WARNING - New Astak firmware >may< 'brick' your reader

[Xochipilli2012]

Hi there,

I wanted to correct my original post as I think it may unduly alarm people. While the new firmware may have contributed to my Pocket Pro getting into an apparent state of "brick-hood," I am no longer certain this is the case.

While the battery indicator showed a full charge ("four bars") I suspect that it was actually almost out of juice and because of this, the unit malfunctioned.

I was able to reboot the device after poking the Reset button on the back with a paper click--so it was not actually "bricked." I didn't think to try that sooner because, well...because I didn't think of it.

Now that it is connected to the adapter, it seems to be behaving "normally" insofar as I can tell, given that some of the functions are different due to the new firmware.

I'll leave my original message below to provide context for some of the replies that follow. But I hope the changed subject line makes a better contribution to this community than the previous one, which I now view as "misinformation."

Thank you for you patience and understanding.






Original message follows:

Hey Gang,

I know a few of you seem to be getting along just fine with the new firmware, so my situation may be unique.

I installed the new firmware, as I shared on another thread. And it was obvious when I booted the device that things were different. The first thing I checked out was FB2 support. I noticed that the old way of bookmarking no longer works, or at least I couldn't work it out in the short time I messed with it.

I then thought to take one of my EPUB books for a spin. Right now I've got books sorted by format type (mostly to get familiar with the device) and I tried to navigate to my EPUB folder in the reader's internal memory. It's option "5" on my "bookshelf" (if that's how the list of folders/files is called).

Well, nothing happened. I "backed out" of the FB2 book I was testing (the "return" key to the left of "OK/Menu") and no key press has been recognized by the Pocket Pro since. The little LED is dark. The folders on the first screen of the "book shelf" are all displayed, and nothing I do makes any difference.

I tried turning the device off. Nothing. I tried connecting it to my computer. Nothing. I've tried removing the SD card. Still no effect.

I even put the SD card with the firmware upgrade back in. But the device won't respond to anything I do.

I've never called Astak tech support before, so I'll give that a try. But this is a very ominous situation.

I'm thinking to try removing the battery, but the manual explicitly warns against doing this when the device is on. But...it has every appearance of not being "on" except for the fact that the last screen it displayed--the first screen of the llist of folders in the internal memory--remains in view.

So...I guess I would welcome any advice anyone can give me, as well as offer a mild note of caution about installing the new firmware.

Finally, in case it matters, the FB2 books was one I created from an original EPUB using Calibre.

Well...I'm off to some volley ball games for a few hours. I'll check back with you all later. I probably won't be able to call Astak right away either. So you folks might be my best hope in the near term.


Thanks!

[AJ Starr]

Originally Posted by Xochipilli2012

Hey Gang,

I know a few of you seem to be getting along just fine with the new firmware, so my situation may be unique.

I installed the new firmware, as I shared on another thread. And it was obvious when I booted the device that things were different. The first thing I checked out was FB2 support. I noticed that the old way of bookmarking no longer works, or at least I couldn't work it out in the short time I messed with it.

I then thought to take one of my EPUB books for a spin. Right now I've got books sorted by format type (mostly to get familiar with the device) and I tried to navigate to my EPUB folder in the reader's internal memory. It's option "5" on my "bookshelf" (if that's how the list of folders/files is called).

Well, nothing happened. I "backed out" of the FB2 book I was testing (the "return" key to the left of "OK/Menu") and no key press has been recognized by the Pocket Pro since. The little LED is dark. The folders on the first screen of the "book shelf" are all displayed, and nothing I do makes any difference.

I tried turning the device off. Nothing. I tried connecting it to my computer. Nothing. I've tried removing the SD card. Still no effect.

I even put the SD card with the firmware upgrade back in. But the device won't respond to anything I do.

I've never called Astak tech support before, so I'll give that a try. But this is a very ominous situation.

I'm thinking to try removing the battery, but the manual explicitly warns against doing this when the device is on. But...it has every appearance of not being "on" except for the fact that the last screen it displayed--the first screen of the llist of folders in the internal memory--remains in view.

So...I guess I would welcome any advice anyone can give me, as well as offer a mild note of caution about installing the new firmware.

Finally, in case it matters, the FB2 books was one I created from an original EPUB using Calibre.

Well...I'm off to some volley ball games for a few hours. I'll check back with you all later. I probably won't be able to call Astak right away either. So you folks might be my best hope in the near term.


Thanks!

My system hung while trying to read the index of the 1913 Dictionary I have on the internal memory. I waiting, pushed buttons, etc. Eventually, I turned it off, (hold on on/off button) nothing happened. Tried again, nothing. But do it while WATCHING the LED light. While holding the on/off button, as soon as you see flickering on the LED, let go of the button. That took me to the off screen. Since then everything is ok. But I'm not going to go to the dictionary for a while, until things get smoothed out.

(I don't use FB)

[Davimee]

Oh no! I hope you're able to get it taken care of soon! How frustrating for you. Since I don't use fb2 or lit, I think I'll just skip this firmware upgrade.

[Chiron]

Weird, i updated and i havent got any probelms so far (knock wood ) i like the new way how you open and see FB2 files, it looks better and more stable as before (and with LOTS of options).

I really hope thats an "unexpected" error and is not widespread, liek i said here all looks really good

[Xochipilli2012]

Hi again folks...

Back from the games (both kids won - whoopee!).

So...my brother asked about a "reset" button, and by golly...I knew there was one, but hadn't tried it. So that got the unit to "wake up."

Then I noticed that the battery indicator, which had "frozen" at "fully charged" now read "half-charged." As I used it to listen to some music last night while reading, it occurred to me that that could have contributed to the situation and the "fully charged" indicator was false...as it may not yet be properly calibrated.

So...long story short, I'm charging it off the adapter right now and will check later to see how things are behaving.

The good news is that even though it appeared to have been "bricked," in this instance popping the little reset button on the back of the unit will, at least, get it to reboot.

My apologies to everyone if I was too quick to "sound the alarm!"

Take care everyone, and please don't let my hysterics confuse you.

Thanks!

[ThomasMcKean]

I was going to suggest the reset button to yew, but it seemed so obvious to me that I thought yew had tried it already.