my jetbook saga - so far unsatisfactory

[bookeater]

I had a beautiful white jetbook. It would not properly display pdf files from Google books.

Tech support linked me to two different files to upgrade. The unit refused to upgrade either of them.

I returned it for another unit. This has been doing its initial battery charge for 42 hours now and still is not done! Is this normal? I only have a few days left to cash out on this if jetbook can not display my pdf files.

If it is of interest, here are the two links tech support supplied.
I'm in a quandary and wondering if these are even the right files for me.

ftp://80.247.183.35/JL04-v0.34c.zip
ftp://80.247.183.35/JL08-v015.zip

any comments most appreciated, thanks.

[Nakor]

Are you charging via USB? I've heard the device doesn't always show it's done charging when you're using USB rather than the AC adaptor, possibly due to the lower power it gets from USB. (It also charges faster on AC than on USB.)

I'm afraid I'm not familiar enough with the upgrades and such for Jetbook to offer more help than that.

[Kris777]

This page can be used to upgrade jetBook firmware:
http://www.jetbook.net/upgrade.php

[Kralik]

Could you give more details on how it fails to work with PDF?

[GhostHawk]

Bookeater, instead of the PDF files from google books have you tried the epub?
The books I've looked up all seemed to have those 2 options.

Generally speaking I think you'll have many fewer problems with Epub than with PDF.

[Slash5]

Many of the PDFs in Google Books are images of the book's pages. No reader is going to display them well - you'll have to use the zoom and move around the page.
They don't display particularly well on a PC, let alone a reader.

[Ken Maltby]

I think that the "OK" button brings up the selection grid on the JB as it does on
the JBL, when viewing the full page image version of PDFs.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75061

Luck;
Ken

[bookeater]

Originally Posted by Slash5

Many of the PDFs in Google Books are images of the book's pages. No reader is going to display them well - you'll have to use the zoom and move around the page.
They don't display particularly well on a PC, let alone a reader.

Yes, I think you are right. Since there pages are scans, perhaps jpgs within the pdf.

They do display perfectly on my PC.

On the jetbook I have various problems. If unaltered the blank pages in the front of the books usually cause the jetbook to shut down. If I use Acrobat Pro and remove all but the text it does not shut down but some pages do not display so that the text can be read. If I convert to a smaller page size by converting the pdf to rtf and load that into word to create a new pdf. I am now getting a blank page inserted after every page. UGH. There seems to be no solution. And, although jetbook claims to read rtf, it says the file is too large (507 megs - pdf size is 6 megs, doc size is 273 megs but not recognized by jetbood).Some of these are available as epub, but jetbook hangs on loading them (constant hour glass).

Tech Support says to do a firmware upgrade, but I think that might be what they say when they have to say something. Nevertheless, I have downloaded 34c (currently I have 33g). I have tried the instructions supplied by Ectaco and the somewhat different instructions in this forum. The unit always fails the upgrade. Double UGH.

What concerns me now is your view that no reader will display the Google pdf files. If you are right, there is no point in wasting time trying another reader. But, I do have hope that the ipad, when released, might do the trick.

I guess I've reached the end of the road for jetbook.

[Kralik]

Perhaps you could try "Show Original File" in the settings so that it doesn't crop white space? This alone could be messing with the pagination. I would also recommend landscape mode so that you can fit more of the page.