My Forma has lost its mind

disconnected · 11-08-2018, 01:07 PM

It started off well. The combination of the light weight, the asymmetrical bezel, and the rubbery surface make it amazingly comfortable to hold, even for my not terribly strong hands. I like my Oasis One but it actually feels too thin and my hands tend to cramp while holding it. I returned my Oasis Two because it seemed heavy, unwieldy, and slippery, and the front edges felt very sharp. The Forma feels just right.

I like fairly wide margins so the stripe, while visible, is no problem for me. The rest of the screen looked fine, with only a slight shift in brightness across the screen.

I loaded a few books from Calibre and read a bit, with and without the case. The power button was inconsistently sluggish but I figured I could live with it. Having to tip the Forma back and forth a couple of times on startup to get the orientation correct was a bit disconcerting, but not a big deal.

The problems began, possibly coincidentally, when I neglected to disable wifi (I usually keep it turned off on all my ereaders) and the latest update downloaded and installed.

The first sign of trouble was that it started freezing intermittently, requiring a soft reset to get it going again.

I thought I’d start again from the beginning so last night I did a factory reset. It went through the update process again and then I signed on and downloaded a few books directly from Kobo (I didn’t connect to the computer at all). Everything looked good but It was late by then so I disabled wifi and put it to sleep.

This morning I woke it up and it seemed fine at first. Until I switched hands and it locked up again. Soft reset. Same thing. Ok, soft reset again and try not switching hands for a while. Hmm, buttons are working but tapping the right side of the screen does nothing. Tapping the left side of the screen brings up the settings bar. I have it set to auto rotate and am holding it upright in portrait orientation. At some level it knows which end is up because the settings bar appears at the top; however at some other level of consciousness it might think it is in landscape mode and being held accordingly because it interprets a left side tap as a top tap? Ok, another soft reset and now it thinks I have no books downloaded. Sync and one book, the one I was reading, reappears. I re-download two more and open one of them. Buttons, fine. Taps, fine. Hold breath, switch hands. Still ok. Turn to landscape. Buttons fine. Top tap, fine. Right tap, fine. Left tap, nothing. Turn other way up, buttons fine, tap top, right, and left, all fine. Try portrait again. Left hand. Buttons fine, top tap nothing, right tap nothing, left tap, settings again. Right hand, all fine. Left hand, total freeze.

I guess it’s time to give up.

mathil · 11-08-2018, 01:56 PM

I would suggest checking that you have actually downloaded the latest firmware version (it should be 4.11.11980) from the Device Info page. The version upon release had a bug that caused the Forma to freeze unexpectedly, but that was immediately fixed.
If it's not that, download the last firmware from the first post in this thread. To install it, you'll need to unzip the contents of the file inside the /.kobo folder of your device, after connecting it to your computer. Then, disconnect and wait for the device to reboot and update.

disconnected · 11-08-2018, 02:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mathil

I would suggest checking that you have actually downloaded the latest firmware version (it should be 4.11.11980) from the Device Info page. The version upon release had a bug that caused the Forma to freeze unexpectedly, but that was immediately fixed.
If it's not that, download the last firmware from the first post in this thread. To install it, you'll need to unzip the contents of the file inside the /.kobo folder of your device, after connecting it to your computer. Then, disconnect and wait for the device to reboot and update.

Thanks. I do have 4.11.11980. After I did the factory reset and synced, it downloaded and installed automatically.

If I could be sure it was a software issue I might wait for a fix but I'm afraid it might be a hardware problem.

Right now I have it locked to portrait orientation so I'll see how that goes.

k9reeder · 11-08-2018, 02:30 PM

Are you also indicating that you experienced some sync'ing flakiness, with books not all arriving as and when expected?

disconnected · 11-08-2018, 03:06 PM

As a rule I keep wifi off and never sync at all. When I buy a new book I download it to ADE and add it to Calibre and then immediately archive it. So, normally, the only books that stay on the My Books page at the Kobo site are pre-orders. No books get downloaded automatically and that's the way I like it.

To be honest, in my testing I didn't pay much attention to syncing behavior because I've never cared about syncing. I unarchived a few books and synced just so I could get a few books onto the Forma for the purpose of testing the Forma itself without bringing a computer or Calibre into the equation. I was surprised that the previously downloaded books disappeared after a soft reset though.

