Sudden Kobo failure

[The Whether Man]

My Kobo has been running fine for the last three months. Good battery life, no problems with loading books; in general, all well and good.

This morning it refused to turn on. It gets as far as the 7 dots on the bottom and just hangs. The paperclip reset just does the same thing. It won't go into upgrade mode with the menu-centre-power trick either. I can see all my books on it, and Calibre picks it up just fine. I just won't start.

I'm gutted. It's not even three months old yet.

Any suggestions, or should I try for a replacement?

[clintbradford]

Have you tried any of the three-button reset procedures? Hold all three down ...

MENU + CENTER DPAD + RESET (using a paperclip) gets it in Upgrade Mode.

MENU + CENTER PAD + POWER BUTTON is another reset combination.

[The Whether Man]

I've tried every trick I can find in these forum threads. I'm starting to think it's a battery failure, as the light gets shorter and shorter each time I try a reset.

When I plug it in to a USB port the 'Kobo is plugged in' screen no longer comes on. I've had it on charge for a day and no charging light has appeared.

[clintbradford]

If I were n your situation, I would privately send a message to Kobo's Sameer who is here, and ask for the procedure to quickly receive a warranty replacement.

I have a SquareTrade warranty on mine - no deductible - so I would initiate contact there, too.

Does your credit card have any "electronics items guarantees" included? I know AmEx offers some protections for their cardholders.

And I'd investigate what the return policy was where I purchased it. I had 60 days to return my mail-ordered Kobo to any Borders retail store for any reason - as a Borders Rewards Club member.

You are covered - let's hope you are not "down" long!

[The Whether Man]

All sorted. I took it back to Whitcoulls, who were quite happy to either refund or replace it. They did suggest I try the help desk first though, which I did.

The cheerful girl on the end of the 0800 line suggested that I poke it with a paperclip, and when that failed offered to send me a return paid envelope. On finding that I lived in New Zealand she gave me another 0800 which took me to the Whitcoulls help desk. This in turn led me to a recorded message telling me to ring the first help desk.

I went back and took them up on their offer, and walked out with a new Kobo.

[SensualPoet]

Glad it worked out for you.

It's sometimes lost in the fog of other issues here, but Kobo -- and its retail partners in Canada and NZ at least -- have been extremely helpful and easy to deal with. Launching a new product line is complex and, thankfully, Kobo's first reaction has been "let's fix this right away" including a straight-forward, no questions asked swap in store.

Kudos again to Kobo and its partners for a first-class act in customer experience. So many other industries make customers jump through hoops and still end up with meagre solutions.

[SageTracey]

I've had the same issues as The Whether Man but found that plugging my Kobo into my second computer or charging via USB wall charger gets everything going again. Just seems to be a glitch that only happens on my home PC occasionally.

[sabredog]

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

Glad it worked out for you.

It's sometimes lost in the fog of other issues here, but Kobo -- and its retail partners in Canada and NZ at least -- have been extremely helpful and easy to deal with. Launching a new product line is complex and, thankfully, Kobo's first reaction has been "let's fix this right away" including a straight-forward, no questions asked swap in store.

Kudos again to Kobo and its partners for a first-class act in customer experience. So many other industries make customers jump through hoops and still end up with meagre solutions.

Borders here in Australia has been pretty pro-active as well. Online orders were pretty busy and there was a great deal of frustration for those waiting for their Kobo.