10-20-2010, 06:56 PM | #1 |
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Weird Kindle feature
I just discovered a strange feature on my Kindle. You can activate this "Collecting information mode" (as I call it) by flipping the sleep switch on and off rapidly as if you wanted to turn your Kindle on and off 10 times in 3 seconds. If you do it right, your Kindle will enter an information collecting mode. You should try it - it won't damage or mess up your Kindle. I provided an AVI file in an attachment. The video file shows me accessing this feature on my Kindle.
Does anyone know what this feature is for? |
10-20-2010, 07:15 PM | #2 | |
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10-20-2010, 07:21 PM | #3 |
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Yep, probably just a typical crash dump. It probably just saved everything in select memory locs/logs and upped it to amazon.
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10-20-2010, 07:24 PM | #4 |
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What the others said. It thinks you're in a crash loop and is generating diagnostic information for Amazon to debug the issue.
It generally isn't a good idea to do that rapid on/off cycling for electronics anyway so don't do it :P |
10-20-2010, 07:48 PM | #5 |
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Actually, the on/off switch for Kindle is just a software switch (i.e. it could be programmed to be the Next Page button or even to be a "reset to factory defaults" button). It's not a hardware switch. The only damage you could do by flicking it on and off like that would be caused by physical wear-and-tear.
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10-20-2010, 07:52 PM | #6 |
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Then should I do that after my Kindle freezes/glitches/encounters a Stop Error etc so that Amazon are able to look at the log files and correct the problem? Or would it just bug them?
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10-20-2010, 07:56 PM | #7 |
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10-20-2010, 08:02 PM | #8 | |
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If you really think nothing will happen then mash on the power button on your PC and tell me how long it lasts :P Last edited by Tiersten; 10-20-2010 at 08:05 PM. |
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10-20-2010, 08:03 PM | #9 |
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No because this is to help them diagnose issues with Kindles that are stuck in a crash/reboot loop. You'd just make it more confusing for the Kindle developers to work out what the problem is because you're generating extra logs for something which isn't actually happening.
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10-20-2010, 08:10 PM | #10 |
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Doubt it. That'd be a bad idea to have to upload via 3G even after compression. Its more likely the logs and a dump of various important parts of memory.
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10-20-2010, 08:35 PM | #11 | |
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10-20-2010, 08:39 PM | #12 |
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Somebody mail this guy a football helmet so he doesn't hurt himself.
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10-20-2010, 09:03 PM | #13 | |
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Or you could just leave it alone and not do that and let them look at the diagnostic logs that gets generated anyway by the crash instead of generating a load of other logs which are useless. |
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10-20-2010, 09:51 PM | #14 | |
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The difference between putting a Kindle into screensaver mode (pressing the power button) and turning it off (holding the power button for 7 seconds) is that, in sleep mode, Kindle is still storing its firmware in its RAM. When you actually hold the power button to fully turn it off, it dumps a small portion of its RAM containing GUI state into its flash memory (just like putting it into sleep mode), but it also shuts down power to its RAM, causing the firmware in its RAM to fade and be lost. When someone turns Kindle back on from off mode, it has to copy its dumped GUI state as well as all of its firmware back to its RAM so that it can process data. In sleep mode, Kindle is still storing its firmware in its RAM and that take a small amout of power (that's why Amazon reccomends you turn your Kindle OFF if it's not going to be used for a long time. When it's off, almost no power is being consumed but it takes a while to boot back up). Here are the summaries writen in third-person pseudocode: Hibernation ON summary: 1. Power button is pressed 2. Kindle brings up screensaver image 3. Kindle waits to make sure you aren't going to turn it on immediately 4. Kindle dumps GUI state into flash memory 5. Kindle shuts down non-vital processes 6. Kindle mantains power to RAM to retain firmware 7. Kindle waits until power button is pressed again Hibernation OFF summary: 8. Power button is pressed 9. Firmware in RAM is utilized and certain processes are initialized 10. Kindle retrieves previous GUI state from flash memory and places it in RAM 11. Kindle reads GUI state from RAM and opens processes that were closed upon shut down 12. Kindle deletes previous GUI state data from flash memory 13. Kindle removes screensaver image 14. Kindle is now ready to be operated again Power OFF summary: 1. Power button is pressed and held down for 7 seconds 2. Kindle removes current image from screen and leaves it white 3. Kindle dumps GUI state into flash memory 4. Kindle terminates ALL processes 5. Without any active processes, the CPU immediately fails and power to the RAM is lost 6. Kindle is now OFF Power ON summery: 1. Power button is pressed and the CPU receives power 2. The CPU initializes the BIOS which in turn loads the firmware from the flash memory which can take up to 10 seconds 3. The firmware instructs the CPU to scan the flash memory for previous GUI state data 4. The GUI state is loaded into the RAM 5. The CPU reads the GUI state in the RAM and opens processes that were terminated upon shut down 6. The previous GUI state data is deleted from the flash memory 7. The Kindle is now ON and is ready to be operated Sorry for the long post. I kind of got carried away... I wrote this all on my Kindle, by-the-way, so there might be some typos. This took over an hour to write, so I had no time to proof-read. Excuse this post if it's a little hard to understand. |
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10-20-2010, 10:01 PM | #15 | |
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