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Old 04-16-2010, 09:51 PM   #1
Lord_Pall
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Jetbook refuses to flash

So I've had a jetbook for a while, right around the time they did the first 169 newegg deal.

It's been.. Okay. When I can get it to open a file it's pretty good, but most file formats just don't work. Hourglass of death basically. I was hoping the new firmware would fix this.

But I can't upgrade the firmware. I'm running .33g. I'm trying to flash to the newest (.34c) I think. Anytime I try to flash it I get the "failed to update" screen.

I tried on internal memory, on sd card, formatted both to FAT, reset to factory defaults, reflash_nor (I think i did this right).

Nothing works. It refuses to flash.

Any ideas?
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Old 04-16-2010, 11:44 PM   #2
Ken Maltby
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No reader handles all the ebook formats that are out there.

Assuming that you understand the above, and that you bought the Jetbook for reading
the formats that it says that it can read, which formats (that it claims to be able to
read) are you having problems with?

What file structure are you using for your eBook library? Have you read the threads
here that address the "Hourglass of death" issue?

Why do you think going from the current stable firmware 0.33g, offered at the Ectaco
site for the JB, to a version that they are not offering; would correct whatever problems
you are currently having?

Luck;
Ken

P.S. Perhaps this :
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...7&postcount=15

Last edited by Ken Maltby; 04-17-2010 at 12:11 AM.
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Old 04-17-2010, 12:29 AM   #3
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My jetBook has 0.33g version and I don't see any reason to reprogram it to .34c
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Old 04-17-2010, 09:26 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kris777 View Post
My jetBook has 0.33g version and I don't see any reason to reprogram it to .34c
OK, we get it, you don't like .34c, and for whatever reason, don't want anybody to upgrade to it. That comment wasn't constructive to the thread at all. He wants to go to .34c, not hear that you're happy running .33g...

To upgrade to .34c, you have to first upgrade to .34b. Then the system will take the other upgrade. Just so I can make Kris happy, you'll not be able to regress back to .33g if you want, it's a one-way ticket. BUT I was assured that anybody running .34b/c will be able to upgrade to newer firmware when it's available...
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Old 04-18-2010, 01:13 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by heffe2001 View Post
OK, we get it, you don't like .34c, and for whatever reason, don't want anybody to upgrade to it. That comment wasn't constructive to the thread at all. He wants to go to .34c, not hear that you're happy running .33g...

To upgrade to .34c, you have to first upgrade to .34b. Then the system will take the other upgrade. Just so I can make Kris happy, you'll not be able to regress back to .33g if you want, it's a one-way ticket. BUT I was assured that anybody running .34b/c will be able to upgrade to newer firmware when it's available...
If no ANY difference between .33g and .34b/c why you need .34b/c version?
People keep thinking there are some difference but it is not true. I talked to Pavel (Ectaco support) and He confirmed it.
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Old 04-18-2010, 10:04 AM   #6
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I think Kris was pointing out that 0.33g works fine, so if someone is having "hourglass of death" issues, it is either a problem with their reader or files. Lord_Pall, can you give more details on what books you are trying to open (formats, filenames, etc?)
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Old 04-18-2010, 10:03 PM   #7
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The file in question was raw .txt

I ran it through calibre into an Epub. Hourglass of death.
I copied it straight. Hourglass of death.
I copied it to Microsoft Word and saved it as an RTF. It loaded.

Usually I can read text, sometimes I can read RTF, rarely can I read epub. It's a crapshoot.

I'm storing my books in the root Books folder. Filenames are nothing special, ranging from whatever they started with to very short renames. I've tried internal memory, i've tried SD card. No major differences

What I have noticed helps is a short text file on the drive. When I want to switch books I load the text file and then I have better luck opening the next format. I wonder if it clears out the cache or something.

Generally, what formats are you guys using? What calibre settings?
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Old 04-19-2010, 12:10 AM   #8
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What was the exact filename that you had when it locked up? I found that using any ( or ) characters in the filename cause the locks, that's the only problems I've had out of .34c (or 33g for that matter).
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Old 04-19-2010, 12:41 AM   #9
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There is a bug with the firmware. If the name your txt files contains just numbers (eg 12345.txt), or "("/")" (eg goodbook(2).txt), you're very likely to be stuck with an hourglass when you want to read it on your jB.
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Old 04-19-2010, 07:53 AM   #10
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I'd have to agree with greenapple.

The only time I ever had a problem it was loading a book from manybooks that had a funky filename that was all #'s.

Put your books on an SD card, single folder deep no more.
So Folders are Authors name, then books inside that.

Keep the filenames looking like real book titles.

Personally I prefer .RTF, although some Epubs are almost as well formatted.
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Old 04-19-2010, 08:43 AM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by greenapple View Post
There is a bug with the firmware. If the name your txt files contains just numbers (eg 12345.txt), or "("/")" (eg goodbook(2).txt), you're very likely to be stuck with an hourglass when you want to read it on your jB.
Wonder if this should be made a sticky, pretty important info for any Jetbook owner...
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Old 04-19-2010, 09:12 AM   #12
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The freezing behavior does not sound normal. Any chance you could send it back for replacement?
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Old 04-19-2010, 01:14 PM   #13
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Originally Posted by Lord_Pall View Post
What I have noticed helps is a short text file on the drive. When I want to switch books I load the text file and then I have better luck opening the next format. I wonder if it clears out the cache or something.
I just noticed this part of your post, but this is the EXACT symptom I saw when I had illegal characters in the filenames. I would open one and get a hourglass of death, but if I opened a known good file first, I could open the other bad-filename files fine most of the time.
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Old 04-20-2010, 02:00 AM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GhostHawk View Post
The only time I ever had a problem it was loading a book from manybooks that had a funky filename that was all #'s.

Put your books on an SD card, single folder deep no more.
So Folders are Authors name, then books inside that.

Keep the filenames looking like real book titles.

Personally I prefer .RTF, although some Epubs are almost as well formatted.
I'm glad I ran across this info. I just put 120 epubs on my daughter's new jetBook-lite all two folders deep and they all opened great, but one book (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) which said file is too large. I just grabbed the original txt file that came with the reader and was all set.

I did have to go back into Calibre because my original conversions emphasized a space between paragraphs and didn't always have an indent on the paragraph. It seems that the jetBook-lite (w/epubs) removes all spaces between paragraphs in most books. So I reconverted them to make sure they all had indents to distinguish the beginning of a paragraph.
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Old 04-20-2010, 11:38 PM   #15
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The filename thing seems to be an important piece of information. I suspect that's what i've been getting hit with all this time.

I can't return it. I've had it for a long time already. When it works, it's great. It's just getting the book to open that's the difficult part.

THe book in question has a few weird characters in the title. (, ), spaces, -. I wonder if the issue is that. I'll play with the filenames and see if I can force it to happen.
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