[fantomass]

Hi!
I have a Kobo Aura H2O, purchased in 2017. Until recently I had been happily reading sideloaded books and Pocket articles - without any issues.

Recenlty I decided to buy my first book from the Kobo store and loaded it onto the device. Afterwards, I received a prompt saying that I need to update the firmware (I can’t remember the exact prompt but I think it had something to do with Adobe DRM) So I updated the device - which somehow corrupted the system.

Now it’s continuously stuck in a boot up loop (the 5 dot progress bar). Most of the time the progress dots stop moving after some time, remaining on the screen statically.

Every once in a while (randomly?) the device manages to get to the home screen, for a few minutes, and then restarts into the cycle again.

This is happening after updating to the latest software version 4.15.12920 (b231bfea36, 5/27/19). No idea what version I had before the update.

Things I’ve tried:
- factory reset from the menu - completed successfully, didn’t help
- manual factory reset using the small paper clip button - unsuccessful - I didn’t see any response after presseing that button
- reinstalling the firmware (same - latest version) via USB according to instructions here - this appeared to have finished successfully but after reboot, it’s again in the boot up loop.
- factory reset by pressing the power button for 20(-ish) seconds - this started, I saw a screen saying there was a critical error and asking me if I want to do a factory reset, I pressed yes, and the device then ended up stuck in the “Restoring” screen with the 5 dot progress bar on the bottom left corner of the screen


Not sure what to do - should I attempt to downgrade to an older software version? If so, which one? Or is the internal SD card dying, as suggested in some similar threads, and I’ll have to open up the device and replace it? (If so, what are the restrictions on which card I can use - capacity, brand, rating? Or can I use any card?)

Thanks for any help!