Aura H2O SOS...Kobo Aura H2O hanged, Only Blank Screen.

[rraod]

I always keep my books are on the inserted 32GB microSD on my H2O.

I have added some books to microSD using Calibre(64bit 2.60.0 on Windows 10 Pro x64 laptop) and everything went well. But the total no. of books on device does not tally. Thought of removing all the books and start afresh. Deleted all the books from the Library menu.

Added some books using the Calibre to microSD and everything went well. Then I added few more books to the microSD and ejected the device. The processing books bar has appeared and that bar stayed for long time at 6%. I waited and waited and nothing happened. Tried to reset with a single poke on the reset button in the bottom. This restarted the device and again the processing books bar appeared with no progress. After waiting for long time thought something is wrong with the library. Shutdown the device and removed the microSD and restarted the device. The device does not restart and was at a blank screen. Then connected to standalone USB charger and left it alone for few hours. Afterwards found the device booted and seems working.

Thought of doing a clean factory reset from Settings and everything went well. Updated to the latest firmware through Wi-Fi. Left the device without adding any books for few hours. In the night I was going through various menus in the device to check. When I tried to open the Library menu in Settings, suddenly the system hanged with a white screen. Tried to boot with power button but nothing happened.

Next day morning read most of the posts from the Mobileread forum for rescuing the H2O and tried all the tricks explained in them. Tried the reset button with pin, Tried the double tap in the bottom screen with power button. The screen blinks twice and goes back to white screen. Sometimes the power light appears continuously brightly, sometimes it blinks and other-times it just appears dim or switches off.

Charged the device for few hours. Tried connecting the device to the laptop. I get the ding dong sound (which we get when a flash drive or an external drive connected), but the H2O's internal drive does not appear on PC. Pushed the reset button few times. The computer makes the sound of disconnecting USB drive and reconnecting.. but nothing happens. Only the Blank white screen. No squares or black screen...

(Image of Aura H2O attached). You can see the power light glowing in the image. But the screen illumination LED lamps in the bottom are switched off. I am sure the screen is not broken.

I have tried almost all the tricks available on Internet. This device I bought in US in November 2015 through Amazon and now I am in Saudi Arabia. I can not return it on warranty repair.

I have the image of H2O courtesy of frostschutz. But I don't want to open the device until the last resort. I appreciate any help from the members.

[frostschutz]

If the display still manages to blink white-black-white then it's not broken, so that at least is a bit of good news.

Did you remove the external SD card from the device?

Then if this does not work:

[deleted vidme link]

(You might have to use the reset button instead of the power button if the power button is no longer responsive.)

It takes some practice to get it right, so it's quite normal for this method not to work a few times.

If it doesn't work at all then I guess there is no way other than to open up the device and get to the internal SD card slot. A bad SD card could very well be the cause of the issues you describe.

[rraod]

Thanks frostschutz for the reply.

Yes since the problem has happened I removed the microSD card from the device. All my trials for repair are without microSD card.

I tried the double tap with reset button but nothing happened. But with power button and double tapping the screen blinks twice and stops at white screen.

In the video you suggested, the screen blinks two times and at third blink the factory reset screen appears.

In my case it blinks two times and returning to white screen.

Looks like the only option left is to open the case. I thinks I will wait a couple of days and see if I get any more suggestions from other members.

Thanks once again.

[rraod]

My success story in restoring the bricked Aura H2O in detail for others who are in the same situation...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the device has become totally frozen, I followed this procedure to put it back to good use. Remember this procedure will void any warranty from Kobo. Use this method only if you don't bother about the warranty. All the used software tools are freeware.

I had a spare "Strontium Nitro" 32GB UHS-1 microSD card lying around my house. From Frostschutz's image archive, I extracted the image file using WinRAR. The expanded file size was 3,965,190,144 bytes. I made a copy from the original image and renamed it

RRaoD Kobo Aura H20 Nxxxxxxxxxxxx.img

Then I used HxD Hex Editor 1.7.7.0 portable to replace Frostschutz's serial no. with mine.

I found that the blank 32GB microSD in SD Adapter is not recognized by the USB Duplicator Image Writer program. So loaded the microSD card in a multi card reader with USB cable and connected to the laptop. Now the microSD card is visible in the USB Duplicator Image Writer program. Copied the above image file to the microSD card.

