My Reader is jacked up...

[NatCh]

Excellent news! I'm glad you got it figured out, gio1050.

[Amadeus]

Originally Posted by Meanballer

As soon as I had gotten into the office where my charger was, by the way, I plugged in the AC and did a soft re-set with NO problem.

So it appears that this is a power management issue and Sony needs to post some Troubleshooting advice on their site, as three different techs advised me to send my unit into for repair, when a simple solution to a known engineering issue existed.

Sony have a record of doing this. I bought a Vaio notebook a few years back for occasional use only when I travel abroad. Having not used it for a couple of months it completely refused to boot up. I plugged in the charger, but the charging light didn't even come on. Left it like that for hours - still no change. Called Sony support, who said it was probably a mainboard problem - $2000 to fix - which was more than the computer cost me!

Before consigning it to the computer junk cupboard I decided to leave it on charge. A full day later the yellow charging light came on, although it would still not boot up. After another day it came up and has been fine ever since.

Thank you, Sony. Not!

[UncleDuke]

this happened to me today. too much reading and not enough charging or transfering. this is what happens when you load those books in the sony download section. sherlock holmes, zorro and the others pit a strain on your battery.

[phigdon]

I have noticed this as well, especially when playing MP3's. Charging did the trick for me too. I just plugged the reader in and left if overnight. worked great you just have to let it charge for a few hours.

[Rp3]

Originally Posted by Meanballer

Okay..........

I just spoke to a Level 2 Tech Support person. The issue did NOT surprise him. He explained that the reader is prone to hangs when the battery is low. It can manifest itself in a variety of ways, including what happened to me - which was an attempt to use the reader after a couple/few weeks of inactivity. Even though the inactivity had been preceded by a full charge, there is battery drain even when the reader isn't powered on. So with a low battery, the system tried to reboot but couldn't finish.

As soon as I had gotten into the office where my charger was, by the way, I plugged in the AC and did a soft re-set with NO problem.

So it appears that this is a power management issue and Sony needs to post some Troubleshooting advice on their site, as three different techs advised me to send my unit into for repair, when a simple solution to a known engineering issue existed.

Guys this was a life saver, I never thought of plugging it in, by my story is a bit wierder (SP?). I was reading on the plane last night and the reader was completely charged last week. I was reading a Stephanie Plum book (which make me laugh) and got to the last page and it locked up. Some wierd numbers/chars on the screen, I have seen this on every chapter so I figured it was a graphic that was just converted to numbers and letters no big deal. Well it wouldn't turn off? It just sat there, and earlier in the flight I would turn to page 280 and the reader reset, it did this 3 times, but I go to 281 backwards and it worked fine? Hmmm, so it stays with this letter/num page all night, and this AM it's still there. I get on here read your post and figure powering it might help. this was after repeated hard resets, soft resets, etc.. Nothing, so I plug it in and in 2 seconds the thing reboots.

Is it me or does it seem like the battery doesn't last near as long as it used to, and no way does it get 5000 page turns or whatever it does. Alsmost have to take a charger with me on trips now ...

But again this site is a life saver. I have already been with out my reader for a bit due to a broken screen, I didn't want to send it back again.



Cya

[gio1050]

After having my reader now for about seven months, I seem to be experiencing the same thing. The manual says the battery is good for about 5000 pages turns. It also says that the battery is used only when turning pages. Once the screen is charged, it is no longer used, and I believe that. I also believe that no matter what state the reader is in, there is a drain on the battery, and not a slow one. I've come to realize that I need to charge my battery hours before I know I'm going to be using it. And the battery indicator is useless. It always shows at least 2/3 capacity, even when it's completely drained.

The fact that the battery drains so quickly even when not in use AND the incorrect battery life indicator are exactly why it was so hard to troubleshoot the original malfunction I had. It just seemed obsurd that it would need to be charged.

Oh well, that's the life of an early adopter. I know this isn't the first epaper reader, but it is still a new technology, and I do still like it. I just hope the battery doesn't lose it's life altogether anytime soon!

[Roy White]

After reading this.. I went and plugged mine in. Even though the battery shows a charge with only one Icon down. Is it Ok to leave plugged in for 6 hours while I go play golf?

[HarryT]

Perfectly alright. Leave it plugged in until the red light above the power switch goes out. Then, turn the Reader on and, with it switched on, unplug and re-plug in the charger - that will reset the battery meter so it shows the correct reading.

[The GreatGonzo]

Hmmm... funny ... when problems similar to this one are discovered over at the Iliad forum, people scream "class action suit, money back, head on a silver platter etc..."

Are you Sony guys just a lot mellower in general or what?

[NatCh]

I think our device is closer to the original advertised capabilities, is all. Well ... that, and we didn't pay $700~$800 for it

[JSWolf]

For $700-$800, I can get a laptop. No way I'd want to pay that much for a reader.

[HarryT]

Plus the fact that the battery meter issue is a purely "cosmetic" bug. It doesn't affect the actual operation of the machine in any way.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by The GreatGonzo

Are you Sony guys just a lot mellower in general or what?

Well ...
SONY sorta, kinda, keep their promises.
SONY tries not to piss off their customers by making unrealistic promises. Unlike some other ebook reader manufacturing companies.

You can even get 7000 pageturns if you try really, really hard
just:
- take out the memory card
- load a few *.lrf books to the internal memory
- open a book
- charge the READER
- If you can read very, very quickly (like 7000 pages in three days ;-) you CAN, under optimal conditions, get up to 7000 page turns on one charge.

They even corrected the database in their CONNECT shop. The next day after I submited a "bugreport" about the "The color of magic" by Terry Pratchett missing from the search results the search worked the way it was supposed to - The color of magic is now the first returned result

[Roy White]

Plus... We're just nicer!

And.. More better looking...

And... Smarter...

And... More humble!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by kacir

Well ...
SONY sorta, kinda, keep their promises.
SONY tries not to piss off their customers by making unrealistic promises. Unlike some other ebook reader manufacturing companies.

You can even get 7000 pageturns if you try really, really hard
just:
- take out the memory card
- load a few *.lrf books to the internal memory
- open a book
- charge the READER
- If you can read very, very quickly (like 7000 pages in three days ;-) you CAN, under optimal conditions, get up to 7000 page turns on one charge.

They even corrected the database in their CONNECT shop. The next day after I submited a "bugreport" about the "The color of magic" by Terry Pratchett missing from the search results the search worked the way it was supposed to - The color of magic is now the first returned result

I have to give a thumbs up to Sony for their customer support. It just seems to be doing better then expected and that's very good.