T68 - Multiple problems with reboots

[hubertphava]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I sometimes get the impression that I'm alone in having a T68 that works absolutely fine!

Second! I'm the second. Do i win a silver medal, uh?

:-)

HP

[maxlauhk]

Do you guys realize that the upper part of the screen is more yellowish than the lower part in T68? I got a replacement but found the same problem. The issue is only apparent when the frontlight is on and when without much background light.

Other than this, my T68 is working fine.

Max

[hubertphava]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I'm following the debate on this thread with much interest.

One question I do have is this:

Is there any owner of a T68 who has NOT had the bootloop problem who has also taken it down below the 50% level?

Present!
I've recharged three times my t68: first timeit was 40% of battery; second 18% and third 20%. The values were read on "info" section of the meno ( or whatever is its name).
I'd also searched in "battery usage" and found that related phone apps were the culprits of the power drainage so, as reported in another post, i've put definitively my T68 in Airport mode.

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I
On a related issue, I suppose (because of this widely reported problem), that I may go ahead and wait until a (presumably) newer T68 comes out with the carta screen technology. My guess is that this will be happening not too long from now.

This is my second t68, a Booxtor one. My first one was a Lynx.
Note that i've given back the Lynx after three days because it had one of the hardware buttons defective so i cannot say nothing about its software.
My actual t68 is part of the second batch sold Booxtor ( i've waited for some days for having it shipped for this, as correctly reported wen i put the order).
After receiving it, i've upgraded ( with Booxtor firmware) and rooted it; I've noticed a *little* improvement in touch precision but it remains not so accurate as i like ( for example, tapping a note, often remains a PIA expecially if the number to be tapped is near the bezel).

In the , i'm satisfied by my T68: it doesn't have the "typographic" rendering quality of a Bookeen ( insuperable, IMHO) and perhaps is not "so white" like some other reader but it's a very fine piece of hardware and for my reading is very good.

HP

[Areinu]

There is one more issue with Onyxes that I always forget about. The audio jack seems to be very low quality. The sound is choppy if I move the plug even a little bit. I tried few headphones and they all had the same effect. That said, I only checked to see if audio works, it's not like I'm using it.

I also wish there was physical home button. After hacking and rooting I'm using a trick to hide status/navigation bar permanently and I use button savior to get around. But due to bad touchscreen accuracy I often press things around button savior icon(it's set to the biggest size) instead of button savior itself. That's because the accuracy is the worst near the edge.

Originally Posted by maxlauhk

Do you guys realize that the upper part of the screen is more yellowish than the lower part in T68? I got a replacement but found the same problem. The issue is only apparent when the frontlight is on and when without much background light.

Other than this, my T68 is working fine.

Max

I've opened white page and tried using middle and max brightness levels. I saw no difference in whiteness/yellowness of different parts of the screen. Even if it was there I wouldn't mind. Nook had very uneven lighting and it didn't bother me.

[maxlauhk]

Originally Posted by Areinu

There is one more issue with Onyxes that I always forget about. The audio jack seems to be very low quality. The sound is choppy if I move the plug even a little bit. I tried few headphones and they all had the same effect. That said, I only checked to see if audio works, it's not like I'm using it.

I also wish there was physical home button. After hacking and rooting I'm using a trick to hide status/navigation bar permanently and I use button savior to get around. But due to bad touchscreen accuracy I often press things around button savior icon(it's set to the biggest size) instead of button savior itself. That's because the accuracy is the worst near the edge.



I've opened white page and tried using middle and max brightness levels. I saw no difference in whiteness/yellowness of different parts of the screen. Even if it was there I wouldn't mind. Nook had very uneven lighting and it didn't bother me.

Areinu,

Concerning the uneven whiteness, did you try under no/low background light (e.g., turns off your room light bulb)?

Max

[afainber]

Originally Posted by Areinu

I also wish there was physical home button. After hacking and rooting I'm using a trick to hide status/navigation bar permanently and I use button savior to get around. But due to bad touchscreen accuracy I often press things around button savior icon(it's set to the biggest size) instead of button savior itself. That's because the accuracy is the worst near the edge.

If you are rooted, you can remap any of the hardware buttons (including the 4 joystick directions and the central button) to any button you'd like.

[Areinu]

Okay, I'm still getting reboots on ~50%. And I still get the device randomly without juice after night of not using it. I'm sending it back hoping they'll fix it/send me replacement. Hope the service will be fast, because I don't like carrying tons of physical books around with me.

[smayonak]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

I won't pay for a device that doesn't work and just hope that it will work someday. For $199 it should work from the start. A few devices out of a large number will always have a problem but to have so many that have numerous defects is just bad business. If it works now after an update they should have delayed production until now.

I completely agree with you. Considering that the new Kindle Voyager offers cutting edge specs (including features like a new kind of pressure sensitive touchscreen, magnesium shell, 300 DPI, etc...), it's hard comparing it against the T68. The only thing I can say is that I needed Google Books, A2 mode, RSS and a larger screen and the T68 is the only device that provides that kind of experience.

What I wouldn't give for Amazon to release such a device. :-(

But as it stands, it's working great. It's just a shame that Onyx didn't do proper validation testing. They should have given out early Alpha builds at reduced prices. And given free copies to the development community. That way by the time they have a prime time release, the product could get great reviews.

