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Old 02-16-2011, 09:42 AM   #1
zero10
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All black screen after crash on 1.4

My wife has an original kobo (black) running the 1.4 firmware, and ever since we updated to 1.4 she has had issues with it crashing. Sometimes when she turns a page, but usually when she goes to shut it down it will just hang on the page it was previously displaying with a frozen little status indicator / spinning circle in the upper corner. Pressing the power button has no effect when it gets like this, neither does plugging it in, the only way to get it up and going again is to hit the reset button.

Last night she was reading it and it crashed as normal, she reset the kobo then went to plug it in since she was finished with it for the night and it hadn't been plugged in for about a week. When she plugged it in the screen flashed and went completely black, and the power LED was blinking purple (rather quickly blinking too).

She brought it to me and I plugged it in again, the screen was still black and the LED was still blinking purple. I unplugged it since the cord was not long enough to sit comfortably and try to revive it and the power LED continued flashing purple for 3-4 seconds after I unplugged it. I tried various combinations of holding buttons (I think I tried every single 2/3 button combination possible) and pressing the reset button with no luck. I then tried plugging it in again to see if that would at least bring back the flashing purple LED and this is no longer the case. It now does not respond in any visible way no matter what I do.

I suggested that she leave it overnight then try plugging in a different charger and letting it charge all day before trying it again. Is there anything else I should suggest or try if this does not work?
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Old 02-16-2011, 10:33 AM   #2
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I thought the latest version of firmware for the Kobo-1 was 1.83 ?

Why not update to the latest version....

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Old 02-16-2011, 10:54 AM   #3
zero10
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Originally Posted by ltr View Post
I thought the latest version of firmware for the Kobo-1 was 1.83 ?

Why not update to the latest version....

ltr
Seeing as I can't update the firmware on a Kobo that doesn't boot, I fail to see how this is useful?

There was a lot of time between 1.4 and 1.8. I upgraded to 1.4, noticed the crashing issue, monitored the forums for a while and since no fix came out I stopped checking. The kobo desktop application was terrible and crashed nearly every single time I tried to run it so I un-installed it a long time ago and just use Calibre to copy and convert my ebooks.

On the up side, after sitting for a night unplugged it appears to have run the battery down and my wife just notified me that it is now at least showing that it is charging. We'll see if it works after it has sat on the charger for a while longer.
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Old 02-18-2011, 09:28 AM   #4
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After a couple hours on the charger my wife unplugged the Kobo and it started up briefly, but it hung as soon as she tried to pick a book and went back to the solid black screen and is not responding again.
I plugged it back in the charger and there was no response, so I left it unplugged for a few more hours, then plugged it in again. We get the fast blinking purple light and the screen remains black. I tried leaving it plugged in for almost a full 24 hours before unplugging it again and this time it did not respond. No combination of buttons (including the reset button) seems to get this thing to respond in any way.

Do I need to be holding a certain button combo when I unplug the charger, or is this the last straw and I should just send it in to be replaced?
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Old 02-18-2011, 01:29 PM   #5
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I have never heard of a full black screen - I don't think it can be normal. I would suggest getting an RMA number and then sending it back; it's probably way too late to return it to a store, but still within the one year warranty.
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Old 02-18-2011, 06:20 PM   #6
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Ya I agree with pholy, I hope you kept the receipt, but if you didn't you're probably still in the stores system so you can probably return it and maybe thats good because you'll get to upgrade to the KO2
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Old 02-18-2011, 07:37 PM   #7
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Really strange issue, sounds like a bad unit to me

I hate the Kobo desktop app as well and use Calibre, but I did find it helpful when I was having a few minor issues. When I synced it with the kobo desktop app it fixed them. Though I doubt it would fix your issue.
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Old 02-20-2011, 12:30 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pholy View Post
I have never heard of a full black screen - I don't think it can be normal. I would suggest getting an RMA number and then sending it back; it's probably way too late to return it to a store, but still within the one year warranty.
Actually, I saw one do that once in the store after a few kids had been playing with it.
Still have no idea what had been done to it, and it was really alarming to look at...
Figuring it was worth a try but not expecting it to work, I popped a paperclip in the back reset button and held down the power button for a few seconds, and it booted back to life just like new. Weirdest thing ever, but the unit's performed as normal ever since.

Quote:
Originally Posted by THE TERMINATOR View Post
Ya I agree with pholy, I hope you kept the receipt, but if you didn't you're probably still in the stores system so you can probably return it and maybe thats good because you'll get to upgrade to the KO2
It's very unlikely that zero's purchase is still in the store's system. Most stores don't save information on what people purchase, most people would consider that a violation of privacy. I work in two different retail environments, and we get people asking us to look up their receipts all the time because they want to return something under warranty and have lost the receipts. There's a huge number of people who have this idea that we can just look up people's purchases by punching in their credit card/debit/member numbers. I won't deny that there are businesses out there that do store that kind of info, but most don't because people would (quite rightly) feel uncomfortable about it for a wide variety of reasons.

RMA is the way to go if it doesn't reboot normally after a reset, especially if there's no receipt. No store would be obligated to return it without proof of purchase- especially now that the Kobo readers are available in several different retail chains. They might do it as a gesture of goodwill, but they don't have to. I'd just save myself the hassle and deal with Kobo straight away, because they do have to fix it up under warranty.
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