Quote:
Originally Posted by curio
After taking quite some hurdles in order to get a Nook Wi-Fi delivered to Germany, I finally received the device today. I was rather happy that there were no obvious defects (dead pixels and suchlike).
However, I rather quickly noticed that something cannot be quite in order with the Nook's Wi-Fi: The Wi-Fi menu offers only the option to toggle airplane mode; other options are entirely missing. This means that Wi-Fi cannot be enabled. A Google search turned up one case of someone with the same issue who had to get his device replaced. Yes, I did reboot the device multiple times, including several hard resets (pressing the power button for 20+ seconds).
Now with myself living abroad, and as I bought the device via an eBay dealer and a freight forwarding service (with the dealer having the device delivered directly from B&N to my freight-forwarding address, and me having it shipped on from there), I'm in a rather complicated and costly situation if I want to see the device exchanged. I have contacted neither the eBay dealer nor B&N yet.
I see the following options:
- Try and get the device exchanged via the eBay-dealer. I'll have to pay for both shipping the dud back and the replacement, as I had it delivered to a US address by the dealer. Costly.
- Try and get the device exchanged via B&N. Does anyone know if there is any chance that they will not want the device back (accepting proof of destruction instead), saving me the cost of shipping it back to the States, and that they'll send the replacement to Germany? Otherwise, costly.
- Has anybody knowledgeable in electronics ever had his Nook open and can hazared as guess as to what the likely cause is? I reckon that the hardware fails to initialize during Android startup, and the dependent Wi-Fi components are subsequently left out. Is it likely that the issue is merely a matter of a bad connector, which might be fixed? If instead the Wi-Fi transceiver itself is likely to be malfunctioning, what are the chances of having an electronics engineer (at least I'm well-connected in this regard...) replace the module, and things being alright then?
- Cheaply obtain a display-broken Nook (Anyone have one? PM me, please.), hope that the remainder of its electronics are in order, and exchange this, retaining my new housing and displays. Is there anyone who knows wether the displays are soldered-on or just screwed-on/snapped-in?
- Probably the easiest option would be to try and sell the device -- what are the chances of that happening at a "reasonable" price? Without Wi-Fi, the device cannot be registered with B&N (thus only DRM-free(d) books can be read), and it is not possible to gain ADB shell access with a softroot.
Looks like I'm in for a substantial loss in any case. 
Obviously B&N's quality control is sorely lacking; in view of this experience, I cannot recommend anyone outside the States to get a Nook as he or she may find themselves in the same dilemma as I do.
P.S.: I think there's a second issue concerning the device's charging: While it did charge for a while, up to 84%, it does not seem to charge any further. The orange LED beside the USB port is on, but the Nook's status bar's battery symbol does not indicate charging, and the charge remains at 84% while plugged in. Device resets did not change this. Is this one of the charging issues discussed here recently, or do the symptoms look more severe (I'm not in the mood to research yet another defect-related topic right now)?  |
Try a recover to the original firmware. This will install a new copy of the original firmware. Files that are already on your Nook will be lost. You start a recover the following way (copied from the B&N forum):
"Power down.
Press the power button, wait for the screen to flicker, and continue holding for 12 seconds.
Then, release the power button, and repeat the above 6 times.".
You do not need to register the Nook to read DRM books. Outside the USA Wifi is only used to download B&N books and firmware updates straight to the Nook.
You can download DRM books from B&N and other stores to your PC and use the USB cable to copy them to the My Documents folder on the Nook.
You can also use the USB connection to manually update the firmware.
While downloading B&N books to your Nook using Wifi is nice, you can use the Nook fine without registering.
As for your battery problem. The Nook needs a few charges to calibrate the battery. Use the Nook until you get the message that you need to charge the Nook. Could be that after charging this way a few times the problem will go away.
I wonder why you did not buy the Nook yourself at B&N, using a freight-forwarding service? That would have made returning the Nook easier.
If you buy something not meant for you country this way, you know that in case of a problem returning the device will cost you money.
As only one person until now has mentioned this kind of Wifi problem on the B&N forum and there are only a small number of people with this kind of library problem this seems to be a case of just "bad luck".
I understand your anger (I would feel the same way myself), but it is the risk you take buying the Nook from outside the USA.