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ASUS Transformer ICS update leaves tablets unusable

Anxious to upgrade your ASUS EEEPad Transformer to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)? This time it doesn't pay to be an early adopter.
Written by Ed Burnette, Contributor

Late last week ASUS started rolling out an over the air update for the original EEEPad Transformer. If you haven't installed it yet, don't. It can cause random reboots and generally make your tablet unusable.

I installed the update over the weekend and have had nothing but problems ever since. The main problem is that every couple of hours it will decide to reboot itself, and then to add insult to injury, the reboot fails. The tablet hangs on the startup after rebooting, and you have to turn it off and back on to clear the problem. The Transformer doesn't have a removable battery, so to do a hard power-off you hold the power button for about 10 seconds. Luckily that works.

Dozens of frustrated ASUS customers have posted irate messages about the problems over in the XDA and Transformer forums. Besides the random reboots, some report intense battery drains and crashes of common apps. Here are a few of the threads tracking the issue:

Some people have reported no problems at all, so it's a bit of a crap shoot whether or not you'll be affected. Some say that factory resets, clearing and wiping everything has fixed the problem but it did not fix it for me or a lot of others. My advice: Don't upgrade until ASUS retracts this ill-fated update and puts out a better version.

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