I've had my Reader for just over 2 months now, and I've loved it.

I had a 15,000 mile tune-up on my car today, so I was all set with my reader to do some reading while I waited. I turned it on and got a "starting up" screen I'd never seen before. I expected it to go right back to the page I last stopped at. After 3-4 minutes I realized it wasn't "starting up". I tried to turn it off and back on again, but it wouldn't turn off. I tried playing with a few buttons to jar it back to reality and what I got was a mix of several screens including the rotating data transfer symbol, the main index showing author, title, continue reading, etc., and the lower half of the screen has horizontal interlaced black lines. I tried a soft reset. Nothing. I tried a hard reset...nothing. Now it won't respond to anything at all! Has anyone seen or heard of this before?

Mark

I wish I could help. I've never heard of that before.

That sounds bad. My initial response was "do a soft reset" - but of course you did that already. I guess you really have to call Sony support ;(

If you have a media card in it, try taking that out and then charge it for an hour before you try again.

Regards,

Matt

I have a similar problem. Charging does not help :(

I have a similar problem. Charging does not help :(

Me too! What did you do?????????

I've had my Reader for just over 2 months now, and I've loved it.

I had a 15,000 mile tune-up on my car today, so I was all set with my reader to do some reading while I waited. I turned it on and got a "starting up" screen I'd never seen before. I expected it to go right back to the page I last stopped at. After 3-4 minutes I realized it wasn't "starting up". I tried to turn it off and back on again, but it wouldn't turn off. I tried playing with a few buttons to jar it back to reality and what I got was a mix of several screens including the rotating data transfer symbol, the main index showing author, title, continue reading, etc., and the lower half of the screen has horizontal interlaced black lines. I tried a soft reset. Nothing. I tried a hard reset...nothing. Now it won't respond to anything at all! Has anyone seen or heard of this before?

Mark
What you describe is exactly what happened to the first Reader I bought. Except it happened after 2 hours not 2 months.

Sony was incapable of trouble shooting it over the phone, we wound up returning it (and I discovered the wonders of buying Sony Readers at Borders!)

Hopefully they're better at figuring this stuff out now.

What you describe is exactly what happened to the first Reader I bought. Except it happened after 2 hours not 2 months.

Sony was incapable of trouble shooting it over the phone, we wound up returning it (and I discovered the wonders of buying Sony Readers at Borders!)

Hopefully they're better at figuring this stuff out now.

Okay..........

I just spoke to a Level 2 Tech Support person. The issue did NOT surprise him. He explained that the reader is prone to hangs when the battery is low. It can manifest itself in a variety of ways, including what happened to me - which was an attempt to use the reader after a couple/few weeks of inactivity. Even though the inactivity had been preceded by a full charge, there is battery drain even when the reader isn't powered on. So with a low battery, the system tried to reboot but couldn't finish.

As soon as I had gotten into the office where my charger was, by the way, I plugged in the AC and did a soft re-set with NO problem.

So it appears that this is a power management issue and Sony needs to post some Troubleshooting advice on their site, as three different techs advised me to send my unit into for repair, when a simple solution to a known engineering issue existed.

Excellent post Meanballer, while I personally haven't had this problem, I'll keep your solution/report in mind if something like this happens to me. Hopefully Sony will address the "power drain" issue for when the unit is turned off; realistically, it shouldn't draw any power while switched off; i.e., should just write the state data to non-volatile RAM and drop out. It would be nice if there was some type of switch they could implement that could break the contacts on the battery for long storage periods (not that mine will ever see this type of inactivity, I hope).

Thanks again, good to see you here (I'm still a quite the n00b myself)!

I believe that at least part of the problem stems from the LiOn battery itself -- I think they have power loss just over time, even if there's nothing at all connected to them. :shrug:

But I guess pretty much every battery (certainly every rechargeable battery) has that to some extent or another.

I believe that at least part of the problem stems from the LiOn battery itself -- I think they have power loss just over time, even if there's nothing at all connected to them. :shrug:

But I guess pretty much every battery (certainly every rechargeable battery) has that to some extent or another.

Yeah ... but li-ion's power decay is normally rated at 10%/yr. :blink:

Oh, well then. Iwas under the (apparently mistaken) impression that it was greater than that. :shrug:

Yeah ... but li-ion's power decay is normally rated at 10%/yr. :blink:

The decay rate is dependent upon the chemistry used and ambient storage temperature.

The Li ion batteries in cell phones have more cobalt in them and have a near 100% discharge in 30 days. Li Polymer batteries tend to self discharge completely in 30 to 60 days.

A Li ion battery at 40C self discharges faster than when its at 25C.

D'oh! Stupid cobalt! :grin:

Meanballer, you saved me a load of grief. I was ready to ship the reader off the same day that I saw your response to this post. It didn't occur to me that the battery might simply be dead. I charged it using the AC adapter and, sure enough, it came back to life.

