I started having the freeze problem today, and here is what I found out after troubleshooting for awhile.

1. Whoever makes this thing has managed to put an extremely slow processor in the device. I have to be sure to give kindle time to do all the background things it needs to do -- sorting, indexing etc. I suspect some of the freezing has to do with my not giving the processor time to work.

2. The RAM must be very limited. I went wild downloading stuff from Gutenberg.org. I just had too much stuff on the kindle. I removed most of it, and the kindle started working again.

3. The USB plug on the kindle is loose. I finally got the USB working again by sticking the plug part way in, not all the way.

4. I have a 4 GB memory chip in it, and I don't think that was causing the freezes. I think I just downloaded too much text for the limited resources on the device.

I've heard other Kindle owners mentioning the slow down if they put a lot of books on it at the same time

Hello pstoddard61,

Would you please cite some numbers of your usage scenario. For example, if I want to experience the same freezing, what steps should I take to recreate the scenario?

Thanks.

I know adding a number of books definitely slows down my Kindle and quickly drains the battery. What I received my replacement Kindle and charged it I immediately added my SD card with around 600 books and left my Kindle on all night. It wasn't plugged in and was totally drained by the next morning.

Haven't seen any freezing but mine is still 1.0 and I'm most likely at the end of the queue since the update was announced right after my replacement Kindle arrived and the replacement is 1.0 (I checked).

Hello pstoddard61,

Would you please cite some numbers of your usage scenario. For example, if I want to experience the same freezing, what steps should I take to recreate the scenario?

Thanks.

One member here bought the Silk pagoda DVD (the one with 10k ebooks). He loaded the contents of the entire DVD on to his Kindle. His Kindle tended to crash at around 6 thousand titles.

I started having the freeze problem today, and here is what I found out after troubleshooting for awhile.

1. Whoever makes this thing has managed to put an extremely slow processor in the device. I have to be sure to give kindle time to do all the background things it needs to do -- sorting, indexing etc. I suspect some of the freezing has to do with my not giving the processor time to work.

2. The RAM must be very limited. I went wild downloading stuff from Gutenberg.org. I just had too much stuff on the kindle. I removed most of it, and the kindle started working again.

3. The USB plug on the kindle is loose. I finally got the USB working again by sticking the plug part way in, not all the way.

4. I have a 4 GB memory chip in it, and I don't think that was causing the freezes. I think I just downloaded too much text for the limited resources on the device.

It's not a hardware problem. The Kindle has a 400Mhz CPU; that's more than my first 3 computers combined.

The problem is in the software. There is an upper limit on the number of files you can load on to the Kindle (around 6,000).

3. The USB plug on the kindle is loose. I finally got the USB working again by sticking the plug part way in, not all the way.

This alone is reason enough to contact amazon and get a replacement. Otherwise, the port may fail altogether. I'm sure they will gladly replace it.

I never had a freezing problem until I updated to the new version. Now I know not to be so silly and update right away. :)

I wish I could go back to the old version. But lesson learned I suppose.

Hello pstoddard61,

Would you please cite some numbers of your usage scenario. For example, if I want to experience the same freezing, what steps should I take to recreate the scenario?

Thanks.

I received my Kindle on Feb 1, and started downloading books. During the week of Feb 11-15 I bought a Kingston SD2/4 GB memory chip for it. I accumulated 75 MB worth of books, and started seeing freezes. I removed most of the books, and as of 22 Feb I now have 23.4 MB for 42 files. The Kingston memory is still in the device but is empty.

I received my Kindle on Feb 1, and started downloading books. During the week of Feb 11-15 I bought a Kingston SD2/4 GB memory chip for it. I accumulated 75 MB worth of books, and started seeing freezes. I removed most of the books, and as of 22 Feb I now have 23.4 MB for 42 files. The Kingston memory is still in the device but is empty.

Let me just add that I am going to start adding some of the books back, to see if I can reproduce the problem. It might be a capacity problem, or I might have gotten a bad file somewhere.

I would think the slowdown and battery drain are related to the software indexing the books for the search feature. Once the books are all fully indexed it should settle back down.


-d

So, the Kindle slows and freezes beyond 6000 files, even when many of the files are on the SD card?

Would it be advisable to use the SD card as portable storage instead of keeping it fully loaded in the unit? I suppose that would negate the wonderful indexing and search features, though...:book2:<<This is me until the frappin' thing arrives! (Ordered 2/24)

Would it be advisable to use the SD card as portable storage instead of keeping it fully loaded in the unit?

The indexes get rather unwieldy with a lot of books. I've got less than 400 books, and I thought THAT was a lot!

Regarding storing on the SD card -- if you put files into a directory that is NOT named "documents" then the Kindle doesn't see them. But you can carry them around with you -- and move them to the "documents" folder (using a computer, or perhaps a pda) when you want to switch batches of books that show up in the index. For instance: "futureBooks" "BooksDone" etc.

The indexes get rather unwieldy with a lot of books. I've got less than 400 books, and I thought THAT was a lot!

Regarding storing on the SD card -- if you put files into a directory that is NOT named "documents" then the Kindle doesn't see them. But you can carry them around with you -- and move them to the "documents" folder (using a computer, or perhaps a pda) when you want to switch batches of books that show up in the index. For instance: "futureBooks" "BooksDone" etc.

This is fantastic!:thanks:

Is there any eink reading device that doesn't bog down at all with hundreds of eBook?

Is there any eink reading device that doesn't bog down at all with hundreds of eBook?

Why should it bog down? The Cybook for example does not bog down with hundreds of books to my knowledge. I think the opposite question is more reasonable. Which units have software implemented in such a bad way that it cannot handle hundreds of books?

I wouldn't keep hundreds of books on my readers anyway, why?? I keep about a dozen or so on the reader at one time and the rest of the books backed up on my computers and on memory cards.

I wouldn't keep hundreds of books on my readers anyway, why?? I keep about a dozen or so on the reader at one time and the rest of the books backed up on my computers and on memory cards.

Well, you can proably read a couple of hundreds short stories on a vacation trip if you are a short story reader. They are often available as one or more html files and the easiest way is just to download them.

I feel that people asking "why" is trying to justify a limitation. There are perfectly valid reasons to want to do it and you should not think that just because you cannot think of a reason there cannot be a reason.

I now have close to 1000 books on my Kindle, most I've read but I like to keep them on the Kindle as another form of backup.

Honestly, I've had no problems with freezing and if I remember to move the book I'm reading from the SD card to the Kindle no appreciable slowdowns with loading.

I feel that people asking "why" is trying to justify a limitation.

Absolutely, I agree.

I will happily admit that I am a little on the obsessive/compulsive side and that might explain why I feel compelled to put more books than i need on the device.

I probably will stop at about 200, but my current compulsion is to edit the files in the Mobi Reader so that all the books list with the correct title and author.

I do hope that in future versions of the software, we can have books on the device that can be manipulated but by default don't show up in the list of books on the device.