Aura H2O SD Card or Battery or both?

[karthikrr]

My H20 is exhibiting very strange behaviour that my forum research has not helped me figure out yet. Some inputs from those more experienced will help.

I'll just post the problem I am having right now first, but more context regarding the life story of this device follows, in case it is relevant.

Screen is completely blank. Trying to power on does not result in white-black-white flash. LED does not blink, just stays on and then goes off. Manual reset (the tap method) does not work. When connected to the computer, it detects as NS Blank Codex. Device has a suspect battery, as you will see in the details that follow. I am wondering if I need to check anything else, or if I should go ahead and open it up. And if I do open it up, what do I check first?

History

I posted about this device a long time ago. It had a funky battery that I "fixed" by letting it charge for 24 hours. The battery used to jump around crazily until I left it connected to the charger for 24 hours, and after that it seemed to be fine, as long as I kept recharging it regularly without letting the battery drain down too much.

Then at one point I did forget to recharge it and the battery died again, worst of all in the middle of an update (that I accidentally started by turning wifi on). It froze completely and 24 hour recharge or not, nothing worked. I finally did the manual reset (turn off, press power and tap bottom till it resets), and that got it booting again. But rather than wipe the device, it ended up finishing the interrupted update and everything was fine.

Until two weeks ago. I was reading on it and it froze in the middle of a highlight. I have no idea what the battery level was, but it must have been on the lower side. Nothing would reset it or reboot it, the screen remained frozen on the same page that I was reading. I read somewhere to leave the device alone and let the battery drain to zero and then start over. Sure enough, after leaving it alone for about 10 days, when I connected it to the charger again, the screen refreshed and I saw two squares at the bottom. It unfortunately froze again at that point. I figured probably because the battery drained to zero yet again, so left it connected for 24 hours.

Now, the screen at some point went totally blank, and nothing happens. Power on does not do the white-black-white flash, the LED never blinks, just lights up for a few seconds and goes off, and no amount of manual reset works. When I connect it to the computer, I get "NS Blank Codex" installing and then everything just goes off (as in the device unplugged chime on Windows).

Moreover, I can only get the power LED to come on occasionally when it is unplugged. It always comes on when connected to the computer, and frequently when connected to the charger, but almost never when unplugged. When unplugged, after it has been charging for a long time, I can get the light one or two times and then never, till I charge it again.

All of this leads me to believe its either dead battery or borked SD card or very likely both! Are there any other tests I need to do, or should I just go ahead and open the thing up? If I do open it up, are the old instructions for cloning the SD card still current, or have the new firmwares changed anything on that front? Do I still need a firmware from @davidfor or can I use the firmware from the hacks thread? Lastly, any idea if the Kobo Aura battery will work on the H20?

[davidfor]

The power LED coming on and then off after a bit, usually a sign that either the battery is flat, or that the device cannot find anything to boot from. From your report, the only thing I can't see is what happens when you try to turn it on while it is plugged in. But, it should just turn on after a few minutes if you plug it in with a flat battery. That suggests the problem is the card.

So, I have sent you a PM with the link to the image. You will need to open the device to use it. Unfortunately, that means breaking the waterproofing, but, I don't think you have a choice if you want to get it working again. There might be nothing wrong with the card, just that it has been corrupted. But, I would probably use a new card if you can get one. And you can safely use a larger card and get more space.

Unfortunately, I'd also be suspicious of the battery. The history suggests it might have been in a discharged state for to long. It might not be holding a charge for to long. Unless you have testing equipment, you will need to get it running before you can tell. I'd try the image and then decide about the battery.

Or, you could decide it is no good an get yourself a new ereader. The Libra H2O would be a very nice replacement for it.

[frostschutz]

for the Aura H2O, if you remove the internal SD card altogether, the LED will light up for ~ 10 seconds whenever you try to power it on. only one way to find out if that's it... good luck

[karthikrr]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The power LED coming on and then off after a bit, usually a sign that either the battery is flat, or that the device cannot find anything to boot from. From your report, the only thing I can't see is what happens when you try to turn it on while it is plugged in. But, it should just turn on after a few minutes if you plug it in with a flat battery. That suggests the problem is the card.

Originally Posted by frostschutz

for the Aura H2O, if you remove the internal SD card altogether, the LED will light up for ~ 10 seconds whenever you try to power it on. only one way to find out if that's it... good luck

It was indeed the card! I opened it up and re-seated the card and everything is working perfectly again! An extra note here, it seems when the card is not detected (or possibly corrupted), the device shows up in Windows as "NS Blank Codex".

Unfortunately, I'd also be suspicious of the battery. The history suggests it might have been in a discharged state for to long. It might not be holding a charge for to long. Unless you have testing equipment, you will need to get it running before you can tell. I'd try the image and then decide about the battery.

I am still unsure about the battery. I did verify, while it was on the operating table, that the battery from the older Kobo Aura physically is the same size, so if the battery is iffy, I have a few spares available to replace it with!

Thank you both for your quick and helpful replies! I plan to upgrade the card to an 8GB one after I am convinced about the battery, so for now it remains only loosely reassembled.

Meanwhile, some other observations about taking apart the device, in case anybody comes looking ...

The device is surprisingly easy to open up! Wisdom suggests heating the frame up, but I think perhaps leaving it cold is the way to go for this one. A fingernail was enough to pry the side open and get an old credit card in. Once that was done, I methodically slid the card around over and over till I cut thru all of the glue. I think if the glue is heated up, you might have issues with it constantly re-adhering, while in the cold state, after enough passes, it just stayed cut or at least was easy to pull apart again.

There are two bezels, and this seems to be a source of confusion. From what I saw, if you want to work on the SD card or the battery, LEAVE the inner bezel stuck to the screen. If you want to replace the screen, the inner bezel is better off removed with the external one. AFAIK, the inner bezel is part of the touch mechanism (this one uses a different type of digitizer than usual, something to do with IR if I remember?) ... If you pull the inner bezel out, its not the end of the world, but you risk improper alignment which means bad touch responses.

The inner bezel protects the screen from any contact (doesn't mean you get rough, but just means with a plastic card, its safe). On the four corners is where you have gaps, and you can either a) lift off the top with the inner bezel attached or b) twist the card around carefully to get it in between the inner bezel and outer bezel and then continue to slide till the top comes off. NOTE: When you mess around with the inner bezel, there is a very real risk of breaking the screen, so definitely touch that ONLY if your display is already broken. You will have enough clearance to visually observe what is going on at the edges and carefully move the card around. Do NOT try to do it blind.

The external bezel (the top frame around the screen) is actually somewhat flexible, so once you get between it and the inner bezel, it comes off very very easily. The card, IF its in the right place, can safely be pushed thru till it sticks out over the screen, and then you just slide it all around to cut thru the last bits of glue.