Can't Read Recently Purchased ebooks. Please Help! [Archive]

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shawnc

12-25-2003, 07:09 PM

It's Xmas and what would Xmas be w/o the required frustration of not being able to get something to work.

I just purchased 4 books from fictionwise.com and had some difficulty getting them downloaded. I finally figured that out and unzipped the books to my SD card. The books appear in my library on my PPC but when I attempt to read one I get the following message:

"Microsoft Reader is no longer able to access the book"

BTW, it does appear as though I can read the book on my desktop reader. Also, I have registered reader on both my desktop and PPC using the same email address so I can't figure out what could be causing the problem.

I have really been trying NOT to use a different ebook format. But regardless of how this turns out, MS has succeeded again in turning a loyal customer to a competing format. This will definitely be my last MS Reader ebook purchase :evil: !

Any help or suggestions are appreciated.

Thanx,

12-25-2003, 07:59 PM

Hey Shawn, one possible problem might be that you don't have the newest version of Reader on your PPC. If you have WM2003, the version in ROM is already out of date I believe. The only solution is to download the newest version and run it from RAM or a memory card. Obviously you will have to activate it again.

Gotta love MS Reader.

shawnc

12-26-2003, 12:08 AM

Thanx David. You were absolutely correct. I reinstalled the latest version of Reader and everything seems to be working.

Now.......if I could only figure out how to open one book that I activated using a different passport :) . Oh well, I'll worry about that tomorrow.

Thanx again for the help.

dhettel

12-26-2003, 12:35 AM

If I am not mistaken Microsoft Reader, must be installed in MAIN memory, not on a Storage Card, or a File Store location. Just like Microsoft MSN Messenger.

David

12-26-2003, 12:43 AM

Paula

12-26-2003, 03:30 AM

dhettel

12-26-2003, 03:42 AM

You could always use MS Reader to open non-protected ebooks with out activating it. Compaq use to include on the CD a folder full of non-protected ebooks that you could read without activating MS Reader, or upgrading it.

David

shawnc

12-26-2003, 03:57 AM

If I am not mistaken Microsoft Reader, must be installed in MAIN memory, not on a Storage Card, or a File Store location. Just like Microsoft MSN Messenger.

David

I'm not sure if this is true or not but this is not an issue for me since you CAN store your books on a storage card.

Fishie

12-26-2003, 08:50 AM

If I am not mistaken Microsoft Reader, must be installed in MAIN memory, not on a Storage Card, or a File Store location. Just like Microsoft MSN Messenger.David
Not sure, mine is on my SD card and works fine. However it isn't activated so maybe activated readers need to be in main memory.

Are you saying that you can use MS Reader without activating it?

How?

Paula :D

I have a number of books and use reader unactivated.
After changing machines and a couple of hard resets I just didnt bother activating it again and again.
The reader finds the books and opens em just fine.

Rsix

12-26-2003, 09:10 AM

It's not just you. I'm having exactly the same problem and am hoping that his thread is pointing me in the right direction to fix this.

Rsix

12-26-2003, 09:15 AM

update: THANKS.

Man I feel like such a noob. I consider myself pretty PC savy, but that was kicking my ass. It's fixed and working now.

btw...so far I'm LOVIN' my Ipaq 2215 from Santa.

Janak Parekh

12-26-2003, 09:22 PM

I have a number of books and use reader unactivated.
After changing machines and a couple of hard resets I just didnt bother activating it again and again.
The reader finds the books and opens em just fine.
Just to clarify: this strategy will work with any non-secure, i.e., non-DRM ebook. DRMed ebooks require the latest version of Reader to be installed and activated.

--janak

Paula

01-09-2004, 05:39 AM

Janak,
For the MS Reader where do the books have to be installed? Can they reside on a mem card?

For Palm Reader it seems that I can install Palm Reader in main memory and read the Books from my mem cards. I have them in a "PeanutPress" folder on my CF card and unlike 2003 it doesn't seems to search all media.

Paula

Janak Parekh

01-09-2004, 06:07 AM

For the MS Reader where do the books have to be installed? Can they reside on a mem card?
Yes. They can reside just about anywhere. MS Reader searches the entire device.

For Palm Reader it seems that I can install Palm Reader in main memory and read the Books from my mem cards. I have them in a "PeanutPress" folder on my CF card and unlike 2003 it doesn't seems to search all media.
For Palm Reader, the .PDB files must be in "\My Documents\Peanut Press" either in main memory or a Storage Card.

--janak

Jorgen

01-10-2004, 08:42 PM

>For the MS Reader where do the books have to be installed? Can they reside on a mem card?
>
>Yes. They can reside just about anywhere. MS Reader searches the entire device.

Which is probably one of the reasons MS Reader is s-o-o s-l-o-w at starting up!

Jorgen

tanalasta

01-11-2004, 04:02 AM

I haven't upgraded my version of microsoft reader yet as i don't have enough space in my ROM but can i still re-activate this and read my old DRM'ed books i downloaded months ago?

The reason i stopped using the older v.2 of microsoft reader was of a memory leak problem that caused my device to crash randomly thus requiring a hard reset - enough to make me stop using MS reader. Just as reassurance, anybody had this problem with the newer version? Thanks!

Jorgen

01-11-2004, 08:49 AM

I have never had that problem with the old versions (I have used hp-548, 568 and h1910). Memory leak, yes if there are graphics in the ebook but I have never encountered a lockup that required a hard reset.

Perhaps it only happens if your PPC's memory is very full? Or on certain PPC's? What PPC(s) did it happen on?

Jorgen

tanalasta

01-12-2004, 03:09 AM

I'm using a e310 with the books stored on an SD card and the MS reader included in ROM. It used to happen randomly with all the books (e.g. NIV bible, free ebooks on from microsoft). The screen would lock up and slowly fade and be totally unresponsive to stylus taps nor respond to the soft-reset button. Only flicking the batteryswitch to hard-reset the device would work... Needless to say after a month or so i never used microsoft reader again :evil: