Advice: do not buy a sony reader. Battery issues and support sucks

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Dave W

I've been following this thread almost from the beginning and no one seems to have looked at the problem the way I have. When I first got my 600, I plugged it into a USB wall charger that I had for my iPod. It appeared to charge okay, but died in less than an hour. I did notice that the charge light went out in about 5 minutes which seemed a little weird. So I plugged it into a USB port on my notebook computer. Then it took much longer to charge and behaved as I would expect when I used it. I wrote to Sony and they told me that, unless I bought their wall charger, it had to be hooked to a port on a computer. The charge logic actually looks for some signal on the USB port to tell the reader that it is connected to a computer. Many in this forum claim that a play station charger will work, but it is possible that it won't work with all units. I notice that the wall charger input is labeled as 5.2 V. All of my Radio Shack wall chargers are 5.0 volts. It appears that Sony has done everything in their marketing power to force you to buy their charger if you don't want to always be hooking it up to a computer.

From what I can see in the original poster's message, he was running afoul of Sony's rigid charging spec. It was exactly what I observed until I used a PC USB port. I think it is rather arrogant of Sony to force you to buy their wall charger. That attitude could lose them some loyal fans who will jump ship and buy a competing product.

Dave W

Dave are you talking about using the USB connector from a wall charger or the round PSP connector. I've never heard of a case where the round PSP charger connection didn't work.

The fact that some USB wall chargers and computer USB ports don't work has been discussed in a number of threads here.

[church mouse]

Mains charging - I have been using an old Creative mp3 player charger (5.2V) I had lying around, with no problems for 18 months (505 then 300).

On holiday I use a PowerMonkey travel charger with the circular fitting. I've never had an issue with charging. The PowerMonkey is really nice because it is light enough to be attached and charging the reader whilst one is still reading.

USB has to be by computer.

[tracyprime]

Originally Posted by grooks

How are you charging the 600?

Are you using a SD or PRODuo card with lots of books on it?

Do you have music files on your 600? Maybe they are playing in the background.

I do not keep music files on it. I do backup with an SD card, but keep it removed. I bought the sony wall charger. I have tried both methods. It seems to go to full battery as soon as I plug in the wall charger, and since the battery life is reading full, the red charging light does not come on. It did not have any battery life after I unplugged it 3hrs later. I have left this thing charging on the USB for overnights (3 days of attempts). There must be some sort of trick I don't know about. Soft-reset and hard resets have not worked thus far. Sony support has not been able to help...

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by tracyprime

I do not keep music files on it. I do backup with an SD card, but keep it removed. I bought the sony wall charger. I have tried both methods. It seems to go to full battery as soon as I plug in the wall charger, and since the battery life is reading full, the red charging light does not come on. It did not have any battery life after I unplugged it 3hrs later. I have left this thing charging on the USB for overnights (3 days of attempts). There must be some sort of trick I don't know about. Soft-reset and hard resets have not worked thus far. Sony support has not been able to help...

My response/questions were for Dave, but ... it certainly should work with the Sony charger with the round psp-type plug. If that isn't working it sounds like you may have an actual hardware problem of some kind with your reader.

[tracyprime]

Originally Posted by kennyc

My response/questions were for Dave, but ... it certainly should work with the Sony charger with the round psp-type plug. If that isn't working it sounds like you may have an actual hardware problem of some kind with your reader.

Thanks, Kenny. That's a real bummer cuz I LOVE this reader. I guess I will have to send it in to Sony and live without it for awhile. Does anyone have the Daily reader? I would love to upgrade while I am waiting for the 600 to get serviced...

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by tracyprime

Thanks, Kenny. That's a real bummer cuz I LOVE this reader. I guess I will have to send it in to Sony and live without it for awhile. Does anyone have the Daily reader? I would love to upgrade while I am waiting for the 600 to get serviced...

Be sure and check with Sony support. But as I said it definitely sounds like something wrong to me.

I've got the 900. Though I mostly use my 505.

[PDowns]

Originally Posted by dubyajay

Where to begin? The sony reader is the most expensive paperweight ever. It doesn't work well as a doorstop, so it is a paperweight. It is useless as a reader because the battery doesn't last more than 400 page turns which means the only way to use it reliably is to be plugged into a wall. If you do buy one, be prepared for abominable and rude "support" in your futile attempt to make the expense worth it.

