Touch Black screen of death encountered

jswinden · 07-08-2011, 10:41 PM

My Kobo Touch was at appx. 90% battery charge when I suddenly encountered a black screen that stated the battery was too low and that I needed to plug it into the charger.

Background: The battery on my Kobo Touch has always seemed to discharge rather fast, though I never reported this. I can fully charge it and read appx. Two hours and it will be down to between 80-90%. I expect that with my iPad, but it seems a bit too fast of a discharge with my Kobo Touch.

What happened: I wanted to see if I could download the Washington Post so I went to the Kobo Store. My Kobo Touch didn't want to connect to the WiFi. (Side note, I've consistently had trouble with my Kobo Touch taking for ever to wakeup the WiFi connection. I'm not using Airplane Mode so I'm assuming it puts itself into sleep mode. Anyway it finally awoke and I connected to the Store. The Store front is lacking BTW as I could not find any magazine or newspaper sections. It looks rather primitive.) I did a search for Washington Post and it returned everything but that--mostly unrelated novels that contained neither "Washington" nor "Post" in the title. As I was trying to page through the search returned items the Kobo Touch started acting extremely sluggish then suddenly the Black Screen of Death occurred. I slid the Power button to the right and the Kobo Touch turned itself on and shows the battery level at appx. 90% just like it was prior to the crash. So far it continues to work well but I'm staying out of the store for now!

kiwipippa · 07-09-2011, 12:23 AM

Your battery behaviour sounds a bit suspect but pleased you got it working again.

I had a similar experience today too. I received a battery low warning and within a couple of seconds the screen went solid black with no message at all. I plugged it in to a USB port - no response, still a black screen and not detected by windows or ADE. I started to worry about as I couldn't get any response out of it - even the slider on/off did nothing, removing it from the USB, trying another one - nothing, a dead kobo.

But I decided to try a wall charger - which fixed everything. I got the pretty message saying my kobo was charging, it charged for a few hours and everything seems normal again. I just assumed that because the battery went so flat it wasn't even capable of charging through USB and needed more juice from AC power (no science in that statement at all!). So I am not going to let it go flat again, I don't like the black screen at all.

jackastor · 07-09-2011, 09:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiwipippa

Your battery behaviour sounds a bit suspect but pleased you got it working again.

I had a similar experience today too. I received a battery low warning and within a couple of seconds the screen went solid black with no message at all. I plugged it in to a USB port - no response, still a black screen and not detected by windows or ADE. I started to worry about as I couldn't get any response out of it - even the slider on/off did nothing, removing it from the USB, trying another one - nothing, a dead kobo.

But I decided to try a wall charger - which fixed everything. I got the pretty message saying my kobo was charging, it charged for a few hours and everything seems normal again. I just assumed that because the battery went so flat it wasn't even capable of charging through USB and needed more juice from AC power (no science in that statement at all!). So I am not going to let it go flat again, I don't like the black screen at all.

Im curious about this. What version of the fw are you using? I assume its 1.9.5

That said maybe the Kobo Dudes can respond?

regards

jack

jswinden · 07-09-2011, 10:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jackastor

Im curious about this. What version of the fw are you using? I assume its 1.9.5

That said maybe the Kobo Dudes can respond?

regards

jack

At the time of the incident it was the released version of 1.9.5. I've since installed a beta version for testing purposes.

kiwipippa · 07-09-2011, 07:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jackastor

Im curious about this. What version of the fw are you using? I assume its 1.9.5

That said maybe the Kobo Dudes can respond?

regards

jack

Yes, mine is 1.9.5 too.

Joywalker · 07-12-2011, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kiwipippa

Your battery behaviour sounds a bit suspect but pleased you got it working again.

I had a similar experience today too. I received a battery low warning and within a couple of seconds the screen went solid black with no message at all. I plugged it in to a USB port - no response, still a black screen and not detected by windows or ADE. I started to worry about as I couldn't get any response out of it - even the slider on/off did nothing, removing it from the USB, trying another one - nothing, a dead kobo.

But I decided to try a wall charger - which fixed everything. I got the pretty message saying my kobo was charging, it charged for a few hours and everything seems normal again. I just assumed that because the battery went so flat it wasn't even capable of charging through USB and needed more juice from AC power (no science in that statement at all!). So I am not going to let it go flat again, I don't like the black screen at all.

I was busy for past 3 days so I didn't check my Kobo until now.I'm having the black screen of death! Charging with my laptop now but there's no msg on screen. I don't have a wall charger. What can I do next??

Joe563 · 07-12-2011, 12:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joywalker

I was busy for past 3 days so I didn't check my Kobo until now.I'm having the black screen of death! Charging with my laptop now but there's no msg on screen. I don't have a wall charger. What can I do next??

Try to power-on your reader using the slider and if that doesn't work push the slider and hold for about 10 seconds. In none of this works, wait until the reader is fully charged and try again.

Joywalker · 07-12-2011, 12:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe563

Try to power-on your reader using the slider and if that doesn't work push the slider and hold for about 10 seconds. In none of this works, wait until the reader is fully charged and try again.

