How to Root the Lenovo IdeaPad K1 tablet (US version)

The Lenovo IdeaPad K1 is a tablet based on NVidia’s Tegra 2 chipset and features a 1GHz dual-core CPU along with 1GB of RAM.  Sounds great, right? What’s not so great is that the tablet is still running Honeycomb 3.2 with Ice-Cream Sandwich yet to be released for it.  Until that happens though, the least we could do is root the tablet and get something more out of it, right?  Read on to know how to do this.

I.  Before You Begin

1.  This method works by flashing a prerooted ROM (with CWM included) on your device which will erase all the data present on the device – so make sure you back up all the data that you feel is important.

2.  Make sure that the APX drivers are installed on your Windows PC before you proceed.  If not, use the download link below to install them.

3.  Please note that installing this ROM will change your device ID to that of a Motorola Xoom tablet to enable access to apps that are usually not available for the IdeaPad K1.  If you are not okay with this, stop now and do not continue further!!

4.  This method is only for the US version of the IdeaPad K1 tablet.

II.  Necessary Downloads

1.  Nvflash Drivers.

2.  K1_Stock_120109_nvflash_R2.zip.

III.  Flashing the Prerooted Stock ROM

1.  Boot your device into APX mode.  To do this, with the device powered off, press and hold Volume Up + Volume Down keys simultaneously and then press the Power button until the screen goes black and LEDs on either side of the home button light up.

2.  Connect your device to your Windows PC (Windows should look for and find the necessary drivers at this point if you have already installed them).

3.  Extract the K1_Stock_120109_nvflash_R2.zip to a folder on your desktop.

4.  From the extracted folder, double-click on flash-windows.bat to run the tool.

Your device should be running a rooted stock build of Honeycomb 3.2.1 after reboot!!

All credit goes to khanning88 for providing the ROM!!  Be sure to thank or donate to him on his XDA thread if you liked his work!!

This is part of our Android How To’s. We have how to’s on rooting, loading ROMs, and tons of other tips and tricks for your specific device or for Android devices in general! For all of our Android How To’s, head here.

5 thoughts on “How to Root the Lenovo IdeaPad K1 tablet (US version)”

  1. Why does this only work for the US version? I have a canadian version that i would like to root. Any idea if that is possible?

    1. that’s because the files used in this guide are relevant only to this particular device! We’ll see what we can do about getting a tut up for the international version of the same device Nathan, thanks for asking! 🙂

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.