First try pressing and holding the power button for 20-seconds and then release. Try starting it up again.

If that doesn't work take out the battery and unplug the USB connection. Next, plug in the USB connection BUT immediately hold down all four page forward/back buttons (on top of nook) at once. The bottom touchpad should light up and start updating. This may help restore your nook.

For a more detailed discussion on handling a frozen nook screen checkout this forum thread.

Warning: This will remove all your content and should be a last resort when your nook will not work properly. Use this reset procedure at your own risk.

1) Plug USB cable into nook (I did it on my computer but power is probably fine).
2) Remove the battery.
3) If your nook is on the "Your device is starting up" screen, press and hold the power button for 20 seconds till the ">" stops moving. If screen is blank skip to step 5.
4) Press and release the power button again to get the eInk screen to go blank.
5) (Read step 6 before this) Press and release the power button.
6) As soon as you see the eInk screen flash black press and hold the power button.
7) The eInk screen will display a box stating (Your nook is being upgraded...) and the LCD screen will show an update screen like that of a typical firmware upgrade

As the device restores itself you will see the LCD display things such as:

Verifying fallback firmware...
Formating partition...
Installing firmware: Version 1.1.1

8) Once the nook has completed, it will reboot and start the "Your nook is starting up". Reinsert the battery before removing the USB cable.
9) Your nook will load into the "Welcome to your nook. The Barnes & Noble eBook reader."

Your nook is now fixed. You will be running an older version of firmware, so be sure to either a) sideload or b) ota load to the latest firmware. You will also need to re-register your nook.

No, there is no backlight feature - and that's why the screen is so easy on the eyes.

You can purchase external booklights for your nook. These "booklights" can connect to your nook and light the screen in darker environments.
Click here to see some nook booklights.

Some users are reporting problems with battery life and have gotten new batteries from B&N. If you are having to take the battery out and reset it or don't get at least several hours of use with wireless on contact B&N.

The nook also has Wi-Fi wireless networking.

You can create any folder hierarchy that you like to organize your files. When your nook scans the microSD card for files, it looks for files of specific types everywhere on the card. When your nook presents the files to you, it flattens the hierarchy and presents a list (which stinks by the way).

The best way to get the most battery life is to fully charge it and disable the 3G and Wifi network connections. Both of these require the radio devices in your nook to be powered and drain the device quickly!

Turn off “Airplane Mode” by tapping “Settings,” then “Off.”

Music File Formats

The nook can only play MP3 audio files. WMA (Windows Media Audio), WAV, or MP4 files will not work properly on the nook. If you have files in these formats you can download tools to convert the music files to MP3. A good source of cheap DRM free music is Amazon.com.

Adding the Music files to the nook

To add music to your nook, connect the nook to your computer using the supplied USB cable. On Windows, Click Start then Computer (Windows XP users click My Computer on the desktop). On the Mac click on Finder and look under "Devices". This will display a list of drives - two of them are for your nook. One will be your nook main memory and the other (if installed) will be your extra memory card.  You'll see the folders "my music" and "my audiobooks" in the internal memory. You can place audio files in subfolders of "my music" and "my audiobooks" if you want to organize the files hierarchically. You can place MP3 files anywhere on your memory card. Simply drag and drop your music files to these directories. NOTE: If you put the mp3 files outside these directories for your internal memory they will not be found by the audio player!

We suggest watching this B&N Support video

It's really pretty easy. The nook "screensaver" is just a set of pictures.

First, find a set of pictures you like. Use a photo editor like paint.net or iPhoto to crop your photo to 600x800 pixels. Convert them to B&W for best results. Save as "PNG" or "JPG" format pictures. Best to use at least 3 or 4 pictures.

Next, connect the nook to your computer. Find the main nook drive under Finder (Mac) or My Computer (Windows). Navigate to the "My Screensavers" folder found in the nook directory and create a new folder there (call it "myfirstscreensaver" or whatever). Then drag-and-drop your pictures into the folder you created.

Disconnect your nook. Now that your photos are in the new folder, go to Settings --> Display --> Screensaver, then select your new folder. Enjoy!

Yes. Just like adding your own wallpaper, Connect the nook to your PC or Mac.  Use the USB connection to download your own screensaver images to a new folder (like Coffee Screensaver) to the "My Screensavers" folder on your nook.

Then go to "Settings" and choose the set of screensaver to display. Some users report having to restart if the screensaver isn't found.

Yes. Connect your nook to your PC or Mac.  It will show up like a USB memory stick on your computer.  Find the folder named "My Wallpaper" and drag and drop your wallpaper image to that directory. Next go to the Settings menu to choose the wallpaper image to display.

Only registered devices get updates over the air. The update should occur automatically (wirelessly). Make sure you have wireless connectivity (Airplane mode should be OFF). Go to "My B&N Library" & press "Check for new B&N content". Your nook will proceed with the update.

You can also "side-load" the udpate via your computer. MANUALLY DOWNLOAD UPDATE HERE, Just put it in the root folder of your nook.  Eject your drive(s) and it will do the update! If you have problems make sure the file name doesn't have a -2 or -1 added to it by your browser. It should be singed_bravo_update.dat!

The latest 1.4 update was a very minor release

• Extended AT&T Wi-Fi Hotspot support — FREE and seamless connection to AT&T's entire nationwide Wi-Fi network
• New extra extra large font size 
• Go-To Page feature allows users to go to a specific page in their eBook

The goto page option should have been in the first release. I think after being brow beat by users after 1.3 they had to add it in ;)

You can find the nook manual online here.

