PRS-350 "USB Device not recognized"

ardeegee · 05-03-2011, 11:55 PM

Having big problems with my 350. I plugged it into the computer tonight (it had 3 bars on the battery at the time) and up popped the message "USB device not recognized." Windows Explorer didn't show it as a pair of removable drives, and Calibre didn't find it. Unplugged it and it gave the "exceptional internal memory state formatting" message-- which gives no chance of canceling, there's only a "yes" button. I try rebooting the computer to see if it can recognize it (after it formatted itself), no luck. Did a soft reset, still the "not recognized" message. Did a hard reset, still "not recognized." When I plug it into the computer, the battery icon (on the reader) turns all black and a little arrow icon appears to the right of the battery icon in the bottom bar, and the red light is on at the top of the reader-- seems like it thinks it is connected to an external charger? I've never used an external charger before, but I've read that you can continue to use the reader while it is charging, and that would be an explanation for the little arrow by the battery.

Any ideas? Could there be a problem with the cable, or a physical problem in the reader? Since it formatted itself, I'm stuck with no books on the reader and no way to get them back on.

ardeegee · 05-04-2011, 12:01 AM

Update-- I've been playing with it more, plugging and unplugging the cable and the "charging battery" screen finally popped up, and the two drives are recognized. Then I lay the reader down on the desk and the screen quickly fluctuates between the "charging" and the "charging interrupted" screen a few times before settling on the "charging" screen. So there is some sort of loose connection with something.

delphin · 05-04-2011, 02:09 AM

The symptoms you are describing are truly strange . . .

A PC USB port should NEVER look like an external charger, unless the USB cable or port on your PC is defective and shorted, because external chargers have the two USB signal pins associated with data transfer shorted together (that's how the Sony knows it's connected to a charger instead of a PC), but a PC port should never show up this way.

When connected to a PC, these data pins are never shorted, but instead should always have valid data signals on them, and your Sony reader should detect this and go into 'USB Storage Device Mode' instead. As soon as the PC does the proper handshaking, your reader should pop up on the desktop as several different USB drives - One for the readers internal memory, one for the SD card slot, one for the Memory Stick slot, etc.

Of course, if you are not using any external plug-in memory, those drives are not readable, but your readers internal memory should ALWAYS be there, already formated and ready.

I would try another cable and another USB port on your PC, and if that doesn't work, check your reader on another completely separate PC.

I have been lucky and my Sony Reader has always been very reliable, but I have noticed that some other USB2 devices like Thumb drives and external USB hard disks can be fussy about working on some PCs depending on which USB2 port I plug them into.

Analogus · 05-04-2011, 04:25 AM

Had the same phenomenon yesterday with my 350. Solved it by restarting the PC and using another USB port. Sounds for me like a problem caused by the operating system not by the reader.
Do you use WIN XP? Not recognizing an USB device is quite common at least on my hardware. Normally the problem is to solve like this:
Plug in the reader.
Open the hardware manager.
Search for yellow question marks there.
If there are any right klick with the mouse on in and remove it from the system.
Unplug an plug the reader. That often solves the problem.

A.

Pomtroll · 05-04-2011, 11:38 AM

Funny... not! I had the same problem with my 350 on my Mac on Monday night. I tried all kinds of things & finally shut my computer down in frustration. When I started it back up & plugged in the USB cable it worked just fine.

delphin · 05-04-2011, 01:19 PM

Good points about rebooting on the Mac, and removing the USB devices on Windows and allowing it to recreate them.

This is needed on PCs because something can hang up in the USB drivers, and in the case of the Mac what happens is that the Auto-Mounter gets confused and leaves the mount point occupied, then can't re-mount the device until you re-boot to recycle everything and reset and clear out all the removable device mounts.

Another point that shroud be made clear it that a re-boot must include a full power shut down and system re-load to be effective. Not 'sleep', or 'hibernate', or 'suspend' - A FULL POWER OFF, PLUS FULL SYSTEM RE-START.

The original poster mentioned already trying a re-boot, which was why I suggested trying another cable and USB port.

Another trick is to change to a USB1 port if one is available - or change the mode of the existing port to USB1 in the PC's BIOS if that is possible.

USB2 Devices like the Sony Readers are required to be backward compatible with USB1, and although USB1 is a bit slower for large files like MP3 audio books, it should be fine for transferring PDF, EPUB, and LRF ebook files, and can be more stable on some machines.

