Resetting a Nook Simple Touch

Resetting a Nook Simple Touch

As per normal, when a new device has been purchased it tends to cause an cascade of devices being handed down to other members of the family. In this case a purchase of a Kindle Paperwhite meant that the previous Kindle was given to the another family member and their Nook being passed to one of the younger members.

The Nook in question was a Simple Touch (BNRV300) which had been purchased a year or two before and was still in decent condition. As it was still registered to the previous owner it was time for a factory reset.

This should have been as simple as:

press the 'n' button -> Settings -> Device Information -> Erase & Deregister Device

However as Barnes & Noble had decided to pull out from the UK market, this attempt failed as the Nook was unable to contact any servers. An error message was displayed on screen, with the code AD1133, stating the it was unable to continue with a local deregister and to, rather unhelpfully, contact B&N Customer support in America for further assistance.

As it now appeared that resetting the device would not be possible without access to B&N servers it was time to consult with a search engine. One common piece of advice was to try reset the Nook via the '8 uninterrupted restarts' technique but this was met with no success. A comment that was found later instead suggested the following:

  • Turning off the Nook off completely
  • Turning it on
  • As soon as you see the screen flash begin holding the bottom page turn buttons until the screen flashes with a message asking if you would like to do a reset
  • Press the 'n' key twice to start the reset

This then fully reset to the Nook to a 'out of the box' condition.

Freshly reset, the screen displayed the normal initial setup screen and this is where the next hurdle was discovered. Following the screens and entering the required information was fine until it reached the step where you had to register your device. B&N insist that before your the Nook can be used it has to be registered to an account on their system.

This presented the question of how your supposed to register the Nook to an account when the servers will no longer talk to the device?

After once more consulting with the search engines a solution was discovered:

  • Turn the Nook on
  • Select what language you want to use
  • On the next screen, hold down the top right page turn button and swipe the top of the screen from left to right
  • A 'Factory' button will appear and will need to be pressed
  • Once more hold down the top right page turn button and tap the bottom right hand corner of the screen
  • A 'Skip Oobe' button will appear
  • Once this is pressed the normal home screen will appear allowing the use of the Nook without any requirement to to register with Barnes & Noble

After this the Nook was able to be used normally.