Kindle screen broken?

[oecherprinte]

Hi there,

I left my kindle on my office desk in the unlighted amazon cover. This morning I tried to turn it on and now there are
strange stripes all over the screen that do not disappear even after doing a complete reboot. Pictures are attached.

Is the screen broken? The kindle was just sitting on my desk.

Thanks for your help,

Jens

[TheKindleWorm]

Hi Jens

Yes I'm afraid the screen unfortunately looks broken to me in which case there is nothing you can personally do I would suggest contacting Amazon about it.

Nothing fell on top of the Kindle did it?

[oecherprinte]

Well I left it on my office desk with a magazine on top of it to hide it. Maybe the cleaning staff did something to it, but there is no way of finding out.

Sh**! Does anybody know how much that will cost? I am more or less addicted to this device now ...

[HarryT]

Yes, I'm afraid that's a classic picture of a broken screen substrate. The crack in the substrate is the diagonal line towards the bottom of the picture. Unfortunately this is not covered by the warranty.

[TheKindleWorm]

Originally Posted by oecherprinte

Well I left it on my office desk with a magazine on top of it to hide it. Maybe the cleaning staff did something to it, but there is no way of finding out.

Sh**! Does anybody know how much that will cost? I am more or less addicted to this device now ...

Oh dear. Perhaps the cleaners just whacked their polish or equipment on top thinking it was just a pile of mags. Because it normally requires some kind of force or drop to break a screen.

I would still just contact Amazon and explain that it is broken and see what they say. Hopefully you will get hold of someone very helpful and nice.

[oecherprinte]

Originally Posted by TheKindleWorm

I would still just contact Amazon and explain that it is broken and see what they say. Hopefully you will get hold of someone very helpful and nice.

Well my amazon ebook bill surely shows that I am a profitable customer! I contacted our building service. Who knows maybe they have an insurance that covers such cases. But then it's hard to prove that they broke it.

[abookreader]

Call Amazon Kindle Customer Service and explained what happened. There have been several reported cases of them replacing a Kindle for no cost for a broken screen when they are still under warranty. See what they say.

PS, make sure you get Kindle Support specifically and not just the regular Customer Support line. They seem to be easier to work with.

[oecherprinte]

Just called Amazon and they are sending me a replacement FOR FREE without even looking at the broken device.

That's what I call customer service! I will keep you updated on how it proceeds.

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by oecherprinte

Just called Amazon and they are sending me a replacement FOR FREE without even looking at the broken device.

That's what I call customer service! I will keep you updated on how it proceeds.

yAy! may I suggest that your kindle commute with you in the future?

[oecherprinte]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

yAy! may I suggest that your kindle commute with you in the future?

This is the first time that I left my precious behind.

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by oecherprinte

This is the first time that I left my precious behind.

I bet that won't happen again!

[Tiersten]

Odd that it got broken whilst in a case though. The eInk screen is generally broken because something pushed on the screen, something hit the screen or the entire device was twisted. The cleaners might have dropped it when moving stuff around on your desk to clean I guess?

eInk screens have a plastic top layer but there are very thin glass layers inside. This means you can end up cracking or damaging an internal layer but still have a completely intact top layer. The diagonal lines are usually an indication that the glass inside has cracked and where they join up is generally where the impact or pressure was.

Great that Kindle CS are replacing your Kindle though!

[Barty]

I had a kindle 2 that showed similar symptoms. I did not recall dropping it or anything. I called CS, described what it looked like, having no idea what it was or whether it was covered by warranty Amazon replaced it and paid shipping both ways.

Sometimes ignorance is the best policy

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by Tiersten

Odd that it got broken whilst in a case though. The eInk screen is generally broken because something pushed on the screen, something hit the screen or the entire device was twisted. The cleaners might have dropped it when moving stuff around on your desk to clean I guess?

eInk screens have a plastic top layer but there are very thin glass layers inside. This means you can end up cracking or damaging an internal layer but still have a completely intact top layer. The diagonal lines are usually an indication that the glass inside has cracked and where they join up is generally where the impact or pressure was.

Great that Kindle CS are replacing your Kindle though!

I'm willing to bet there was a curious janitor last night

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

I'm willing to bet there was a curious janitor last night

I'm betting the same. I know there's at least one person over on the Amazon board who broke their screen because they thought it was a touchscreen and kept pushing on it trying to get it to work, so I can honestly imagine someone doing that if they don't know what the Kindle is, considering how pervasive touchscreen technology is these days. The Kindle screen isn't designed to withstand jabbing.