Touch N905C Bricked

[paulbloggs]

My daughters Kobo Touch has stopped responding.
We have charged it for a while now.

The display says "powered off" and shows the book cover. But the display is a bit garbled.
When I operate the power button it goes blue, green, blue and then about 15 green flashes.

I have tried the reset button, factory reset (home button etc) and I have removed the sd card (which seems fine on my pc) and made a new one from an image I received from this forum a while ago for another Kobo N905C.

What else can I do?

Thanks and regards
Paul

[robko]

If the display is a bit garbled, that would suggest you might have a broken substrate. Post a pic of the screen and it will be easier to determine (or do a search and you'll find a bunch of pics to compare with).

[paulbloggs]

How would the substrate break? She claims not to have dropped it or sat on it. Quite a responsible child.

Thanks for your help
Paul

[Dr. Drib]

Unfortunately, that's a broken substrate.

A quote from Kobo:

If your eReader has vertical, horizontal, or diagonal lines across the screen, it means that your eReader’s screen is physically damaged. This may be caused by drops, or force applied to the screen. Physical damage is not covered under warranty.

[paulbloggs]

That is a pity.
Is it worth getting repaired? Who would do that? Kobo?
We are in South Africa.

Thanks
Paul

[frostschutz]

Originally Posted by paulbloggs

How would the substrate break?

Unfortunately it breaks easily. It's the biggest weakness of eink screens with glass substrate.

Originally Posted by paulbloggs

Is it worth getting repaired?

Some screen models can be acquired on aliexpress for self repair (around $30)

Otherwise it's usually not worth it.

For an old reader you might be better off investing in a more recent-ish device.

[Uschiekid]

Originally Posted by paulbloggs

She claims not to have dropped it or sat on it. Quite a responsible child.

It wouldn't necessarily take dropping it or sitting on it. Anything that either puts pressure on the screen (more so if it's uneven pressure) or twists that glass substrate can cause a breakage. It might not even happen immediately, as drastic changes in temperature can make a "weak" screen hit its limit. ie: pressure was applied to cause the beginning of a breakage, then, potentially at a much later date it was left somewhere hot or cold and that causes the damage to expand and the whole screen is cracked.

It comes down to being a bit of luck and a bit of being aware of how thin that glass substrate really is. Some people treat their ereaders pretty rough and it never breaks and others treat it almost with kid gloves and it does break. But a child might think that you can treat it like a tablet, phone or computer, but it is definitely more fragile than that, so if she is aware that the screen is much more delicate, it will be less likely to happen in future, but again, could easily just be a bit of bad luck.

[Dr. Drib]

My The Three Laws of Ebook Readers:

1. Every good ebook reader deserves a case.
2. Every good ebook reader must eventually fall.
3. Every good ebook reader will eventually be replaced.

Repeat.

[paulbloggs]

Thank you all.

Yes I see screens for the N905C on aliexpress for USD18 and up. However the delivery is about USD38 to South Africa!! They offer free shipping to a lot of other countries.

Our family has 4 of these so maybe I should cough up for a couple of screens as spares.

But USD are really expensive in South Africa.

[frostschutz]

Originally Posted by paulbloggs

But USD are really expensive in South Africa.

You can select various currency on aliexpress, see if it's cheaper. It's a chinese site after all, so any USD you pay will be converted again to chinese RMB ( I guess ) so paying in your native currency might be cheaper than going through USD.

Also note there is a certain risk involved. No guarantee the replacement will work perfectly.

Perhaps a new entry-level reader is a better choice.