DR800 Performance

[jjansen]

I am hoping that there is still someone around to be able to answer my question. I have been having quite a few problems with page turning on my DR800SG. My files are all epub. Most of them were created from PDF by Calibre. The performance issues seem to be more noticeable in the last half of a book. It can take from 2 seconds to 10 seconds to turn a page which really makes the book unreadable. I think that the problem gets worse as I put more books on my SD card. I am not positive about this but when I have only a few books it doesn't seem to happen as often as when I have 1,000 books. I am not sure what difference the number of books makes on the reader when I am only reading one at a time. I access my books through the SD Card interface. If anyone has any suggestions or comments I would love to hear them. Thanks.........Jackie
PS I have just installed the latest updates and the problem is still happening.

[HansTWN]

Did you try another SD card?

[Mackx]

Information for all files is maintained internally in the ctb (browser) (If I read the R3.0 sources of the firmware correctly), so if you have many files stored on the SD-card, more memory will be used. This means that less memory is left to pre-render pages (and store them in a cache). This could cause the performance difference that you see. But that is all speculation.

[Kolenka]

Originally Posted by Mackx

Information for all files is maintained internally in the ctb (browser) (If I read the R3.0 sources of the firmware correctly), so if you have many files stored on the SD-card, more memory will be used. This means that less memory is left to pre-render pages (and store them in a cache). This could cause the performance difference that you see. But that is all speculation.

The metadata/index is all handled by a library that ctb and the indexer use. This library in turn uses sqlite for the index itself, and will query it any time you ask for information. Sqlite is nice, because it is disk based and so you don't need to load it up into memory whenever you want to use it.

[al1972]

What sd-card do you use? I mean, brand and size... What is FW your device on? I believe, here is the answer - compatibility! too many brands - too little compatibility...(((

funny enough i've encountered the same problem. lucky for me that i can compare my device with the one of my wife. we have the same DR800SG, didn't change the sd-card, have exactly the same books on it and the same beta software. only by looking what device currently is reading what book, is the only way to find out who's reader it is and of course by serial number. interesting the the problem only occur at my device and not at the other one. my device has the same problems as jjansen. first i took of all the beta stuff and kept the device with the original standard software. then it worked great. slowly i start to upgrade with the beta versions and currently my device is just a fraction slower as the other one. for now acceptable. if it continue to occur, i'm going to swap sd-card.

[jjansen]

Hi everyone, I have an 8GB SD card in my iRex at the moment. Can't tell you the brand because I am on a boat in the Andaman Sea and can't get the cover off the back of my reader. I also thought that the problem might be the SD card so I went to reinstall the 2GB card that came with my reader and somehow lost the card in the process of reinstallation! When I get back to civilization in about 5 or 6 days I will buy another card and see what happens. I would really like to keep most of my library on my iRex so I am really hoping the issue isn't the database design and is simply card quality...........Jackie

[jjansen]

I am back from Thailand and am so pleased that this e-ink technology worked great on the boat.

I have checked and found out that the 8GB card I have in my DR800SG is a cat 4 card. I have about 2,000 books on it but that is well under 2GB because they are all in epub format. I can't get faster than cat 4 that I know of. I am concerned. I have to remove the leads from the battery every week or so. This helps the device work better for a while - no idea why. I was hoping that my card was the problem but if it is cat 4 that would surprise me. Someone else had two iRex devices in their house and had different issues on the two of them. What is your status?

I was considering going with a smaller card - 2 or 4GB but I couldn't find a 2GB cat 4 and the stores only had cat 2 4GB cards in stock today. I am certainly not going with a slower card. Not sure what to do. I very much like the display and the menu system on my iRex but you really know that there is a "computer". with computer type issues, under the covers. With my Sony 505 I never knew I hadn't any intelligence - it was just like reading a novel, it just worked which was great................Jackie

also, i was irritated enough to get myself a new SD-card with double capacity. i installed the whole stuff and tried with ADE to get all the books on it. and there a new problem started. some books are not allowed to be transfered. great, it my day again. i didn't call Murphy, but he seems to be there again.

now, is there a simple way to get those books on my new card? i've got 2 readers authorized and with this new card 3. probably that's my problem.

can anybody help me and switch the light on?

[sordie]

I have the exact same problem. In fact, yesterday I was looking at a kobo at a local bookstore, and I was almost shocked to see it completely outclass my $400 Irex (and really disappointed). I have about 15 epubs, and a thousand or so PDF articles). I'll remove the articles tomorrow, and also force a re-index. If that does not work, I'll try reapplying the upgrades from scratch as suggested above and report back. I hope something works.

PS: I believe that this has nothing to do with SD card speeds. I plugged the same SD card into my Entourage Edge and had no problems (I converted my Entourage Edge to operate from the external SD card rather then the internal one). So if it is good enough for Android, I'd think it'd be good enough for IREX.

[joblack]

Don't use cards higher than 4 Gbyte. It brings you problems. Also remember that some filenames are not allowed in FAT32 formatted cards. It's not Irex fault.

some are not allowed in FAT32 formatted cards? why not and which files? i mean, i've only got PDF and Epub. that should work, i think

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by Franky

some are not allowed in FAT32 formatted cards? why not and which files? i mean, i've only got PDF and Epub. that should work, i think

I am using an 8 GB card, formatted as FAT32 with no problem. Just the re-indexing every time I disconnect it from the computer (which I do every day since I download newspapers) takes a little longer.

tnx HansTWN. like i wrote, i've got a working card. but i'm still having trouble getting some books on the card. i think it's this drm-stuff. i don't mind drm and paying for my books, but i really hate it when i'm suddenly not able to put books on my reader.

[joblack]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

I am using an 8 GB card, formatted as FAT32 with no problem. Just the re-indexing every time I disconnect it from the computer (which I do every day since I download newspapers) takes a little longer.

I didn't have a problem until it was half full. After that it was ruining my e-books ...

FAT32 doesn't allow specific filenames. The path has to be shorter than 256 characters.

Try to generate a filename with a \n (an other special characters) in it.