Hi, Everyone.

Cross-posted to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/REB1100files

I ended up with the dread grid of death display on my RCA REB1100
eBook reader, and, to my delight (and surprise) have fully recovered,
including recovering my eBook ID and serial number on the device, so
that I can access the content I bought back when the RCA eBook store
was still in business. I recount my experience here, in hopes that it
might help others.

First, I went over to (and joined) the REB1100files group:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/REB1100files/files/

and downloaded and read GRID_FIX.doc

Note that the files that GRID-FIX.doc says are required are also in
the files section of that group, and that RocketBook.ini is available
there as a zip file, RocketBook.zip, which must be expanded before use.

I also read through these instructions, which describes the same
procedure in different words; it's useful to see another way of saying
the same thing:

http://www.iamnota.net/reb:flash%20recovery

I followed the instructions, and ended up with my system working again
(yay!), but with two problems:

1) eBook Librarian kept saying my unit had an invalid serial number --
and not just once, upon establishing the connection, but every few
seconds, which was very irritating, since it meant a dialog box had to
be cleared each time the message came up, and the constant popping up
of the message kept interfering with the downloading of content --
even open, unrestricted content -- to my REB1100, because
communications seemed to be interrupted each time the message popped up.

2) I had ended up with an older version of the REB1100 firmware installed.

I tried to solve problem number 2, above, first, by following the
further instructions in the documents I'd cited above for installing
the file update305r.rb from:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/REB1100files/files/

But, like other people here, I found that the update wasn't sticking:
oh, it downloaded through the eBook Librarian, and messages appeared
saying that the internal software was being updated, but checking the
"About Your eBook" screen on my REB1100 (accessible from the
"Bookshelf" icon) still showed the old version number. And I was
still getting the invalid serial number message.

So, I decided to tackle the invalid-serial-number message problem --
and that seems to be what got the firmware update to finally install
on the REB1100 *AND ALSO* recovered my REB1100's old eBook ID and
serial number.

Here's what I did: on my PC, I eliminated the folder from my eBook
Librarian that contained the content exclusive to my device; doing so
limited the invalid serial-number message to popping up only once per
session. The folder is located at:

C:\Program Files\REB 1100\eBook Library\Library\books\[your device ID]

(I simply copied all the contents of that folder somewhere else, then
removed the folder; you can do this with Windows Explorer.)

I then tried one more time installing the update305r.rb file to my
REB1100 using eBook Librarian AND THIS TIME IT WORKED!

Note: it's a bit confusing, since the version ID after a successful
upgrade doesn't change to 3.05 BUT RATHER TO 2.0.305r -- this is
indeed (according to my Google searching) the last version number ever
produced for the REB1100, and if you are seeing that version number,
you've successfully updated the firmware.

And --lo and behold -- once the upgrade had stuck, my serial number
and device ID magically reappeared on my "About Your eBook" screen!

At that point, I imagine I could have just recreated the folder I
removed above that had the same name as my eBook ID, and then move
back in the contents I'd copied to another location, but I didn't do
that.

Instead, I was extra careful, and reimported each of my commercial
ebooks that were locked to that eBook ID through the "Title | Import
Title" menu of the eBook Librarian. The source titles have filenames
like "Timeline.rb" [for Michael Crichton's TIMELINE], and those are
the ones you need to reimport; the files that were in the folder with
your eBook's ID as its name have filenames like "pub-13-393.rb".

All my old, paid-for titles reimported just fine, and all downloaded
and opened up just fine on my REB1100, too.

The "magic" bit here seemed to have been the temporary removal of the
folder on my desktop that had the same name as my eBook ID.

I can't guarantee this will work for anyone else, but it did, by pure
luck, work for me, and I hope it does for you, too.

Rob

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ROBERT J. SAWYER, Science Fiction Writer

Hugo Award winner for HOMINIDS
Nebula Award winner for THE TERMINAL EXPERIMENT
John W. Campbell Memorial Award winner for MINDSCAN

http://www.sfwriter.com * sawyer@...
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