I started the Minitool Partition Wizard Home Free 9.1 program and the following partitions were visible on the microSD card.

1st partition: Unallocated 24MB
2nd Partition: rootfs(Ext4) 256MB (Used 59%)
3rd Partition: recoveryfs(Ext4) 256MB (Used 59%)
4th Partition: KOBOReader(FAT32) 3.2GB (Used 0%)
5th Partition: Unallocated 26.3GB

I selected the 4th Partition, and extended the partition into the 5th partition.

Now the 4th partition has become KOBOReader(FAT32) 29.5GB(Used 0%). The 32GB microSD was ready for the Aura H2O.

Now comes the sensitive and toughest part:
-------------------------------------------------
I opened the front cover of Kobo Aura H2O patiently with a thin knife without scratching around. Removed the 4 screws on the corners of the motherboard.

After removing the motherboard from the back, removed the battery connector to isolate the power. Removed the original Sandisk 4GB class 4 microSD card and replaced with the new 32GB card.

Reconnected the battery to the motherboard and pressed the power button and Tada... the ereader has booted. Connected the USB cable between ereader and the laptop as the battery was very low.

With the motherboard out in the open, the touch screen and the buttons on screen were not working. They started working only after the front cover is mounted on the motherboard.

The ereader booted normally and then I logged in to the Kobo account and the main desktop has appeared. Used the Sync feature to download the dictionaries and latest firmware update. Tried all the menus and the ereader was working sweetly. With the new 32GB microSD card, the device boots and functions faster.

Now I turned my attention to the supposed culprit (Original 4GB card!).

I connected 4GB microSD card to the multi card reader and laptop. In Minitool Partition Wizard program, I could see all the default partitions as they should appear.

Is the original card OK? Scratched my head once and thought lets try this card on the device. Replaced the 32GB card with the original 4GB card and started the device. I could not go beyond the white screen.

OK brilliant idea, lets erase everything on the original card and copy the partitions as I have done for the new 32GB card. Then may be I can keep it as a spare card.

Using the USB Image writer program tried to overwrite the partitions on the 4GB card. The process stopped with an error message. In Minitool Partition Wizard tried to remove the partitions on the 4GB microSD card. Surprisingly I could not remove the partitions. The Original card has somehow become sort of read-only and not functioning. Then decided to trash the original 4GB card. Good riddance!

Cleaned the loose adhesive on the back cover, put back the 32GB card and installed the motherboard on the back cover with four screws. After cleaning the screen with a wet cloth, placed the front cover over the device and pressed around the inner and outer edges. The existing adhesive has stuck back nicely. I was happy to note the device looks new without a scratch. I did not bother for the waterproofing, so had not applied any adhesive.

The adhesive used by Kobo is similar to UHU Power super strong contact adhesive (not Super glue), used to stick wood, rubber, plastic etc. In few countries a similar adhesive is used for applying patch to a punctured tube of car tyre. For someone who needs waterproofing, they can use this adhesive after thoroughly cleaning the old adhesive. It should be applied uniformly without any gaps in two thin layers inside the front cover, one around the inner bezel near the screen and the other on the outer portion of the cover, at original adhesive locations. Allow it to dry for 10-40 minutes and press the front cover back firmly. This adhesive being elastic in nature will be easy to remove, in case the device needs to be opened in future without breaking it.

Frostschutz, you are the man. Without your image, my H2O would have become a paperweight. Thanks man.

I started loading the books in the device. As it is a lengthy process, I will post about that later.

Note: A few photos of H2O innards as attachments.

[Alan_S]

This sounds like real adventure, opening device. But, luckily, you managed it.

[ScalyFreak]

Thanks for the detailed post, I enjoyed reading that!

SD cards of all physical sizes and shapes often turn read-only just before they die. It's likely that something has gone wrong inside the card itself, on a micro-circuitry level, and it was probably a matter of time before it failed completely. I agree, good riddance to it!

[rraod]

Finally I have transferred all my library from Calibre to the H2O and everything is fine. Happy with the speed of the device.

