Invalid format

[Anders]

Hello,

I get a warning sign with "invalid format" written under it. And I can not get rid of it. I tried reseting the reader but nothing happens. Books as well as warning are still there even after reset. It opens as a usb-disk on my computer (Ubuntu) but I can not remove the latest books that I suppose cause the problem. Actually I can not remove any books at all.

Any ideas about how to reset it for real? I do not care about the books on the device, just want t to work again. Is it possible to erase the disk totally and reinstall firmware?

Thank you,
Anders

[grooks]

Follow this link Sony Reader Troubleshooting Guide

Follow the instructions for PRS-300 Hard Reset.

[Anders]

Thank you for the reply but I have already tried this.
The warning is still there when I reset language and time. And it stays all the way to the main menu where I can not do anything.
It also seems like no books have been removed when I check with the computer.

[grooks]

The hard reset should delete all ebooks from the Reader and leave you with the factory version of the firmware.

Try searching for forum for 'media.xml'. You may be able to delete this file and the firmware will automatically re-create it. I don't know enough about this file to know what exactly it is used for.

[Anders]

Thank you again for your help.
I removed media.xml and restarted the reader. It did create it again, although with much less info. But my problem stays the same.

When I reset it (reset - down arrow+0), it says something just before it asks if I really want to erase all content. I can not see what it says, it lasts about 0,0001 second. But anyway when I say yes to erase content the screen gets black a while and shuts down. Yet nothing seems to be erased.

[Anders]

At some point when I connected the reader to the computer, I had a screen (on the device) asking me if i wanted to format the internal memory by pressing the "bookmark"-button. Which I did and it finally worked. Everything was erased and my "invalid format"-problem too.

Don t know how that happened.
Hope I will nnot have the same problem again.
Thank you very much for your help anyway.

[grooks]

Glad you got it fixed.

Do you know the format of the ebook(s) that caused the original problem?

[Anders]

Actually I can t remember. I usually convert everything to epub with "calibre", no matter what format they are in. But then I have also made some books from scratch. And considering my skills in xhtml, it is most likely that it is one of those that caused the problem.

Anyway now it works. I am trying to be more cautious. Thanks you for help. If I ever get to your knowledge, I will help the community like you do now. Respect.

[jb9]

I just had the same problem: greyed out screen on my PRS-300 with a triangle containing and exclamation mark in the middle of the screen and "Invalid Format" at the bottom of the screen.

Tried all the resets in the manual. At one stage I did actually see the offer to reformar, but that was early on, so I declined and then couldn't get it back. Got as far as calling Sony and after their young lady read the manual to me a few times, she said that I could send it back for repair.

One last try, I booted up Windows Vista and ran the Sony Reader App (I normally use Ubuntu with Calibre). That couldn't read it either. Then when I tried Windows filemanager (or whatever they call it these days), it said that there were errors on the "disk" and offered to fix them. Had to close the Sony App, but then it just went ahead and fixed it.

First time that I've ever found anything good about Vista.