Sony Reader - Adobe Digital Editions DRMed books causing crashes

Question

Hi,
Hopefully someone has seen this behaviour before and knows how to solve it.
I'm in the UK with the UK version of the Sony PRS-505 eBook Reader which runs software version 1.2.00.18050. I've installed the Sony eBook Library and the Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) software on Windows XP and they both worked perfectly. The 'free' books that came with the Reader install just fine as do free books from places like feedbooks.com.
However, when I want to buy a book, things go badly wrong. ADE sees the Reader and I can register it. I then tried to download a book from the Waterstones online store (Waterstones are the UK partner for Sony). The file transferred and looks fine inside ADE.
However, when I copied the file to the Reader's internal memory and unplugged it from the computer, things began to go wrong. The spinning refresh icon appeared and the Reader reset, rebooted, up came the refresh icon, reset, reboot - and so on and on and on...
I performed a hard reset on the Reader, re-registered it with ADE and tried installing the DRMed book on the SD card. After unplugging the Reader, it began to endlessly reboot just as before. Removing the card stopped the rebooting and the Reader behaved as normal. Delete the book from the card, plug it back in and the Reader is happy - so it's definitely something to do with the book or the DRM on the book. I've tried a couple of titles and each of them do the same thing.
After pleading for help on a mobileread forum, another UK user has had exactly the same problem. He has had his Reader exchanged for another one but that too is crashing when he tries to use DRMed content.
So has anyone here seen this problem? I'm completely stuck as Waterstones, from whom I've bought it are passing the buck to Sony and they are almost certainly going to pass it on to Adobe.
Any help would be HUGELY appreciated.
Thanks,
Mike.

Answer 1

Update Two:
I zorched the Reader, then reloaded ALL content to a Memory Stick. Once this had completed it's initial scan, it would refresh in a couple of minutes when accessed with Sony's software, then detached from the computer.
I next re-authorized the Reader and added a single protected book via ADE to the internal memory of the Reader, with the MS removed. This book was the only thing in the Reader. It loaded, but the Reader took a relatively long time to refresh after disconnect (like 25 seconds, with only one book). I can access the book without a problem.
Next I installed the MS. It took about six or seven minutes, but it came up OK (about 200 books on there). After that I connected the Reader to the computer for a minute or two and then detached it. It completed the two refresh cycles in about 30 seconds (internal memory then the MS).
Next I plugged it into the computer and accessed it with the Sony software. I then ejected it via the software and unplugged it and it's been stuck in a refresh cycle ever since. I expect it to crash if I wait long enough, but I'll probably pull the card after finishing this post.
Something is happening to the Reader that is causing it to be VERY slow about scanning external memory after it's authorized by ADE.
Next experiment is to see if what happens with just a dozen or so books only on the internal memory.
UPDATE 3:
So I put about a dozen books in the internal memory, no external cards. That refreshed in about 5 seconds after detaching from the Sony software. I then added four more protected books via ADE. Detaching from the computer after that the Reader took about two minutes to refresh the content (now only 16 books, 5 protected by ADE).
Adding a few more books from the Sony software caused about a two minute refresh cycle. Next detach with Sony software was very fast (no changes, just listing the contents) as was one where I added a single file.
I'll keep adding stuff to the internal memory to see what happens.
Finally, I'd note that when the Reader hangs the spinning arrows are frozen, or only move once a minute or so, as opposed to spinning rapidly but for a long time.
I think you can recreate this problem if you just load up an external memory device with a 150 or so books from your favorite public domain source, then start adding a few protected by ADE. Users with 650+ books have reported that it only takes their readers about three minutes to refresh the contents after unhooking the from the computer, so I'm pretty sure something is amiss here.
Thanks again for looking at this. I can keep swapping stuff around manually, but I really liked having all my books on the Reader so I can pick and choose while on trips. Not being able to use the memory expansion is a significant drawback.