Continued problems, advice needed :o)

[babyd]

HI all

I have been having a terrible time with my new 505, I have mentioned this is a couple of threads but wanted some more advice, so thought best to start its own thread....

Brief history......
I use Sony eLibrary to transfer books to my internal memory and a 2gb MS
I have sorted books into genres and sent genre groups to Internal memory and MS.
I have added collection for genres, favourites books. Making sure I only add collections to internal memory for books stored on the internal memory and the same for the MS, there are no collections using books from both memory areas.
I only have ePubs from Waterstones and LRF's made from purchased lit books and converted using either Calibre or Book Designer, the free sony classics and some I created using BD. All are epub or lrf only.
All books are loaded into Calibre to make sure meta-tags are good and then are saved in My Documents (as I like the way Calibre sorts/saves them). Then I load them from there into Sony eLibrary.

Issues:
When opening books they all seem to format first, and again when I change font size (not an issue in itself but a trigger for further problems)
Sometimes these books are fine, then suddenly I encounter problems, never the same book twice and very random.

Initially it would get stuck on a page when I pressed the zoom button, I could go to menu but not be able to change font size or pages, it just stayed stuck. I would go back to menu then back to same book and it was still on same page with no response to zoom or page turns. Turning off via switch did not help, switching off via menu resolved the issue but I lost my collections. This happened about 4 times then it hasn't happened again so far......new problems follow

When pressing zoom to change font size the book formats for ages then the reader will shut off and reset.......usually deleting all my collections with it.

The other issue is bookmarks. I had a book with 6 bookmarks in it and one bookmark for another book. I went into bookmarks and clicked the link to the bookmarked page, I then pressed Mark to delete that bookmark, the unit switches off and resets, this time deleting all my bookmarks.

The reader doesn't always seem to remember the last place in a book either.

These things seem to happen pretty randomly, but only yesterday they happened about 12 times.......I performed a soft reset last night and today it has lost the bookmarks on its own, then it formatted a book and shut down and reset again. So that didn't appear help.

I have tried it with and without the MS and the issues still occur. They occur with my lrf books and the Waterstones ePubs. The books don't appear to be at fault as they will be fine then one will cause the issue then when I try it again it will be fine.

What to try next?

Should I format internal memory via menu, or maybe a hard reset? I have no idea how to do a hard reset so you will have to help there, if possible.

Any ideas?

I do have a replacement on the way, should be here Monday. However, I would still like to resolve this unit in case it is just a software glitch that can be solved............

Apart from this I am loving the Sony, which goes to show how great it is, if I can love it while going through all this it must be good LOL

Edited to add that I also noticed the books format first time they are opened then fine after that (obviously) BUT if the reader is switched off via menu or it resets itself the book will then format again upon opening.......so it doesn't seem to store the info after switch off, only via switch but not menu switch off or reset......(added as extra info might help)

[gwynevans]

Reset info here - https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Sony...t_Instructions

Hard Reset seems to be reset (at the back) with "Mark" and "VOL +" held down till you get a confirm question.

It seems to me that the problems could all be caused by a corrupt file on the device, so a hard reset would have a good chance of working.

[babyd]

Thanks gwynevans.

I have just done a hard reset and am about to load the books back on via the sony software, if this doesn't work I am try another hard reset and then use Calibre.....

One change I noticed.....first time I attached to my PC I couldn't open the sony reader from the drives view on windows (XP), it kept telling me to insert disc into drive, now it just opens with no issue..... so something has changed.

Also the date was correct when I got it and now its gone back to 2007......

See how Im grasping at straws, hoping something has changed LOL

[C6REW]

Hi babyd,

Hopefully that will solve the problem. However has the second unit arrived yet?

I would be very tempted to swap them, but perhaps you need to let them know what is happening.

Best regards

Chris

[babyd]

Okay, just had a very quick try-out......

Firstly, it is MUCH faster, it has exactly the same books on as before, but it is whizzing through the menus and page turns much, much quicker than before.

I have so far opened 4 books, all ones which have been ones I was reading when the reset/formats occurred before......all of them formatted every time I opened them or changed font size. So far none of them formatted, the font size change happened instantly...........before i did the hard reset every single book formatted when i opened it and when I resized font....

I have placed one bookmark and will see if that stays, I also have 12 collections on there and will see if they stay.

So far so good, there is a definite speed increase. Let's see how it goes the rest of the day. Maybe after a bit of use the cache may fill and the resets come back......hope not though, loving it even more now its so fast LOL

gwynevans, if you have solved this, you are a star!! keep everything crossed for me.........will repost back later, though I'm trying not to be too hopeful yet

[babyd]

Hi Chris

Ah well, DHL have failed to deliver this one on time too........surprise surprise, it is in the depot and it should be here Monday. plenty of time to give this a test run.
if it fails I can swap it, if not then I can send the other one back unopened. I don't want to return this if it was something simple like a hard reset.......Waterstones would then have to return one to Sony whereas I may be able to save them some hassle.

[babyd]

Okay, have now opened around 40 books, all are perfect.....

I then put in my MS.........when I open ones on there is does format them on opening, and when changing font size, but only the first time. It still opens ones stored on the internal memory without formatting. I take it this is normal, or is there still possibly an issue? It is slower on memory card books than with the internal ones, but only on first opening.

The MS is 2GB and i transferred all the books using sony software while in the reader the very first time. Could the reader have added something to the MS while it was glitching that still may be on there? Should I have emptied the MS at the same time as hard resetting the reader and sent over the books again? Or is it fine and no need to worry yet.....

to sum up, reader much faster, opens and changes font sizes on books in internal memory with no issue and no formatting.
Memory stick books do format on opening and on font resizing, but only once. so far with no resets........

Oh, and I have around 190 books on internal memory and 380 on MS

[babyd]

Okay, I give up, I'm gonna swap it..........

it worked fine for a while then I turned off via menu, next time on it had no bookmarks and 3 collection went missing...........so I removed MS and synced it so that I had most of what I wanted on the internal memory.
Booted up okay, looked at a few books, switched off via menu. next switch on, while on start screen it reset itself then rebooted, this time taking 5 books off the reader !

So it either resets during formatting, tkaing collections away, or resets when I place/remove a bookmark taking bookmarks, switch off and on and lose the odd bookmark or place in books, or resets during start-up and loses books.

I admit defeat, time to replace. Hopefully new one will arrive Monday. I need to change it, otherwise I will always wonder if I have a faulty unit, this one just loves to reset.

Thanks for all your help guys, as usual you have been great