Glo Failed update bricked Glo

[VelvetElvis]

Has anyone fatally bricked their Glo during an update?

Updating the GF's Glo. Battery was 50%-60%. It's stuck on "Restarting".
Tried a paperclip reset. Nothing. Then the hold-the-light switch & power button trick with no luck. USB won't see it either. The only activity I see is doing the paperclip prod, where the LED goes green for a second, then flashes blue a few times.

Called support 2 days ago, and the agent escalated it to level 2, but I haven't heard anything back.

Anyone have any other tricks I could try? I'd hate to think I'm looking forward to yet another replacement.

Update - June 27/13

Kobo support has shipped us a replacement unit, after all suggested methods of reviving the device failed.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by VelvetElvis

Has anyone fatally bricked their Glo during an update?

Updating the GF's Glo. Battery was 50%-60%. It's stuck on "Restarting".
Tried a paperclip reset. Nothing. Then the hold-the-light switch & power button trick with no luck. USB won't see it either. The only activity I see is doing the paperclip prod, where the LED goes green for a second, then flashes blue a few times.

Called support 2 days ago, and the agent escalated it to level 2, but I haven't heard anything back.

Anyone have any other tricks I could try? I'd hate to think I'm looking forward to yet another replacement.

Charge fully (poss with a different USB cable), power off (regardless of what you see on the screen), then hold the light switch while paperclipping? Then repeat, in case your power off was actually a power on.

[VelvetElvis]

Originally Posted by meeera

Charge fully (poss with a different USB cable), power off (regardless of what you see on the screen), then hold the light switch while paperclipping? Then repeat, in case your power off was actually a power on.

Hi meeera;

Tried a brand new cable. With this, as with the previous cable, it appears that Windows doesn't recognize the connection, as it does with a functioning device. I left it connected for 8-10 hours in any event.

There's absolutely no change in the "Restarting" screen at any time. The only response I get from the device is on the LED, when doing a paperclip reset:
The LED glows green for about 1/2 second, then goes blue, then flashes blue 7 times. Then, as they say, "That's all she wrote."

Methinks it's toast.

[Uschiekid]

Originally Posted by VelvetElvis

Hi meeera;

Tried a brand new cable. With this, as with the previous cable, it appears that Windows doesn't recognize the connection, as it does with a functioning device. I left it connected for 8-10 hours in any event.

There's absolutely no change in the "Restarting" screen at any time. The only response I get from the device is on the LED, when doing a paperclip reset:
The LED glows green for about 1/2 second, then goes blue, then flashes blue 7 times. Then, as they say, "That's all she wrote."

Methinks it's toast.

I think you have two choices, since it's a glo and therefore should be under the 1 year warranty, get it replaced.

choice 2, open it up, take out the sd card and get someone with the card's image for the glo and put that on the sd card OR put it on a different SD card, possibly a bigger one if that's what you want.

really though, since it's a glo, you really should be able to get it replaced, especially considering the situation...ie broke during normal fw upgrade.

[tshering]

Did you hold the on-off power slider for 20+ seconds before you did the "hold-the-light switch & power button trick"?

[VelvetElvis]

Originally Posted by Uschiekid

I think you have two choices, since it's a glo and therefore should be under the 1 year warranty, get it replaced.

choice 2, open it up, take out the sd card and get someone with the card's image for the glo and put that on the sd card OR put it on a different SD card, possibly a bigger one if that's what you want.

really though, since it's a glo, you really should be able to get it replaced, especially considering the situation...ie broke during normal fw upgrade.

Agreed. Just got an update from Kobo. Looks like they're going to replace it again.

[VelvetElvis]

Originally Posted by tshering

Did you hold the on-off power slider for 20+ seconds before you did the "hold-the-light switch & power button trick"?

Yes, numerous times.

[samhy]

Originally Posted by Uschiekid

really though, since it's a glo, you really should be able to get it replaced, especially considering the situation...ie broke during normal fw upgrade.

At least one other person has reported the same thing. It got me wondered since the updates are pushed by the company and one can't refuse them, and since sync the Kobo is a regular and expected behaviour, even if the Kobo is more than one year old shouldn't Kobo be responsible for replacing it?

Just curious

[Uschiekid]

Originally Posted by samhy

At least one other person has reported the same thing. It got me wondered since the updates are pushed by the company and one can't refuse them, and since sync the Kobo is a regular and expected behaviour, even if the Kobo is more than one year old shouldn't Kobo be responsible for replacing it?

Just curious

agreed. i'd be mightly pissed if it broke after a year from a fw upgrade that they pushed on me and they didn't replace it.

just normal wear and tear is one thing, bricked through fw (non-sideloaded of course) is a whole other ballgame.

[samhy]

Originally Posted by Uschiekid

agreed. i'd be mightly pissed if it broke after a year from a fw upgrade that they pushed on me and they didn't replace it.

just normal wear and tear is one thing, bricked through fw (non-sideloaded of course) is a whole other ballgame.

Hear, hear!
So far, no sign of Kobo going one way or the other, so I was really wondering out of curiosity.

[VelvetElvis]

Originally Posted by samhy

At least one other person has reported the same thing. It got me wondered since the updates are pushed by the company and one can't refuse them, and since sync the Kobo is a regular and expected behaviour, even if the Kobo is more than one year old shouldn't Kobo be responsible for replacing it?

Just curious

Fortunately, it's still under warranty, as it was a gift to my girlfriend at Christmas. It's a bit discouraging, as it has already been replaced numerous times for a rapid battery discharge issue that was extensively covered in another thread.

I've seen more than a few posts of failed firmware upgrades that required resets, but not a lot where it was unrecoverable. In hindsight, I will in the future ensure the battery is at 100%, the sleep cover feature turned off (all of the previous updates went smoothly prior to obtaining a sleep cover), and the reader powered off prior to connecting.