I have a Kindle PW from June 2013 and this device is still going strong, whereas my H2O was only 8 months old before it died on me. I take good care of my devices and have not dropped once till now. I also use good quality covers for the ereaders.

After this experience and going through many posts on mobileread forum, I find it strange that so many members request for the image of Kobo series of e-readers. Is it because many member's device's internal microSD cards are failing? How many persons are copying back the image on original microSD cards or replacing with new ones.

Is there a pattern emerging?

Compared to the on-board memory and microSD cards, the on-board memory seems to be good quality and have long life.

I appreciate if members throw some light on this issue...

[frostschutz]

A lot of Kobo users mod the hell out of their devices. A lot of mods that are available for Kobo could not exist in this fashion if it were not for the user-replaceable SD card. With internal SD card no matter what you do you can recover... with soldered on internal memory your device is dead after you take a single wrong step.

With lots of modding comes bricking (in this case temporary)... and lots of people already opened their devices and asked for SD card image before learning about alternative reset methods like tapping the screen corners on the H2O.

With your dead microsd card you have incredibly bad luck although this should be covered by warranty... unless you modded in some way that causes lots of writes?

If possible I never want to go back to a device with soldered memory, I bricked one of my iriver Story HD - using an official firmware image too (they released incremental updates, if you used the wrong file end of story). Also that device would brick if you put books with too long filenames on... only workaround to that was to put all books on the external sd card instead.

All readers firmwares are buggy to some extent, Kobo is no exception. Without mods this line of device would be a lot less popular than it is now. And SD cards are modders best friends.

[howyoudoin]

Originally Posted by frostschutz

[....]I bricked one of my iriver Story HD - using an official firmware image too (they released incremental updates, if you used the wrong file end of story).[....]

I approve of this pun.

[rraod]

I have not done any modding to the internal microSD other than adding a Fonts folder and some extra fonts.

I always use an external microSD card for copying my books on the device, leaving the internal one untouched.

About the warranty, I bought the device in US and presently I live outside US. So there is no way I could claim warranty.

Thanks...

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by rraod

After this experience and going through many posts on mobileread forum, I find it strange that so many members request for the image of Kobo series of e-readers. Is it because many member's device's internal microSD cards are failing? How many persons are copying back the image on original microSD cards or replacing with new ones.

Is there a pattern emerging?

Compared to the on-board memory and microSD cards, the on-board memory seems to be good quality and have long life.

I appreciate if members throw some light on this issue...

This is very hard to judge. Firstly, there's no way to what percentage of the devices this is actually affecting. Sure, there seems to be a lot of requests, but, compared to the total number of devices Kobo has sold, the number of request is probably tiny.

Secondly, the requests for the WiFi image should be counted separately. The last firmware update has messed up some of the devices. The only fix is to restore an image. This is definitely not hardware related and Kobo have sort of acknowledged it.

Then, I'm reasonable sure that a good percentage of the other requests are from people who failed to do a factory reset properly. On a lot of occasions that I ask why someone is making the request, explaining how to do this properly fixes things.

And of course, there are all those who can't resist playing and mess things up (which is why I started collecting images).

How many that leave with a failing that they replace, I don't know. I'm sure that some are. But, I'm also sure that a lot of people are reusing the current card.

[rraod]

Thanks Frostschutz and Davidfor for your feedback on my query.

I was reading in Frostschutz's old post where he was explaining a hack to copy the the internal microSD image to external microSD image without using the computer. Here he mentioned that he has copied the image to the microSD but did not had enough time to notice the version of the backed up image as his H2O has started updating automatically as soon as it is initialized and connected to the Wi-fi.

The picture I have posted shows his (H2O) backup image's firmware version no. as 3.7.0 dated 8/15/14. This is the image from him, I have used for fixing my device.

After I have updated the firmware the version no. was 3.19.5761 dated 12/29/15.

I hope this information will be useful for someone seeking it.

[XJTULWQ]

Hi Frostschutz,
Could you please send the Aura H2O SD image to me?
The link "[deleted vidme link]" is dead now.
My kobo aura h2o can't boot and just flicker and blank after turn on.
I've almost gave up to repair my H2O, but found this forums.
Thanks in advance!

[davidfor]

PM sent.

And please don't revive threads when there is an obvious one that is currently in use. And you posted in first.