Pocket eDGe w/ Ermine boots up with completely white screen

Okay, I'll try to be concise here:

1. Got my pocket eDGe yesterday (thanks Woot!)
2. Looked brand new (was supposed to be new)
3. Powered on great
4. Updated the software to whatever the latest non-beta is
5. Updated to Ermine
6. Was working great- decided to shut it down for a while.
7. Next time I turned it on, the tablet screen immediately turned white and stays white throughout the boot.

It makes the normal sounds during boot and as far as I can tell, it does boot (even though you can't see anything on the screen- just white). The ereader changes to the correct screen for when the tablet is booted up. The backlight dims and times out at the proper times. Pressing the menu button wakes up the tablet (it times out quickly because I'm assuming it is displaying the lock screen). Holding down the power button seems to force a shutdown, so after a minute or so the screen turns off (and the ereader reverts to the "device layout" menu that it ships with). I tried using the reset button a few times- no luck, same result.

Anyone seen this before or have something I can try? Like I said, the screen goes immediately to white the second I turn it on, so there's no way for me to "diagnose" anything on boot up.

Thanks,

Hi MDCole9761,

I was experiencing the same problem, but I can't honestly say I know how I fixed it. My experience was that the PE would go into whitescreen if I'd wake it up from standard screen timeout or from hibernation. I'd let the screen timeout again, and hit the home or menu button to wake it up. Most of the time I'd get the unlock screen, but sometimes I'd still get the whitescreen. If I got the whitescreen again, I'd try the process all over and just hope I'd get the unlock screen.

Some things that I've done since the last time I experienced this issue are:
- Installed a new launcher, Zeam, available here (You will need an account to download): http://tinyurl.com/35hteo2
- Added shortcuts to the home screen
- Added a couple of widgets to the home screen
- Rebooted
- Temporarily enabled Debug mode (Menu -> Settings -> Edge Preferences -> Default Device Preferences. You'll need the password, "89985b36B7906bFfF"). More info here: http://tinyurl.com/6h9q3gp I only did the first part... didn't go all the way with the adb process.

I haven't seen the white screen for a while now. I'm not sure it's actually fixed, but I'm hoping it is. Hope this helps.

Some PE owners have reported this behavior (white screen of death). I have the intermittent white screen occasionally. The only way to fix the forever white screen appears to be the downgrade procedure to Dingo, usng the Golden Update from USB.
https://www.entourageedge.com/suppor...barticleid=263

Thanks mdac- It sounds like I have the white screen of death that cheyennedonna speaks of.

Thank You cheyennedonna- I tried searching the forums originally, but I probably wasn't using the correct terminology. Good to know that others have seen this before (and recovered). I briefly attempted the Dingo downgrade, but without being able to see even the boot screen, I must have done something wrong. I an going to try it again a few times to see if I can get it rolling.

Anyways- thanks to everyone so far and I'll let you know if I have any success!

Seems like I can't even get it to revert to Dingo from the USB. I took out the microSD card, put the update.zip file (with that exact name, and in the root part of the drive) on a 2GB USB drive and put it in the USB port, hit the reset button to make sure it was powered off, held down the menu and rotate buttons for 10-12 seconds after pressing the power button and then released them.

Basically, it seems to boot up fine- the ereader initializes fine and I even hear the sound I set for notifications everytime I receive an email. To me, that means that Android is loading up, connecting to the WLAN network, and receiving emails. It's just that darn screen!

Update:

As I investigate further, I can see faint shadows on the screen when viewed from an extreme angle- I can't make out anything, but I can see that something is there. I have also verified that the touchscreen in working because I can unlock the screen (but only because I know precisely where the lock symbol is and how to slide it to unlock.

Support has told me that I may have to attempt the software reload between 3-5 times before it will work (coming from an IT background, I find that strange- but hey, they're the experts so I'll bite) so I'm going to keep trying over and over again.

Does anyone know if the length of time you hold down the menu and rotate buttons is a precise figure? The instructions here on the site say 10 seconds, but the instructions they sent me via email say 4-5 seconds. I've tried both multiple times, but no luck so far.

I tried to find the discussions about the WSoD (White Screen of Death) to link for you, but I'm afraid most of it is buried in the 35 pages of the "Ermine Experiences" thread (which I'm sure you have already started reading.) I seem to recall that someone discovered this is an Android/Froyo problem, not just an eDGe problem, if that's any help.

You are not alone . . . . Reading about the white screen problem is one of the reasons it took me a long time to decide to try the beta. For me, no problems (knock wood).

Good luck! I'm sure you'll work it out, if you haven't already!

Originally Posted by Filark

I tried to find the discussions about the WSoD (White Screen of Death) to link for you, but I'm afraid most of it is buried in the 35 pages of the "Ermine Experiences" thread (which I'm sure you have already started reading.) I seem to recall that someone discovered this is an Android/Froyo problem, not just an eDGe problem, if that's any help.

You are not alone . . . . Reading about the white screen problem is one of the reasons it took me a long time to decide to try the beta. For me, no problems (knock wood).

Good luck! I'm sure you'll work it out, if you haven't already!

Thanks! I hadn't checked out that thread yet, but I will now!