Thanks Joe, I tried the slider method but all it shows was a white screen.As you suggested,I'm going to wait till it's fully charged before I try it again. If only I knew such things would happen, I would have never let it run out of battery in the first place!! Making me anxious & panicky!

Joe563 · 07-12-2011, 01:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joywalker

Thanks Joe, I tried the slider method but all it shows was a white screen.As you suggested,I'm going to wait till it's fully charged before I try it again. If only I knew such things would happen, I would have never let it run out of battery in the first place!! Making me anxious & panicky!

A white screen is a good sign since that is the first part of the power-on sequence. It looks like your reader does not have enough of a charge to complete the sequence. So try again when the reader is fully charged. i.e. when the LED turns green.

Joywalker · 07-12-2011, 02:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joe563

A white screen is a good sign since that is the first part of the power-on sequence. It looks like your reader does not have enough of a charge to complete the sequence. So try again when the reader is fully charged. i.e. when the LED turns green.

It's working!!

kiwipippa · 07-12-2011, 03:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joywalker

It's working!!

Pleased to hear it's working again. Based on your experience, if I'd left mine long enough in the USB port it hopefully would have charged as well rather than stay black.

But I'm not going to let it get low enough again to find out if this is the case.

jswinden · 07-12-2011, 03:58 PM

There seems to be two completely different issues here. My black screen of death occurred when the battery was actually at 90% charge, and the KT actually started by sliding the power switch. After which it again registered as 90% charged. To date this anomaly has not recurred.

The other issues you guys listed seem to be related to the battery legitimately being too low to run the reader.

jackastor · 07-12-2011, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jswinden

There seems to be two completely different issues here. My black screen of death occurred when the battery was actually at 90% charge, and the KT actually started by sliding the power switch. After which it again registered as 90% charged. To date this anomaly has not recurred.

The other issues you guys listed seem to be related to the battery legitimately being too low to run the reader.

I dont know if you can comment. But how is the Beta test going? Is it going to be revolutionary?

regards

jack

jswinden · 07-12-2011, 11:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jackastor

I dont know if you can comment. But how is the Beta test going? Is it going to be revolutionary?

regards

jack

We aren't supposed to comment, at least on specifics. I will say it is going well and I remain happy that Kobo is so willing to make improvements and listen to customers.

SCION · 07-13-2011, 12:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jackastor

...Is it going to be revolutionary?

...

Isn't that reserved for Apple?

07-08-2011, 10:41 PM	#1
jswinden Nameless Being	Black screen of death encountered My Kobo Touch was at appx. 90% battery charge when I suddenly encountered a black screen that stated the battery was too low and that I needed to plug it into the charger. Background: The battery on my Kobo Touch has always seemed to discharge rather fast, though I never reported this. I can fully charge it and read appx. Two hours and it will be down to between 80-90%. I expect that with my iPad, but it seems a bit too fast of a discharge with my Kobo Touch. What happened: I wanted to see if I could download the Washington Post so I went to the Kobo Store. My Kobo Touch didn't want to connect to the WiFi. (Side note, I've consistently had trouble with my Kobo Touch taking for ever to wakeup the WiFi connection. I'm not using Airplane Mode so I'm assuming it puts itself into sleep mode. Anyway it finally awoke and I connected to the Store. The Store front is lacking BTW as I could not find any magazine or newspaper sections. It looks rather primitive.) I did a search for Washington Post and it returned everything but that--mostly unrelated novels that contained neither "Washington" nor "Post" in the title. As I was trying to page through the search returned items the Kobo Touch started acting extremely sluggish then suddenly the *Black Screen of Death* occurred. I slid the Power button to the right and the Kobo Touch turned itself on and shows the battery level at appx. 90% just like it was prior to the crash. So far it continues to work well but I'm staying out of the store for now! Last edited by jswinden; 07-09-2011 at 01:07 PM.

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07-09-2011, 12:23 AM	#2
kiwipippa Fanatic Posts: 578 Karma: 613022 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: New Zealand Device: kobo glo, kobo touch (dead), kindle touch, android phone	Your battery behaviour sounds a bit suspect but pleased you got it working again. I had a similar experience today too. I received a battery low warning and within a couple of seconds the screen went solid black with no message at all. I plugged it in to a USB port - no response, still a black screen and not detected by windows or ADE. I started to worry about as I couldn't get any response out of it - even the slider on/off did nothing, removing it from the USB, trying another one - nothing, a dead kobo. But I decided to try a wall charger - which fixed everything. I got the pretty message saying my kobo was charging, it charged for a few hours and everything seems normal again. I just assumed that because the battery went so flat it wasn't even capable of charging through USB and needed more juice from AC power (no science in that statement at all!). So I am not going to let it go flat again, I don't like the black screen at all.

07-12-2011, 03:58 PM	#12
jswinden Nameless Being	There seems to be two completely different issues here. My black screen of death occurred when the battery was actually at 90% charge, and the KT actually started by sliding the power switch. After which it again registered as 90% charged. To date this anomaly has not recurred. The other issues you guys listed seem to be related to the battery legitimately being too low to run the reader.