Kobo screen completely froze

[Gary57]

Hi,

Recently I bought a kobo aura 2nd edtion. As the functionality was a bit lacking (especially for reading manga) I installed koreader. When scrolling through the settings my screen suddenly pixelated and froze (I didn't change anything at that point, i switched tabs in the settings). I was unable to get the screen refreshed, even after multiple boot cycles. The screen was just stuck: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0-...VwTjRIeHc/view . I was able to power it off and on, and the screen lit up, but there was no change in the actual picture of the screen.

So I went back to the store and got a new device. The screen seems more responsive than the frozen device. I don't know if its a koreader /KSM problem or a hardware problem, but I would like to install KSM and koreader again, since it made my kobo experience much smoother.

Is there a chance KSM / koreader caused this problem? And if so, is there a way to fix these kind of problems? As the reset button is removed from the second edition, I was stuck as soon as the screen stopped responding.

Thanks.

[Alan_S]

I think that this was random hardware malfunction and wasn't related to software. If you used nickel, the same could (and would) happen.

[Gary57]

Isn't there some sort of script to initiate a full reset when restarted using KSM? It would be nice to have some more options when something goes wrong, instead of hoping holding the power button will work the same as a actual reset button.

[Ken Maltby]

There are a number of menu options in KOReader, including a power off, a Restart KOReader, a reboot device, and an exit. KSM has a Power Off menu option. You have the restrictions that come with the particular device you purchased, in this case buying an aura 2nd edtion, without a reset pinhole. The "holding the power button" has been a feature of the Kobos all along.

Luck;
Ken

[Gary57]

That was not an answer to my question. I know KSM has different options to reboot and exit the device. The question was if there is some sort of userscript to hard reset when something like this goes wrong with the system? Like a script to respond to holding the powerbutton, as the device didn't respond to the manual factory reset like it should after installing KSM/koreader.

[Ken Maltby]

KOReader has the options I mentioned. KSM and KOReader are two different programs, even though KSM is the preferred launching program for KOReader. Installing KSM and KOReader makes no change to "the manual factory reset". If you can get into the KSM menu you can start Nickel and do a factory reset that way, if you needed to, but any "manual" procedure should still work. If the "something like this", an unresponsive/stuck screen were to happen again, how would you run such a script?

Luck;
Ken

[Gary57]

If the "something like this", an unresponsive/stuck screen were to happen again, how would you run such a script?

Isn't there a way to enable userscripts to run when starting the KSM environment? As it was the screen that froze but no the device itself, it would be possible to start KSM again. A way to run a forced screen refresh script could be a solution. (unless it was an actual faulty product, hardware wise)

The options seem rather limited. I really like my ereader but i didn't know these devices were so fragile and have quite bad quality for what they cost. I guess I'll install koreader again this week, at least the software is way better than the default one.

[tshering]

Originally Posted by Gary57

Isn't there a way to enable userscripts to run when starting the KSM environment? As it was the screen that froze but no the device itself, it would be possible to start KSM again. A way to run a forced screen refresh script could be a solution. (unless it was an actual faulty product, hardware wise)

From your first post I understand that you were able to power the device several times on and off, and that the screen did not change. I think the most likely explanation is that the device had some hardware problem. On power on, KSM usually presents the main menu. This involves overwriting the screen. If there is not user input, nickel is started automatically after 20 secs or so (unless you changed this in the configuration), this involves several further screen updates. As the KSM menu was unable to effect the screen (nor nickel and its starting animation, I guess), any script to update the screen would also have failed.

Originally Posted by Gary57

some sort of userscript to hard reset when something like this goes wrong with the system? Like a script to respond to holding the powerbutton,

Holding the power button powers the device off. This is important, when some application becomes unresponsive. It would not be a good idea replace this function by one that factory resets the device.

Originally Posted by Gary57

as the device didn't respond to the manual factory reset like it should after installing KSM/koreader.

How did you try to factory reset the device?

[Gary57]

Ah I see, thanks for the detailed explanation.

I tried to do a factory reset described on the kobo site, the manual way. This happened after installing KSM and Koreader, but I can't say it was because of these programs. Probably it's a faulty device as the screen of my new ereader seems to be more responsive and my old device had some strange behavior when I turned it on the first time.

Thanks for the help, I'll install KSM and Koreader again this week as I enjoyed it much more than the original firmware.

[Alan_S]

Originally Posted by Gary57

It would be nice to have some more options when something goes wrong, instead of hoping holding the power button will work the same as a actual reset button.

Sorry, but I think you're thinking it the wrong way.

This is very serious problem, at least in my opinion that new Kobo devices come without hardware reset button and rely solely on pressing power button for a long time.

My device (H2O) has reset button and it saved me in instance or two, not sure what would be if I had to rely on power button (it didn't helped me when I tried, that's why I needed to resort to using dedicated, hardware reset button).

But, from perspective of software, when something goes terribly wrong, like in your case, software is already powerless to do anything. Because, your device is for some reason blocked beyond (any) software help.

So, no koreader, no nickel, no KSM, no any software can replace dedicated hardware reset button. You need in such cases to rely on pressing power button, or wait for battery to completely empty. If that can help.