1. I'm a newbie. Bought my device from Woot!.
2. Maticuously followed the directions as provided at the start of this thread. Would never have gotten Ermine loaded with out them. Have the usual story of trying over and over and over.
3. I started playing around to find out what I might of missed.
a. Changed wi-fi sleep setting to "Never with power plugged in" from "Never sleep".
b. After reading about other problems others have had went to the main menu on the tablet side and dragged the top bar (not written with correct names) line to the bottom of the tablet where the contents remained open. Within the contents was a line with "No Service" with a button reading "Clear". Clicked it and "Download Available" displayed.
c. Clicked "Yes" to initiate down load (not sure what I clicked but it is straight forward when you do it. The tablet side displayed Downloading (not sure if this is correct).
d. After downloading is completing the reader side of pocket edge provides installing information and the tablet size shows the installing via dots being illuminated. When the forth dot is illuminated a new screen appears on the tablet.
e. The new screen shows a green arrow, which points to the right and contains an unlocked padlock.
f. Drag the green arrow all the way to the right and the screen unlocks and the main menu on the tablet appears.
g. Check settings/about edge/Legal information and under build number see if ermine is there. For me it was.
4. To conclude, from 3b above, there might be an answer to remedy the countless downloads.