Now here's the surprising part...the li'on battery discharge rate is extremely fast when not being used. I hadn't used it in a month and then left for vacation at the end of March. Again, the thing was dead. When I got back, I plugged it in and it came back up. It's possible that when I had it charging via USB it wasn't really charging, but right now I don't know what's going on.

Anyway, thanks for the tip!

Excellent news! I'm glad you got it figured out, gio1050. :beam:

As soon as I had gotten into the office where my charger was, by the way, I plugged in the AC and did a soft re-set with NO problem.

So it appears that this is a power management issue and Sony needs to post some Troubleshooting advice on their site, as three different techs advised me to send my unit into for repair, when a simple solution to a known engineering issue existed.
Sony have a record of doing this. I bought a Vaio notebook a few years back for occasional use only when I travel abroad. Having not used it for a couple of months it completely refused to boot up. I plugged in the charger, but the charging light didn't even come on. Left it like that for hours - still no change. Called Sony support, who said it was probably a mainboard problem - $2000 to fix - which was more than the computer cost me!

Before consigning it to the computer junk cupboard I decided to leave it on charge. A full day later the yellow charging light came on, although it would still not boot up. After another day it came up and has been fine ever since.

Thank you, Sony. Not!

this happened to me today. too much reading and not enough charging or transfering. this is what happens when you load those books in the sony download section. sherlock holmes, zorro and the others pit a strain on your battery.

I have noticed this as well, especially when playing MP3's. Charging did the trick for me too. I just plugged the reader in and left if overnight. worked great you just have to let it charge for a few hours.

Okay..........

I just spoke to a Level 2 Tech Support person. The issue did NOT surprise him. He explained that the reader is prone to hangs when the battery is low. It can manifest itself in a variety of ways, including what happened to me - which was an attempt to use the reader after a couple/few weeks of inactivity. Even though the inactivity had been preceded by a full charge, there is battery drain even when the reader isn't powered on. So with a low battery, the system tried to reboot but couldn't finish.

As soon as I had gotten into the office where my charger was, by the way, I plugged in the AC and did a soft re-set with NO problem.

So it appears that this is a power management issue and Sony needs to post some Troubleshooting advice on their site, as three different techs advised me to send my unit into for repair, when a simple solution to a known engineering issue existed.

Guys this was a life saver, I never thought of plugging it in, by my story is a bit wierder (SP?). I was reading on the plane last night and the reader was completely charged last week. I was reading a Stephanie Plum book (which make me laugh) and got to the last page and it locked up. Some wierd numbers/chars on the screen, I have seen this on every chapter so I figured it was a graphic that was just converted to numbers and letters no big deal. Well it wouldn't turn off? It just sat there, and earlier in the flight I would turn to page 280 and the reader reset, it did this 3 times, but I go to 281 backwards and it worked fine? Hmmm, so it stays with this letter/num page all night, and this AM it's still there. I get on here read your post and figure powering it might help. this was after repeated hard resets, soft resets, etc.. Nothing, so I plug it in and in 2 seconds the thing reboots.

Is it me or does it seem like the battery doesn't last near as long as it used to, and no way does it get 5000 page turns or whatever it does. Alsmost have to take a charger with me on trips now :(...

But again this site is a life saver. I have already been with out my reader for a bit due to a broken screen, I didn't want to send it back again.

:)

Cya

After having my reader now for about seven months, I seem to be experiencing the same thing. The manual says the battery is good for about 5000 pages turns. It also says that the battery is used only when turning pages. Once the screen is charged, it is no longer used, and I believe that. I also believe that no matter what state the reader is in, there is a drain on the battery, and not a slow one. I've come to realize that I need to charge my battery hours before I know I'm going to be using it. And the battery indicator is useless. It always shows at least 2/3 capacity, even when it's completely drained.

The fact that the battery drains so quickly even when not in use AND the incorrect battery life indicator are exactly why it was so hard to troubleshoot the original malfunction I had. It just seemed obsurd that it would need to be charged.

Oh well, that's the life of an early adopter. I know this isn't the first epaper reader, but it is still a new technology, and I do still like it. I just hope the battery doesn't lose it's life altogether anytime soon!

After reading this.. I went and plugged mine in. Even though the battery shows a charge with only one Icon down. Is it Ok to leave plugged in for 6 hours while I go play golf?

Perfectly alright. Leave it plugged in until the red light above the power switch goes out. Then, turn the Reader on and, with it switched on, unplug and re-plug in the charger - that will reset the battery meter so it shows the correct reading.

Hmmm... funny ... when problems similar to this one are discovered over at the Iliad forum, people scream "class action suit, money back, head on a silver platter etc..."

Are you Sony guys just a lot mellower in general or what?

:rolleyes2:

I think our device is closer to the original advertised capabilities, is all. Well ... that, and we didn't pay $700~$800 for it :shrug:

For $700-$800, I can get a laptop. No way I'd want to pay that much for a reader.

Plus the fact that the battery meter issue is a purely "cosmetic" bug. It doesn't affect the actual operation of the machine in any way.

