Mini Setting up problems (The parameter is incorrect)

[lensmann]

I'm sorry to trouble you with a very basic problem. My Kobo Mini has been in my office for a few months thanks to the lockdown, and I've only just been able to access it again. I'm not sure what went wrong in the meantime, but when I recharged it and turned it on, it started the setup process from scratch. Unfortunately, I'm unable to set it up. The Kobo desktop application doesn't seem to detect the device, and attempting to access it via File Explorer on Windows produces a "The parameter is incorrect" error.

The Mini was running a 3.19 firmware before it died. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I might be able to get it working again?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by lensmann

I'm sorry to trouble you with a very basic problem. My Kobo Mini has been in my office for a few months thanks to the lockdown, and I've only just been able to access it again. I'm not sure what went wrong in the meantime, but when I recharged it and turned it on, it started the setup process from scratch. Unfortunately, I'm unable to set it up. The Kobo desktop application doesn't seem to detect the device, and attempting to access it via File Explorer on Windows produces a "The parameter is incorrect" error.

The Mini was running a 3.19 firmware before it died. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I might be able to get it working again?

The first suggestion that comes to mind is to charge it for a couple of hours and then try a manual factory reset. See Manual reset your Kobo Mini for the procedure.

If that doesn't work, you could try re-imaging the internal uSD card. To get the image, post a request in the Kobo Mini sd card image thread in the Kobo Developer's Corner.

[lensmann]

Thanks, DNSB. I've re-flashed the SD card with the image. Oddly, both Linux and Windows report that the internal SD card is only 1.3GB, and the image is therefore truncated when being written.

Anyway, setup still doesn't work - the Kobo Desktop application doesn't see the Mini, so I can't get beyond the setup screen on the ereader. However, I can now mount the drive and access the '.kobo' directory on the Mini, so I'll see if I can use the sqlite hack to bypass registration.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by lensmann

Thanks, DNSB. I've re-flashed the SD card with the image. Oddly, both Linux and Windows report that the internal SD card is only 1.3GB, and the image is therefore truncated when being written.

Anyway, setup still doesn't work - the Kobo Desktop application doesn't see the Mini, so I can't get beyond the setup screen on the ereader. However, I can now mount the drive and access the '.kobo' directory on the Mini, so I'll see if I can use the sqlite hack to bypass registration.

Did you remove the uSD card from the Mini and then flash it? If so, I would suspect that if mounted directly on your computer, it was reporting as being 1.3GB, that the card has corruption issues and should likely be replaced.

[lensmann]

SD card corruption issues would actually make a lot of sense - before I flashed the drive, diskpart on Windows said that the SD card was 1.3GB, but had a 1.7 terabyte(!) partition. I've ordered a new SD card - I'll report back once it's arrived and been installed.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by lensmann

SD card corruption issues would actually make a lot of sense - before I flashed the drive, diskpart on Windows said that the SD card was 1.3GB, but had a 1.7 terabyte(!) partition. I've ordered a new SD card - I'll report back once it's arrived and been installed.

That's one heck of a "large" uSD card. One experiment might be to use the SD Card Associations' SD Memory Card Formatter 5.0.1 for SD/SDHC/SDXC and see what it has to say about the card.

[lensmann]

Just an update to say that flashing the image onto a new 4GB micro SD card and replacing the old card with the new one worked perfectly - I now have a functioning Kobo Mini again. Many thanks, DNSB and davidfor, for your help!