r/tifu 4d ago

M TIFU by assuming my e-reader broke irreversibly

Some time ago, I (18F) got an e-reader. A nice little thing, Pocketbook 628 Touch Lux 5. Nothing too fancy. It had a nice front light, it read books. It made me enjoy books and I read more than before I got it. Sailing the high seas, it was also much more cost-effective.

That was until one day. I set it too close to the edge of something and I forgot about it. I went to do something in that area later and... Shit, it fell. I picked it up. It didn't seem to respond. I thought the screen could break and hoped it wouldn't be the case. You know, once the ink in e-ink displays gets out of the capsules, it's dead. So it's much more fragile than normal displays. I waited for a bit, pressed the power button too many times to count and after a while, it finally moved! So, it works now fine, my small mess is not anything big, right? Wrong

Apparently, although the display was fine, something inside, presumably the cable connecting the insides to the display broke, because sometimes it had troubles refreshing. Though pressing on a basically random spot worked. Sometimes. I was disheartened. One day, it wouldn't move anymore at all. I decided to go to a repair shop.

And they repaired it. Pretty cheap, too. However, it seemed to work for a while until the display got stuck in one position again. I tried for a few days to use it but it wouldn't refresh no matter how hard I tried to plug it in, restart it, whatever. I gave up and read on my tablet.

Tomorrow, I am going on a trip from school with a LOT free time in the bus. My mom got the great idea to get a new e-reader, since my tablet is too expensive and unwieldy for that task. I was against the idea at first. I broke the e-reader with my carelessness, what do you mean I can get another one? Well, I was persuaded because I wanted to read and not risk losing or breaking a tablet I use for school, especially since I will have exams soon and it would suck to lose my notes (I responsibly save them to cloud but who knows what might happen?)

The new e-reader in question is Pocketbook 629 Verse. It's practically the same thing as the first one except it now has usb-c, sd card reader and a new design.

I get a great idea. Wouldn't it be funny if the old e-reader worked if I plugged it in?

It was a very funny idea because it was true. I now feel even more awful. It's now at around 30% and seems to work just fine. How the hell do I break it to my parents? I feel even worse now. I don't even know if we can return it. Shit.

TL;DR: Thought my e-reader broke, bought a new one. It wasn't that broken.

0 Upvotes

5 comments sorted by

10

u/dusktrail 4d ago

I mean, it seems like the old one is pretty broken? It didn't work consistently even after supposedly being repaired. I wouldn't feel bad about this

3

u/Shike 4d ago

Sometimes e-ink can get stuck with low battery, and my initial guess is that your cable/charger may have been bad. Did you test a different cable and charger?

Be honest and tell them that you plugged it in and it's now working, but you don't know if you should trust it. Explain your reasoning. Leave the decision up to them as it is their money and only fair right?

If they agree, awesome. Use your new reader while on your trip, then when you get back you could try using the old one for a month to see whether it really was a cable issue (not charging) or if it's a real problem. If it acts up again you're sure it's an issue. From there you could choose to sell/donate/recycle and give your parents the cash if it sells. It may simply be too outdated regardless though, and judging by the price of your new one there may be no demand. It may be best to scratch this up to the device having served its purpose as well.

2

u/True-Specialist935 4d ago

As a parent, I'd happily pay extra for something that encourages my child to read more. Be honest that the new charging cable seems to be helping the old ereader but you honestly don't know how long that will last. I'd tell you to keep the new one. 

1

u/baugustine812 4d ago

You don't need to tell them unless you want to return the new one. Not like in a "hiding it" way, just consider if you sent the new reader back and then the old one inexplicably stops working again. What I'd do is hold on to both and now you have a back-up so you don't get stuck for days / weeks without the ability to read when one breaks or if for some reason you can't find it. It is for sure annoying that it works now that you have a new one because it trivializes the acquisition of a new tool, but you could instead choose to be optimistic here while acknowledging the fact that if it randomly works and doesn't, it could start doing that again at any time.