One of the many machines that are good for mental health

Proper write-up on this thing INCOMING, but first:

Highly specific instructions in case anybody else in the world ever buys a former shop-display-model PRS-505 off eBay (or got given one by a pinball machine repairman) and it's on the shop display firmware (settings → about shows Demo firmware), here's the procedure as of April 2025 to get this thing outta demo mode. You'll need a Windows box, miniUSB wire, and an SD card of 16gb or less (microSD cards in SD card adapters also work). I've tested this on Win10, if you're on Win11 good luck I guess.

Download these two files, which I've uploaded here in case they bitrot elsewhere:

• PRS-505 Updater (windows)
• Igorsk's Universal Flasher

The PRS-505 Updater is official Sony software, but it bitrotted from the official Sony site as of 2024. I eventually found a copy via this forum thread.

Igorsk's Universal Flasher was originally found via this forum thread.

Unzip Universal_Flasher_2.1.zip, navigate through the “Universal Flasher 2.1” directory, copy the contents of that directory to the root of a blank 16-gig-or-under SD card freshly formatted as FAT. The SD card should now have script.sh, the “Sony Reader” folder etc in its root.

Have the ereader turned on, fully charged and ready to rock with an empty SD card hole, don't plug the SD card in yet.

Have the miniUSB wire plugged into the computer but not yet into the ereader.

On the Windows box, unzip PRS-505_Updater_1.1.00.18040_a.zip somewhere, and start the resultant .exe file. This is one of those WinZip self-extractor doodads that were everywhere in the early aughts, a cheap way of making an installer. Don't close the WinZip self-extractor window because the Sony updater software unzips AND RUNS inside of it lol.

Insert the SD card into the reader. It'll straight away go to a screen with a big scary exclamation-mark-in-stop-sign menu and the title PRS-500/505 flasher 2.0 by Igorsk, with these options:

• 3: run script.sh
• 4: copy image from the card
• 5: make a new image
• 6: flash the image
• 7: switch to firmware update mode

Press 7 on the ereader, and plug in the miniUSB wire.

Firmware update proceeds from the PC side with Peak 2006 Aesthetics, taking about fifteen minutes. Dire warnings to not unplug the ereader, ominous messages like “Removing old software” and “establishing secure connection” remind you that if this fucks up then you're boned because nobody's even posted about these things in a decade (even though they still read books just fine???) so TRY NOT TO FRET.

Once it's done, unplug. If Igorsk's scary menu pops up, press the Menu button to exit. Remove the SD card, plug in another one (or remove Igorsk's stuff off the first one), and use Calibre to stuff the ereader full of books (guide on that in progress).

don't bloody tell anyone about this website yet you clowns I swear to god lol