Help diagnose a Libra 2?

[Kobotomised]

Hi folks, this is my first time working on a Libra 2. It's physically in excellent condition, but it's stuck like this. I can see the firmware update logo and the homepage overlaid. There is a black line but there is no physical damage apparent to the screen.

I've plugged it in to a 45w charger for a couple of hours, no reaction.

When plugged into a Windows PC, I get the USB connection noise but nothing mounts.

Holding the power button, or the power+lower page turn button (as pictured) for 5-10 seconds results in the white LED lighting up for a second and then going out.

Holding the power+upper page button for 10-15 seconds turns on the LED for about 25 seconds, it then blinks once and goes out.

No reaction at all from the screen to anything I have done so far.

I opened it and everything looks to be as it should be. The waterproofing is in place, it's clean and there's no physical damage I can see, or evidence of water or dirt.

I carefully extracted the microSD card. When inserted in a card reader, it does not show the Kobo Reader partition. I did a straight duplication of it with WinImage and got an apparent "good" image that does have the partition - however with that card in, there's no difference in behaviour.

I also tried to download the latest firmware update from pgaskin's site and extracted it to the .kobo folder - still nothing has changed.

Any ideas what component has failed or how I can test further?

Thanks

[JSWolf]

It looks like the screen controller may be shot.

[Kobotomised]

Motherboard replacement, then? Or is it part of the screen?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Kobotomised

Motherboard replacement, then? Or is it part of the screen?

Motherboard replacement. It's a chip on the MB.

One thing you can try before doing a MB replacement is to see if maybe the SD card needs replacement. In the feedback forum is a thread to ask for PMs to be enabled. Also, there's a thread in the Kobo forum to ask for a firmware image. So you try that first.

[Kobotomised]

Cheers Jon - I do seem to have a working image but I'm only guessing. I'll head off and do that

[Highroller]

Sounds like the internal microSD might be corrupted. Even if you cloned it, sometimes the image is already damaged. I’d try flashing a clean Libra 2 image from MobileRead onto a fresh card

[Kobotomised]

Sorry for the delayed update!

In order to do a proper test I bought 2 more XD

One was dead but in great condition, another working but wrecked. A bargain at £168 for the pair. Transplanting the working motherboard from the scratched up one, into the frame with the screen pictured - bad news. Although the screen light came on, the actual screen did not refresh. I further tested by re-transplanting that working motherboard into the dead-but-pristine frame, where it is still working. I have decided that means the screen pictured in my original post is broken.

So I now have a working one in a pristine frame which is worth at least the £168 outlay, I reckon. Yay.

The motherboard that came inside the pristine one turned out to have had the battery pierced and the micro SD card ripped off the board. Fun. I've parked that in the frame with the broken screen to make a broken+broken one.

That leaves the scratched up frame and the motherboard from my original Libra 2. I think it's fair to say given the image on the broken screen, that it failed during a firmware update. With that in mind I am not downloading the image kindly sent to me through DM and writing it to a new microSD card. Update to follow as to whether that motherboard is salvageable.

[Kobotomised]

Sorry for the delayed update!

I decided the only way to really test would be to buy 2 more!! A bargain at £168 for a working one with a very scratched-up screen and frame, and a pristine one that didn't turn on.

I've now downloaded the correct image, too, and written it to a micro SD card.

[Kobotomised]

The screen in the original one from my first post is broken. I put the known good mobo in the frame and the screen lit up but did not refresh.

I wrote the image to a new SD card and put it in the motherboard from the one from my first post and it still doesn't turn on. However, the behavour has changed. Now the light is just flashing slowly. I'll try to write the image again maybe...

[Kobotomised]

Sorry for multiple updates - I thought my original essay had vanished so I did a summary version.

Latest update is that the image writing only works to one of the SD cards I have, not the original one that was in the Libra 2. It just quits or throws an error. The one that worked is slightly smaller capacity so the Image writer software warns me the file will be truncated.

With the successfully written microSD card in or not, all I get is screen lit (but no activity) and a slow flashing LED. I hope this motherboard is OK and it's just an issue with the SD card...but that still leaves me a bit stuck. I could try to pull the microSD card from the working motherboard, risking my sellable one, but that's a Rev A and the one in question is a Rev F.

[Dr. Drib]

You've purchased 4 (four!) Libra 2s so far ??!!??