PRS-T1 PRS-T1 won't start, blinking light

[estecb]

Hello!, I've read a bunch of threads and tried to fix this problem in different ways with no success.
My PRS-T1 shows the "opening book" message (the progress bar is empty), the power light keeps blinkind, nothing else happens.

1_ I tried the sdcard-rescue.zip[1], the "opening book" progress bar loads, the reader keeps reading the sd card. I reseted my device after a few hours, it did not fix the problem. Also, tried to repeat the process, still no success.
I'm afraid my firmware version is v1.0.0 (I've never upgrade it), so that's probably why it didnt worked.

2_ I booted the device on recovery mode[2], thanks to "rupor-rescue"[3].
2a_ I run e2fsck, it found 0 bad sectors.
2b_ I did the Factory Reset, still no luck.

3_ I also tried the restore-set.0.zip[1], It may have shown "updating", I dont remember, but it did not solve the problem.

I've no backups to restore.

Is my device dead? or there is hope?


[1] http://projects.mobileread.com/reade...lash_packages/
[2] https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/PRST...covery_Console
[3] http://projects.mobileread.com/reade...upor-rescue.7z

[speakingtohe]

Did you take out the SD card?

Helen

[estecb]

You mean if I turned on the device without the sd card? yes I did, no changes.
I also had to take it out a few times, in order to load sdcard-rescue, restore-set, etc on it.

[speakingtohe]

I had a similar problem with my PRS-600 (occurred twice IIRC) and just kept resetting etc. till it worked again. Then it was good for a year perhaps.
In one instance I think it was totally discharged and then worked when I connected it to the USB port on computer. The other was some random thing like resetting it with pen while pushing different front buttons.

Not saying these will work for you, but I wouldn't give up without a fight.

Helen

Edit: I would leave the SD card out while doing it and maybe delete any books on device card as well although I left books on mine at the time.

[emonti8384]

Any luck?

[estecb]

No, I've run out of ideas.

[filmo]

Has your T1 been hacked or rooted? I'm asking because they otherwise seem stable without your problem. Maybe Sony Reader Dev Corner Forum will have a quicker solution to your problem. https://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=141

[estecb]

Originally Posted by filmo

Has your T1 been hacked or rooted?

No, it has not.

Originally Posted by filmo

Maybe Sony Reader Dev Corner Forum will have a quicker solution to your problem. https://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=141

I'll post this issue there then.
May be some moderator can remove this one.

[Shopaholic]

If it hadn't been rooted then why did you perform the various recoveries as you detailed in the first post? I was of the understanding that those were only for rooted readers? If yours wasn't why did you do that?

I wonder if you've fubared it by doing so? Hope not but.....

[estecb]

Originally Posted by Shopaholic

If it hadn't been rooted then why did you perform the various recoveries as you detailed in the first post? I was of the understanding that those were only for rooted readers?

Getting into recovery mode/console does not requires a rooted e-reader.
I don't know about the other two recoveries, may be that's why they didn't work.

Originally Posted by Shopaholic

If yours wasn't why did you do that?

In the state it was (it is actually) there was nothing else to do... other than hope it'd come back to life by magic.

Originally Posted by Shopaholic

I wonder if you've fubared it by doing so? Hope not but.....

Who knows... either way I'm not aware of a solution for this.

[estecb]

Finally, I fixed it!
It turns out, it had some bad sectors in the MBR (not really, somewhere near it... the first 26MB are reserved and that's where the bad sectors were found). After backing up the MBR, all the other partitions, "zeroing" the MBR, restore the MBR and the partitions, it worked like a charm.

Here are the steps I followed, I did it on my Ubuntu machine (there is no way you can do all this on Windows):
1_ Use rupor-rescue.7z (the MENU + HOME method) to enter the recovery mode.
2_ Connect the device to your PC. You should see all the device's partitions.
3_ Open a Terminal, run "sudo badblocks -v /dev/sdb"
(/dev/sdb being the sony device path, run "df" to check yours or use the Ubuntu "disk utility")
4_ badblocks should report some bad sectors (whitin the first 10% or so), otherwise don't continue this guide.
5_ Backup, run "sudo dd if=/dev/sdb of=/home/user/sdb.img iflag=direct conv=noerror,sync"
(/home/user beign the path to save the disk image)
This command clones the device by recovering good sectors and writting zeroes on the bad ones.
If this takes way too long (more than 1 hour), you may try removing the "iflag=direct".
A "Input/output error" may appear, that's normal.
6_ Check your output file ("/home/user/sdb.img") is about 2GB.
7_ Restore, "sudo dd if=/home/user/sdb.img of=/dev/sdb"
8_ Run "sudo badblocks -v /dev/sdb" again, it should report 0 bad sectors.
8b_ If it reports bad sectors, try formatting and then restoring again. Format, run "sudo dd if=/dev/zeros of=/dev/sdb" and then repeat the step 7 (restore).
9_ That's it, safe extract your USB, reset the device, turn it on and it should work!

Actually, I cheated... I did not have to backup the MBR and all the partitions, since I got another PRS-T1 I backed up the working one and then restore it in the old broken one. I had to format before restore (step 8b).

Happy holidays and new year!

[speakingtohe]

Agghhhh I have a similar problem and don't do Linux. Oh well I shall try another way. Glad it worked for you

Merry Christmas

[WinterRampage]

estecb, thanks alot for the guide. I had the same problem, with a couple of bad sectors at the begining of the drive.

One thing I had to do differently was formating the reader drive after backing it up. dd threw I\0 error, but ddrescue worked. I used the following command : "sudo ddrescue --force /dev/zero /dev/sdb".