Update:

Well, after 3 calls to tech support, they're elevating it to level 3 support (or Tier 3, I think it's called).

In case anyone can benefit from this, here's the tricks they've had me use so far:

1. Press and hold the reset button for 30 seconds, then release and wait 30 seconds before turning on
2. Download the "Golden" Dingo software, load onto a USB, and then power it off, hold the Menu and Rotate buttons down while powering on, release after 10 sec, etc. This worked in that the software reinstalled, but the white screen remained.
3. I've loaded the software from the USB like 5 times- still no go.

*sigh* I hope they agree to fix it under warranty and pay shipping both ways.....

I have got the same problem after hitting the hibernate option.Everything else was working just fine before that. Let me know how your problem is being solved. By the way when you used the Golden Dingo software option, did you see the "Updating Software" message or did it still show the white screen? If it was still the white screen how do you the downgrade worked?

EDIT: I copied the update.zip folder to a USB key (placed it in the root directory as required. There other files too but that should not matter, right?) and followed the instructions. All I see is the white screen and some music being played in the background (this wasn't happening before) but I still see no "Updating Software" message.

Hello sabman! Glad to know I'm not alone. Come to think of it, I think it did start when I manually chose the Hibernation Mode (which, after reading these forums after the fact, I now realize was a bad choice.

As far as getting the update to work, I tried many, many times and failed. Here's some tips to help (I've included everything, just so that these instructions are complete for anyone else who lands on this thread):
1. The update.zip file must be exactly named "update.zip"
2. The update.zip file must be located in the root folder of the USB drive (i.e. when you connect your USB drive to your computer, and it's assigned the drive letter F:, then the file must be in F:\update.zip. You cannot place it in a sub-folder on the USB drive). I don't believe that having other files/folders will matter (it shouldn't)- but if all else is failing, it doesn't hurt to try getting rid of all but the "update.zip" file.
3. **Use a USB drive that is 2GB or less in capacity**. The reason I emphasize this is because this was my issue. As an IT professional, this advice holds true for most computing devices. When it comes to boot-loaders, firmware recoveries, etc., most devices cannot properly recognize or access drives larger than this. Now, newer devices are increasingly overcoming this limitation, but so far I've found this to be true for even the newest of devices.
4. Make sure your device is off! Remember, there are sleep and hibernation modes on this device- just like a computer. You need to be sure it's off-off (pushing the reset button seems to always get it to this state) so that you can "cold boot" (as they say in the computer world) as opposed to a warm boot (which is what happens on your computer when you choose "Restart" and the computer automatically reboots and starts up without having to press the power button).


Sabman- You are correct that the I cannot confirm that I have successfully downgraded (because I get the white screen from the second I turn it on)- but the facts that I used to all but confirm it are:
1. The boot process takes much longer than usual
2. The light on the USB drive indicates that it's being accessed multiple times during the boot (it will flash for a little bit on a normal boot up- the key is if you see it get accessed for about 10 seconds, 2-3 times in a row with a long pause between)
3. The ereader changes to "Initializing" and stays there for the entire boot process (if it changes to the menu with the "Read, Write,..." options then it booted into Android and did not enter the recovery mode)
4. After several minutes of reloading the software, the device "reboots" (The LCD goes black, then comes back on and the speakers "pop", which is usually a sign that the device has powered off and then back on).
5. After it boots up, the ereader requests a calibration- exactly as it did from the factory.
6. After the LCD shuts off, pressing a button wakes it up but if you don't unlock it, it goes to sleep again within seconds (as it should). However, if you press the menu button while it's awake, it "unlocks" and the screen stays awake for the appropriate amount of time (can't remember what the default amount of time is, but it's 1-3 minutes I think). If you recall, Ermine employs the "slider lock" and if you attempt to slide the lock on the screen to unlock it, it doesn't work (which I was able to do repeatedly and reliably after getting the white screen under Ermine).

So, not a slam dunk- but from my observations I can reasonably assume that I've successfully downgraded to Dingo.

One other note- in my case, if I look at the LCD screen from an extreme off-angle (i.e. looking at the screen from nearly the side edge of the device), I can see faint shadows of menus of the screen. Now, they don't necessarily correspond to the actual menus and you cannot make out anything from them (nothing is readable), but I was able to confirm that the touch screen is still operational. Going off of memory, I can touch on the screen where I remember an icon being and it will perform the action.

Thanks for the tip on the 2GB USB key. I was using a 8GB drive so I will try another one. I called up the technical support and after trying the usual steps I was asked to mail the warehouse the device for repair. I guess I will try it one more time with a 2 gig drive before returning.

Tried it with the 2GB stick and yes it does seem to downgrade. It asked me to do the screen calibration again. But the white screen persists.

I just recently had the same problem, it began to occur sometimes when I was unlocking it, but now it remains on the white screen of death constantly. I figure from everyone else's experiences, I should contact technical support and have it repaired by them?

Originally Posted by kveroneau

I just recently had the same problem, it began to occur sometimes when I was unlocking it, but now it remains on the white screen of death constantly. I figure from everyone else's experiences, I should contact technical support and have it repaired by them?

Not sure if they will do anything until you downgrade to Dingo. But, definitely call them.