearthstone would crash), but here is a SS where I clicked "I'm new" and started playing the trial:

https://i.imgur.com/bDbvFF4.png
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