Hudl1

[Bob Williams]

Why I should never, ever, change my original diagnosis of a Tech problem and why I should stop feeling sympathy for those who do not listen to advice:

Nice lady neighbour, always helping others, is given a Hudl1 by dad a few years ago. Shows me and asks how to set it up and I do that, then tell her to buy some backup, explain alternatives. Off she goes, over the next couple of years takes many photos of her family and friends. Two weeks or so ago, asks me to take a look as it has died. Apparently she plugged it in to charge in the dark before going to bed, there was a massively bright light and she switched off the charger, left it. As it had completely discharged and would not take a charge, when she brought it to me I could not access it. Being a soft hearted idiot, I started looking up Hudl1 problems. After stripping it down and seeing the state of the charger port and cable end, I gave her the possibilities: 1 – charger port is u/s. 2 – Cable is also u/s. 3 – battery is u/s. (it was swelled up, she must have cooked it)  4 – board is u/s. I knew that the charger port and cable are relatively inexpensive, but a new battery was £22+. BUT, I told her, although I can fit all 3 for around £29, if the board is also u/s, I cannot guarantee after spending £29, that it will still not be a dead parrot.

I showed her several alternative Android tablets, including my own Lenovo TAB3 8. I explained that she could use the £29 to put towards a new tablet that would last longer than the crappy Hudl1. She prevaricated, then asked if I could get her photos back. Yes, IF the 3 new bits brought the Hudl back to life. No, if it was still dead. No guarantees.

Last week I fitted a new charging port and cable. This week I fitted a new battery; apparently there is a seller on Fleabay who bought up a stock of new Hudl1’s from Tesco (or somewhere) and sells the batteries as new. Voltage checks out, looks exactly like the old one but not swelled up. It is still dead, now the charging light does not work. Tried the soft resets, nothing. Told her it was dead, no chance of rescuing photos, tried a hardware reset. Nothing. My computer will not even recognise it. I have found and downloaded a driver package, (amazed that is still available) but cannot get it into the Hudl. I have even installed the driver onto a Micro SD card, Hudl cannot see it. It became stuck in a recovery loop and then died again.

It’s a hard lesson to learn: without regular backup, one device is useless if it breaks to the point of losing all data. tomorrow I have to break the bad news to one of our best friends here. Not looking forward to that. :negative:  :wacko:  :scratch:

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Tippon]

It’s one of the few perks of being ill in a small village. Everyone who knows I can fix things also knows that I almost died several years ago, and most of them are too scared to ask how I’m doing now (a few well timed coughs usually help too  😉 ). As a result, I can get away with telling them that I don’t do anything with other people’s tech anymore, as I can’t guarantee I won’t make it worse.

A bit naughty, but saves me from situations like yours, or the almost weekly Facebook posts of ‘I’ve lost my phone and every photo of my kids are on it with no other copies’  :wacko:

[The Duke]

There is no excuse for it today, almost all photo apps back up buy default, so these people are actively saying no on set up. Or the majority are.

The one that amazing me still happens is the posts ‘I’ve lost my phone, can you all please send me your numbers”. 1. Even before 2008 I written down a back up! But since 2008, you sync then to google contacts as standard on android, and I’m sure ios does similar. Now this you actively have to turn off!

Idiots I tell you.

[Bob Williams]

Thanks for reading my Moan Tippon!

I have begun to deal with the same situation by broadcasting the fact that my spinal problems are making my hands and arms less effective at messing with tech. It’s true, it’s a slow deterioration and has been for some time, but I have only begun to speak about it locally for the last month. The lady concerned is a very good friend to everyone here, she has epilepsy but still visits the older, frailer menbers of our community. It’s not so long ago that she walked to and from Louth (3 miles to shops) to do her shopping. Those of us with cars now take turns to take her. When it’s someone like that, it is very hard to refuse.