11-08-2018, 01:07 PM	#1
disconnected Fanatic Posts: 527 Karma: 4504715 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: US Device: Kobo Forma, Libra, H2O2e2, Clara, Auras, Kindles, Nooks, Sony, iPAQ	My Forma has lost its mind It started off well. The combination of the light weight, the asymmetrical bezel, and the rubbery surface make it amazingly comfortable to hold, even for my not terribly strong hands. I like my Oasis One but it actually feels too thin and my hands tend to cramp while holding it. I returned my Oasis Two because it seemed heavy, unwieldy, and slippery, and the front edges felt very sharp. The Forma feels just right. I like fairly wide margins so the stripe, while visible, is no problem for me. The rest of the screen looked fine, with only a slight shift in brightness across the screen. I loaded a few books from Calibre and read a bit, with and without the case. The power button was inconsistently sluggish but I figured I could live with it. Having to tip the Forma back and forth a couple of times on startup to get the orientation correct was a bit disconcerting, but not a big deal. The problems began, possibly coincidentally, when I neglected to disable wifi (I usually keep it turned off on all my ereaders) and the latest update downloaded and installed. The first sign of trouble was that it started freezing intermittently, requiring a soft reset to get it going again. I thought I’d start again from the beginning so last night I did a factory reset. It went through the update process again and then I signed on and downloaded a few books directly from Kobo (I didn’t connect to the computer at all). Everything looked good but It was late by then so I disabled wifi and put it to sleep. This morning I woke it up and it seemed fine at first. Until I switched hands and it locked up again. Soft reset. Same thing. Ok, soft reset again and try not switching hands for a while. Hmm, buttons are working but tapping the right side of the screen does nothing. Tapping the left side of the screen brings up the settings bar. I have it set to auto rotate and am holding it upright in portrait orientation. At some level it knows which end is up because the settings bar appears at the top; however at some other level of consciousness it might think it is in landscape mode and being held accordingly because it interprets a left side tap as a top tap? Ok, another soft reset and now it thinks I have no books downloaded. Sync and one book, the one I was reading, reappears. I re-download two more and open one of them. Buttons, fine. Taps, fine. Hold breath, switch hands. Still ok. Turn to landscape. Buttons fine. Top tap, fine. Right tap, fine. Left tap, nothing. Turn other way up, buttons fine, tap top, right, and left, all fine. Try portrait again. Left hand. Buttons fine, top tap nothing, right tap nothing, left tap, settings again. Right hand, all fine. Left hand, total freeze. I guess it’s time to give up.

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11-08-2018, 01:56 PM	#2
mathil Evangelist Posts: 439 Karma: 287725 Join Date: Sep 2014 Location: Europe Device: Kobo Aura H2O/Glo HD/Libra 2, Kindle PW3/PW5	I would suggest checking that you have actually downloaded the latest firmware version (it should be 4.11.11980) from the Device Info page. The version upon release had a bug that caused the Forma to freeze unexpectedly, but that was immediately fixed. If it's not that, download the last firmware from the first post in this thread. To install it, you'll need to unzip the contents of the file inside the /.kobo folder of your device, after connecting it to your computer. Then, disconnect and wait for the device to reboot and update.

11-08-2018, 02:30 PM	#4
k9reeder Groupie Posts: 173 Karma: 216716 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: Sony PRS-350, Galaxy Tab S2, PW3(7th) Kobo H2O (1st), Forma	Are you also indicating that you experienced some sync'ing flakiness, with books not all arriving as and when expected?

11-08-2018, 03:06 PM	#5
disconnected Fanatic Posts: 527 Karma: 4504715 Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: US Device: Kobo Forma, Libra, H2O2e2, Clara, Auras, Kindles, Nooks, Sony, iPAQ	As a rule I keep wifi off and never sync at all. When I buy a new book I download it to ADE and add it to Calibre and then immediately archive it. So, normally, the only books that stay on the My Books page at the Kobo site are pre-orders. No books get downloaded automatically and that's the way I like it. To be honest, in my testing I didn't pay much attention to syncing behavior because I've never cared about syncing. I unarchived a few books and synced just so I could get a few books onto the Forma for the purpose of testing the Forma itself without bringing a computer or Calibre into the equation. I was surprised that the previously downloaded books disappeared after a soft reset though.