JBL stops being able to open books - reset required

I just got a Jetbook Lite recently and I've had a problem where it works fine while reading a book, but then if I exit the book and try to read another I get an hourglass, the LED flashes, and then it bounces me back to the main page (Books, Pics, Setup).

This doesn't happen at first. I can look at one book, switch to others, etc. It only happens if I spend about a day or more reading one book or story. The only solution seems to be to use the reset. I press that, the screen goes blank, I press the power button and hold it and the JBL boots. Then things are fine again.

Has anyone else seen this behavior?

It might be a Firmware issue.

Please, visit ECTACO web-site to reinstall Software.

http://www.jetbook.net/upgrade.php

Best Regards,

Phil - technical support

Ectaco INC

green wrote:It might be a Firmware issue.

Please, visit ECTACO web-site to reinstall Software.

http://www.jetbook.net/upgrade.php

Best Regards,

Phil - technical support

Ectaco INC

I haven't done anything on this because of the reported problems with .15g.

I also find it hard to understand why something would go wrong with the firmware that came with the device, and why this would require re-installation of the firmware. I'm reminded of how Microsoft used to advise all their customers to reinstall Windows no matter what the reported problem was.

I've had various Palm and Sony PDAs, Psion devices, an iPod, cell phones, all kinds of computers, you name it. None of them ever needed to have their firmware reinstalled. There were upgrades at times for various reasons, but never was I asked to just refresh the current version of firmware. My TV has never needed its firmware refreshed, nor have any of my DVD players.

I work in a Data Cente

stkjbl wrote:
I haven't done anything on this because of the reported problems with .15g.

I also find it hard to understand why something would go wrong with the firmware that came with the device, and why this would require re-installation of the firmware. I'm reminded of how Microsoft used to advise all their customers to reinstall Windows no matter what the reported problem was.

I've had various Palm and Sony PDAs, Psion devices, an iPod, cell phones, all kinds of computers, you name it. None of them ever needed to have their firmware reinstalled. There were upgrades at times for various reasons, but never was I asked to just refresh the current version of firmware. My TV has never needed its firmware refreshed, nor have any of my DVD players.

I work in a Data Center and am a Unix Systems Administrator and have never been asked to refresh the firmware on any of the servers I've dealt with. Libert UPSs and CRAC units... nope no firmware bit-rot there either.

What's dif

Jerry wrote:
Hey stkjbl,

That's an odd problem, have not heard about that one before. Please let me make sure i understand correctly. After about an hour of reading when you exit a book and try to enter another it goes back to the main screen.

It seems to be after a number of hours. For instance, I might read a couple of hundred pages of a book and then switch to something else the next day.

I've read a number of short stories in one day and did not run across this problem with any of them.

What if, after id does that, you go from the main screen to another book?

Then I get the hourglass and then it goes back to the main screen.

Does this always happen after a while of reading or it is an intermittent problem?

Intermittent. I haven't been able to discern any pattern other than that I have to be reading one file for a significant amount of time. So far it doesn't seem to be any one format that's causing this either. I ha

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 09/28/2010 06:50:10

stkjbl wrote:

Jerry wrote:
Hey stkjbl,

That's an odd problem, have not heard about that one before. Please let me make sure i understand correctly. After about an hour of reading when you exit a book and try to enter another it goes back to the main screen.

It seems to be after a number of hours. For instance, I might read a couple of hundred pages of a book and then switch to something else the next day.

I've read a number of short stories in one day and did not run across this problem with any of them.

What if, after id does that, you go from the main screen to another book?

Then I get the hourglass and then it goes back to the main screen.

Does this always happen after a while of reading or it is an intermittent problem?

Intermittent. I haven't been able to discern any pattern other than that I have to be reading one file for a significant amount of time. So far it doesn't seem to be any one format that's causing this either. I have mixed plain text, rtf, epub, and PalmDoc files. (I haven't spent much time reading pdf files though.)

Do you have version 0.15d?

Yes, that's what came installed on the device.

It wouldn't really bother me except that it takes a while to get from the main screen to the list of folders with books in them and then it takes a while to open a file, so when you go through that and then it suddenly puts you back at square one it's rather annoying. Pulling out a battery or hitting the reset and rebooting the device takes a while too. If the device were faster then I'd just accept all this as a quirk. After all, I owned an Ebookman for quite a while and it's a much more flawed device than the JBL.