Are you Sony guys just a lot mellower in general or what?

Well ...
SONY sorta, kinda, keep their promises.
SONY tries not to piss off their customers by making unrealistic promises. Unlike some other ebook reader manufacturing companies.

You can even get 7000 pageturns if you try really, really hard
just:
- take out the memory card
- load a few *.lrf books to the internal memory
- open a book
- charge the READER
- If you can read very, very quickly (like 7000 pages in three days ;-) you CAN, under optimal conditions, get up to 7000 page turns on one charge.

They even corrected the database in their CONNECT shop. The next day after I submited a "bugreport" about the "The color of magic" by Terry Pratchett missing from the search results the search worked the way it was supposed to - The color of magic is now the first returned result

Plus... We're just nicer!

And.. More better looking...

And... Smarter...

And... More humble!

Well ...
SONY sorta, kinda, keep their promises.
SONY tries not to piss off their customers by making unrealistic promises. Unlike some other ebook reader manufacturing companies.

You can even get 7000 pageturns if you try really, really hard
just:
- take out the memory card
- load a few *.lrf books to the internal memory
- open a book
- charge the READER
- If you can read very, very quickly (like 7000 pages in three days ;-) you CAN, under optimal conditions, get up to 7000 page turns on one charge.

They even corrected the database in their CONNECT shop. The next day after I submited a "bugreport" about the "The color of magic" by Terry Pratchett missing from the search results the search worked the way it was supposed to - The color of magic is now the first returned result
I have to give a thumbs up to Sony for their customer support. It just seems to be doing better then expected and that's very good.
:2thumbsup:2thumbsup:2thumbsup:2thumbsup:2thumbsup

They even corrected the database in their CONNECT shop. The next day after I submited a "bugreport" about the "The color of magic" by Terry Pratchett missing from the search results the search worked the way it was supposed to - The color of magic is now the first returned result

Really? I've kinda been checking on that (and I also notified Sony about it), but I still don't see the right book showing up in that search. I think I've only been trying via the website, but I was assuming the software backend for the search is the same for both. I don't have the Connect software here at work, but I'll try again tonight.

Maybe it was fixed and then broken again.

In my experience, the web search has performed a bit better than searching via ConnSoft. :shrug:

I think I've only been trying via the website
So have I.
Just search for pratchett
Look.
Ooops.
It got missing again.
I SWEAR I have seen The color of magic at the top of the list. I specifically checked when I got email from Sony support that clains that they fixed it.

I don't have the Connect software here at work, but I'll try again tonight.

Maybe it was fixed and then broken again.
Looks like it ;-)

Or ...
Perhaps the Unseen University in the book wreaks havoc on SONY servers.

Seriously.
How difficult could it be to make a web application that searches in a single table of several thousand books and returns a dozen or so books.
I could write a better application in Foxpro for DOS in an afternoon!
I could write better application using awk and shell script!

Yep, confirmed broken in Connect, too.

HAHAHA! And now, even by going to the Pratchett author page, it's no longer there! Way to go, Sony. Thank goodness I bought it already. I'm gonna need that next book in the series soon though...

You're right Kacir, it's really not that hard to do a database query. I don't know what kind of crack their developers have, but it must be pretty nice.

What is the origin of this expression "jacked up", by the way? In the UK, "jacked up" is a thing that you do to a car to raise it off the ground in order to change a punctured tyre!

I think it's one of those mysterious American slang expressions that didn't really arise from anything in particular, but rather somebody said it (either intending to say something else, or just to say something different), and since others still understood the intended meaning, and presumably liked the sound of it, they started using it too. :shrug:

It may be a variation (intentional or un) of "jammed up" which was popular over here around the turn of the century -- the most recent turn, I mean. :grin:


What's a "tyre?" :mad:

What's a "tyre?" :mad:

The British spelling of the word that you spell "tire" :grin:.

Yeah, I knew that -- I meant to go back and add a note to the effect that I was joking, but got distracted. I suppose you already knew I was joking anyway. :laugh4:

I guessed you might be :grin:.

Actually the word "tyre" has a strange history. We got the word from the US sometime in the early 20th century, and initially used the US spelling for it. Some time later a British company started manufacturing them and decided to start spelling it "tyre" for commercial reasons, and for some reason the changed spelling "stuck". It's a completely "bogus anglicization"!

Looks like Sony botched up the Terry Prachett (sp?) books. There are a lot less now then there were before they fixed The Color of Magic.

Forgive the question, but the correct spelling is "Pratchett". Do you find them if you search using that?

Forgive the question, but the correct spelling is "Pratchett". Do you find them if you search using that?
It turns out that there are a bunch of books missing that used to be there. Even the link to The Color of Mony no longer works.

Forgive the question, but the correct spelling is "Pratchett". Do you find them if you search using that?I went to their Pratchett page (which I did find easily enough) but there are now 2 screens of books on it, where there were 3 screens last week. :sad2: