How to Reboot a Frozen Barnes and Noble Nook

One of the most common problems with a Barnes and Noble Nook is its tendency to freeze on a screen saver, which prevents its user from opening any books, magazines, or newspapers and effectively renders the device frustratingly useless

My Barnes and Noble Nook froze on a picture of Charles Dickens, who looked pretty unamused with the whole ordeal, and I was surprised to find out that resetting the Nook was extremely difficult. Even when I removed the Nook's battery, the screen saver stayed on, and Charles Dickens seemed to taunt me from the screen. You're not reading enough of my books, he said, so I won't let you read any of those stupid Stephen King novels.

Here's a quick guide to help you reboot a frozen Barnes and Noble Nook that stays on a startup screen, a screen saver, a picture of a perturbed Charles Dickens, or anything else.

Holding the Power button. If you call customer service, the first thing that they'll do is to tell you to hold the power button on the top of the nook for about 10-30 seconds. This probably won't work, but what it's supposed to do is reset the Nook by sending a reboot signal. Why won't this work? Your Nook's battery is probably dead.

When the Nook freezes up, it's usually not actually frozen-it's simply out of juice. The e-ink technology that the Barnes and Noble Nook uses to recreate the look of a piece of paper also holds an image on screen when the battery dies. That image will stay on there until the Nook has enough battery power to start back up.

Plug the Nook into the wall. You can try plugging your Nook into the wall to give it the power that it needs. The charging light should come on after you do this. Whether it does or not, give it about a half an hour. If the charging light still isn't on, move to the next step, but if it is on, let it charge for a while. The Nook can't even run that little light without battery power, so if the light's on, it's a good sign that it's charging up and it won't be a frozen Nook for much longer.

Plug the Nook into a computer. Sometimes, a frozen Barnes and Noble Nook needs an extra kick to its operating system, so try plugging the device into your computer via a USB connection. If that doesn't work, take out the battery and try it again. The battery can be removed by pulling the plastic-rubber backing off of the Nook-there's a little crevice at the bottom of the device where you can easily pry it off-and unscrewing the battery from its housing. Remove the battery and plug it back into the computer.

If that still doesn't work, try plugging it in while holding down the power button. You may also reset a Nook by holding down all four page buttons, according to Internet lore, although this didn't help me when my Nook died.

If you still can't reset a frozen Barnes and Noble Nook, it's time to call their support. I had a good experience with the customer service team at Barnes and Noble and received an expedited shipment of a new Nook a day or two after my last one conked out.

Have any questions or comments about a frozen Barnes and Noble Nook or tips for resetting the Nook? Post below.