I pre-ordered the Sony reader in in August 2009. It arrived in mid-September. I was thrilled. No more toting around unwieldy books! It works pretty well with epubs if you can ignore the glare. Pdfs are extremely difficult to read because you have to make the text larger and you'll need to use the vertical and horizontal scrollbars to read a pdf set on 'large'. Ugh. The firmware is weak on too many levels to list, the glare is awful and it doesn't come with a wall charger so you have to pay extra for that. Works well only in full sunlight and if you're near a power source.

For epubs, it worked pretty well on the first charge. The second charge only gave me about 300 page turns - well short of the promised 7500 page turns. I went through the recommended steps to reset the unit. It still wouldn't hold a charge for more than 300 page turns. I went through this 3 or 4 more times. So since I didn't want to be plugged into a wall while reading, I reverted back to paper books.

In an effort to make my $299 worth the expense, I called sony "support" and they said to return it and they would send me a `refurbished' unit. I wasn't happy about the `refurbished' part, but my only other option was to live with it the way it was and eat the cost. So I packaged it up, went to the post office and paid for shipping and insurance to send it back.

A month later I received my `refurbished' unit. On the first charge, I got 400 page turns. Yes, that was an improvement over 300, but not by much and not even close the 7500 promised. I would have been happy with 2000 page turns but it didn't come close to that.

I mainly use the reader to read. I don't take notes, rarely use the dictionary and don't listen to music on it. I tried to reset the refurbished unit, but the reset button didn't work. So not only was the battery compromised but the reset button was broken. Back to the hell called sony support.

Since I'd paid for the shipping and insurance the first time, I asked if they could send a ups pickup ticket since the burden really ought to be on them at this point. They did. Or they said they did. I waited for 3 days for UPS to show up which they didn't because they never got the shipping label. So I called Sony `support' again. They re-issued another pickup. UPS never got that label either so they couldn't pick it up.

When I called sony "support" about this new issue, Rude Bernice insisted that they did send a pickup label and that UPS gave me wrong information. She insisted that sony did nothing wrong and it's ups's fault. She would not listen to anything I said, constantly interrupted and wouldn't let me speak to a supervisor. She claimed the issue was resolved, even though I (the customer) said it wasn't.

I still have the broken unit at my house and UPS is not coming to get it because Sony will not issue the right type of UPS ticket. I could just send it back at my cost, but that is $30 that I could be putting towards a kindle or nook, instead of this brick built by Sony.

So now I'm stuck with this piece o' crap that I paid $299 for. Plus the book cover and wall-charger. Total: $379 in Sony's pocket and I get nothing except a load of stress from Rude Bernice who really should be fired if what I saw was her best work. Or at the very least, given some training in customer service.

Now I have to go through the hassle of getting it to the hazardous waste facility to throw it out. Save yourself money and headache - do not buy a sony reader. Or any sony product, for that matter. Not only do their products suck, but their customer support makes Dell look like Zappos.

God I hope your wrong cause I am really excited! I just picked up my new PRS-600 yesterday and got my credit of $25.00 worth of new books from the sony store, and I am loving it so far...
But I bought mine at Best Buy with there warranty so I will be dealing with them not Sony.

[Dave W]

I was talking about using a wall USB charger. It works perfectly to charge an iPod and other devices, but won't charge the Sony reader. The main reason I responded to this thread was that the symptoms the OP described were exactly what I observed when using the generic USB charger. I sounded off about Sony's attitude for a couple of reasons. First, they really should have included a wall charger with the unit for the $300 price. Second, $29 for a wall charger is a bit steep. Low current 5 volt chargers go for around $10. I have bought chargers (really power supplies) from Radio Shack that have a switch for selecting a number of different output voltages and an assortment of adapters to match any device you have. I paid less that $30 for that device, but none of the settings are suitable for the Sony reader. I haven't bought the Sony wall charger just because it is priced too high. I'm reluctant to buy from eBay because I don't trust what I'll be getting and need to add shipping anyway which raises the price.

