Quote:
Originally Posted by RobinL
For Mother's Day I got a shiny new PRS-300. Since then I have just been busy trying to figure it out and enjoy it. Now that I have had it a bit I have a few quick questions on it. I read some of the old reply's, but did not see the any answers to a few of these questions.
1. Can you "hack" the PRS-300 to put the time at the bottom?
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Absolutely!
And... not only to do you end up with the clock function but the feature that allows you to use the 7 & 8 key buttons to page backwards or forwards. I'm right handed so I find using the 8 button to page forward much easier for one handed reading than the 4Way button when laying in bed.
I installed the firmware update (hack) last weekend. It's pretty easy actually. The trickiest part was following all the different links as to which code to download and whose instructions to follow. The process is documented in several threads however I elected to follow the instructions layed out by RonF and Boroda due to all success stories. Even with the step by step instructions I still stumbled in a couple places (afraid I might screw up my reader) and had to ask some questions. Using RonFs instructions as an outline I added a few lines to cover the areas where I got confused. I sent these instructions to my niece... out of state... and she installed the update on her 300 without any problems.
1) > First... before you begin the install... make sure your battery is fully charged
2) > Second... confirm that your PRS-300 has the latest firmware 1.0.00.18160
(Confirm your firmware level by hitting the "Home" button... then go to Settings... then go to About. (i.e., Home, 7 key & 7 Key again)
Do not proceed with this update if you are not at this level of firmware. Instead go to the Sony site .. download and install the latest firmware release.
(Currently the latest is 1.0.00.18160)
3) > Once you are all charged up and have confirmed you are at firmware release 1.0.00.18160... go to this URL:
http://translate.google.com/translat...ate.google.com
4)> Go to the very first post in the above thread (Author Boroda)
5) > Under the bold heading INSTRUCTIONS FOR REFERENCE INSERTION 1.0.00.18160... click and download package identified as:
6) > Its a ZIP file. After downloading, unzip it to someplace on your computer so you can find it. The unzipped file is a folder call Sony Reader.
7) > Now... plug your PRS-300 eReader USB cable into the reader and your computer. If Sony Reader Library or Calibre sotware (or anything else auto launches), close them all.
8) > Open "My Computer" on your Windows desktop (or use Windows Explorer) and navigate to view the drives on your computer. You should see Two external drives for the Sony Reader. The primary drive / first drive will have a unique name depending on how your system identifies it. It might be called Reader... or Sony... (it's hard to say) On mine it was identified as s300. Anyway... the second drive will be called LAUNCHER.
You DON'T do anything to the LAUNCHER Drive s part of this update.
9) > Go to the Root Directory of the primary drive and expand it. (A indication you are in correct drive you should see a folder called database) NOTE: At this point in these instructions you have done absolutely nothing to your reader. You can back out now and nothing has been changed. To Proceed, continue reading:
10) > Navigate to the file on you computer that you unzipped and locate the file "Sony Reader", and copy it into the Root Directory of the first drive.... not into the LAUNCHER Drive. (or drag and drop it on the first drive) making sure you don't drop in the database folder or any other the other folders.
11) Now... use the "Safely Remove Hardware" feature of windows
and unplug the USB cable from the reader.
12) > In about 5 or 10 seconds you will see the image on your reader like the one shown in the shown in "boroda's" instructions. i.e. the website link I pointed you to back in Step 3... Just follow his steps.
_____5 (Press 5 on the Sony reader to save the current firmware image.)
_____6 (Flash the image)
NOTE: After you get the message below,
... some people report their readers automatically reboot by themselves after a few minutes. I let my reader sit for a full 5 minutes and it didn't reboot so I just hit the 9 button (To reboot) and everything is fine.
When the unit reboots you will see the clock in the bottom right corner. Other than the clock you won't notice any other changes. All your menus will still be in English and all your current books and bookmarks will be as they were before the update.
13) > Last... you need to adjust the clock function. The time of day will be correct... but you will need to change the format. By default it will be 24-tick. Change it to 24 hour or am/pm (without the tick) In Tick mode the clock is running all the time and will update the time automatically regardless if your are refreshing, (turning pages). The downside is, in Tick mode the clock remains running in the background and doesn't let the reader CPU go into sleep mode, so it can drain your battery in a short period of time. For this reason "tick" mode is not recommended. In 24hour or am/pm mode (without the tick) the clock will only update as you refresh (turn a page) so if you stay on the same page for 5 minutes... the clock will not change.
14) . To change the clock you need to go to the "About" section on the Reader. Once in the About section, hitting the "0"button lets you adjust the clocks operation.
Have fun with your new reader...
