PRS-950 Should 950 hang at odd moments while reading ebooks?

gponym · 10-29-2014, 01:42 AM

[Apologies for cross post in Sony Reader Dev Corner and regular Sony forum - I'm new to MobileRead, unsure where to put this question, and must make decision soon about returning the 950]

Bought a 950 last week on ebay, trying to decide if it's worth keeping. I like using it a lot but it has at least one annoying feature.

I want to know from you all: is the hanging behavior I describe in what follows normal for a 950 or most older ereaders?

Thanks for any ideas or leads to pursue. DETAILS BELOW:

While reading a couple of ebooks purchased from legitimate publishers (O'Reilly and Packt) and loaded via Calibre, I notice that the ereader will hang at odd moments and does not respond to anything I do, including sliding power switch to put it to sleep.

It is difficult to describe the exact circumstances of the moments preceding each hang. In fact, for all I know, they are random and unrelated to the books themselves.

After several minutes, the ereader again becomes responsive.

- Both books were imported into Calibre and copied using it onto the device.

- Both books are available in epub format and I assume the 950 is using that but I don't know how to be certain (both also have parallel PDF versions shown in Calibre)

- One book has an 8MB epub file; other, a 2.3MB epub file

____
FROM the SETTINGS/ABOUT page:

- it proclaims under a "Hack Information" header that this reader has been "Russified: porkupan (boroda) Version: 1.05m". I don't mind that, so long as my reading experience has not been harmed.

Available Space:
- Internal Memory: 1.314GB of 1.452GB

Device information:
- Version: 2.0.00.11300
- Device: 08004610018BA572

rkomar · 11-02-2014, 01:21 AM

In my experience, the answer is "yes". Ereaders tend to have slow CPUs and little RAM, and errors in the ebook produce the symptoms you describe. I doubt that the device you have is faulty in any way compared to others of the same model. It just does that with complicated or broken ebooks.

gponym · 11-02-2014, 11:10 AM

Thanks. I need experienced feedback like yours. This is one of those questions that reading the manual does not help with. ;-)

Will play around more with a few other books to see what percent cause it to freeze.

The fact that my 950 has been hacked and "Russified" does not seem likely to be a factor, then, in your judgment?

rkomar · 11-02-2014, 02:37 PM

I have no experience with hacking Sony devices, so I don't know if Russification would cause problems with the reading application. I do have experience with broken epubs that cause the reader to stop responding, on all of my ereaders (Sony and PocketBook). I watched one occur the other day on my PocketBook Touch Lux. The reading application (based on Adobe RMSDK) starting using 100% CPU and eating up all the memory (I watched it via a telnet session). I guess it's not easy to design epub reading software that can handle every kind of brokenness in the document.

gponym · 11-02-2014, 02:58 PM

That's interesting, and good to know.

I've experimented reading more books now and there is one book that is definitely worse and frequently prone to ~5 min hangs. It didn't take long to find 20-60 sec hangs in a number of others, but behavior seems to vary from book to book. So maybe the ereader is acting normally, after all.

Wishing for a 2013 or 2014 ereader for comparison reading of same books, but don't have one.

10-29-2014, 01:42 AM	#1
gponym Enthusiast Posts: 34 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2014 Device: Kindle pw5se	Should 950 hang at odd moments while reading ebooks? [Apologies for cross post in Sony Reader Dev Corner and regular Sony forum - I'm new to MobileRead, unsure where to put this question, and must make decision soon about returning the 950] Bought a 950 last week on ebay, trying to decide if it's worth keeping. I like using it a lot but it has at least one annoying feature. I want to know from you all: is the hanging behavior I describe in what follows normal for a 950 or most older ereaders? Thanks for any ideas or leads to pursue. DETAILS BELOW: While reading a couple of ebooks purchased from legitimate publishers (O'Reilly and Packt) and loaded via Calibre, I notice that the ereader will hang at odd moments and does not respond to anything I do, including sliding power switch to put it to sleep. It is difficult to describe the exact circumstances of the moments preceding each hang. In fact, for all I know, they are random and unrelated to the books themselves. After several minutes, the ereader again becomes responsive. - Both books were imported into Calibre and copied using it onto the device. - Both books are available in epub format and I assume the 950 is using that but I don't know how to be certain (both also have parallel PDF versions shown in Calibre) - One book has an 8MB epub file; other, a 2.3MB epub file ____ FROM the SETTINGS/ABOUT page: - it proclaims under a "Hack Information" header that this reader has been "Russified: porkupan (boroda) Version: 1.05m". I don't mind that, so long as my reading experience has not been harmed. Available Space: - Internal Memory: 1.314GB of 1.452GB Device information: - Version: 2.0.00.11300 - Device: 08004610018BA572

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11-02-2014, 01:21 AM	#2
rkomar Wizard Posts: 3,052 Karma: 18821071 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Sudbury, ON, Canada Device: PRS-505, PB 902, PRS-T1, PB 623, PB 840, PB 633	In my experience, the answer is "yes". Ereaders tend to have slow CPUs and little RAM, and errors in the ebook produce the symptoms you describe. I doubt that the device you have is faulty in any way compared to others of the same model. It just does that with complicated or broken ebooks.

11-02-2014, 11:10 AM	#3
gponym Enthusiast Posts: 34 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2014 Device: Kindle pw5se	Thanks. I need experienced feedback like yours. This is one of those questions that reading the manual does not help with. ;-) Will play around more with a few other books to see what percent cause it to freeze. The fact that my 950 has been hacked and "Russified" does not seem likely to be a factor, then, in your judgment?

11-02-2014, 02:37 PM	#4
rkomar Wizard Posts: 3,052 Karma: 18821071 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Sudbury, ON, Canada Device: PRS-505, PB 902, PRS-T1, PB 623, PB 840, PB 633	I have no experience with hacking Sony devices, so I don't know if Russification would cause problems with the reading application. I do have experience with broken epubs that cause the reader to stop responding, on all of my ereaders (Sony and PocketBook). I watched one occur the other day on my PocketBook Touch Lux. The reading application (based on Adobe RMSDK) starting using 100% CPU and eating up all the memory (I watched it via a telnet session). I guess it's not easy to design epub reading software that can handle every kind of brokenness in the document.

11-02-2014, 02:58 PM	#5
gponym Enthusiast Posts: 34 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2014 Device: Kindle pw5se	That's interesting, and good to know. I've experimented reading more books now and there is one book that is definitely worse and frequently prone to ~5 min hangs. It didn't take long to find 20-60 sec hangs in a number of others, but behavior seems to vary from book to book. So maybe the ereader is acting normally, after all. Wishing for a 2013 or 2014 ereader for comparison reading of same books, but don't have one.

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