WARNING on JBL Firmware v.15G

[Ron46]

I flashed from 15D to 15G yesterday, and wound up flashing back to D again. I should have evaluated G before posting that it was available, since Ectaco seems to have no quality control. It looks like the back flash was successful, but I have not done a full evaluation yet.

The problem with G, at least on my JBL, is that if you enter the machine from the main menu (Books Pictures Settings screen) and open a book, it has lost the page number where you left off, opening on page one, and it resets the font size to 16 no matter where you had it set. I did not need to look any further to see what else it does.

Nice work Ectaco! After waiting since the last firmware update in January, this is what we get.

Also I ran into this post where a user claims his unit froze on version D.

http://www.ectaco.com/ectaco-posts/list/19895.page

D was supposed to be the version that fixed this problem. I have been using mine with D without issue, but now I don't trust it.

[DJHARKAVY]

Originally Posted by Ron46

I flashed from 15D to 15G yesterday, and wound up flashing back to D again. I should have evaluated G before posting that it was available, since Ectaco seems to have no quality control. It looks like the back flash was successful, but I have not done a full evaluation yet.

The problem with G, at least on my JBL, is that if you enter the machine from the main menu (Books Pictures Settings screen) and open a book, it has lost the page number where you left off, opening on page one, and it resets the font size to 16 no matter where you had it set. I did not need to look any further to see what else it does.

Nice work Ectaco! After waiting since the last firmware update in January, this is what we get.

Also I ran into this post where a user claims his unit froze on version D.

http://www.ectaco.com/ectaco-posts/list/19895.page

D was supposed to be the version that fixed this problem. I have been using mine with D without issue, but now I don't trust it.

Mine did the same when I replaced the batteries, but not when I did a normal sleep 'off'

I might reflash it, but it probably isn't worth the effort for me.

Don't forget to report it to ectaco...

[Ron46]

Right. If you are coming out of sleep it is OK. But when you change batteries (or do a reset) you have to re-enter the machine through the main menu and press Books. There is no other way. That is when it sets all books to page1, font 16. This is a major problem for any of us that read 3 or 4 books concurrently.

I think you are wasting your time doing a reflash of G.

The thing that scares me about this is the possibility of them coming up with an update with an issue like this and if flashing back to the previous release does not eliminate the problem. You will notice (if you've had yours long enough) that the G update has a Firmware folder but NO Data folder or Reflash NOR folder like in all the previous updates. So there is no telling WHAT they are capable of doing.

My family has 3 of these that I maintain, and now I am timid about doing any more firmware updates.

[DJHARKAVY]

Originally Posted by Ron46

Right. If you are coming out of sleep it is OK. But when you change batteries (or do a reset) you have to re-enter the machine through the main menu and press Books. That is when it sets all books to page1, font 16. This is a major problem for any of us that read 3 or 4 books concurrently.

I think you are wasting your time doing a reflash of G.

The thing that scares me about this is the possibility of them coming up with an update with an issue like this and if flashing back to the previous release does not eliminate the problem. You will notice (if you've had yours long enough) that the G update has a Firmware folder but NO Data folder or Reflash NOR folder like in all the previous updates. So there is no telling WHAT they are capable of doing.

I meant re-flashing with d...

[Kralik]

The data and reflash folders are actually neither necessary nor even used in the firmware update process. They are handy to have in the case that you might need to reformat part of the jetBook via the system menu, but not strictly needed.

The Libre/new jetBook firmware with ADE always sets PDFs to reflow and ePUB's to a certain size. Now that is annoying as well!

[heffe2001]

Ever thought that it might the fact that it's using a new app for epubs, and THATS why it lost the info when you flashed it? Sounds reasonable to me. I don't ever take it for granted when I flash firmware on anything that my data will be safe, so I always back it up, and for the JB's, I make sure to note what pages I was on in my books..

Or does it do it every time you change batteries? I know when I've flashed my wife's book before, I had problems with it loosing info, but I had wiped the book before doing the upgrade.

