can anyone explain this

quebeckerin · 12-10-2010, 07:39 AM

I've just seen another post about a "frozen" e-reader. In my case, it was the Aluratek Libre. The new post is about the Ectaco, but the experience seems to be the same. From what I've read, the two devices are almost identical. I didn't answer the other post, because unfortunately, I don't have an answer to their questions. Now, though, I'm wondering, if someone else does have an answer. Why do these devices seem to be working fine for months, and then, just like that, they freeze, and even pushing the reset button doesn't work?And why, if the manufacturers know this is happening, are they still selling these devices? Any technical experts out there who can help us? Is it a mechanical problem, or a software problem or what, exactly?
Thanks in advance and my sympathies to the person with the frozen Ectaco.

jbcohen · 12-10-2010, 07:53 AM

I guess this is a case of your experience may differ or as the other forum says YMV (Your experience May Vary). I have had my Libra Pro for four months and everything is going great, I have to reset it approximatly once a month (nothing like what I had to do with the Pandigital Novel that was stolen, which I had to reset four to five times a day). I have been told several times that any time anything is mass produced as is the Alutatek Libra Pro duds happen and I guess this person that you heard from got one of the duds. Aluratek knows this is going to happen but they are powerless to stop it. The only thing they can do is to send a free replacement, which hopefully will not be a dud also.

I have heard of the same thing happening to the Sony PRS, Atacko Jetbook and the Kindle. I heard from one unlucky person who bought a brand new Kindle DX brought it home and it was broken, he returned the unit to Amazon and got a Sony PRS which was also dead on arival. He returned that and got a Jet Book which was also dead the first time he attempted to turn it on then worked fine after that.

The point I am trying to make is any time you mass produce anything these things happen, no one is imune and makers try to keep this to a minimum but doing what is often referred to as a "burn in". They turn on each device in the factory and run it through all of the paces attempting to make it fail, by showing an ebook and a photo and an MP3. Unfortunately this does nto always guarantee that the device will work once it gets into the customer's hands but it decreases the likelyhood that a failure will occur.

bjones6416 · 12-10-2010, 08:20 AM

That's one of the reasons I got a Sony, and then a Kindle, after first getting a Jetbook. I've never had to reset the Sony or the Kindle, but the Jetbook is twitchy. It'll be working fine and then unexpectedly freeze up. What generally works for me is to both replace the batteries (mine's a Jetbook Lite) even if there appears to be plenty of charge left, and then do a reset. This reader is the one that I loan out, but that means that unfortunately it is sitting unused until I get it back and get it going again, because my family members are usually afraid they have "broken" it and don't want to make it worse.

I don't know WHY it does it, though.

treetotree · 12-10-2010, 08:49 AM

I have a JBL and a KDX. The JBL usualy freezes up once a month, but pushing the reset botton gets it going again. The KDX has never frozen.

Ken Maltby · 12-10-2010, 02:15 PM

I have had my Jetbook Lite (JBL) for some time now and haven't run into the problem,
on either of the two JBLs in my household. For me, they have been solid performers.
The latest Firmware may be more stable than some of the earlier ones.

I posted my little boilerplate response to this kind of thread, it seems to have helped
some.

The thing is, you can fairly easily reset the JBL to factory settings and install the current
firmware on the device.

Make sure you have a fresh set of batteries in your JBL then:

You should remove any SD card from your JBL and connect the USB cable to backup your
JBL's internal memory, to a folder on your PC's hard drive. There should be a new drive
letter for your JBL's internal memory on your PC now. (If you had an SD card in the JBL,
there would also be a new drive letter for that.)

It is much better to have a USB 2.0 SD/Media Card reader/writer connected to your PC
and work with your SD cards using that, but if all you have is the JBL it is possible
to use it to make your update/repair SD card.

Reformatting the JBL's internal memory to FAT32 is a good idea and running ChkDsk on it
while you have the JBL connected to your PC with the USB cable is a good idea as well.

If you can get to the logo screen then you should be able to do this:

First if you only have one SD card then you will want to back it up to a folder on your
PC's hard drive.

Format an SD card for use during the update of the firmware. (I still use FAT16 for this
although I understand that FAT32 works as well.) The formatting will insure a clean card
and root directory into which the three update folders go.

Be sure to use a firmware update with all three folders to make the SD card. Insert the
SD card into the JBL.

Make sure the USB cable is not connected at this point.

