Problem with Sony Pocket

[yourlibrarian]

I was wondering if anyone had run into this problem before. A Sony Pocket stopped in the middle of a book (downloaded from Smashwords I think) and just froze. No button response, no touch response, and using a paperclip in the reboot slot didn't work either. It's just frozen on that page and it will probably take the battery a very long time to run out (which we were hoping might allow a reboot).

Any thoughts on what might have happened or possible fixes?

Comments

[amalthia]

I've never experienced this problem before..you may want to write in the Mobile Read Sony Pocket forum because someone else may have experienced a crash like this and will know what caused it or how to fix it.

It's sort of odd that the reset didn't work. There's a hard reset method but I don't know what it is off the top of my head. I'm also not sure if plugging it into your computer will work?

[jumpuphigh]

It is definitely file related. I've had it happen a few times. I wrote out how to fix it below so if you do ever have the problem, you can just follow my instructions.

[jumpuphigh]

I get that with some files even after I've run them through Calibre. Here is how I solve it. Press the reboot button. Hold for 5-10 seconds. Slide the power button. Hold until the eReader starts up again. If those things don't work, do the same thing while it is plugged into your computer. (Your computer won't recognize it while it is frozen but that combination of actions will cause the computer to recognize it.) Once your computer is recognizing the eReader, remove the offensive file. Convert it into RTF. Load the RTF file. Find your )#*$)#* page. Finish reading.

(I am very clear on these instructions since I just had this problem with a few files from Wraithbait where I had taken the html and converted to epub.)

[marilla_pm67]

Couldn't agree more, Had the same problem a while ago, with a file from whofic.com ... panicked like hell, and after I tried one after the other, I compiled everything and it worked. I have a sony PRS650.

Just don't panic, take it slowly ... and it should work.

Sam

[yourlibrarian]

Yay! This sort of worked. You're right, one has to hold these down for a while but plugged into the computer it finally responded and I was able to remove the file.

It flashed a "low battery" warning before it shut down again though the battery shouldn't be low (it had been plugged in for an hour at the time of the freeze). So I went to plug it into the charger again and got the message that it was unable to charge because it couldn't detect a power source. I replugged the charger into the strip and the USB end into the Reader but it didn't change the message. So I'm assuming all of this has more to do with the battery than the file.

Strangest of all this device is less than 6 months old so it seems really odd to have so many problems. When I was first loading it I had all sorts of problems with the device spontaneously rebooting itself over and over until I removed about half the files I was trying to get onto the device. Almost all of them were ePubs.

[jumpuphigh]

If you leave your reader plugged into your computer and the computer goes to sleep while it is still plugged in, it can trigger battery problems. I used to plug mine in before going to sleep as I did not know this. Now, I am sure to only plug it in when I'm at my computer and unplug it if I am going to be away for any length of time. It took a while after changing this behaviour (iirc, a few weeks) before my battery was happy with me again.

[yourlibrarian]

Interesting. I'm trying to remember if I did this and it's possible, though I don't think it could have happened more than twice. I had to return it for servicing and just received it (or another one) back. I'll keep this in mind though, thanks.

[greenwitch]

Once my PRS300 froze up in the middle of a PDF on what looked like a full battery, and after some digging through the MobileRead forum the answer seemed to be that it was showing a false full battery. I charged it on my wall charger for a bit, and then was able to turn it off normally without resetting.

[yourlibrarian]

Funny, I got a low battery warning a few hours earlier which surprised me as it hadn't been used all that much in the past week. The device was plugged in at the time it froze though so I don't expect that was the cause but perhaps it's something that contributes to freezes.

[greenwitch]

In that case, I'd guess it's file related?

[yourlibrarian]

Since I was able to reboot the device it seems specifically battery-related. It tells me it's not recognizing a power source even though it's plugged in.