New Owner

[JanG]

I received my Cybook just three days ago. I love it. Although I have noticed it freezes occasionally while reading. No buttons work. I do a reset and I have to find my place again, but that's no biggie. I've checked the forum here and have followed all the tips, but it still freezes after reading for a long time. (shrugs) Perhaps it's the Cybook telling me I should rest my eyes. LOL!

Anyways, just thought I'd tell you all that I'm totally addicted already.

--JanG.

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by JanG

I received my Cybook just three days ago. I love it. Although I have noticed it freezes occasionally while reading. No buttons work. I do a reset and I have to find my place again, but that's no biggie. I've checked the forum here and have followed all the tips, but it still freezes after reading for a long time. (shrugs) Perhaps it's the Cybook telling me I should rest my eyes. LOL!

Anyways, just thought I'd tell you all that I'm totally addicted already.

--JanG.

I would suggest running a checkdisk on whatever disk your books are.

[JanG]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

I would suggest running a checkdisk on whatever disk your books are.

What is a 'checkdisk' and what do you mean by 'whatever disk your books are'?

I only have 12 books on the internal memory - including the Cybook operating manual. All the books are .prc or .mobi files, no .pdf or anything else.

--JanG

[LazyScot]

Jan,

checkdisk (chkdsk) is one of the Windows disk checking tools. I think Eowyn felt that there might be an error on the disk, or more accurately the memory card, that you books are stored on.

To run it, when you plug in the Cybook into your PC, it should appear as one or two drives on the computer (e.g. I get E: and Y: on mine). From what you've said I don't think you have a memory card in the Cybook, so I'm not sure if you'll only get one drive or two appearing.

I'd be surprised if there is a problem, but it may be worth checking.

I've almost never had a problem with a crash whilst reading on my Cybook (only twice in a year, and that when I accidentally triggered a nested lookup on a word), so it sounds like something isn't quite right.

Are you reading ebooks that came with the device, or new ones? Does the crash happen with the same e-book, or with all the e-books?

[JanG]

Originally Posted by LazyScot

Jan,

checkdisk (chkdsk) is one of the Windows disk checking tools. I think Eowyn felt that there might be an error on the disk, or more accurately the memory card, that you books are stored on.

To run it, when you plug in the Cybook into your PC, it should appear as one or two drives on the computer (e.g. I get E: and Y: on mine). From what you've said I don't think you have a memory card in the Cybook, so I'm not sure if you'll only get one drive or two appearing.

I'd be surprised if there is a problem, but it may be worth checking.

I've almost never had a problem with a crash whilst reading on my Cybook (only twice in a year, and that when I accidentally triggered a nested lookup on a word), so it sounds like something isn't quite right.

Are you reading ebooks that came with the device, or new ones? Does the crash happen with the same e-book, or with all the e-books?

I'm not using an sd card. I got rid of all the demo books, and these are books that I've converted using either calibre or mobipocket creator. I just loaded a different font - I was reading in verdana before.

I never use a dictionary to look up words, it's very very rare that I come across a word that I don't know.

I was reading a JD Robb book and it froze a few times. I started reading a Mary Balogh this morning and it froze on the first page. Then I loaded a font that was recommended here in this forum somewhere, so far no freeze - but I haven't been reading much since then.

But regardless of the freezing - I love my Cybook, and I'm totally addicted already.

--Jan.

[LazyScot]

Originally Posted by JanG

I'm not using an sd card. I got rid of all the demo books, and these are books that I've converted using either calibre or mobipocket creator. I just loaded a different font - I was reading in verdana before.

Hmm. calibre is pretty good -- I've never had a problem with anything it has generated (Kovid is too good...!). Might be an issue with the font. I thought that Verdana is one of the ones that comes with the Cybook. (Not sure as mine is at home.) I'd be interested if that seems to cure the problem over the longer term. If it does, it may be worth trying to check the font out (I'm out of my depth here, but have had issues with font files crashing applications in different situations).

Originally Posted by JanG

I never use a dictionary to look up words, it's very very rare that I come across a word that I don't know.

Lucky you! Sadly my vocab is continually defeated by authors...

Originally Posted by JanG

I was reading a JD Robb book and it froze a few times. I started reading a Mary Balogh this morning and it froze on the first page. Then I loaded a font that was recommended here in this forum somewhere, so far no freeze - but I haven't been reading much since then.

That pretty much rules out it being a book, and probably not being a disk/memory issue.

Originally Posted by JanG

But regardless of the freezing - I love my Cybook, and I'm totally addicted already.

--Jan.

Congratulations. It is a wonderful device (and at the moment I seem to be using it more than the Kindle 1).

[emellaich]

I know you don't have any books on the SD card, but is there an SD card inserted in the reader? This does sound like problems that I had when I had a bad card reader.

[tompe]

Which version of the firmware?

I have seen repors that indicates that some of the newers versions have these kind of problems.

[rireed3]

I've had this with my new one (1.4 Build 9xx), and I found suggestions from 'gerraldo' in May on this thread:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47468

Here's gerraldo's list (my notations in brackets)
- Only use MOBI/PRC files (you can convert all formats with MobiReader software on your PC).
- Always turn off your reader manually (no [disable] Auto-Off).
- Don't use pre-installed fonts (especially Verdana), but free available ones - lots of recomendations here in the forums. [I copied the Myriad font from my Adobe Reader 8 directory]
- Just use books from the internal memory and don't use more then 20-30 books (bootup will be faster too). [keep the rest on the SD card]
- Always safely remove your reader from USB (either with Windows functions or special tools) [make sure you use the tray safety icon to bring up the USB 'stop' dialogue and stop the Cybook connection]
- Keep your batteries charged well (don't go below 30%, some even say 50).

