Reader Freezes

[deesy58]

I have noticed that my NOOK Tablet's reader freezes on a page about every third or fourth book that I read.  I can still access the Home screen, the Library, and my apps, and everything else seems to work fine.  Whenever I try to access the book I was reading, however, the screen remains frozen on the same page and it does not respond to any touch commands.  The only way I have been able to recover from this state is to turn off the NT and turn it back on.  Although not critical, this is annoying, and I am surprised that B&N has not, yet, fixed it. 

Has anybody else noticed this?  Mine has been doing it for more than six months. 

[kenborg]

I have noticed it a time or two or three but have not seen any consistency as to when it happens. When it occurred I could not move to the next page. If I used the "go to" feature I could move to the next page but it reverted to the "stuck" page. After a few such moves the book went back to shifting pages as usual. Irritating but I did not try to figure out why or a better way to correct.

[PJLLB]

I would perform a hard reset.  It does not mess with any of your data or settings.  Shutdown the NT.  Then hold the power button for at least 20 seconds, then release and wait for another 20 seconds.  Then do a normal power on startup.  This might help.  It did for me.

[bobstro]

Is it consistently the same book and same page? I have had a few corrupt epubs that cause odd (and occasionally amusing) behavior in the reader. They either failed to open at all, or exhibited the odd behavior on the same pages each time.

[Melissa19]

Make sure your screen is clean and that there are no little hairs stuck under the bezel edge. I have had customers come in with the same issue whose screens were pretty dirty and hairy and after a good cleaning the page turns worked fine.

[deesy58]

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kenborg wrote:

I have noticed it a time or two or three but have not seen any consistency as to when it happens. When it occurred I could not move to the next page. If I used the "go to" feature I could move to the next page but it reverted to the "stuck" page. After a few such moves the book went back to shifting pages as usual. Irritating but I did not try to figure out why or a better way to correct.

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I was not able to use the "Go To" feature because the frozen page did not respond in any way, even to the menu at the bottom of the screen.  If I tried to access the book from my Home screen, or from any place in my library, it (not surprisingly) took me to the same frozen page.  I could not recover without rebooting.

[deesy58]

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PJLLB wrote:

I would perform a hard reset.  It does not mess with any of your data or settings.  Shutdown the NT.  Then hold the power button for at least 20 seconds, then release and wait for another 20 seconds.  Then do a normal power on startup.  This might help.  It did for me.

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I did shut down the NT.  Doesn't that result in the exact same thing as a hard reset?  The OS is reloaded from non-volatile memory, isn't it?  I ask because I am not certain. 

Doing so results in normal behavior for the next two or three books that I read,  Then it will freeze again.  I have seen this multiple times. 

Is holding the power button down for twenty seconds any different than just shutting the tablet down, waiting a few seconds, then turning it back on?

[deesy58]

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bobstro wrote:

Is it consistently the same book and same page? I have had a few corrupt epubs that cause odd (and occasionally amusing) behavior in the reader. They either failed to open at all, or exhibited the odd behavior on the same pages each time.

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Hmm.  That's an interesting question.  I don't know.  When it happened most recently, it was on page #200 of more than 700.  If it happens again, I will make note of the page number. 

I am relatively convinced that it is a reader software problem rather than anything in the EPUB file.  I don't think it is the OS because everything else appeared to be working fine.  The next timer it happens, I will try to find this thread and post an update.

[deesy58]

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Melissa19 wrote:
Make sure your screen is clean and that there are no little hairs stuck under the bezel edge. I have had customers come in with the same issue whose screens were pretty dirty and hairy and after a good cleaning the page turns worked fine.

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I keep my screen clean.  It is also covered with a transparent plastic protective cover.  I clean it with a microfiber cloth several times a day when I am using it, and very carefully with glass cleaner applied sparingly to a cloth about once a week.  The NT is also kept in a protective case which folds across the screen when not in use. 

I believe that this is software, not hardware.  It does not behave like hardware errors I have seen in the past. 

Thank you, however, for your thoughts.  Your advice is certainly sound. 

[bobstro]

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deesy58 wrote:

[...]  If I tried to access the book from my Home screen, or from any place in my library, it (not surprisingly) took me to the same frozen page.  I could not recover without rebooting.

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That does sounds like the epub itself is "haunted". Whether this is due to corruption or bad formatting of the epub, or a software bug in the reader that is tripped by certain epub content is hard to say. I'm no software developer, but I think I'm safe in saying that even a corrupt file should not lock up the system. You seem to have discovered a denial-of-service attack using epubs!