The superuser on the Android system is called "root". "rooting" is taking control over your nook so you can modify the system and install other software on it. This may void your warranty and could destroy the normal operation of your nook.  On the other hand, it could be a ton of fun and let you run some neat apps like MyBooks and Trook.

I'd watch this short video to help you make that decision. Then you can head over to http://nookdevs.com for all your rooting needs.

The nook already supports eBooks written in western languages (like French, German, Italian, and Spanish). It does not support characters from non-western alphabets yet but it could be updated to do so. It also supports PDF documents in different languages (and different character sets as long as the font is embedded in the PDF).

The Android platform the nook is based on is very friendly to internationalization.

At some point when B&N decides to sell the nook internationally (like the Kindle) it has a platform setup to handle it.

It depends. You need to make this decision before you buy if you want it from B&N or within 30 days from other vendors.  Read our article on this for more information.

Another very cool way to customize the nook? Check out these WICKED Decals for the nook .

We hope when the platform is opened up you'll be able to use Pandora and other streaming tools easily.

Not yet. B&N hasn't announced anything specific in this regard, but a B&N VP mentioned a potential software option.

The folks at Nookdevs have "hacked" the nook and installed a web browser, Pandora, and other Android applications on it. Checkout the FAQ Entry "Should I hack/root my nook?"

Despite what you may have read there is no "free internet" on the 3G cellular radio on the nook. This is simply a rumor bloggers have circulated.

If you've encountered problems with your nook we'd suggest posting them to our nookTalk forum and see if anyone has run into your problem. The B&N Support Forum is very large and not friendly to newbies from what I've seen. Also check out the rest of the FAQ and our HOW-TO Guides.

if you are new to the nook you might want to check out our New-2-the-nook Tutorial.

Of course you can always contact Barnes and Noble’s tech support line at 1-800-THE-BOOK (1-800-843-2665). Many have found this email address ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) to be the best resource after you've read the FAQ, manual, etc.

Some eBooks (like PDF files) pre-set the font size so you cannot change it.

You will need to install Adobe Digital Editions on your desktop computer (Mac or Windoze). Use it to download the books (the download link on Library site will start ADE. Next, plug in your nook and use ADE to "authorize" it (just first time). Then simply drag the book cover onto the nook (on left side of ADE). Eject the nook and the book will appear under "My Documents"!

No. The easiest way to get books is through the B&N store but you can also load other books on your nook. You can move files from your computer to your nook using a USB connection. The supported file types are ePub, PDB, MP3s, PDFs, and image files.

By embracing the ePub standard any non-DRM (copy protected) book can be loaded on the nook. Since B&N picked Adobe for their DRM support other places that sell - or rent - ePub books with that copy protection should also work on the nook. Sony recently converted over to ePub opening the possibility to use books from the Sony store on the nook.

Kobo eBooks & Overdrive library books have been tested on the nook.

To make buying books easier, and to get eBooks as a gift I'd suggest the new eBook B&N Giftcard!

In general you don't want to delete material you want to archive it. View the item details and select "Archive".

If you want to really remove the item (book sample, free book you hated, etc) checkout the user guide or follow these steps:

• Login to B&N online with your computer
• Go to Digital Downloads > My eBook Library
• Find the books in your Library on the Left
• You'll see a download option as well as "archive" and "delete".  You want to use "delete" at this point. As I understand it you will no longer own this content if you delete it.
• Go to the nook and enter "My B&N Library"
• Select "Check for new content"

The item should now be gone.

We have a video tutorial that you should watch that shows exactly how to use the tool with your library site. NOTE: Your library site needs to use the Overdrive system.

This isn't very intuitive. Login to the B&N website on your computer and click "Account" at the top. Then on the right click "Manage Gift Cards for eBooks". Put in your gift card information. Now you can shop for books. You will be confused by "will be purchased with your default credit card" near the "Buy" button - pay no attention. When you click the button it will inform you any eCard balance will be used first.

We hope a future update will allow you to do this, but it is not possible at this time.

Kindle uses an Amazon specific book format that no other store or device uses. This leads to lock-in with the Kindle and the eBooks purchased. There are tools of questionable legal use that remove the DRM and convert the book content to a format that may be usable by the nook.

No they are not. eNewspapers and eMagazines on the nook are complete electronic editions. They contain all the stuff for which the publisher has digital rights. Some content is not included like advertisements (yeah, cry me an ocean), crosswords, stock quotes, weather, etc. It's going to vary by publisher so try a sample.

The best tool out there is called "Calibre". calibre is a FREE and open source e-book library management application developed by users of e-books for users of e-books. It has a cornucopia of features. Calibre can convert from a huge number of formats to a huge number of formats. It supports all the major e-book formats. The full list of formats can be found on their website. The conversion engine has lots of powerful features. It can rescale all font sizes, ensuring the output e-book is readable no matter what font sizes the input document uses. It can automatically detect/create book structure, like chapters and Table of Contents. It can insert the book metadata into a "Book Jacket" at the start of the book

Go to Library and tap "View My B&N Library" or "View My Documents" to toggle between the two areas. Once you have sideloaded new content just tap "Check for New Content" to display them in "My Documents" area.