Then you go to the Diagnostics Menu built into the JBL, it is here that you can do the
#13 - Reflash NOR and the #7 - restore factory defaults

To enter the diagnostics screen:
Reset the device. Then hold down three buttons. They are: "on/off" "zoom" and "menu". When you see the jetBook screen let go of "on.off". Keep holding the "zoom" and "menu" keys until you see a 16 item screen. It's tricky, so it may take a couple of tries.

Then you can reflash the NOR Memory and reset the JBL to factory defaults.

After that is done reset the JBL.

Now you can update the firmware as you normally would.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70171

Follow all directions and don't play with any settings you don't understand.

This procedure should fix any firmware related problem. If you have a valid download
of valid firmware and this doesn't fix the problem then it is a hardware issue.

Luck;
Ken

quebeckerin · 12-10-2010, 03:00 PM

Hello, Ken,
Thanks for the information. My problem with the Aluratek, though, was that the SD card stopped showing up as a drive on my computer. I'd connect the USB cable and my device would show up as a drive, but not the SD card. So I didn't know how to reinstall the firmware. If I tried re-install, by holding the power and right arrow key, the device would re-install the firmware, but only from the SD Card. If that firmware was corrupt, there was nothing I could do about it. (At least, I didn't see what I could do, since I know nothing about computers.) Anyway, my Libre is on its way to the States now, so perhaps Aluratek will solve my problem. Thanks again.

mmread · 12-10-2010, 03:01 PM

I don't understand what is a FAT32 or FAT16. How do you format to this?

Ken Maltby · 12-10-2010, 04:04 PM

The process I mentioned should apply to all three, the JB and the JBL and the Libre Pro,
as I understand it the diagnostic screen and the flashing boot routine were provided by
the hardware manufacturer.

"mmread":

Data storage has to be organized in a specific way and follow exact rules for devices to
be able to store and retrive information off them. The use of a File Allocation Table (FAT)
based system was an early and relatively simple system, which is now in greater use,
because of USB attached devices and "Flash Memory" based storage devices.

Your Personal Computer's (PC's) Operating System (OS) should include utilities and/or
options to format local attached drives. With Windows it is easily accessed with a
right-click on a drive letter (C:, D:, ect...) in the Windows Explorer. When an external
drive is recognized by the OS it will be assigned a drive letter. When you plug in your
device with the USB cable, the OS should see the flash memory as an external drive.
The same applies to the flash memory of an SD card.

FAT16 is older and simpler than FAT32. FAT32 can address more and more complex
data and data structure. The simpler FAT16 is well suited to the small internal memory
built into these devices, so that is what they ship with. Most of the additional advantages
of the FAT32 format are not needed by the internal memory. For an SD card you normally
will need the FAT32 features, to deal with the size and complexity of your data structure.
The SD card or internal flash memory could care less and is happy operating with either,
but the SD card would be extremely handicapped trying to run under FAT16 for the storage
of very much data. Having both the SD card and the internal memory using the same file
system format is a good idea. So, both using FAT32, is working fine for me.

Luck;
Ken

Gardenman · 12-10-2010, 07:16 PM

Ken
I went to the diagnostics menu on my ALP. I see the last item on the menu is - check WIFI. Do you know if the ALP has wifi built in or not?

Where do we find out the different items on the menu do?

joeleitz · 12-10-2010, 07:27 PM

That's a drag about the screen freezing up. I hope you get it figured out. I know now to stay away from their products - thanks.

_________________
[link removed by moderation]

bjones6416 · 12-10-2010, 07:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joeleitz

That's a drag about the screen freezing up. I hope you get it figured out. I know now to stay away from their products - thanks.

_________________
[link removed by moderation]

I don't know if I would go so far as to say stay away from them, even though I'm one of the ones who has had problems.

I've had many many hours of happy reading on my JBL. When I first bought it, it was significantly less expensive than some of the leading readers so it was kind of an experiment for me to see if I actually liked reading e-books. Well, obviously I did.

I now use it as my "loaner" to suck other people into this world...

bjones6416 · 12-10-2010, 07:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

I have had my Jetbook Lite (JBL) for some time now and haven't run into the problem,
on either of the two JBLs in my household. For me, they have been solid performers.
The latest Firmware may be more stable than some of the earlier ones.

I posted my little boilerplate response to this kind of thread, it seems to have helped
some.

The thing is, you can fairly easily reset the JBL to factory settings and install the current
firmware on the device.

Make sure you have a fresh set of batteries in your JBL then:

You should remove any SD card from your JBL and connect the USB cable to backup your
JBL's internal memory, to a folder on your PC's hard drive. There should be a new drive
letter for your JBL's internal memory on your PC now. (If you had an SD card in the JBL,
there would also be a new drive letter for that.)

