T68 - Multiple problems with reboots

[Areinu]

I've bought my T68 to read manga on it and read books on it. I've had my device for about a month, and I am constantly encountering problems with my device that make me believe it might be defective unit. Or that whole T68 line is defective.

My device is Polish Lynx.

First thing I did after getting device(and almost dying of rage trying to enter wifi password when the touchscreen was registering touches anywhere, except for where I touched) was updating it. First update failed because it apparently got broken download, then it didn't want to download and instead tried to use the file it already had, but in the end I got the update going.

My first problem was the fact that onyx sometimes would reboot (once). Then I could use it for some more time and it would reboot again. After some days of that happening I figured out the pattern - it happens only when battery starts showing around 50% energy left. It never happens when device is nearly fully charged.

It also seems to happen when the spikes in resource usage happen. For example loading ebook file, changing page of the comic, which require memory card reading. I've also encountered the problem in mundane tasks like changing the device settings, so yeah... I think it just has higher chance of happening on more resource eating tasks.

Obviously I can keep at 50%+ to avoid it. Or can I? First of all, having only half of capacity of battery to safely use my device doesn't seem like a good deal. I often wouldn't charge my nook until it was on 10% or so. And even once that happened I wasn't in much hurry, as I could expect day or two of it still working. Even when reading comics which is more battery draining.

But what's more problematic is that I don't know that I'm on 50%! The device will be showing 80% for 2 days then suddenly it will reboot and upon rebooting it will have 50%! Then I might read 20 pages of my manga and it will reboot again, this time showing 60% of charge left.

Obviously that's not everything. Sometimes the device would drain energy much quicker than I would expect it to. For example I fully charged the device overnight, then used it for about 1h total during the day. It had a lot of energy when I went to bed. When I woke up the battery was completely drained. I had wifi/bt off, I had only 1 app(reading app) turned on.

I also thought it might be related to reading from memory card so I changed my memory card and reformatted it with special microSD formatter that is supposed to do it better than windows. Didn't help.

Removing telephony*.apk after rooting helped with power draining suddenly. Or at least I have placebo effect that leads me to believe so. I might have just not encountered the problem during 2 weeks I had it deleted. But I didn't like it because I have been getting the error popup every time T68 rebooted. Which is A LOT OF TIMES. Within a month or so I had it I'm sure T68 rebooted tens of times more than my Nook did during it's lifetime. And my Nook was hacked with android.

This is also not related to temperature in which I'm using the device. It happens at room temperature.

In battery status setting/app, inbuild in android, I can see that power status sometimes really rises even though the device is never charged during that time. Also after those "50%" energy reboots I can sometimes see 1px wide 0% energy result in the graph. Maybe the device is disconnected from battery for a second and resets?

In my desperate attempts to fix it myself I tried changing firmware using this: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=242726
Well, that't didn't work well, as the device started bootlooping once I connected the microUSB! When I disconnected the microUSB it would boot normally, but when I connected it it was bootlooping. It didn't matter if the device was on or of when I connected the USB. What the?

The device was around 50% back then. Once I charged it up to ~75% the bootlooping stopped.

I often connect my Lync trough microUSB as I'm developing comic reader on it, so I'm doing a lot of tests. It never bootlooped before.

Anyway, I managed to change to Lynx firmware. I'm on 68% at the moment so I don't know about device rebooting around 50% yet. But something else is happening. Overnight the device turned off! I left it on, with screen off, and in the morning it was powered off. Then I was at work for 8 hours and again - it was powered off. In battery app I can see 3 points at which for ~2mm of the graph the energy was supposed to be 0. It currently shows 3h or so.

I wanted to make screenshot of that graph, but it's bootlooping again when I connect USB. This is BIG PROBLEM for me, as I can't use adb.

Edit: Ah, in original T68 menu there's an option that makes device turn off after 15 minutes. Well, it still doesn't fixes things like bootlooping when USB is connected. I'm on 67% ATM so there's still 17% before the device should start rebooting.

[dnastase]

I understand your frustration. I'm going through similar cycles of dispair and hope (after hacking something new).

One more thing I've discovered (at least for my device, Polish Lynx as well) is that having microsd (with a fair amount of books) makes everything slow (and sucks battery).
Now I'm trying to reprogram my mind to like this device with 2.7Gb of disk space :|

With your adb issues try to use the adb over wifi (check ADB Konnect in Play Store). It's as easy and works the same as the over usb one but no wires required.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by dnastase

One more thing I've discovered (at least for my device, Polish Lynx as well) is that having microsd (with a fair amount of books) makes everything slow (and sucks battery).

I don't find that at all. I have 4000 books on my SD card, and it has no impact on performance. What specifically are you finding to be slow? You haven't got the "scan for new books on startup" option selected, have you?

[Areinu]

I like wires, plus it worked until recently. Good, because it keeps the device charged. I've used adb over air in the past and it was surprisingly reliable, so I might give it a go if bootloops persist.

