Universal Flasher 2.0 with PRS-505 support!

[JeffElkins]

Glad it's fixed guys!

[Boyodublin]

I somehow messed up the flash and my prs 505 is stuck on the Reader Starting up... pg. I've tried everything....soft reset...hard reset... 10 times soft reset, etc. I'm fully charged and I'm able to connect the reader to my computer and it shows in the Connect Software and through vista hard disk management as connected. I'm also able to move books and files over to the reader, but when I disconnect the usb it continues to show that it is connected until I do a soft reset. When I do this, it again gets stuck on the start up screen. I've tried to reload the Sony firmware, but I only get as far as it telling me that I already have this version of the firmware loaded, so it doesn't allow me to reflash the firmware.
Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks folks...

[JeffElkins]

Originally Posted by Boyodublin

I somehow messed up the flash and my prs 505 is stuck on the Reader Starting up... pg. I've tried everything....soft reset...hard reset... 10 times soft reset, etc. I'm fully charged and I'm able to connect the reader to my computer and it shows in the Connect Software and through vista hard disk management as connected. I'm also able to move books and files over to the reader, but when I disconnect the usb it continues to show that it is connected until I do a soft reset. When I do this, it again gets stuck on the start up screen. I've tried to reload the Sony firmware, but I only get as far as it telling me that I already have this version of the firmware loaded, so it doesn't allow me to reflash the firmware.
Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks folks...

If you are unable to run the Sony Updater because it complains that your Reader firmware is current you have two options.

1. Run Igorsk's Universal Flasher and choose option #7. This will put your Reader into firmware update mode. Then re-run the Sony Updater.

2. Uncompress the Sony Updater (it's really a big zip file) and change the file eBookUpdater/assets/updaterAssets/PRSVersion.dat so that 110018040 reads 110018041 - once that's done, the Sony Updater work at any time.

Good luck!

[Boyodublin]

Thank you so much Jeff for your kindness and patience in answering my recent inquiry about a bricked 505.

I am happy to report that I was successful getting my prs 505 back in working order by following your instructions (the instructions under #2 worked for me). Your response (Jeff) led me to these simple instructions below--which were posted by another forum member by the name of Sebastius--and which turned out to be ideal for a technophobe like me.

Thanks guys!!!
____Here are the more detailed instructions given by Sebastius:

First things first. Download the updater application.

Then open the application with WinRar or WinZip and extract everything to a folder.

Then find the file prs505/eBookUpdater/assets/updaterAssets/PRSVersion.dat

Richt click it. Choose 'Open'. When asked, choose Notepad.

Edit the number, so 110018040 reads 110018041

Then close Notepad and choose to save.

Then start the flash application, PRS505Updater.exe, should work no problemo.

[JeffElkins]

I've been working with the French (1.3) firmware, and I've got it working with Igorsk's 2.1 flasher. Unzip the attached archive and move the inclosed files.505.1.3.00.22070 folder into the root directory with the other UF files. It includes a ported clock with two bug fixes, one for am/pm display being offscreen and the other for incorrect am/pm between 2400 and 0100. The default language is set for English.

One caveat: For some reason if you attempt to replace the iconset you will brick your Reader. I haven't been able to figure out why this happens, perhaps Igorsk or someone else can.

EDIT: It turns out that my iconsets were saved in indexed color mode rather than RGB. 1.1 and 1.2 didn't mind, but 1.3 choked. Saving the iconset as RGB fixes things for 1.3.

[mitchelln]

Hi.

I'm trying to customise on my UK V1.2 PRS-505 using the cool prscustomizer v1.04 software.

I've followed the instructions carefully and copied the contents of the sdcard folder to the root dir of the SD card formatted FAT.

I put it into my reader and it presents the flash options.

I select #5 to make a new image. It says it is creating a new cramfs image. After a couple of minutes the reader reboots itself.

After restarting when I press #6 it then says it cannot find the /tmp/self_upgrade/new_opt.img file.