[maxlauhk]

Originally Posted by smayonak

I completely agree with you. Considering that the new Kindle Voyager offers cutting edge specs (including features like a new kind of pressure sensitive touchscreen, magnesium shell, 300 DPI, etc...), it's hard comparing it against the T68. The only thing I can say is that I needed Google Books, A2 mode, RSS and a larger screen and the T68 is the only device that provides that kind of experience.

What I wouldn't give for Amazon to release such a device. :-(

But as it stands, it's working great. It's just a shame that Onyx didn't do proper validation testing. They should have given out early Alpha builds at reduced prices. And given free copies to the development community. That way by the time they have a prime time release, the product could get great reviews.

Hope Onyx take your advice seriously.

[dnastase]

Originally Posted by smayonak

I completely agree with you. Considering that the new Kindle Voyager offers cutting edge specs (including features like a new kind of pressure sensitive touchscreen, magnesium shell, 300 DPI, etc...), it's hard comparing it against the T68. The only thing I can say is that I needed Google Books, A2 mode, RSS and a larger screen and the T68 is the only device that provides that kind of experience.

What I wouldn't give for Amazon to release such a device. :-(

But as it stands, it's working great. It's just a shame that Onyx didn't do proper validation testing. They should have given out early Alpha builds at reduced prices. And given free copies to the development community. That way by the time they have a prime time release, the product could get great reviews.

I would still choose T68 over Voyager.
The Voyager screen is not pressure sensitive, but those buttons.
T68 has 256 DPI if I'm not mistaking, it's very close.
But it also has: external card, bluetooth, audio and Android, which are big advantages IMHO.
Theoretically though, as we know, bc the implementation turned out to be buggy

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by dnastase

I would still choose T68 over Voyager.
The Voyager screen is not pressure sensitive, but those buttons.

What do you mean "The Voyager screen is not pressure sensitive"? It is a touch screen.

(The device is called the Kindle "voyage", BTW, not "Voyager")

[dnastase]

Originally Posted by HarryT

What do you mean "The Voyager screen is not pressure sensitive"? It is a touch screen.

(The device is called the Kindle "voyage", BTW, not "Voyager")

A "pressure sensitive touchscreen" is a touch screen that detects not only if you touched or not but how much you're pressing when you touch.

Oh, yes, Voyage. My bad, I blindly trusted the title of some of the reviews out there.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by dnastase

A "pressure sensitive touchscreen" is a touch screen that detects not only if you touched or not but how much you're pressing when you touch.

The only touchscreens that can detect how much pressure you're using are (to the best of my knowledge) things like Wacom touchscreens, which operate with a stylus. The pressure sensing is actually done by the stylus, not the screen.

[smayonak]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The only touchscreens that can detect how much pressure you're using are (to the best of my knowledge) things like Wacom touchscreens, which operate with a stylus. The pressure sensing is actually done by the stylus, not the screen.

The earliest tablets and smartphones used resistive touchscreen technology, which was pressure sensitive. They basically sucked. I think resistive tech supports variable pressure sensitivity. I'm not sure what Wacom tech uses.

By the way, guys, I tried charging my T68 to max and draining it all the way. It charged to 99% fairly quickly, but then took 10 hours to fully charge. When batteries approach full they begin to charge more slowly, which relieves wear and tear on the anode. At max charge, anodes decay more rapidly and suffer from higher temperatures. Higher temps accelerate entropy.

That suggests there's some kind of sensor issue. The battery itself contains some electronic overhead (as someone else pointed out). Batteries also don't output the same consistent amount of power as they hover near failure. Undersupplying power to an electronic device will cause it to fail. The battery itself could be causing the issue. Firmware might not be able to correct that issue.

Calibrating the battery will help offset this issue, but the looping should continue as the battery runs out of juice.

For those who wanted to drain their device down, I normally would suggest putting it into recovery mode -- I just learned that the Onyx's recovery mode has an auto-shutdown feature in it. If you leave it in recovery mode, it will boot into the operating system. Unfortunately, I don't see any good method of draining it down, other than the hard way.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by smayonak

By the way, guys, I tried charging my T68 to max and draining it all the way. It charged to 99% fairly quickly, but then took 10 hours to fully charge. When batteries approach full they begin to charge more slowly, which relieves wear and tear on the anode. At max charge, anodes decay more rapidly and suffer from higher temperatures. Higher temps accelerate entropy.

That suggests there's some kind of sensor issue. The battery itself contains some electronic overhead (as someone else pointed out). Batteries also don't output the same consistent amount of power as they hover near failure. Undersupplying power to an electronic device will cause it to fail. The battery itself could be causing the issue. Firmware might not be able to correct that issue.

Calibrating the battery will help offset this issue, but the looping should continue as the battery runs out of juice.

For those who wanted to drain their device down, I normally would suggest putting it into recovery mode -- I just learned that the Onyx's recovery mode has an auto-shutdown feature in it. If you leave it in recovery mode, it will boot into the operating system. Unfortunately, I don't see any good method of draining it down, other than the hard way.

I was curious to see if my Lynx would be affected by the reboot loop issue, so I didn't charge it at 50% (which is what I usually do with all of my readers) I let it go until I got a message that it needed to be charged (8% battery left) and I didn't experience any reboots.

Shari