[Number_6]

Originally Posted by Ron46

The problem with G, at least on my JBL, is that if you enter the machine from the main menu (Books Pictures Settings screen) and open a book, it has lost the page number where you left off, opening on page one, and it resets the font size to 16 no matter where you had it set. I did not need to look any further to see what else it does.

Just for fun, or torture, I decided to test out G to see if I could duplicate this problem. Sure enough, if you return to the main menu and then go back to a book you've already opened it returns you to the first page of the book and the font size is reset to 16. I was on page 139 of a book with a font setting of 18 and when I returned to it after going to the main menu, my settings were lost. This was not just after the upgrade either. I had already turned the JBL off a few times while reading that book and then duplicated the results.

DO NOT UPGRADE TO G!!!! They broke something and didn't even improve on anything else. This is very, very poor quality control on the part of Ectaco! I need to make another 15 second video now letting everyone know that the JBL is great, but the quality control for upgrades STINKS! Also, how difficult is it to include release notes on the revision history for the upgrades?

[Ken Maltby]

It would seem that Ectaco could benefit from following the standard practice of letting
the more adventurous users, Beta test their firmware updates. For them to get any
real benefit from the process they do need to provide "Release Notes", that detail the
new function(s) to be tested.

There could be a number of improvements in the 0.15g firmware, that we are unaware
of - just because we don't know to look for them. They could have improved the Power
Monitoring and made the JBL respond better to rechargeable batteries? Or addressed
the "flicker issue" some reported awhile back? But with no release notes, who would
know to check?

Luck;
Ken

[Ron46]

Number-6 Thanks for confirming this. It's better for people to know about it than to change batteries and find out the hard way that you have lost all your places. I know that when I return to a book after a month has gone by because I got more involved in another book, if my place mark is lost, it can take quite a while to find it again.

Heffe- number-6 answered your question. I could live with anything after a firmware update if it only happens ONCE. But this update changes the fundamental operation of the device permanently, or at least until the next update which may be 6 months down the road like this one was.

Ken- I agree. There could be other improvements in this firmware that are great, but personally, I cannot live with this defect long enough to even look, because unless they fix it, I will never use ver. G. For me, one of the great features of this device (or any properly designed book reader) is that I can go out the door with a single unit reading a dozen books concurrently and not be carrying a suitcase with 12 books in it.

I started a parallel thread on Ectaco's website, if they have not taken it down by now, and you would not believe the lame excuses I am getting from the company rep.- "master reset". I guess if you can give it a high tec sounding name, it is not really a problem.

http://www.ectaco.com/ectaco-posts/l...979.page#27712

[Kris777]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

It would seem that Ectaco could benefit from following the standard practice of letting
the more adventurous users, Beta test their firmware updates. For them to get any
real benefit from the process they do need to provide "Release Notes", that detail the
new function(s) to be tested.

There could be a number of improvements in the 0.15g firmware, that we are unaware
of - just because we don't know to look for them. They could have improved the Power
Monitoring and made the JBL respond better to rechargeable batteries? Or addressed
the "flicker issue" some reported awhile back? But with no release notes, who would
know to check?

Luck;
Ken

I agree. These notes will be very helpful. I have v15d version on my
jetBook-Lite and it works fine for me so I will wait with upgrade till Ectaco provide more information about changes.

[Ron46]

heffe-2001 I go a step further than you do on protecting data. I have my entire library on the 2GB flash drive and nothing in the reader's internal RAM. I have a 2d 2GB flashdrive that I use for firmware updates only (3 machines in the family). So I have to remove my library flash drive (and place it on the desk where it is safe, or even in another room) in order to insert the firmware flash drive. At $11 for an extra flash drive, it's worth it.

Also there has been a few times when the reader was acting up, so I just remove the library flash drive and hook it up to my computer at the much faster USB 2.0 (the reader is USB 1) and run chkdsk (with the repair switch) in Windows, or FSCK (repair) in Linux. It usually finds file system errors and fixes them. When I reinsert the flash drive into the reader, all the problems are gone.

[Kralik]

At least the guy "Jerry" seems to be more responsible and... shall we say... "literate" than the other Ectaco support folks.