Touch Kobo Touch "Randomly" Freezes for long periods of time

[ZipperMask]

Hi all,

I recently made the mistake of installing the 3.11 firmware (within the past 4 weeks) on my Kobo Touch. Ever since I have installed this version of the firmware/SW I have had random lockups while reading books.

When I touch the screen to flip the page it will not respond. It can take 10s of seconds to respond and during that period of time the "home button" on the bottom of the device will also not work.

I'm not sure when the problem starts (on entry to the page, when I press the screen or as some background task that locks the device) but it is really frustrating and makes the device almost completely unusable.

I have tried the following to remedy this:

- Soft reset
- Factory reset
- Left the device attached to my computer over a 24 hour period to ensure it is fully charged.
- Installed a single book for testing purposes.
- Installed earlier versions of the SW (e.g. 3.8) via the .kobo/KoboRoot.tgz update.

I'm not sure if I am doing the SW update properly - do I just drop the firmware from this thread (https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=185660) into the .kobo/ folder? Do I need to delete things? Does it update everything if I am trying to downgrade? Does it actually update the firmware or just the system SW?

The problem seems to manifest more the further I get into a book so I'm wondering if it may be a background update task?

Does anyone know if the alternative readers such as Koreader or Cool Reader would potentially avoid this problem?

I'm at the point where this reader will soon meet a hammer and I'll move to a Kindle.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

[appoloin]

Are you using epub or kepub?

[davidfor]

Try a factory reset, installing 2.6.1 and then installing the firmware version that you want to use.

This reason for this is that recent firmware upgrade packages for the Touch have not included the kernel and uBoot files. The factory reset installed the original version, but updating directly to 3.8.0 or 3.11.0 means this isn't updated. FW 2.6.1 is the last with these files for the Touch, so installing it first installs the latest version.

I think this will help. I remember a similar issue a few months ago that was solved by doing this.

[ZipperMask]

Originally Posted by appoloin

Are you using epub or kepub?

EPUB in this particular case (1 test book loaded).

[ZipperMask]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Try a factory reset, installing 2.6.1 and then installing the firmware version that you want to use.

This reason for this is that recent firmware upgrade packages for the Touch have not included the kernel and uBoot files. The factory reset installed the original version, but updating directly to 3.8.0 or 3.11.0 means this isn't updated. FW 2.6.1 is the last with these files for the Touch, so installing it first installs the latest version.

I think this will help. I remember a similar issue a few months ago that was solved by doing this.

Thank you - I will try that. I've just gone through the hassle of installing the start menu and koreader/cool reader to see if I can avoid the issue that way. If that doesn't pan out I'll try what you recommended above.

Thanks for the reply!

[ZipperMask]

I just wanted to confirm that this problem does not exist with KoReader - I was able to read for several hours without any hiccups.

I'm testing out the 2.6.1 approach on my wife's Kobo Touch which has very similar issues after 3.11

[Ken Maltby]

If the underlying problem is the one David mentioned, it would not have been addressed by the alternative readers, it is likely that the problem firmware code is just not something that Koreader makes any reference to. It would still be a good idea to get properly working firmware installed, even if you end up like me and make little or no use of the stock Kobo Nickel software.

Luck;
Ken

P.S. I an sorry that you found installing the alternative readers & KSM7 a "hassle", I hope you found it worth the effort.

[ZipperMask]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

If the underlying problem is the one David mentioned, it would not have been addressed by the alternative readers, it is likely that the problem firmware code is just not something that Koreader makes any reference to. It would still be a good idea to get properly working firmware installed, even if you end up like me and make little or no use of the stock Kobo Nickel software.

Luck;
Ken

P.S. I an sorry that you found installing the alternative readers & KSM7 a "hassle", I hope you found it worth the effort.

Hi Ken,

Sorry, no intention to offend but it was far more involved than double clicking an installer . There was the start menu, 3 patches, updating those, unplugging the book each time, and that was just to get ready to install the alternate reader

As for the problem, yes I understand I didn't fix anything, I just wanted to see if this avoided the problem, which it does. As such I am tickled pink.

I'm waiting for my wife to give her book a through testing and then I may go through the process of flashing the book again and reinstalling the alternate reader.

Thanks!