As for number issue I think it's nicer in T68(non-lynx) firmware. You can set path in which all books are kept. I don't even keep all my books on T68 as I use Calibre companion + Calibre to wirelessly move new books when I need them. Also Calibre companion acts as my library. I don't see original launcher too often, I'm using launcher7. It works pretty good on e-ink screen with only 6 tiles.

When I open onyx ebook reader(I think it's named neoreader or something like that in newest T68 firmware) it goes to fullscreen, and when I press back to get to Callibre companion it stays in fullscreen, without the bar. I really like that effect. I use ButtonSavior to get home button functionality, and thanks to it all my apps use whole screen. Which is essential in comic reading apps. Those couldn't get rid of status bar even in fullscreen, and it made the images very small.

Anyway, back to my problems. Yesterday I was getting random reboots on 57% :/ Maybe it's the comic reading app I'm using after all? Maybe it does something that breaks T68. But then it has only 1 permission(access to memory card), and I would assume that even if it did something REALLY bad at most it would crash. Not reboot device... It has to be bug in firmware or hardware, but I'm out of ideas of how to find it.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by Areinu

Anyway, back to my problems. Yesterday I was getting random reboots on 57% :/ Maybe it's the comic reading app I'm using after all? Maybe it does something that breaks T68. But then it has only 1 permission(access to memory card), and I would assume that even if it did something REALLY bad at most it would crash. Not reboot device... It has to be bug in firmware or hardware, but I'm out of ideas of how to find it.

My reboot loop started at 30% which I was willing to live with, but over time it went to 50% when I returned it so it's possible your reboot problem is just getting worse.

[smayonak]

I used a simple, time-tested battery calibration technique for getting rid of my boot loops. After flashing a new firmware, I use the T68 until it starts boot looping. Then I let the battery discharge to 0. When the device runs completely out of juice, I then charge it to 100% (not 99%). This isn't good for battery health, but it did get rid of boot loops for me.

It also takes about four or five refills before the problems went away.

Another option is to put the device into recovery mode and let the battery run out, instead of letting it boot loop.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by smayonak

I used a simple, time-tested battery calibration technique for getting rid of my boot loops. After flashing a new firmware, I use the T68 until it starts boot looping. Then I let the battery discharge to 0. When the device runs completely out of juice, I then charge it to 100% (not 99%). This isn't good for battery health, but it did get rid of boot loops for me.

It also takes about four or five refills before the problems went away.

Another option is to put the device into recovery mode and let the battery run out, instead of letting it boot loop.

If that was the only defect the T68 had maybe I would have tried that, but every defect you've seen in this forum my T68 had. A production device should never have so many defects especially at $199.

[Areinu]

Well, I'll try discharging completely 5 times. This will be hard though. I've turned on wifi, BT, screen brightness on max settings, put on music playing app and some other presumably juice using app on and I didn't burn much energy.

Or it only shows energy usage wrong, which is usual for Boox. T68 was first ebook reader I wanted to throw against wall when I bought it...

[dnastase]

If it's anything like mine it shows the battery percentage wrong.
Soon enough you'll see it jump down from 100% to 80% and then to 50% and so on

[Areinu]

Yeah, it tends to do that a lot. What I hate more is when the percentage actually goes UP when not charging

[dnastase]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I don't find that at all. I have 4000 books on my SD card, and it has no impact on performance. What specifically are you finding to be slow? You haven't got the "scan for new books on startup" option selected, have you?

HarryT, where is this "scan for new books on startup" option ?
I can't find it anywhere ...

Which firmware are you using ?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by dnastase

HarryT, where is this "scan for new books on startup" option ?
I can't find it anywhere ...

Which firmware are you using ?

Sorry, it's not called exactly that. I have the Lynx version of the T68, and I'm talking about the options in "Settings/User Preferences". There are options there which control what scanning is done on startup.

[dnastase]

Ok, I see.
I did have a Lynx firmware but I just switched to the Boox one and I see none of that here.
Thanks.

[smayonak]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

If that was the only defect the T68 had maybe I would have tried that, but every defect you've seen in this forum my T68 had. A production device should never have so many defects especially at $199.

I had the same issues as you (WiFi disconnect/looping/touchscreen issues). Battery calibration (draining) and updating to the latest (9/02) firmware fixed the issue, but I can understand your hesitance.

At times the touchscreen still seems inaccurate - I'm not sure why. It comes and goes. Most of the time it functions perfectly.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by smayonak

I had the same issues as you (WiFi disconnect/looping/touchscreen issues). Battery calibration (draining) and updating to the latest (9/02) firmware fixed the issue, but I can understand your hesitance.

At times the touchscreen still seems inaccurate - I'm not sure why. It comes and goes. Most of the time it functions perfectly.

I won't pay for a device that doesn't work and just hope that it will work someday. For $199 it should work from the start. A few devices out of a large number will always have a problem but to have so many that have numerous defects is just bad business. If it works now after an update they should have delayed production until now.