PRS505 Invalid Format (tried EVERYTHING! got an ISO?)

[willgordon]

Originally Posted by gwynevans

Have you tried running the standalone official firmware update app (on Windows)?
If it says it's already up-to-date there's descriptions of how to unpack it & edit the version no it compares with - try that?

I ran the firmware update last night, from a Windows machine. Is it worth running again? Any special tricks I should try?

[dynamike]

Originally Posted by willgordon

I ran the firmware update last night, from a Windows machine. Is it worth running again? Any special tricks I should try?

If the firmware update ran okay, I assume that the reader itself, including the "invisible" part of its internal memory where the operating system resides is okay.

In your very first post of this thread you wrote that you already tried to format the PRS-505's internal memory as FAT16. That may actually be the root of the problem. I just checked with my own PRS-505 how the internal memory is exposed when connecting the reader to my notebook. As a Linux user I cannot verify how it looks on OS/X or Windows, but here the situation is somewhat unexpected. When looking at the properties of the three USB devices, all three are shown as "msdos" filesystem. This should translate to FAT16.

I tried to verify this by taking a closer look at the three volumes with the partition editor. Both, the SD-Card and the Memory-Stick where indeed shown as FAT16, just as expected. The internal memory, however, was shown as "not assigned", as if not initialized or not formatted.

The reader appears to have a particular way of handling the internal memory. At least differently compared to the storage cards. This means, you probably cannot simply partition and format it like a regular storage device attached via USB such as an external hard disk, SD-Card or other removable storage media.

What I would try is this: use a partition editor (either windows or mac) and delete the reader's internal memory partition altogether. Do not format or partition it, but remove any partition altogether. The idea is to have the visible part of the internal memory as a totally uninitialized blank slate. I hope that this triggers the reader's operating system to automatically initialize/partition/format it.

After you have done this do a hard reset of the reader. There is at least a chance that at this point the reader becomes usable again.

Further info:
When I got my PRS-505 a few days ago, the first thing I did was to update its firmware. I noticed that all the example content of the reader was still there, untouched. That makes me believe that a firmware update in itself does not modify the visible part of the internal memory at all. Thus it makes sense if that a firmware update does not help to remove a corruption in that area.

Hope that helps and good luck!

[willgordon]

Thanks for all your help, everyone. Alas, I haven't had any luck, and have just had to send the thing into Sony.

These guys are really going to have to step it up if they're going to take eReaders mainstream. They have to work! I wouldn't recommend anybody get one, as I've discovered so many people with similar problems.

Maybe next time a Kindle?

[JSWolf]

After your last "successful" firmarw flash, did you try to load new content on to the 505 and see what happens? What format was the content if you did load any on?

[revmike]

There is nothing wrong with ereaders just because you jacked yours up don't blame the machine, blame the operator.

[willgordon]

Yeah, I did. I bought a book from Sony's online store and put that on the reader, but no success.

So I mailed the thing to Texas to the Sony returns place (it's under warranty) and hopefully they'll get me a new one promptly.

WARNING TO ANYONE GETTING A PRS505: Do NOT get the free laser engraving!! This makes it impossible to exchange at a Sony store if anything goes wrong!!

If there's a problem with your reader, you can exchange for free at the store in person if it is not engraved. If it's engraved, you have to mail it to Sony.

I almost feel like it's a scam, offering it for free, because then you're stuck with the thing and have to mail it off.

[willgordon]

Originally Posted by revmike

There is nothing wrong with ereaders just because you jacked yours up don't blame the machine, blame the operator.

I mean, the thing died on its own literally the day I got it. MANY other people on this very forum have had similar issues. That doesn't seem like "nothing wrong" to me.

[gwynevans]

Originally Posted by willgordon

MANY other people on this very forum have had similar issues.

I don't believe that's true - there have been a couple who appear to have had problems with their firmware updates, but I don't recall seeing many problems other than that. Feel free to point me to the posts, though.

[dynamike]

It is hard to say what happened or what the actual cause of the problem is without being able to check out the physical unit.

[DrMoze]

Nope, it's ALL Sony's fault!!!!!!!

[dynamike]

Right.