It is much better to have a USB 2.0 SD/Media Card reader/writer connected to your PC
and work with your SD cards using that, but if all you have is the JBL it is possible
to use it to make your update/repair SD card.

Reformatting the JBL's internal memory to FAT32 is a good idea and running ChkDsk on it
while you have the JBL connected to your PC with the USB cable is a good idea as well.

If you can get to the logo screen then you should be able to do this:

First if you only have one SD card then you will want to back it up to a folder on your
PC's hard drive.

Format an SD card for use during the update of the firmware. (I still use FAT16 for this
although I understand that FAT32 works as well.) The formatting will insure a clean card
and root directory into which the three update folders go.

Be sure to use a firmware update with all three folders to make the SD card. Insert the
SD card into the JBL.

Make sure the USB cable is not connected at this point.

Then you go to the Diagnostics Menu built into the JBL, it is here that you can do the
#13 - Reflash NOR and the #7 - restore factory defaults

To enter the diagnostics screen:
Reset the device. Then hold down three buttons. They are: "on/off" "zoom" and "menu". When you see the jetBook screen let go of "on.off". Keep holding the "zoom" and "menu" keys until you see a 16 item screen. It's tricky, so it may take a couple of tries.

Then you can reflash the NOR Memory and reset the JBL to factory defaults.

After that is done reset the JBL.

Now you can update the firmware as you normally would.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70171

Follow all directions and don't play with any settings you don't understand.

This procedure should fix any firmware related problem. If you have a valid download
of valid firmware and this doesn't fix the problem then it is a hardware issue.

Luck;
Ken

Thanks for this, Ken! I'm going to try it when I get it back from my niece.

Ken Maltby · 12-10-2010, 10:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gardenman

Ken
I went to the diagnostics menu on my ALP. I see the last item on the menu is - check WIFI. Do you know if the ALP has wifi built in or not?

Where do we find out the different items on the menu do?

The Diagnostic Screen is an example of a tool for the developers and
technicians that the manufacturers often provide for their devices, such
tools are common with devices running within an "embedded environment".
They are normally not intended for the end users but they always leak out
over time. The tools are usually written for a whole product line and often
include things that only apply to certain models.

Luck;
Ken

GhostHawk · 12-11-2010, 07:43 AM

In my case, I started with a regular jetbook back when they were 250$. Followed with one for my wife some 4 months later when the price dropped a bit. Followed with 2 more Jetbooks for my dad's and a JBL for me, followed by 2 more JBL's when they were on sale for 70$.

Yes thats a total of 7, one went on the shelf for christmas present, hasn't been used. 1 was backup in case one died, been using that one for a month now. None of the others have had any problem that a reset couldn't solve.

I used my Jetbook daily for 8 months before switching to the JBL. And my daughter now uses my old Jetbook. Personally I figure thats running a pretty good average for a computing device.

Kris777 · 12-23-2010, 12:13 AM

I have jetBook (don't use it now), 2 jetBook Lite (me and my wife read it) and just purchased jetBook mini.
I didn't have any freezing problems with my jetbooks and I usually spend 1-2 hours for reading books daily.

12-10-2010, 04:04 PM	#8
Ken Maltby Wizard Posts: 4,466 Karma: 6900052 Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: The Heart of Texas Device: Boox Note2, AuraHD, PDA,	The process I mentioned should apply to all three, the JB and the JBL and the Libre Pro, as I understand it the diagnostic screen and the flashing boot routine were provided by the hardware manufacturer. "mmread": Data storage has to be organized in a specific way and follow exact rules for devices to be able to store and retrive information off them. The use of a File Allocation Table (FAT) based system was an early and relatively simple system, which is now in greater use, because of USB attached devices and "Flash Memory" based storage devices. Your Personal Computer's (PC's) Operating System (OS) should include utilities and/or options to format local attached drives. With Windows it is easily accessed with a right-click on a drive letter (C:, D:, ect...) in the Windows Explorer. When an external drive is recognized by the OS it will be assigned a drive letter. When you plug in your device with the USB cable, the OS should see the flash memory as an external drive. The same applies to the flash memory of an SD card. FAT16 is older and simpler than FAT32. FAT32 can address more and more complex data and data structure. The simpler FAT16 is well suited to the small internal memory built into these devices, so that is what they ship with. Most of the additional advantages of the FAT32 format are not needed by the internal memory. For an SD card you normally will need the FAT32 features, to deal with the size and complexity of your data structure. The SD card or internal flash memory could care less and is happy operating with either, but the SD card would be extremely handicapped trying to run under FAT16 for the storage of very much data. Having both the SD card and the internal memory using the same file system format is a good idea. So, both using FAT32, is working fine for me. Luck; Ken Last edited by Ken Maltby; 12-10-2010 at 04:06 PM.

