[Burktross]

Originally Posted by hyegeek

You might try long pressing the power button until it offers to power down or reboot, at that point hit cancel.

After updating a different model nook, the updating screen did not go away until I did something like that.

I did try that, unfortunately no dice.

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Stupid question, but did you charge the Nook first? The Nook has to be at 20% or more to install new firmware. Otherwise, see below.

I'm certain that this wasn't the issue; I did actually get my nook to work, and when it was finally done setting up it had occurred while at ~80% charge.

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I've never had to do this myself, but...

Here's a like to Barnes and Noble telling you how to sideload firmware: Sideloading Software Update to your NOOK

Finding the firmware was a pain. But here's an XDA page that has downloads of the stock Glowlight 3 firmware (post #9).

Originally Posted by rcentros

Good work! Why isn't this available for download on B&N's site? That decision seems particularly stupid.

I greatly appreciate this and that's a very good question. I spoke to B&N support and it really seems like the Glowlight 3 is the black sheep of the glowlight family... Any troubleshooting instructions they provided to me pertained to either the original Glowlight or the new Glowlight Plus, yet nothing was ever for the Glowlight 3-- least of all the firmware. They couldn't even tell me where to find the Glowlight 3's serial number!

Nevertheless, I did "solve" the issue without having to install the firmware manually (still many thanks to ZodWallop, hopefully if anyone else needs it in the future this thread will point them to it more readily).

How I believe I fixed it

1. Glowlight 3 needs an internet connection to perform setup, yet having the connection is what allows it to check for updates in the first place, naturally. I figured that if I connected to my wi-fi, but used my router's control panel to block the access of the Glowlight 3 from accessing the rest of my network, that I might be able to temporarily skip the update and at least finish the OOBE.

The Glowlight 3 did indeed skip the update process, but without a network connection it hung up on registration.

2. Next I decided to instead of blocking it from my LAN all together, block it just from the internet. This resulted in much of the same, except this time it said "no updates needed" or something to that effect, but still hung up on where registration would occur.

3. Finally, I removed all of the network/internet blocks, and so the Nook found the update and downloaded it as normal-- only this time, it was able to get past the 100% filled in bar and complete the OOBE setup.

I am not 100% certain that this process is what actually allowed me to proceed, but I can't argue with the results-- regardless of how nonsensical they may be. If I were to venture a guess, I would say that maybe "bypassing" the update even if it failed at registration was enough to allow the firmware to understand how to proceed after updating, but I don't know.

Thank you, all, for the help you've provided; I'm glad that downloadable firmware is at least an option, should it truly be necessary in the future.