I can't connect my Kobo Glo to my Laptop

Question

All of a sudden, I'm unable to connect my 1st gen. Kobo Glo to my Laptop.

It usually worked without any kind of problem (I sideloaded a book not earlier than 15 days ago), but today I was totally unable to connect it.

My laptop has is a dual boot Linux/Window machine, I tried on both systems, with a lot of different USB cables, everytime without success.

On the Kobo device, plugging in a cable correctly detects to be linked to a PC, it even asks the usual confirmation to connect, but the computer won't detect it.

Is there anything that I can try to solve this?

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Under Linux, if I try to run dmesg -v whe I connect the device, I get this info:

[93021.088380] usb 6-1: new full-speed USB device number 22 using uhci_hcd
[93021.224031] usb 6-1: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[93021.468342] usb 6-1: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[93021.704332] usb 6-1: new full-speed USB device number 23 using uhci_hcd
[93021.840343] usb 6-1: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[93022.088343] usb 6-1: device descriptor read/64, error -71
[93022.196336] usb usb6-port1: attempt power cycle
[93022.640345] usb 6-1: new full-speed USB device number 24 using uhci_hcd
[93023.068350] usb 6-1: device not accepting address 24, error -71
[93023.196345] usb 6-1: new full-speed USB device number 25 using uhci_hcd
[93023.620330] usb 6-1: device not accepting address 25, error -71
[93023.620405] usb usb6-port1: unable to enumerate USB device

Answer 1

It's difficult to answer this in a format that's useful for Stack Exchange since it usually turns into a long comment thread of "Have you tried this?" so I'll try a more generic answer.

The sequence I follow when trying to debug things like these is to systematically swap out things to see what could affect it. You have already swapped the operating system which is a good thing - we know it's not a Linux kernel upgrade issue or something like that.

I would now swap out these things in the order of least-to-most amount of work:

1. Try a different USB port.
2. Try a different USB cable (I see now that you have already tried this).
3. Try a different USB device with a different USB cable.
4. If it works, try the new device with the old cable.
5. Try it in another computer.

If all of this fails, you can try to reset the device in two ways:

1. Try simply turning it off and on again. Sounds stupid, but for example my Kobo is essentially always on since I tell it to go to sleep mode when I close my case lid.
2. Factory reset. On my Kobo Aura ONE this is in the Settings>Device information menu.
3. I don't know how to do this, but it could be possible to force a firmware upgrade even if it's to the same version.

If none of the above helps, I would simply give up and declare it broken.

Answer 2

You must be absolutely sure that your USB cable supports the data connections. Many cheap cables do not, and can be used for charging only.

Thus I mark all my USB cables which support data with "data" on them.

Your other options is to go and buy a USB cable that is made specifically for data and make sure that works before looking for other problems. Don't forget to mark this one with "data" or just a "D".

In addition, try these things:

1. Look at a specific cable to see if it supports data. Does your cable connect any other device/phone/ereader to your laptop? If so, the problem is your Kobo, not your cable.
2. Does your cable connect any other device to a different pc? If so the problem might be the laptop USB ports.
3. Did you try another USB port on the laptop? The laptop port might be broken, or the data lines might have disconnected. As far as errors go, dry solder joints are not uncommon.