The flash.log file contains:
Begin flashing -> Mon May 28 00:01:41 UTC 2007
No /tmp/self_upgrade/new_opt.img found!

My reader is a standard unit with no hacks previously installed. Any ideas as to what is going wrong? I've pretty much tried everything I can think of.

The files.505.1.2.00.18050 folder on the SD card seems to contain all the files listed in related posts.

Does there have to be a certain amount of free space on the device or something?

Many thanks!

[gwynevans]

Originally Posted by mitchelln

I select #5 to make a new image. It says it is creating a new cramfs image. After a couple of minutes the reader reboots itself.

Just so it's clear, the reader shouldn't be rebooting at this point & there's something going wrong in the image creation part - it should just return you to the menu at this point. Having said that, I'm not sure what the conditions causing that are...

Maybe try re-running the #5 option after it starts up. You ask how much memory is needed - I don't know, but I think I normally had 50MB or so spare when I was doing mine - How much have you got free? How much is free on the SD card? Is there a log file other than the flash.log?

[mitchelln]

I've tried #5 again after the reboot. Same thing. It just reboots again.

I have 50.4MB free on the device and about 800MB free on the SD card. I have tried a 512MB card from another manufacturer with the same result. I have also tried copying the sdcard directory to SD on a different machine. I have tried FAT and also FAT32 formatted cards. No joy.



There are no other log files. Should the /tmp directory of the device be empty?

Thanks for your help though.

[JeffElkins]

Originally Posted by mitchelln

I've tried #5 again after the reboot. Same thing. It just reboots again.

I have 50.4MB free on the device and about 800MB free on the SD card. I have tried a 512MB card from another manufacturer with the same result. I have also tried copying the sdcard directory to SD on a different machine. I have tried FAT and also FAT32 formatted cards. No joy.

There are no other log files.



Thanks for your help though.

Just out of curiosity, have you tried a fresh download of the PRSCustomizer archive?

[keng2000]

<<<<I select #5 to make a new image. It says it is creating a new cramfs image. After a couple of minutes the reader reboots itself.

After restarting when I press #6 it then says it cannot find the /tmp/self_upgrade/new_opt.img file.>>>>


You misunderstood,
when your build new firmware, sometimes you need reboot by press #6, sometimes it reboots automatically,
after rebooting, all your creating will be deleted, if you press #6 it will say not found.

Check your ebook, new firmware is active.

[mitchelln]

Originally Posted by JeffElkins

Just out of curiosity, have you tried a fresh download of the PRSCustomizer archive?

Yes I have. No difference. The Sony just doesn't want to generate the cramfs file! Is it possible to create the cramfs image off device using the downloaded uk_new_opt.img firmware file? I could then just copy that over.

Thanks.

[mitchelln]

Originally Posted by keng2000

<<<<I select #5 to make a new image. It says it is creating a new cramfs image. After a couple of minutes the reader reboots itself.

After restarting when I press #6 it then says it cannot find the /tmp/self_upgrade/new_opt.img file.>>>>


You misunderstood,
when your build new firmware, sometimes you need reboot by press #6, sometimes it reboots automatically,
after rebooting, all your creating will be deleted, if you press #6 it will say not found.

Check your ebook, new firmware is active.

No, the Sony is rebooting itself when it is creating the cramfs image after I press #5. I am not manually rebooting the device. For some reason the Sony is failing to create the image and rebooting during the process.

[keng2000]

OK. then the problem is back to cannot build the cramfs image for UK FW,
I got once when i did some wrong edit with main.xml

Now back to Jeff.

[JeffElkins]

Originally Posted by mitchelln

No, the Sony is rebooting itself when it is creating the cramfs image after I press #5. I am not manually rebooting the device. For some reason the Sony is failing to create the image and rebooting during the process.

No further ideas...perhaps Igorsk (creator of UF) has a clue.

[JeffElkins]

Well, one further idea. Go to the first post in this thread and download Igorsk's 2.1 archive. Try that.