iPad Air crashes at setup

[iMore Question]

Just excitedly unboxed my air. Plugged into iTunes with a wire to restore everything I backed up from my previous iPad. It won't synch. Gets close, looks good , displays that the apps and audio files are all on it on the bar below, and then when it says "synching contacts" it then says "cancelling synch" and it turns itself off. It is now stuck in a loop of turning itself on and off with the "hello" screen getting through a few languages (none of them English) before turning itself off and then on again. I can't do anything with it. I think it will just keep doing this until the battery is drained and I just spent hundreds of dollars for a defective iPad. HELP!

 

[phreddyl]

Where did you purchase it? Can you return/ exchange? Sounds like either a defective unit or possibly something corrupt in your iTunes back up.

 

[kch50428]

Try putting it into DFU mode... and reload the iOS from scratch. If that fails... then I'd return to point of purchase and exchange it.

 

[judyhubb]

I had it sent to me from Apple, engraved and everything. Ordered it on launch day. I've had an ipad 1 since April 2010, so I know what I am doing. Something is not right. And the closest Apple store is a 2 hour drive. That's why I ordered it online.

 

[Peligro911]

I had it sent to me from Apple, engraved and everything. Ordered it on launch day. I've had an ipad 1 since April 2010, so I know what I am doing. Something is not right. And the closest Apple store is a 2 hour drive. That's why I ordered it online.

Try dfu and don't load from a backup also if the backup is from a ipad 1 that could be a issue as ipad 1 software is ios 5.1.1 I think and ipad air is 7.0.3 I would just start fresh

 

[judyhubb]

I can't get it to do anything. No chance to get to DFU - it shows me the apple, cycles on with "hello", and if I do nothing it turns itself off and on again. If I swipe at the hello, it says "restoration complete press to continue" and then turns itself off before my fingers can hit continue. I figure it will be dead by morning. Tried a hard reboot by pressing both buttons but it just turns itself back on and keeps doing it. Been doing this for more than an hour!

 

[phreddyl]

Sadly I think it needs to go back to apple.

 

[judyhubb]

Trying one last bit of CPR. Held down home button, plugged cable back in on computer so that it would go into recovery mode. It is talking with iTunes now. If this doe not make it happy, I guess I'm in for a lot of driving this weekend. BTW, I posted the same question on the Apple Support Community and got 28 views but NO replies. Guess they don't know what to say. Kudos to you all for chiming in to give advice and, if that doesn't work, sympathy. I will be back to your forum more often!

 

[phreddyl]

Trying one last bit of CPR. Held down home button, plugged cable back in on computer so that it would go into recovery mode. It is talking with iTunes now. If this doe not make it happy, I guess I'm in for a lot of driving this weekend. BTW, I posted the same question on the Apple Support Community and got 28 views but NO replies. Guess they don't know what to say. Kudos to you all for chiming in to give advice and, if that doesn't work, sympathy. I will be back to your forum more often!

Thanks for the update. Let us know how it goes.