Have I Bricked My 505? :(

[jamesbeat]

I tried to install this firmware:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=64510

because I wanted the browse by folder feature, and now I think my PRS 505 is broken!

I bought the reader in the UK, so when I tried to flash it I got an error message saying that the flasher was not compatible with my firmware.
I tried to use the Sony updater to reflash my firmware with the US version.
It erased the old software and said it was writing the new software to my reader, but that's as far as it got.

Now, I get a message (on the reader) telling me that the update failed, please try again.
When I connect it to the PC, it says 'Updating firmware now', but the same thing always happens, it will tell me that it's erasing the old firmware, then that it's writing the new firmware and then nothing.

Most alarming of all is that I am unable to reset (soft or hard) because sliding the power switch does nothing, as does pressing the reset button.

I tried downloading the UK software from the Sony site, but it doesn't appear to have a firmware flashing utility, just the library software.

Any ideas?

[netseeker]

http://wiki.prs-plus.googlecode.com/...s_fw1-0_en.pdf

Try the steps explained under "Upgrading / Downgrading the Reader to Firmware Version 1.1.00.18040" and tell us whether it has worked for you or not...

[jamesbeat]

Originally Posted by netseeker

http://wiki.prs-plus.googlecode.com/...s_fw1-0_en.pdf

Try the steps explained under "Upgrading / Downgrading the Reader to Firmware Version 1.1.00.18040" and tell us whether it has worked for you or not...

Sorry yes, I should have mentioned that I did try that.
I didn't think I'd need to worry about the software version, as I found a post from someone in the UK who had updated to the US version of the firmware without a problem.
When I tried it, I didn't get an error message about my firmware version, the install proceeded as it should until it locked up.
When I try to use the updater, it tells me that my firmware version is 000000000, ie it doesn't even find firmware on my device.

Can anyone tell me what the various red/orange light combinations mean?

Also, I have read some advice saying that I need to charge my book overnight with an AC charger before plugging it into the USB port, using various combinations of USB and wall charger, resetting ten times etc.
These seem like superstitious behavior to me, and if it's true that you have to do such weird things to the device to get it to work, my opinion of Sony is going to sink to even further depths.
If it is true that I need to do some weird combination of charging/resetting, could someone outline the proceedure for me?

[netseeker]

Ok. What color is the LED on your reader showing? Red or Orange? Does it blink?

Anyway, charge your reader using a dedicated wall charger overnight (PSP charger will do). Remove the SD card, connect it to your PC and try the update using Sony's firmware updater again. And btw. i doubt that a hard reset would help, though you could try it. Details here...

Originally Posted by jamesbeat

These seem like superstitious behavior to me, and if it's true that you have to do such weird things to the device to get it to work, my opinion of Sony is going to sink to even further depths.

Well, please keep in mind that you tried an unsupported software update using software from a 3rd party source. It isn't primarily Sony's fault...

[jamesbeat]

Originally Posted by netseeker

Ok. What color is the LED on your reader showing? Red or Orange? Does it blink?

Anyway, charge your reader using a dedicated wall charger overnight (PSP charger will do). Remove the SD card, connect it to your PC and try the update using Sony's firmware updater again. And btw. i doubt that a hard reset would help, though you could try it. Details here...


Well, please keep in mind that you tried an unsupported software update using software from a 3rd party source. It isn't primarily Sony's fault...

That's the part I don't get, how is charging it overnight any different from charging it until it is fully charged?
I have charged it until the red light goes out using a PSP charger, and that doesn't seem to have made any difference.
Sometimes I can get it to reset, but I don't know what it is I'm doing because resetting seems to be an art not a science.
I doubt a hard reset would work, because even if I could get it to hard reset, I presume that would require firmware to be on the device.

I didn't mess the device up by trying to use a 3rd party piece of software. The 3rd party software worked exactly as advertized, but wasn't compatible with my firmware.
The device was fine until I tried to use the Sony software to update the firmware.

The whole reason I was trying to do this in the first place is because the original OS that the device ships with is frankly s**t.
I have a lot of books, and thus found the book practically unusable because of the inexcusable lack of a browse by folder feature, so I was naturally pretty excited about this modified firmware.

When you look at how easy it is to, for instance, restore a non working ipod, the hassle I'm experiencing with my book is indefensible.

Anyway, back to the lights
Sometimes I get flashing yellow, sometimes not. I can't figure out a pattern to that.
When I plug in the PSP charger, sometimes I get a solid red light, sometimes flashing yellow, sometimes no light.
When it's hooked up to the PC, sometimes I get solid yellow, sometimes I get red/yellow flashing, sometimes solid red.

There seems to be no rhyme or reason to this, and although I have got it to reset three times, it seems to be entirely at the device's whim.

[jamesbeat]

And here's another thing I just discovered...

Most of the time, the updater software just hangs (well, it doesn't hang but it never finishes) but a couple of times it has finished, telling me that the update didn't work.
Why would it be inconsistent?

My laptop has three USB ports. The computer recognizes the reader when plugged into two of them, but not the other one- it says that the device is unrecognized.

I've read a few pieces of advise in other posts where people have recommended using a different port, or failing that, a different PC.
I use Linux. I have Windows on a partition of my hard drive because I have an iphone so I need itunes
I have another laptop with only Linux on it.
Is it worth me messing around installing Windows on the other machine to see if it works?
Doing so would be extremely nontrivial, but if there's a good chance I can fix my book, I'll do it...

[jamesbeat]

***SOLVED!***

Ok, so I fixed it....

I'll put this here in case it helps someone else.

Basically, I ended up repartitioning the drive on my other laptop, installed Windows and ran the flash software. Worked first time!

I'm still not sure why this happened, the USB ports in the first laptop appeared to be working fine in device manager and they work perfectly when I use the computer with Linux.
I use Linux for everything, and the only reason I still have a Windows partition at all is because I have an iphone, so I'm tied to itunes

That makes the situation all the more puzzling because I literally installed Windows and then itunes and left it at that.
Because I don't use the itunes store, I don't even let Windows connect to the internet, any downloading of firmware etc for my iphone and ipod is done through Linux and then transferred to the Windows partition.

In a nutshell, what I'm trying to say is that the reason for my problems today, and the reason why I wasted around 12 hours of my life, was entirely because Windows didn't do what it was supposed to.


So what have we learned?

1. Even though I did everything right, it still didn't work because Windows is crap.

2. If you have a UK PRS 505, you can install the US firmware over the existing firmware, even though the original is a higher version number (or at least I was able to)

3. The Sony embedded software sucks. There's no reason why it couldn't give me an error report so I had something to go on, and there is no emergency backup procedure. If you lose your firmware, you also lose the ability to hard reset.

4. Despite the fact that I wasted a whole day doing something that should have taken less than five minutes, it was worth it to get the 'browse by folder' option.
While it doesn't make the device a dream to use, it at least makes it tolerable.

[netseeker]

I'm glad that you got it working.

Perhaps it was a matter with the USB-Ports? I have a similiar problem when updating my iPod touch - it doesn't work on Laptop A because of USB-timeouts, but on Laptop B the update procedure is working fine.

[jamesbeat]

I have no idea. The same usb ports have worked finein windows to flash my iphone, and that takes far longer than flashing the reader.
Well at least it worked out in the end, I'll just avoid connecting the reader to a windows machine in future.