A few things that might be worth trying:

1. Can you try opening that same epub on a different NOOK device, or with a different reader? Does that page display correctly on B&N's new web reader? Do you have a bootable SD card with alternate firmware from which you can try another reader?
2. If you change fonts and/or size in your reader before opening that title, does it still freeze at the same location?
3. Is the epub DRM-encumbered? I have had some corrupt epub files fixed by an epub-to-epub "conversion" in Calibre. In a few extreme cases, I opened the file in Sigil and made some tweaks to the formatting. Of course, with DRM, you're stuck with it as-is.

Good luck with it! 

[deesy58]

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bobstro wrote:

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deesy58 wrote:

[...]  If I tried to access the book from my Home screen, or from any place in my library, it (not surprisingly) took me to the same frozen page.  I could not recover without rebooting.

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That does sounds like the epub itself is "haunted". Whether this is due to corruption or bad formatting of the epub, or a software bug in the reader that is tripped by certain epub content is hard to say. I'm no software developer, but I think I'm safe in saying that even a corrupt file should not lock up the system. You seem to have discovered a denial-of-service attack using epubs!

A few things that might be worth trying:

1. Can you try opening that same epub on a different NOOK device, or with a different reader? Does that page display correctly on B&N's new web reader? Do you have a bootable SD card with alternate firmware from which you can try another reader?
2. If you change fonts and/or size in your reader before opening that title, does it still freeze at the same location?
3. Is the epub DRM-encumbered? I have had some corrupt epub files fixed by an epub-to-epub "conversion" in Calibre. In a few extreme cases, I opened the file in Sigil and made some tweaks to the formatting. Of course, with DRM, you're stuck with it as-is.

Good luck with it! 

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The insteresting thing is that the epub book displays normally after the NOOK Tablet is rebooted.  The only thing I am not sure about is whether the freeze-up always occurs on the same page number.  Since page numbering is a part of the reader software, as opposed to the text file, itself, isn't the problem more likely to be related to a certain amount of continuous use, such as a memory leak or something similar?  I don't know enough about the architecture of Android to venture a guess, but you can be sure that I will make a note of the page number the next time I see it.

1.  I do not have a different NOOK device, nor does anybody else in my household.  The page now displays correctly on my NOOK Tablet, so I imagine it would display properly on any device or reading package. 

2.  I have no way to test this because I can no longer duplicatre the freezing once I have rebooted the NOOK Tablet, and when it is frozen, I have no way to change the font size. 

3.  No doubt the epub is DRM encumbered,  This anomaly occurs with both B&N-purchased books, and with books borrowed from a library.  I do no conversions, and my NOOK Tablet is plain vanilla.

Thanks for the tips.  I think I'll have to keep gathering information and pass it along as the problem manifests itself. It'll probably be another month or so before I experience it again.  The books I am currently reading are tedious, so I am reading slowly. 

Thanks for the well-wishes!  !

[NookGardener]

In reading through this thread, it appears that the problem

1) only occurs on the reading software,

2) occurs every three or four books,

3) and that the books themselves are each quite long (600 or 700 pages.)

Question for you:  Are you powering off or doing a soft reset BETWEEN reading books?  Or are you just leaving the device on, recharging, and waiting until you have a problem?

Soft reset is when you hold the power off button, and just keep holding it (rather than selecting Power OFF.)  Someone (sorry, can't remember who) way back in Dec recommended doing the soft reset once a week or so to just "clear" everything in the NT's memory.  {This recommendation was actually because the stock web browser had/has a tendency to hang after awhile.} Try that and see if it works.

[bobstro]

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deesy58 wrote:

[...] The insteresting thing is that the epub book displays normally after the NOOK Tablet is rebooted.

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Ah. I didn't catch that in your original post. I thought it would lock up if you returned to your last reading position. Or was it the reader app that locks up, and the NOOK remains operational? Can you open a different title without a reboot if that's the case?

If the same title is fine after a reboot, that would argue against it being a problem with the epub. Bit of a bummer, because it's then something more serious, or less easy to fix.

Does your device lock up when doing any other activities?

I hate just rebooting without actually fixing anything, but you may be stuck with that.

[deesy58]

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NookGardener wrote:

In reading through this thread, it appears that the problem

1) only occurs on the reading software,

2) occurs every three or four books,

3) and that the books themselves are each quite long (600 or 700 pages.)

Question for you:  Are you powering off or doing a soft reset BETWEEN reading books?  Or are you just leaving the device on, recharging, and waiting until you have a problem?