Having said all of that, it does seem as if the OP has a bad reader. Mine is fine as long as I charge it from my computer USB port. I find that a nuisance because the Sony Library opens automatically and connects to the reader. I usually click on the disconnect button and then exit the library to be sure I'm getting the maximum charge into the reader. Does anyone know of a $10 charger that will work with the Sony 600?

Dave W

Dave W

[elcreative]

As mentioned many times through the forum, any charger for a PSP, with the barrel plug, works fine as does any other 5-5.2v up to 2,000mA charger with the suitable barrel plug (it's either called a miniature or sub-miniature Philips plug). They can be bought for $10 or less from many places... I'm currently using one from a defunct USB hub and it works fine with both 505s and 600s...

Originally Posted by Dave W

I was talking about using a wall USB charger. It works perfectly to charge an iPod and other devices, but won't charge the Sony reader. The main reason I responded to this thread was that the symptoms the OP described were exactly what I observed when using the generic USB charger. I sounded off about Sony's attitude for a couple of reasons. First, they really should have included a wall charger with the unit for the $300 price. Second, $29 for a wall charger is a bit steep. Low current 5 volt chargers go for around $10. I have bought chargers (really power supplies) from Radio Shack that have a switch for selecting a number of different output voltages and an assortment of adapters to match any device you have. I paid less that $30 for that device, but none of the settings are suitable for the Sony reader. I haven't bought the Sony wall charger just because it is priced too high. I'm reluctant to buy from eBay because I don't trust what I'll be getting and need to add shipping anyway which raises the price.

Having said all of that, it does seem as if the OP has a bad reader. Mine is fine as long as I charge it from my computer USB port. I find that a nuisance because the Sony Library opens automatically and connects to the reader. I usually click on the disconnect button and then exit the library to be sure I'm getting the maximum charge into the reader. Does anyone know of a $10 charger that will work with the Sony 600?

Dave W

Dave W

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Dave W

I was talking about using a wall USB charger. ....

Dave W

Thanks for the clarification. Yes some wall USB chargers will work and others will not. It has to do with the data lines. The Reader has to think it has a data connection or it will DISCHARGE rather than CHARGE.

[ZombieEatsYou]

It's odd that some have to use a wall charger; I've been charging my 600 with the USB cable that came with in with no problems at all. I wonder if it's because it's plugged into a powered USB hub?

[Patricia]

If you are charging via usb then use your computer. Do not charge via usb using a mains charger. It won't work and there have been reports of this actually draining the reader. It may also mess up the battery calibration and the battery bars may display incorrectly.

If you are charging via the mains, then use a PSP barrel tip. I have successfully used a PSP tip with a Power Monkey and with a solar charger (on the few sunny days in Wales). A generic PSP charger works fine, but check that it meets standards.

If you have already used USB + mains, and got problems as a result, then the first thing to try is a long mains charge with a PSP charger. I would leave it overnight, to be on the safe side.

A long charge via USB and your computer is also possible but is more difficult to achieve. This is because your computer may well go to sleep, hibernate or turn itself off when you are not actually using it, depending on your settings.

[elcreative]

Could make a difference in some cases... all USB sockets are not created equal... power levels do vary considerable between differing motherboards and hubs... I had one hub that was always troublesome with a bus-powered HD and when I finally checked... it wasn't giving up to 500mA per socket but more like 150mA, replaced with a different on an d no problem since.

Personally I prefer a wall charger because you can still read while charging and (when you disconnect) you don't have to wait while the Sony rescans...

Originally Posted by ZombieEatsYou

It's odd that some have to use a wall charger; I've been charging my 600 with the USB cable that came with in with no problems at all. I wonder if it's because it's plugged into a powered USB hub?

[astra]

Originally Posted by ZombieEatsYou

It's odd that some have to use a wall charger; I've been charging my 600 with the USB cable that came with in with no problems at all. I wonder if it's because it's plugged into a powered USB hub?

You don't have to. However, it might be more convenient.
1. It is faster.
2. You don't need a computer to do it.

[rubylamore]

I have to say that Sony support has been shady and essentially non-existent for me. My Sony 505 virtually died in under a year, still under warranty. I had not abused it, only used it for pdf's and 2 free downloaded books and it just died on it's own. I've called and called Sony support, and they've promised to help but have not. So, I will never buy Sony again. Lucky are those that have had good service from them, but they've fried my bananas forever.