PRS-505 Random restarts, USB charging issues, bad battery?

[wobblerlorri]

I've had my PRS-505 for about 2 years, and overall it's been a very good device. Lately, though, it's been exhibiting some odd problems. I searched the forums, and didn't find anything like this.

First off, over the past year it's taken a liking to suddenly locking up, then rebooting itself. When it does this, it doesn't remember what book I'm reading, much less the page I'm on. So I have to select the book again, then hope I can remember more or less where I am in the book.

Here recently (like the last 3 weeks) it's gotten more peculiar.

1. When it reboots, an entire bar of energy on the battery is gone. That is, before it reboots itself, it might show 4 bars on the battery. After it comes back up on its own, there are 3 bars. Last night it went through an apparently full battery in 4 reboots.

2. When I connect it to the computer by USB, it shows USB connected on the screen, but my software (both Calibre and the Sony Reader software) doesn't see it. I've moved the USB cable to different USB ports, and used a known good cable, same thing.

3. More often than not, when I disconnect the reader from the cable, it keeps the USB connected icon on the screen, and I have to do a hard reboot to get it to work.

4. Sometimes it's recognized by the computer, sometimes it's not. Sometimes it will be recognized, and then mysteriously vanish. My husband has the same reader, and his reader doesn't do this on either of our computers.

5. Last night, after 4 hours charging, I tried to remove it from the computer and it told me No Battery!! So I left it charging all night long (the computer left turned on).

Is it a bad battery, do you think? A bad reader? And does Sony really charge as much as a new reader just to replace the battery? That's insane...

[petercreasey]

Originally Posted by wobblerlorri

Is it a bad battery, do you think?

W, Probably!

Call Sony Support and see what they say. Sony Support is normally quite good.