Soft reset is when you hold the power off button, and just keep holding it (rather than selecting Power OFF.)  Someone (sorry, can't remember who) way back in Dec recommended doing the soft reset once a week or so to just "clear" everything in the NT's memory.  {This recommendation was actually because the stock web browser had/has a tendency to hang after awhile.} Try that and see if it works.

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You have accurately summed up the problem.

I leave the NT on all the time because I have the My-Cast weather app.  I simply plug the device in at night to recharge the battery.  I never perform "soft" resets because I am of the opinion that, in the 21st Century, my computers should be reliable enough to run for an indefinite period without crashing.  Maybe Android isn't quite so stable.  I don't know.  I have had various server systems (Novell, UNIX, Windows NT, Linux) run for a period of years without interruption for any reason, and I used to run grid computing applications on my person computer (the one I am using right now) 24/7 for months at a time without a hiccup. 

I have this mental image of making a cross-country trip with my automobile, and being required to pull over to shut off and restart the engine every 100 miles or so.  Who would tolerate that? 

How might there be any advantage of a soft reset over a hard reset? 

If performing soft resets does something to clear the NT's memory, does that support my theory that the NT has memory leaks?  If so, can't B&N get the problem fixed?  Is it a reasonable marketing strategy to expect customers to perform special actions in order to keep a product working? 

I do appreciate the advice you have offered, and I thank you for it.  I just wonder why such actions should be required on a product which has had at least two software updates since I have owned it. 

[deesy58]

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bobstro wrote:

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deesy58 wrote:

[...] The insteresting thing is that the epub book displays normally after the NOOK Tablet is rebooted.

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Ah. I didn't catch that in your original post. I thought it would lock up if you returned to your last reading position. Or was it the reader app that locks up, and the NOOK remains operational? Can you open a different title without a reboot if that's the case?

If the same title is fine after a reboot, that would argue against it being a problem with the epub. Bit of a bummer, because it's then something more serious, or less easy to fix.

Does your device lock up when doing any other activities?

I hate just rebooting without actually fixing anything, but you may be stuck with that.

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It appears to be the reader app.  Everything else seems to work normally.  I didn't try to open a different title, but that is an excellent suggestion, and I will try it the next time I see a freeze-up. 

The same book reads fine after the reboot.  It reopens to the same page, but is no longer frozen,  Page turning and "go to" functions all work normally. 

I seem to recall that the device has frozen during Web accesses, but that was a long time ago.  I am so unhappy with the browser operation in the NOOK Tablet that I stopped trying to use it.  I haven't accessed the Web with my NOOK Tablet in at least four months. 

You might be right about rebooting.  Unless the problem becomes more common and annoying to a greater number of customers, B&N is unlikely to fix it, IMO.  Users have become conditioned to accept unstable software, regardless of the device. *sigh*

[bnscr00069]

d

[TinaLTX]

As far as the browser goes, I highly recommend the Dolphin browser. I have had no freezing with it since I started using it. good luck!

[deesy58]

I was reading a 534-page e-book on my NOOK Tablet just now (well, not really that many pages because a lot of page numbers are skipped), when the NOOK refused to turn past page #269.  I tried repeatedly.  The page appeared to change, but the same page would be displayed.  To fix it, I had to turn off the NOOK, then turn it back on to reboot it.  When it came back on, the page number would advance normally, but from #269 to #271, which appeared to be the correct next page in the story.

This sure sounds like a reader application problem to me.  It is annoying, and it is incomprehensible that B&N has not, yet, fixed it. 

[deesy58]

Well, it happened again.  This time, the symptoms were a little different.  The book simply will not advance past page #289 of 648 pages.  The page appears to turn, but it always remains on page #289.  I used the "Go to Page" feature and told the book to advance to page #290.  It did.  However, page #290 was identical to page #289.  I then advanced the page in the usual manner, and the page clearly advanced, although the page number at the bottom of the page remained at 290.  This is bizarre.  This is about the third or fourth book I have read since the last time this happened. 

Pages now seem to be advancing normally, although page numbers skip and duplicate the way many e-books do.

[geertm]

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deesy58 wrote:

Well, it happened again.  This time, the symptoms were a little different.  The book simply will not advance past page #289 of 648 pages.  The page appears to turn, but it always remains on page #289. 

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This a known problem of the last few firmware versions of both the NT and the NC.

The easiest solution when this happens is to change the font  size. According to others switching from portrait to landscape will also work.