I’d owned a Nook Simple Touch for less than 24 hours when I had a problem. No matter what I did, I couldn’t get it to turn on.
Searching online, I found several things to try to get them working. None seem to work 100% of the time, and only one worked for me. But these things are good to know.
- The first and easiest thing to try is holding down the power button for 20 seconds.
- Failing that, hold down the power button and the “n” button at the same time for 20 seconds.
- If you have an SD card, remove it, then try powering back on. For some reason, Nook Simple Touches don’t always like to power up if there’s an SD card installed. I plugged the card back in after it booted, and it worked fine.
- Try charging the device for 30 minutes.
- Failing all of the above, supposedly removing the battery, then putting it back in helps. But that voids the warranty, and I couldn’t find any instructions online telling how to do that. So if none of these other tricks works, take it to your nearest Barnes and Noble store and have them see what they can do with it.
This trait isn’t exactly endearing, but the NST isn’t the first device I’ve seen that has a quirk like this. (The IBM PS/2 Model 56 was.)
And while we’re talking quirks, I couldn’t get it to connect to my home wireless network at first. I mistyped my intentionally obnoxious password, then when it prompted me to re-type it, it never worked. I had to go back, a step, click on my home network, click “Forget,” then select it from the list again and type the password from the beginning. Then it worked immediately.
I’m sure I’ll have more to write about the NST in coming days. I like it when it’s working. It’s certainly more versatile than a Kindle, and if you’re willing to hack it, you can make it compatible with the Kindle too. You can pick it up and just start reading it like a book, but if you want to get the most of it, there’s perhaps a 30-minute learning curve.
