This Is Why You Should Not Lock The Orientation Lock

I'm in the process of unlocking a Nexus 7 running LOLLIPOP 5.1 which was stuck in the boot cycle loop, a bug introduced by Google in LOLLIPOP which is not fixed for free by the manufacturer Asus.  Asus says there is NO SIMPLE FIX and that the motherboard must be replaced, costing owners in excess of $200+.

Never being one for admitting failure, I've now I've figured out how to do it pretty consistently offering sufferers a low cost replacement motherboard and money back on the locked motherboard, a real win win situation.

However, one 8GB Nexus 7 running Lollipop has me a little stumped, not because I couldn't replace LOLLIPOP with KITKAT 4.4.4

but because the owner had set up the screen lock on the device to be portrait.  How is this a problem I hear you ask, well the device has a cracked screen and like other devices with cracked screen it means that half of the Touchscreen does not work.  This isn't normally an issue, but to log onto a new network

you need to tap the screen and type into it across its surface.

With half the screen dead, that isn't possible.  If the orientation lock wasn't on, then rotating the device several times would allow the user to find working areas on the touch screen to input all the details, but with the orientation screen lock in place your restricted to what you get. If the keyboard characters of network name are in a bad area, your screwed.

So my advise is:

If you need to set the screen lock on (i.e. for reading on a train etc) then please; for your own sake and to reduce repair costs if the unit is damaged; turn it off again as soon as you can.  

This would have been a 15 minute job but now I need to swap the motherboard and into other machines and back again and its an expensive process in 'man hours for the repair'.

#fixed1tandroidtip