I have another Hudl (2) project I am trying to get off the ground: cannibalising one from 3 with various problems. As her Hudl1 is now officially dead, if I can fix this Hudl2 I will make her a present of it. Parts are definitely easier to obtain for the2. Wish me luck…. :scratch:  :whistle:  :unsure:

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Steve, the problem is that this lady is no idiot, in all other respects she is quite intelligent. She is also a very thoughtful, caring person and I would really like to help her. She is one of those people who have never really had anything to do with tech: computers, tablets, etc were a mystery to her. Much of that is down to an abusive ex-husband who would have none of that in the house: she divorced and moved away from him. Her son, who has ostracised his dad, lives down south and she does not see her two granchildren very often, so the photos were precious to her.

I share your opinion of most people who don’t backup, but this lady has limited knowledge of things we take for granted. I have sat down with her and used my tablet, wife’s laptop and this desktop to explain the back up process. I am sure she now understands the necessity of backup. Unfortunately, that was after the fact of the hudl blowing its cool. Is there any way I can retrieve the photos, do you think? I will have to speak with her again and ask about her Google ID. Big problem is that I cannot get the hudl to be recognised by my desktop or the lappy. If I could get that to work, and retrieve the photos, I might be able to put them on another hudl that I am trying to resurrect.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[The Duke]

I cut everyone loose with the more from 7 to 8, I never moved so used it as an excuse to not get involved with people’s issues.

As you say Tippon, a good illness also keeps the rest away, as they don’t know what to say, so thy distance themselves. A good way to trim the rot out your life. As long as you survive that is!

[Mark Turner]

If the tablet was set to backup automatically would the pictures not be available online using the gmail account the tablet used or am i way off as i have never used a hudl.

Cheers Mark

[The Duke]

I don’t think they back up automatically, If they uses Google photos to view the pics, when they first launched the app it would of, by default, set to back up.

However, I’ve not had a Hudl 1,but I reset my Hudl 2 last week, and the only app I have on my Hudl 2 is photos. Now I don’t know if I installed that or not, I can’t remember, but there is no other photo storage app on the device. Expect for, s rolling right in the default camera app, and that is no way to see photos.

So I expect, I didn’t install Google photos and thst it was the default app on the device. Trouble with that thought is I think the Hudl 2 pre dates Gphotos, but the last os update doesn’t.

Probably teaching you to suck eggs here, but bob get their Gmail log in, log on to Gmail the go to https://photos.google.com and there is a good chance all their pics will all be there. If not ask what app they used to ‘view’ their photos, as all the mainstream photo apps set up auto upload as default.

Update- after reading the link below, it looks like the Hudl 1 just had the AOSP gallery. So the pics are likely gone. If they haven downloaded a 3rd party app.

on the plus side the pics the Hudl takes are terrible, so they arnt going to of lost much.

http://ttselectrical.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3687/~/removing-pictures-from-your-hudl-1

[Bob Williams]

Sorry about the late reply Steve and Mark. Speaking of photos, should know better: taken to Hospital this morning for a snap Epidoscopy as one of my problems flared up. They decided to go Routes 1 and 2. Route 2 is no problem as due to the Colostomy it is not functioning as first purposed, Route 1 more of a problem as it is subject to a shrinking oesophagus, so they gave me the Happy Stuff. I have been out of it most of the rest of today. Those photos are not pretty, they always give me copies but I will refrain from putting them on here, if nobody minds. :whistle:  :negative:

You are both right as regards the Google photo recovery, but the lady involved never set the hudl to auto backup and has no idea what her account details were, after first setup. Last night and a few minutes ago I finished the last efforts on the hudl. It is an ex-parrot. I managed to get SWMBO’s lappy to recognise it, but Windows reported it as having no drivers installed and could not find any. I managed to find suitable Android drivers and installed them to a micro SD card, by now had given up on retrieval, just wanted to try getting to a Start Menu. Or anything, really. 😥   I used the pinhole on the back to Reset to Factory, but it would not load anything from the SD card and would not recognise it. The thing just went into a reset/recovery loop. I would like to lie it under a truck and drive over it a few times, but the lady wants it back to let her brother play with it. As it will not restart and not even be recognised, I view it as dead.

