Nexus 7 Troubleshooting

Tablet will not turn on.

Clean out any dirt or lint in the charging port. Make sure that the power cord is securely connected to the device and power source. If a battery icon appears on the screen after about a minute, press and hold the Power button for 15 to 30 seconds to see if your device turns on. You may also try using a different power cord with your device

Unplug your charging cable from the power block and plug it into a computer’s USB port. After about 10-15 minutes, unplug your device and reconnect it within 10 seconds. Wait one minute and check to see if the battery icon appears on the screen. If it does, press and hold the Power button for 15 to 30 seconds to see if your device turns on.

If none of the fixes described above work, you can try recovering your device by following this set of instructions.

1. Press and hold the Volume Down and Power button at the same time for at least 10 seconds. You’ll see an Android robot and the word Start with an arrow around it.
2. Press the Volume Down button to move through the options until the screen shows the option to Power Off. Press the Power button to select that option.
3. Disconnect the power cord and reconnect it within 10 seconds. A battery icon should appear on the screen. Allow your device to charge at least 1 hour before turning it on again.

You may need to replace your device's battery.

You may need to replace your device's micro USB board.

As a last resort, you may need to replace your device's motherboard. Only attempt doing so after you have tried all of the above solutions.

Tablet’s screen does not respond to touch.

If your tablet’s touchscreen is not responding, you might want to first try a soft reboot. You can do this by holding down the Power button until you see a box appear on the screen. Touch and hold Power Off and then hold the Power button again after the screen turns black and the device has powered down. At this point you can turn your device back on. You may also try touching and holding Restart from the box that appears after holding the Power button.

If you recently downloaded and/or ran new applications on your device, they might be the source of your problem. To fix this, you can restart your device in Safe Mode. Hold down the power button until you see a Power Off box. Touch and hold Power Off and select OK when given the option to Reboot to Safe Mode. Your device will then restart in Safe Mode, with all third-party apps unavailable. Continue using your tablet as you normally would. If the problem goes away, it is likely that one of the third-party apps is the cause of your unresponsive screen. From here, you can restart your device again (out of safe mode) and uninstall your most recently downloaded apps one at a time, until you can pinpoint the problematic app.

If your device is currently running on an older operating system, you might want to check if there is a system update.

If you’ve tried the other fixes with no luck, you can reset your device back to its factory settings. Note that this will erase all the data from the device and you will want to backup your device prior to attempting to reset it. This may also take some time, so you will want to plug the tablet into a power source before following these instructions:

1. Power off your device.
2. Press and hold the Volume Down and Power buttons at the same time until you see an arrow and the word 'start'.
3. Select Recovery Mode by pressing the Volume Down button twice and then the Power button. An image of the Android robot and a red exclamation point with the message No Command will appear.
4. Next, hold down the Power button and press the Volume Up button once. Select Wipe Data/Factory Reset by pressing the Volume Down button twice and then the Power button.
5. Then, press the Volume Down button seven times and the Power Button once to highlight and select Yes - Erase All User Data. Your device will then reset and you can reboot it by selecting the Reboot option when it appears.

If none of the mentioned problems match your situation, or you tried one or more of the quick fixes and none of them worked, you may need to replace your tablet’s screen assembly.

The computer fails to recognize the Nexus 7 when it is plugged in using a USB cable.

If your device is not recognized by your computer you may first want to ensure that the Media Device (MTP) is turned on. In order to do so, go to Settings>Storage and first tap the three vertical dots at the top right of the screen and then USB Computer Connection. Now make sure that Media Device (MTP) is ticked and try plugging your device into your computer again.

It is possible that your USB port or cable is the problem. In this case you can try plugging your device into a different USB port or using a different cable.

If you are running Windows 7 on your computer you can try connecting your device using a USB cable and then right clicking on Computer from the Start menu and then clicking on Device Manager. You should now see Asus Android Devices at the top and you can expand and right click on Android Composite ADB Interface. Now click on Update Driver Software. When the next pop up appears, choose Browse my computer for driver software then Let me pick from a list and choose USB Composite Device and click Next to update.

You may need to replace your device's micro USB board.

Tablet will not advance past the boot-up screen after it has been turned on.

Temporary data stored in the partition cache may need to be cleared via the following steps:

1. Power down your device.
2. Hold down both the Power and Volume Up buttons until you see a 'dead' Android icon.
3. Hold first the Power button, and then the Volume Up button as well; then release both at the same time.
4. Navigate to, and subsequently select Wipe Partition Cache.

Your device may not be advancing past the boot-up screen due to lack of battery power; this may be caused by using a charger not suited for your device that is not putting out the required power.

GPS services may occasionally shut off or not function properly.

Navigate to Location Access under your device's settings, turn off Access My Location, wait 30-60 seconds, and then turn it back on.

If the above fix does not solve your problem, you may need to resort to rebooting your device. You can do this by holding down the Power button until you see a box appear on the screen. Touch and hold Power Off and then hold the Power button again after the screen turns black and the device has powered down. At this point, you may turn your phone back on.

Tablet produces a soft but noticeable buzzing noise from the speaker.

A software bug may be responsible for this issue. Decrease your brightness and check to see if this has solved the problem. Also check if your device is in need of a software update by going to Settings > About tablet > System updates.

Your speaker may be broken and in need of replacement. Alternatively, you may decide to just use headphones or an external speaker.

The loudspeaker no longer outputs sound.

After installing a third party charging assembly and headphone jack, the Nexus 7 may not properly detect headphones, turning the loudspeaker off when no headphones are connected. Use an audio routing app to override the phone’s automatic headphone detection and manually route audio to headphones or the loudspeaker.