Cannot turn my PRS650 off!!

[Paulinec1]

I have had a PRS-650 ereader since last Christmas. I initially had some problems as I was getting error messages re Adobe digital licensing issues which meant I sometimes could not open a book  - but a firmware upgrade by Sony in the spring seemed to sort this out.

All had been going swimmingly since then ... until today. This morning I read my ereader on the train and shut the device down using the touch screen in the normal way .... but when I switched it on this evening something had changed. The normal menu loaded (which shows the "Continue reading" book plus options to select other books) .... but suddenly the touch screen seemed to be frozen. Not only could I not select a book to read, I couldn't switch the damned thing off either!!

As soon as I got in I got on the PC and looked around for help - I was soon doing a soft reset (prodding the reset hole with a pin) and have since done this numerous times. The software seems to have got itself into a spin (I know how it feels!!)  ... part of the time the touch screen is PARTLY working - eg. I can select my book from "books" but not from "Continue reading" ... and at times the "Applications" and "Settings" menus respond to touch and at  other times not. Also the buttons at the bottom of the screen seem to be responding erratically. The screen keeps freezing up again and I reset it .. then I can get to some of my functions but not all, and in any event I can't turn it off!!

One of the troubleshooting tips in one of the manuals suggests doing a hard reset ... but the first step of that is to turn the thing off!! 😞

Any advice much appreciated ....

[Drumzman · Accepted solution]

Hi Paulinec1,

Just a thought, but it sounds to me like it could be possible that your battery is really flat.  Because of the way e-Ink screens work on these type of devices, it is possible that an image remains on screen even after the battery is exhausted for example.  The battery indicator on the screen could also be inaccurate under these circumstances.

I would suggest giving your PRS650 a full charge first - a good 2-3 hours and see how you get on after that before trying a hard reset.  The best way of seeing that you have charged fully is to wait for the red light next to the power slide switch to go off - just make sure that if charging via the USB cable that your computer stays active the whole time (i.e. doesn't go into standby or hibernate automatically as charging will be interrupted).

Worth a try first and may avoid a full reset for you I hope?

[Paulinec1]

Thanks very much fro this advice, but alas i don't think it is the answer as my ereader was more or less fully charged - i only recharged it last weekend and the battery indicator was still on full.

Don't know how I can hard reset the device if i can't turn it off ... oh dear this aint looking good!!

[Thalamus.]

Hi Paulinec1,

welcome to Questions & Answers..:smileyhappy:

Have you tried doing a soft reset of your Reader.:smileyconfused:

1. Reset the Reader by pressing the RESET hole with a small pin or clip.
   
   
   
2. After 5 seconds, slide the POWER switch to restart the Reader.
   The content and settings stored on the Reader are not affected by resetting.

Notes

• The bookmarks, highlights, handwritten memos, or the setting information may be deleted by resetting.
• The screen will not change after pressing the RESET hole. Slide the power switch to restart the Reader.
• Do  not push the RESET hole with a breakable point, such as the  graphite  of a mechanical pencil. It causes the RESET hole to be blocked.

[Tonislegs]

I had exactly the same problem with my 650 and I rang the Waterstones helpline (Where I bought it from)and a very nice gentleman told me to connect it to my computer and charge it for two hours!  I was very sceptical about this but he said just to try it first as I had tried everything else, so I did  and much to my suprise it worked and I have had no trouble since.

[nynorsk]

I have experienced exactly the same problem lately. Can't read anything, because when I open the book, after several pages the screen freezes, nothing happens, no bottomns work and impossible to turn it off. Even reset (as recommended in the post above) did not work. I tried several times, connected the Reader to the PC, and after some time it turned off! Then when I tried to turn the Reader on again, it said that the battery was low (although when this happend it the battery scale was on three). After loading the battery, it seemed to work, but the same happened again after several pages. I have repeated this same procedure more than 10 times aldready, and cannot read my books - and have a deadline for several scientific papers, with my notes on the reader. Very frustrating!

So, even if loading the battery helps for several minutes, the problem comes back and back again.

Hope somebody can help with good advice.

Best regards!

[Drumzman]

Hi nynorsk,

This does sound very frustrating!  It does appear though that your problem is battery related from what you describe.  If you are getting a battery low message and the device is switching itself off all the time, these are both very much symptomatic of a battery that is almost completely depleted.  Under these conditions, the battery indicator on the unit's display may not be an accurate reflection of the actual state of the battery.  Ironically, the battery needs to be charged to be able to refresh the screen with updated battery state information (because of the way that e-Ink screens work i.e. only use power to change the display, and don't really require any power to maintain an image that is already there .... hope that makes sense!)

At the risk of repeating the same advice, I would still say that your Reader needs a really good charging.  If you are using a computer to do this, it's important that it remains active throughout the three or so hours it will take to fully charge from an exhausted state otherwise charging will not be successful.  I would say that it might even be worth considering buying the dedicated mains charger for your Reader as at least you don't have to worry about your computer going into standby, and mains chargers are quicker as they tend to charge with a bit more 'oomph' than a computer.  If you do go down this route, do make sure it is the dedicated charger though, as I have heard that some non-dedicated chargers don't work with the Reader.

Really hope you have some success with this.

[eBookBoy]

Hi!

Sounds like a frozen unit, its just a matter of recharge and reset, here you have some instructions:

http://www.fixya.com/support/r9727788-sony_reader_frozen

or

http://digialreader.freeforums.org/solution-for-frozen-sony-reader-t10.html

GoodLuck!

eBookBoy

[Ehtisham_Nisar]

hi

i have just got my sony reader prs 650 after charging fully when i tried to poer it off i had face same problem...i reset it ...no improvment....please help me.....

[briancook58]

I have a similar problem, the thing just freezes and both amber lights are on. I have a good charge, no memory cards installed and only 3 books in the main memory. A hard reset fixes the problem for a short while (a day or two) then back to a frozen machine with the amber lights on.