Nice link Steve: when I had my hudl2, I downloaded as much Tesco manual stuff as I thought I would need and that is still in a folder on this pooter. That will come in handy now I have time to have a go at making one hudl out of 3 in various stages of disrepair. IF everybody around here stays away from my door with their tech problems! Wish I still had my old GSD… :negative:  :whistle:  🙂

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Well the lady has taken it back, along with the invoices for the parts bought and a printed explanation of everything done. I did this not for her sake, but because she is giving it to her brother, who I don’t know. He may be a perfectly reasonable chap, I have no idea, but I am always wary of situations that can arise from family members concerned about each other’s welfare. However, as is my wont, I introduced a little levity, as follows:

“What is your brother’s name?”     – “JIM.”     I couldn’t resist it, could you?    – “Would you give him a message from me please?”     – “Certainly, what is it?”

(With an absolutely straight face)      “Tell him …………………………………  It’s dead, Jim.”

She didn’t get it at first. Walked out of the door, past the window, suddenly threw back her head and cracked up. Carried on to her bungalow, shaking her head. I think they only tolerate me around here for entertainment purposes.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Tippon]

Possibly poor taste, but what happens if he gets it going? Will she come back and tell you ‘Jim fixed it for me’?  :scratch:  :whistle:

[The Duke]

Surly being the first gen Hudl it is to old for him to fiddle with.

I’ll get my coat……

[doctoryorkie]

That’s vile. :wacko:

Laptop T420 i5 8GB SSD 2x Spinners Optimus GFX
HTPC 5350 8GB SSD 2x Spinners Antec 300
Desktop 2700K 16GB Revo x2 GTX570SC Antec900
Server N54L 8GB SSD 6x Spinners HD6450

[JayCeeDee]

The Duke wrote:

Surly being the first gen Hudl it is to old for him to fiddle with. I’ll get my coat……

 

Here’s your hat, what’s your hurry??!!

[Bob Williams]

Thanks guys. I get it, Steve. Don’t forget your Phaser, it’s by the airlock … Beam him up, Scotty.

Steve, the lady has a dog like yours, but a bit bigger, nosy and very active, he thinks that every house in the Close is his to enter, everybody loves Bailey. Two days ago he was at the vet’s for a small surface lump that turned out to be a big internal benign growth. Half the fur on his back gone and a big line of stitches. Has not slowed him down at all, it’s always fun watching her try to keep up with him. 🙂

Different news this morning. Now this confused (and confusing) lady has found her password and Gmail account that I asked her for at the start. She could not remember it and could not find it. As I suspected, she spoke to her brother and he reminded her that the Hudl was insured under the house  contents policy. (something else I asked about) Brother told her to phone them and they told her to produce the parts I replaced (I gave them in a box yesterday) and her Google account details, so that they “..could use a data recovery company to recover her photos.” They will probably charge the Insurance a big bill for that, I told her. Considering the initial price of a Hudl1, they may then use that as an excuse to refuse to support her claim. I reminded her that I could have checked her Google account myself and probably recovered everything – IF she had checked for Automatic Backup at registration.

My sympathy and patience are tested to the limit now… :wacko:  :negative:

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[The Duke]

Lhasa Apso is the name of the larger looking shiztu bread bob.

Not around slows dogs down, mine has his wotsits removed, and was back ‘you know whating’ within 24h!

Hope all ends well.

Every time I go the vets, and compare it to the NHS, I think the Americans may be into something!

[Bob Williams]

The Duke wrote:

Lhasa Apso is the name of the larger looking shiztu bread bob. Not around slows dogs down, mine has his wotsits removed, and was back ‘you know whating’ within 24h! Hope all ends well. Every time I go the vets, and compare it to the NHS, I think the Americans may be into something!

Yes he’s a Lhasa Apso, I forgot that. Great little dog he is. Gets to certain doors and stops dead until someone comes out and gives him some fuss and a treat: we all have a bag of small dog biscuits now, don’t give him more than one. Funnily, if I am out and the car is not there, he will not stop, according to his owner. Never heard him bark. I like this:

“Every time I go the vets, and compare it to the NHS, I think the Americans may be into something!”

Very true – compare RSPCA (Royal) with NSPCC (National.) And some Royals are shooting animals, while they are supposed to be protecting them.

 

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

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