12-10-2010, 07:27 PM	#10
joeleitz Banned Posts: 3 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: none	That's a drag about the screen freezing up. I hope you get it figured out. I know now to stay away from their products - thanks. _________________ [link removed by moderation] Last edited by dreams; 12-11-2010 at 01:46 AM.

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12-10-2010, 07:39 AM	#1
quebeckerin Enthusiast Posts: 30 Karma: 210 Join Date: Nov 2010 Device: libre	can anyone explain this I've just seen another post about a "frozen" e-reader. In my case, it was the Aluratek Libre. The new post is about the Ectaco, but the experience seems to be the same. From what I've read, the two devices are almost identical. I didn't answer the other post, because unfortunately, I don't have an answer to their questions. Now, though, I'm wondering, if someone else does have an answer. Why do these devices seem to be working fine for months, and then, just like that, they freeze, and even pushing the reset button doesn't work?And why, if the manufacturers know this is happening, are they still selling these devices? Any technical experts out there who can help us? Is it a mechanical problem, or a software problem or what, exactly? Thanks in advance and my sympathies to the person with the frozen Ectaco.

12-10-2010, 07:53 AM	#2
jbcohen Wizard Posts: 3,029 Karma: 11196738 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Where am I? Device: Kindle Paperwhite Signature edition and a Samsung S24 Ultra	I guess this is a case of your experience may differ or as the other forum says YMV (Your experience May Vary). I have had my Libra Pro for four months and everything is going great, I have to reset it approximatly once a month (nothing like what I had to do with the Pandigital Novel that was stolen, which I had to reset four to five times a day). I have been told several times that any time anything is mass produced as is the Alutatek Libra Pro duds happen and I guess this person that you heard from got one of the duds. Aluratek knows this is going to happen but they are powerless to stop it. The only thing they can do is to send a free replacement, which hopefully will not be a dud also. I have heard of the same thing happening to the Sony PRS, Atacko Jetbook and the Kindle. I heard from one unlucky person who bought a brand new Kindle DX brought it home and it was broken, he returned the unit to Amazon and got a Sony PRS which was also dead on arival. He returned that and got a Jet Book which was also dead the first time he attempted to turn it on then worked fine after that. The point I am trying to make is any time you mass produce anything these things happen, no one is imune and makers try to keep this to a minimum but doing what is often referred to as a "burn in". They turn on each device in the factory and run it through all of the paces attempting to make it fail, by showing an ebook and a photo and an MP3. Unfortunately this does nto always guarantee that the device will work once it gets into the customer's hands but it decreases the likelyhood that a failure will occur.

12-10-2010, 08:20 AM	#3
bjones6416 ↓↓ Skirt!! Earrings!! Posts: 3,394 Karma: 17432172 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Georgia, USA Device: Acer netbook, JetBook Lite, Sony PRS-300, Kindle 2, Kindle Fire	That's one of the reasons I got a Sony, and then a Kindle, after first getting a Jetbook. I've never had to reset the Sony or the Kindle, but the Jetbook is twitchy. It'll be working fine and then unexpectedly freeze up. What generally works for me is to both replace the batteries (mine's a Jetbook Lite) even if there appears to be plenty of charge left, and then do a reset. This reader is the one that I loan out, but that means that unfortunately it is sitting unused until I get it back and get it going again, because my family members are usually afraid they have "broken" it and don't want to make it worse. I don't know WHY it does it, though.

12-10-2010, 08:49 AM	#4
treetotree Connoisseur Posts: 61 Karma: 346 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Florida Device: Jetbook Lite, Kindle DXG,prs-350, wife k3	I have a JBL and a KDX. The JBL usualy freezes up once a month, but pushing the reset botton gets it going again. The KDX has never frozen.

