My Kobo Libra 2 has been stuck in a su doku game for over an hour

[Pjama]

Like I say, my Kobo Libra 2 has been stuck in a su doku game for over an hour - actually, well over an hour and a half.

I tried pressing the button for a long time to get the reader to restart - but don’t want to reset to factory settings.

I know the games are beta, and I see why -
I have had glitches on them on my new Libra 2 before, but have been able to restart with no real problems.

This time is different - I tried connecting it to my computer - but it is so stuck in this screen it is not seeing it. Lights are blazing away - I thought - oh well, I have it set to switch off automatically after 15 minutes, so it will be off when I come back, and I will be able to restart my reader - well, I just came back, and it is looking exactly the same as it did an hour and a half ago! It looks like my only option now is to wait days and days til the battery runs out!

I’m attaching a photo - this is how it has been for the past hour and a half.

This is the kind of thing that ONLY seems to happen to me!

[Pjama]

UPDATE: I pressed and held the start button again and this time it worked to restart my reader!!! Phew! I guess I need to turn off developer mode though? It was totally unresponsive for ages - I switched it off - don’t want that to happen again.
Has anyone else tried using the beta games on the Libra 2 through Developer Mode?

[Deobulakenyo]

what FW is your Libra 2 on?

[Pjama]

Originally Posted by Deobulakenyo

what FW is your Libra 2 on?

The most recent one, 4.31.19086

I don’t know if we are ‘meant’ to be using 'devmodeon' on the new Libra, maybe the games are less stable on the newer device. They were a bit glitchy on the earlier software versions I had, but this never happened. I was enjoying getting back into doing su dokus again, very nice on e-ink.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Pjama

The most recent one, 4.31.19086

I don’t know if we are ‘meant’ to be using 'devmodeon' on the new Libra, maybe the games are less stable on the newer device. They were a bit glitchy on the earlier software versions I had, but this never happened. I was enjoying getting back into doing su dokus again, very nice on e-ink.

You aren't "meant" to use Developers mode at all. It is there to allow developers to get in and see more about the device or to allow them to do things that normal users shouldn't. Strictly, normal users would only use it when asked by Kobo support to turn it on to enable logs to be created for you to send to Kobo. But, in general, it doesn't harm to have it on. About the only issue is that it enables telnet which would be considered a security issue. Some of the options available can be a problem. Don't forget to turn off the "Force WiFi ON" option if you use it, or else you will be wondering why the battery is running down so fast. Of course, that is not a mistake I'd ever make

For the games, I don't know why these are not normally available for the newer devices. But, there is never any real guarantee that they will work. That is why they are under "Beta features". Kobo does maintain them, but, at a very low priority.

For the power button issues you seemed to have had, it should work in three ways:

• Short tap to put it to sleep or wake it.
• Hold for a few seconds to trigger the shutdown and power off.
• Hold for a lot longer to force the device to switch off. I usually say 20 seconds, but, it probably happens before then.
• Turn the device on when it is off.

Both the sleep and shutdown will change the screen. But, they can fail if the device is hanging.

The third one just turns the device off. The shutdown might be attempted, but, it it doesn't happen, the device is just turned off. Nothing is saved and the screen is not changed.

Some devices have a pinhole reset button. All this does it trigger a reboot. It doesn't do a factory reset and it doesn't do anything if the device is powered off (at least on the ones I have). It is only useful if the device is hung. It doesn't save anything, just triggers the reboot. If the Libra 2 had one of these, it would gave been the way to go for you.

None of these should trigger a factory reset. The Libra 2 would need the device to be off and for one of the page turn buttons to be held down when the device is turned on. If something happened and you did see a factory reset at one of these times, it basically means it was going to happen no matter what. If you let the battery run down and started it, whatever was going to happen would have happened. You are more likely to get to see the setup triggered than a factory reset. That could happen if the database was badly damaged by whatever happened. While a bad thing to happen, it isn't the full factory reset. You will lose the reading status for the books, but, they will still be on the device for you to read.

[Pjama]

Ah, yes, I forgot the requirement to hold down one of the page buttons at the same time as start to trigger the reset - I needn’t have worried, then.

I did hold the button down for at least twenty seconds, though, and it was totally unresponsive. I think my Aura One used to have the pinhole reset - definitely came in handy a few times, and I would certainly have used it today if it were on the more modern devices.

I know I am not 'meant' to be using developer mode on any of my kobos. I just wondered if maybe there were some known bugs wrt using it on the new devices.

All is good with my Libra 2 now, so I’ll leave developer mode off for now.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Pjama

I did hold the button down for at least twenty seconds, though, and it was totally unresponsive. I think my Aura One used to have the pinhole reset - definitely came in handy a few times, and I would certainly have used it today if it were on the more modern devices.

The only thing that you might see happen when you hold the power button down for 20 seconds is the front light going off. I don't think the power LED will do anything, unless it is already on and then it will turn off. This just turns the device off in a fairly brutal way (imagine pulling the power cord from a PC).

After that is done, the device should be off and the power button should turn it on. I think I have needed to repeat this but for a little longer. But, most times it fails, it is because I didn't hold the power button in the off position properly. Hopefully this hasn't changed with the new devices.

[Pjama]

I’m addicted to the su doku on this thing, so I ended up back in developer mode just now, and it has remembered exactly where I was in the puzzle! Hopefully it doesn’t crash this time. I think I’ll just toggle the mode whenever I want to do a puzzle and make sure it is off the rest of the time, just in case that makes a difference.

Re the button presses, I actually did all the permutations of presses I usually do if my reader freezes, I just didn’t note them all down as I think my posts are long-winded enough already.