PRS505 Will Not Start

[leonardfrye]

My PRS505 seems to have passed away. When I slide the power switch
I get a Starting up... screen and the light turns orange and then
blinks and then goes out. I bought an AC charger and charged the
battery till the red light is off. When connected to a PC via the
USB cable Windows Explorer shows no files on the reader. I tried to
run the Sony updater and it reports that the reader is already at
version 1.1.00.18040 so it will not run. I have tried:

1 - Pressing the reset button and sliding the power button ... no
luck.

2 - Pressing the reset button and holding down the Bookmark button
and the Volume Up button ... all I get is the Starting up... screen.

Does anybody have any other ideas? Does anybody want to buy a used
PRS505? Thanks.

[JeffElkins]

Originally Posted by leonardfrye

My PRS505 seems to have passed away. When I slide the power switch
I get a Starting up... screen and the light turns orange and then
blinks and then goes out. I bought an AC charger and charged the
battery till the red light is off. When connected to a PC via the
USB cable Windows Explorer shows no files on the reader. I tried to
run the Sony updater and it reports that the reader is already at
version 1.1.00.18040 so it will not run. I have tried:

1 - Pressing the reset button and sliding the power button ... no
luck.

2 - Pressing the reset button and holding down the Bookmark button
and the Volume Up button ... all I get is the Starting up... screen.

Does anybody have any other ideas? Does anybody want to buy a used
PRS505? Thanks.

If you are unable to run the Sony Updater because it complains that your Reader firmware is current you have two options.

1. Run Igorsk's Universal Flasher and choose option #7. This will put your Reader into firmware update mode. Then re-run the Sony Updater.

2. Uncompress the Sony Updater (it's really a big zip file) and change the file eBookUpdater/assets/updaterAssets/PRSVersion.dat so that 110018040 reads 110018041 - once that's done, the Sony Updater will work at any time.

[leonardfrye]

Originally Posted by JeffElkins

If you are unable to run the Sony Updater because it complains that your Reader firmware is current you have two options.

1. Run Igorsk's Universal Flasher and choose option #7. This will put your Reader into firmware update mode. Then re-run the Sony Updater.

2. Uncompress the Sony Updater (it's really a big zip file) and change the file eBookUpdater/assets/updaterAssets/PRSVersion.dat so that 110018040 reads 110018041 - once that's done, the Sony Updater will work at any time.

I did option 2 above and ran the updater. The updater said installing version xxxx41 and that completed just fine. However, the reader behaves exactly the same way ... it hangs on the Starting up... screen. How about this idea:

1. Run some DOS command to reformat the reader drive and then rerun the updater? I can always replace the books.

[leonardfrye]

I fixed it! It took some intestinal fortitude ... but it worked!

1. Pressed the reset button and slid the power switch. While the screen was blinking I
plugged in the USB cable. The USB Connected screen came up on the reader.

2. I went to Windows Explorer and found the reader (Drive F). Windows said there were
no files on the drive but when I right clicked and selected Properties it said 145 meg used and 75 meg free. I right clicked and selected Format. I left the format option at
FAT and the size at 210 meg and clicked OK.

3. After formating I disconnected the reader from the PC and the reader booted up. I
navigated to the Advanced settings and selected Format Internal Memory.

4. I reconnected the reader to the PC and copied my books back.

I have LRF, LRX, and EPUB books and they all open just fine. I did not have to reregister
the device with Sony to open the LRX books.

I'm good to go!!