12-10-2010, 02:15 PM	#5
Ken Maltby Wizard Posts: 4,466 Karma: 6900052 Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: The Heart of Texas Device: Boox Note2, AuraHD, PDA,	I have had my Jetbook Lite (JBL) for some time now and haven't run into the problem, on either of the two JBLs in my household. For me, they have been solid performers. The latest Firmware may be more stable than some of the earlier ones. I posted my little boilerplate response to this kind of thread, it seems to have helped some. The thing is, you can fairly easily reset the JBL to factory settings and install the current firmware on the device. Make sure you have a fresh set of batteries in your JBL then: You should remove any SD card from your JBL and connect the USB cable to backup your JBL's internal memory, to a folder on your PC's hard drive. There should be a new drive letter for your JBL's internal memory on your PC now. (If you had an SD card in the JBL, there would also be a new drive letter for that.) It is much better to have a USB 2.0 SD/Media Card reader/writer connected to your PC and work with your SD cards using that, but if all you have is the JBL it is possible to use it to make your update/repair SD card. Reformatting the JBL's internal memory to FAT32 is a good idea and running ChkDsk on it while you have the JBL connected to your PC with the USB cable is a good idea as well. If you can get to the logo screen then you should be able to do this: First if you only have one SD card then you will want to back it up to a folder on your PC's hard drive. Format an SD card for use during the update of the firmware. (I still use FAT16 for this although I understand that FAT32 works as well.) The formatting will insure a clean card and root directory into which the three update folders go. Be sure to use a firmware update with all three folders to make the SD card. Insert the SD card into the JBL. Make sure the USB cable is not connected at this point. Then you go to the Diagnostics Menu built into the JBL, it is here that you can do the #13 - Reflash NOR and the #7 - restore factory defaults To enter the diagnostics screen: Reset the device. Then hold down three buttons. They are: "on/off" "zoom" and "menu". When you see the jetBook screen let go of "on.off". Keep holding the "zoom" and "menu" keys until you see a 16 item screen. It's tricky, so it may take a couple of tries. Then you can reflash the NOR Memory and reset the JBL to factory defaults. After that is done reset the JBL. Now you can update the firmware as you normally would. https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70171 Follow all directions and don't play with any settings you don't understand. This procedure should fix any firmware related problem. If you have a valid download of valid firmware and this doesn't fix the problem then it is a hardware issue. Luck; Ken

12-10-2010, 03:00 PM	#6
quebeckerin Enthusiast Posts: 30 Karma: 210 Join Date: Nov 2010 Device: libre	Hello, Ken, Thanks for the information. My problem with the Aluratek, though, was that the SD card stopped showing up as a drive on my computer. I'd connect the USB cable and my device would show up as a drive, but not the SD card. So I didn't know how to reinstall the firmware. If I tried re-install, by holding the power and right arrow key, the device would re-install the firmware, but only from the SD Card. If that firmware was corrupt, there was nothing I could do about it. (At least, I didn't see what I could do, since I know nothing about computers.) Anyway, my Libre is on its way to the States now, so perhaps Aluratek will solve my problem. Thanks again.

12-10-2010, 03:01 PM	#7
mmread Enthusiast Posts: 38 Karma: 78 Join Date: Nov 2010 Device: none	I don't understand what is a FAT32 or FAT16. How do you format to this?

12-10-2010, 07:16 PM	#9
Gardenman Wizard Posts: 1,118 Karma: 9335038 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: USA Device: sony prs-350,Nook HD+, Kindle 2nd gen, kindle keyboard	Ken I went to the diagnostics menu on my ALP. I see the last item on the menu is - check WIFI. Do you know if the ALP has wifi built in or not? Where do we find out the different items on the menu do?

12-11-2010, 07:43 AM	#14
GhostHawk Data Privateer! Posts: 586 Karma: 62887 Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Fargo ND Device: Ectaco Jetbook& Jetbook Lite	In my case, I started with a regular jetbook back when they were 250$. Followed with one for my wife some 4 months later when the price dropped a bit. Followed with 2 more Jetbooks for my dad's and a JBL for me, followed by 2 more JBL's when they were on sale for 70$. Yes thats a total of 7, one went on the shelf for christmas present, hasn't been used. 1 was backup in case one died, been using that one for a month now. None of the others have had any problem that a reset couldn't solve. I used my Jetbook daily for 8 months before switching to the JBL. And my daughter now uses my old Jetbook. Personally I figure thats running a pretty good average for a computing device.

12-23-2010, 12:13 AM	#15
Kris777 Banned Posts: 1,767 Karma: 2520493 Join Date: Oct 2008 Device: Nexus 7, jetBook-Lite, jetBook mini, Toshiba Thrive, JETBOOK COLOR	I have jetBook (don't use it now), 2 jetBook Lite (me and my wife read it) and just purchased jetBook mini. I didn't have any freezing problems with my jetbooks and I usually spend 1-2 hours for reading books daily.

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