Hey stkjbl,

Sounds like it is overheating or something! I mean it isn't a vehicle or a high output CPU but i guess that is possible.

The only suggestion i have is an update to 0.15g (however there have been bugs known to not save place in your book or your font size). Or you can send it for replacement, although am not sure which version would be on it for replacement.

I will make note of this so if someone else replicates this i can tell the design team about it.

Hope this helps!

Jerry wrote:
Sounds like it is overheating or something! I mean it isn't a vehicle or a high output CPU but i guess that is possible.

No, I don't think it's that since removing power or pressing the reset button cures the problem right away. If it were getting hot I would probably have to wait until it cooled down before the problem went away.

The only suggestion i have is an update to 0.15g (however there have been bugs known to not save place in your book or your font size). Or you can send it for replacement, although am not sure which version would be on it for replacement.

Yes, I saw that there were some bugs with that release, so I had decided not to try it. I don't have a copy of 0.15d, so I wouldn't even be able to go back to it if I decided 0.15g was worse. (That's assuming you can even go back a version like that. I thought I saw that it doesn't always work.)

I'd have to pay for shipping and would be without the device for a while, so I

stkjbl wrote:

Jerry wrote:
Sounds like it is overheating or something! I mean it isn't a vehicle or a high output CPU but i guess that is possible.

No, I don't think it's that since removing power or pressing the reset button cures the problem right away. If it were getting hot I would probably have to wait until it cooled down before the problem went away.

The only suggestion i have is an update to 0.15g (however there have been bugs known to not save place in your book or your font size). Or you can send it for replacement, although am not sure which version would be on it for replacement.

Yes, I saw that there were some bugs with that release, so I had decided not to try it. I don't have a copy of 0.15d, so I wouldn't even be able to go back to it if I decided 0.15g was worse. (That's assuming you can even go back a version like that. I thought I saw that it doesn't always work.)

I'd have to pay for shipping and would be without the device for

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 07/02/2010 12:54:32

Jerry- You CAN go back to an older firmware version. I flashed back to D after finding the defect in G and the JBL works perfectly. You should probably email the customer ver.D since you have taken it down and replaced it with G. Most other hardware vendors leave previous firmware releases online somewhere for this very reason.

I wish your "designers" could get all this straightened out, because you guys have a very loyal following for the JBL which is a great device in many respects besides price.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 07/02/2010 13:15:20

ronouel wrote:Jerry- You CAN go back to an older firmware version. I flashed back to D after finding the defect in G and the JBL works perfectly. You should probably email the customer ver.D since you have taken it down and replaced it with G. Most other hardware vendors leave previous firmware releases online somewhere for this very reason.

Hey ronouel,

Yea that may be the best bet. I will ask if i am allowed to put the older version D back on here in case people want to go back to it.

Beware tho: for jetBook JB-5 we have not tried to go from the newest beta version 0.35e down back to v0.35d

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 07/02/2010 13:35:34

stkjbl- EVERY time I have had a problem with my JBL, I have fixed it by running chkdsk in Windows or FSCK in Linux, both with the repair switch.
Hook up the reader and go to MyComputer. Right click Properties and select Tools and the check file system thing- check the box that says repair and run. It finds lost clusters and puts them back where they belong and leaves a file that details what they were and where it put them. You can delete the extra file afterward, because the lost clusters have been re-integrated where they belong. This is not theory- I have tested it (or had to use it) several times.

The JBL is no different than any other minicomputer- it is subject to misfiling things, and both Windows and Linux have the utilities you need to fix it. In fact, I sometimes run these utilities BEFORE the reader starts acting up and on a few occasions the cleanup was done because it left the extra file.

ronouel wrote:stkjbl- EVERY time I have had a problem with my JBL, I have fixed it by running chkdsk in Windows or FSCK in Linux, both with the repair switch.

I just tried an fsck.msdos -r on both the internal flash and SD card and no errors were found.

I'll keep this in mind for the future though. Thanks!

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 07/02/2010 14:00:25

-- duplicate --

If Jerry gets you 15D, it may work. I managed to find prior versions of JBL firmware on other sites with a google search, selecting "show all results" after the initial hit list, but I guess the rules of this forum prohibit posting a URL.

JBL 0.16 available today.

Please read all warnings on first post before downloading. This is BETA.

https://www.ectaco.com/ectaco-posts/list/0/19996.page#27784