05-03-2011, 11:55 PM	#1
ardeegee Maratus speciosus butt Posts: 3,292 Karma: 1162698 Join Date: Sep 2009 Device: PRS-350	"USB Device not recognized" Having big problems with my 350. I plugged it into the computer tonight (it had 3 bars on the battery at the time) and up popped the message "USB device not recognized." Windows Explorer didn't show it as a pair of removable drives, and Calibre didn't find it. Unplugged it and it gave the "exceptional internal memory state formatting" message-- which gives no chance of canceling, there's only a "yes" button. I try rebooting the computer to see if it can recognize it (after it formatted itself), no luck. Did a soft reset, still the "not recognized" message. Did a hard reset, still "not recognized." When I plug it into the computer, the battery icon (on the reader) turns all black and a little arrow icon appears to the right of the battery icon in the bottom bar, and the red light is on at the top of the reader-- seems like it thinks it is connected to an external charger? I've never used an external charger before, but I've read that you can continue to use the reader while it is charging, and that would be an explanation for the little arrow by the battery. Any ideas? Could there be a problem with the cable, or a physical problem in the reader? Since it formatted itself, I'm stuck with no books on the reader and no way to get them back on.

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05-04-2011, 12:01 AM	#2
ardeegee Maratus speciosus butt Posts: 3,292 Karma: 1162698 Join Date: Sep 2009 Device: PRS-350	Update-- I've been playing with it more, plugging and unplugging the cable and the "charging battery" screen finally popped up, and the two drives are recognized. Then I lay the reader down on the desk and the screen quickly fluctuates between the "charging" and the "charging interrupted" screen a few times before settling on the "charging" screen. So there is some sort of loose connection with something.

05-04-2011, 02:09 AM	#3
delphin Evangelist Posts: 434 Karma: 346901 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: SONY PRS-650	The symptoms you are describing are truly strange . . . A PC USB port should NEVER look like an external charger, unless the USB cable or port on your PC is defective and shorted, because external chargers have the two USB signal pins associated with data transfer shorted together (that's how the Sony knows it's connected to a charger instead of a PC), but a PC port should never show up this way. When connected to a PC, these data pins are never shorted, but instead should always have valid data signals on them, and your Sony reader should detect this and go into 'USB Storage Device Mode' instead. As soon as the PC does the proper handshaking, your reader should pop up on the desktop as several different USB drives - One for the readers internal memory, one for the SD card slot, one for the Memory Stick slot, etc. Of course, if you are not using any external plug-in memory, those drives are not readable, but your readers internal memory should ALWAYS be there, already formated and ready. I would try another cable and another USB port on your PC, and if that doesn't work, check your reader on another completely separate PC. I have been lucky and my Sony Reader has always been very reliable, but I have noticed that some other USB2 devices like Thumb drives and external USB hard disks can be fussy about working on some PCs depending on which USB2 port I plug them into.

05-04-2011, 04:25 AM	#4
Analogus Fanatic Posts: 568 Karma: 2170348 Join Date: Apr 2011 Device: 2x Sony PRS-350; PRS-300 (†), Paperwhite (†), Voyage	Had the same phenomenon yesterday with my 350. Solved it by restarting the PC and using another USB port. Sounds for me like a problem caused by the operating system not by the reader. Do you use WIN XP? Not recognizing an USB device is quite common at least on my hardware. Normally the problem is to solve like this: Plug in the reader. Open the hardware manager. Search for yellow question marks there. If there are any right klick with the mouse on in and remove it from the system. Unplug an plug the reader. That often solves the problem. A.

05-04-2011, 11:38 AM	#5
Pomtroll Guru Posts: 822 Karma: 1341819 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Minnesota USA Device: Sony 350, Sony T1, Kindle Touch, Kindle PW1	Funny... not! I had the same problem with my 350 on my Mac on Monday night. I tried all kinds of things & finally shut my computer down in frustration. When I started it back up & plugged in the USB cable it worked just fine.

05-04-2011, 01:19 PM	#6
delphin Evangelist Posts: 434 Karma: 346901 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: SONY PRS-650	Good points about rebooting on the Mac, and removing the USB devices on Windows and allowing it to recreate them. This is needed on PCs because something can hang up in the USB drivers, and in the case of the Mac what happens is that the Auto-Mounter gets confused and leaves the mount point occupied, then can't re-mount the device until you re-boot to recycle everything and reset and clear out all the removable device mounts. Another point that shroud be made clear it that a re-boot must include a full power shut down and system re-load to be effective. Not 'sleep', or 'hibernate', or 'suspend' - A FULL POWER OFF, PLUS FULL SYSTEM RE-START. The original poster mentioned already trying a re-boot, which was why I suggested trying another cable and USB port. Another trick is to change to a USB1 port if one is available - or change the mode of the existing port to USB1 in the PC's BIOS if that is possible. USB2 Devices like the Sony Readers are required to be backward compatible with USB1, and although USB1 is a bit slower for large files like MP3 audio books, it should be fine for transferring PDF, EPUB, and LRF ebook files, and can be more stable on some machines.

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