I am about to delete my unwanted demos -- I'll see if that is a problem.

Richard

[JanG]

No SD card in the slot. No extra books. It froze on other fonts as well. It freezes when battery is at 100% as well as 50% and at all points in between. I only use mobi/prc formats. Am always careful to 'remove safely' from USB. Even when the computer doesn't recognize it has a USB plugged in, I shut down before unplugging.

I've just gotten into the habit of bookmarking as I read - every chapter or every dozen pages or so.

It's no big deal, and something I can live with for convenience of having the reader.

--JanG.

[AlexBell]

Welcome to the world of Cybooks; I'm completely addicted to mine also.

I think you'll find that the 'occasional' freeze is part of the territory. That's what the reset button is for. But so far as I know no one knows what 'occasional' means. Mine might go for weeks without a freeze, and then have two or three in a couple of days.

Regards, Alex

[Godzil]

I don't know how they got thoses results, but I can't agree for a majority of this "problemes"

Originally Posted by rireed3

- Only use MOBI/PRC files (you can convert all formats with MobiReader software on your PC).

Mobi is the better suited for the Gen3, that's true, but PDF or Txt run really well on them too. The most buggy is HTML.

- Always turn off your reader manually (no [disable] Auto-Off).

That's a false assumption, AutoOff do the SAME THING than Manual Off

- Don't use pre-installed fonts (especially Verdana), but free available ones - lots of recomendations here in the forums. [I copied the Myriad font from my Adobe Reader 8 directory]

You risk more crash by using added fonts than by using internal fonts. The internal fonts are not stored in the User filesystem and it if the Firmware FS is corrupted it will not impact only the fonts, but the whole firmware. So if you seems to have crash using an internal font, it merly more due to something else.

- Just use books from the internal memory and don't use more then 20-30 books (bootup will be faster too). [keep the rest on the SD card]

Using the SD card should not have any impact on the stability of the system. And the 20-30 books are "true" only if you don't use the Folder View on the newer firmware (I have loaded my own Cybook with a lot of books both on the internal FS and a SD card, and I use extensivevly the Folder view, and it does not slowdown the boot process. (And I read for the most of time with embedded fonts and books from a SD card)

- Always safely remove your reader from USB (either with Windows functions or special tools) [make sure you use the tray safety icon to bring up the USB 'stop' dialogue and stop the Cybook connection]

That's true for ALL USB Drive device, ALL OF THEM.

- Keep your batteries charged well (don't go below 30%, some even say 50).

The only thing that a less than 30% battery can do is to stop without warning when changing a pages. I use mine cybook for more than a week with the battery less than 30% and after a 2 or 3h charges it will be back to 100% and still run correctly.

I had a discution with one of the bookeen's guy that come to the mobileread rendezvous in Paris about some of theses points, and he says to me that they had some issue with the User partition on the newer batch (the 2440/400Mhz version) due to Nand bad blocks that could led to a lot of strange crash and a couple of other strange things (unability to access the User partition from the Cybook, but not windows, and other things like that)

They try to correct this on the 1.4.934 build but they aren't completly satisfied of their patch, but it correct the majority of bugs. (FAT File Corruption, Crash while reading a book in internal FS, Language menu at each boot, etc...)

I had a lot of theses crash on my own cybook, because I have a bunch of bad block in the NAND of my Cybook, but since I had the chance to put the newer firmware in it, they all disapear. I even never got a freeze anymore, maybe it was only luck, but for me the newer firmware correct a lot of things.

[rireed3]

I had a discution with one of the bookeen's guy...

So glad you got the new firmware. I couldn't travel to Paris, so I'm stuck with 1.4 Build 923. No fixes for me.

In the absence of any other help, my experience:

Two crashes in one day.

Implemented the following suggested by Gerraldo:
Myriad font
Disabled Auto power-off

My HTC and ASUS smartphones and my HP Printer have never required me to stop their USB interfaces, but I have begun this practice with Cybook.

No crashes in two days after my operational changes.

Richard

[Godzil]

Because your ASUS and HTC use ActiveSync, they are NOT a UMS Device. You USB Key Drive NEED to be safely removed, like the Cybook.

And the 1.4.923 should be nearly the same as the MobileRead one

[veocolores]

Originally Posted by JanG

No SD card in the slot. No extra books. It froze on other fonts as well. It freezes when battery is at 100% as well as 50% and at all points in between. I only use mobi/prc formats. Am always careful to 'remove safely' from USB. Even when the computer doesn't recognize it has a USB plugged in, I shut down before unplugging.

I've just gotten into the habit of bookmarking as I read - every chapter or every dozen pages or so.

It's no big deal, and something I can live with for convenience of having the reader.

--JanG.

Yes, you have the same problem I have..., as it was commented in ohter thread.

No solution as far as I know, just bookmarking frecuently, and try to end your reading session turning your device off while being in the library, not with your current ebook opened..., that seems to work for me.

Bye.