I tried to change the sleepscreen on my Kobo: it turned bad!

[Liseuse]

Hi there,

My daughter asked me to change the sleep screen on her Kobo Aura H2O (2015). I followed some instructions to change the sleep screen to book cover and it worked. But when I tried to have a picture folder I copied a wrong KoboRoot.tgz file in the reader. Since I restarted it the screen is white.

Now the screen stays white, and the led is blinking white. I tried to follow the instructions to put it back to factory setting, it didn't work. Nothing I tried worked.
I can turn it "off" it I push the start button 15 sec, and turn it "on" after: I will see the screen blink black and then go back to white.
My computer can't find it.
The battery was full when it happened.
Is there something I can do to fix it?
Thank you for your help!

[DNSB]

You could try the manual factory reset procedure for the Kobo Aura H2O. It takes a paperclip and some patience to interrupt startup 5 times.

Though since the pictures screen saver only needs a directory called screensaver (all lower case) in the .Kobo directory, I'm curious as to why you used a KoboRoot.tgz file.

[Liseuse]

Thanks for your answer DNSB, I followed the instructions with the paperclip, I don't know if I push it at the right moment because I can't see anything on the screen, except a black blink each time it restarts, and there's no result at all.
Is there's another solution?


the how-to page is in french, but I guess you can read it with google trad:
https://www.phhsnews.com/how-to-add-...book-reader678

and have a good day!

[frostschutz]

on the original H2O, as the device turns on, if someone keeps holding down the power button and tapping both bottom screen corners at the same time, it will trigger factory reset. it takes practice to pull it off though and if you can't turn off/on the reader reliably anymore you might have to add the reset button to the mix too.

it will only work if the bootloader, kernel and recovery partition is still intact. the sd card itself must not be defective. however if the sd card is completely dead or missing entirely, the led will not blink, it will simply light up for a few seconds then turn off again. so blinking is a good sign

if nothing else helps you'll have to get at the internal microsd card and fix it from outside. I posted some advice on how to open the original H2O or alternatively cut a hole in the back for direct microsd access. Unfortunately its more difficult to open than other Kobos

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...66#post2998466
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...84#post2998984

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Liseuse

Thanks for your answer DNSB, I followed the instructions with the paperclip, I don't know if I push it at the right moment because I can't see anything on the screen, except a black blink each time it restarts, and there's no result at all.
Is there's another solution?


the how-to page is in french, but I guess you can read it with google trad:
https://www.phhsnews.com/how-to-add-...book-reader678

and have a good day!

Ah, yes. That worked with Kobo firmware 3.15.0 which was released in 2015 and yes, looking at the KoboRoot.tgz, it would not work with any later firmware revisions.

Afin d'appliquer la dernière version de l'économiseur d'écran, vous devez mettre à jour votre périphérique Kobo vers la version la plus récente de Kobo OS 3.15.0.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by frostschutz

Unfortunately its more difficult to open than other Kobos

Or easy enough to open badly such that the IR (infra red) light-pipe bezel no longer works and then there is no touch input when it's reassembled. The IR LEDs (TX) are on two edges of the main PCB and photo-transistor (or diode) (RX) are on the opposite edges. Curved bits carry the IR light up & down to the edge of the bezel, which is only black in visible light. It's transparent to IR.

[Gone]

Next time, try a safer way.

https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Kob...#Screen_savers

[MGlitch]

The problem is it used to be much harder than adding a screensaver folder in the .kobo directory. And as is often the case older sites have not revised older articles with now bad information. Also unfortunately those articles seem to get served up very reliably by google, which makes sense they probably have a lot of hits from over the years when the info they gave was accurate, and still get hits now because they're served up so high on the search return.

[JSWolf]

@Liseuse make sure the H2O is up-to-date running 4.34 so you can follow the most recent directions for doing things.

[Liseuse]

Thanks a lot for your messages.

I have no idea witch firmare it is on it, but I guess you're right DNSB, I understand better why it didn't work...

By default, when put to sleep, my kobo e-reader displayed the seller logo, not the cover of the last book read (that's why my daughter wanted to change it, she could put any image on her old Sony PRST1).

When I'll be able to make it run, I will put attention on the firmware, but, I think I'll not change anything but thanks for the safer way to obtain it Claude_C.

I'm still trying the factory reset. I think I need one or two hands more if I want to add the paperclip procedure to it!!!

If if doesn't work and I need to open the reader, I will follow the instruction given by frostschutz. Am I supposed to download the firmware somewhere to copy it on the microsd card? My old macbookpro isn't very good at this, because it put everywhere invisible files with a name starting with a dot, that makes mischief.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Liseuse

If if doesn't work and I need to open the reader, I will follow the instruction given by frostschutz. Am I supposed to download the firmware somewhere to copy it on the microsd card? My old macbookpro isn't very good at this, because it put everywhere invisible files with a name starting with a dot, that makes mischief.

If/When you need a copy of the firmware image, post a request in the Kobo H2O: Need SD Image thread.

The process for putting the firmware image on an SD card is different for a Mac so you may need to ask for help with that process.

[frostschutz]

You need this kind of hand for the simultaneous bottom corner tapping...



...while holding the power button with the other hand. Oh well.

Basically everything has to happen simultaneous - device powering on after being off, power button getting held down, and both bottom corners getting tippy taps.

Other devices with more buttons have it easier you just have to hold the powerbutton and the pageflip button, or light button. The touchscreen is not involved anymore...

Alternatively see if you can obtain the card and mount the rootfs (ext4 filesystem) and extract Kobo's regular firmwareupdate KoboRoot.tgz over it. That would fix the issue if it was due to a mod damaging any of the original firmware files.

For restoring the full sdcard image, I'd use a new microsd card and leave the original one intact, as that one also stores your serial number and such things. It might still come in useful. Or otherwise produce a backup image of the original in case you need it or anything that was stored on it, before overwriting it.

I think I had a video uploaded of how to perform the factor reset on the H2O but the video site I uploaded it to does not exist any more.

[Liseuse]

This morning it worked!
I don't know how , but, I the factory reset worked fine, the update too. And it works perfectly.

I'm glad I don't have to open it!

Thanks so much for your help!

[DNSB]

Good to hear that it worked out for you.