How to find out if my Kindle 3 is really dead dead ?

WoenK · 07-01-2012, 11:01 AM

Ok, got a bricked Kindle from my girl and have been twiddling quite some time with it now.
Bought me a USB-serial cable from FTDI, soldered the contacts on it and still nothing comes out. Checked the cables, checked for any short circuit, parameters in Hyperterm are ok, driver for it is the most recent.

The USB port seems to function (orange light goes on when plagged in), but the Kindle is not recognized (only brings a short message, but seems to be the standard one when its bricked). Doing a reset while plugged in turns off the orange LED, computer recognizes a change on the USB port, green LED flashes for a second.
Doing a a reset without the USB cable makes it also flash for a second, as well as when inserting the battery.

Battery seems to get charged properly also ,left it lying around for a month, checked the voltage, recharged it for a day and seemed to be full.

I suspect that something crashed the bootloader.
Is there any way to rewrite the thing completely ?

geekmaster · 07-01-2012, 11:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WoenK

Ok, got a bricked Kindle from my girl and have been twiddling quite some time with it now.
Bought me a USB-serial cable from FTDI, soldered the contacts on it and still nothing comes out. Checked the cables, checked for any short circuit, parameters in Hyperterm are ok, driver for it is the most recent.

The USB port seems to function (orange light goes on when plagged in), but the Kindle is not recognized (only brings a short message, but seems to be the standard one when its bricked). Doing a reset while plugged in turns off the orange LED, computer recognizes a change on the USB port, green LED flashes for a second.
Doing a a reset without the USB cable makes it also flash for a second, as well as when inserting the battery.

Battery seems to get charged properly also ,left it lying around for a month, checked the voltage, recharged it for a day and seemed to be full.

I suspect that something crashed the bootloader.
Is there any way to rewrite the thing completely ?

Good news. Recent advances have been made in K3 "USB Downloader" mode, which can be used to reflash the entire mmc (or portions of it) using only the USB port. There is a lot of recent activity. Essentially, this is the K3 version of "simple debricking for the K4 and K5". You can read more about it in the "advanced toolkit" thread: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=183147

For serial mode, you may need to convert the voltage levels. Is your serial cable designed for 1.8v TTL serial? If not, you can use a simple serial voltage converter circuit (there is a thread for that in the tools index).

HarryT · 07-01-2012, 11:25 AM

What caused the problem initially?

kaneorotar · 07-01-2012, 11:28 AM

My k3g hanged about a month ago when I was reading using Duokan. The screen stayed still and no matter how hard I try to restart it or reset it, there were no response except for the LED. This some how seems a little similar with your case.

My final solution was to take the battery off which shuts it down completely and then starting it up.

Edit:
OK, I guess your's is different as it is able to proceed to the "Your Kindle Needs Repair" screen
I've also encountered that once and a factory reset solved it.
Good luck.

geekmaster · 07-01-2012, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kaneorotar

My k3g hanged about a month ago when I was reading using Duokan. The screen stayed still and no matter how hard I try to restart it or reset it, there were no response except for the LED. This some how seems a little similar with your case.

My final solution was to take the battery off which shuts it down completely and then starting it up.

Holding the power button for half a minute is SUPPOSED to do a hard reset, but removing the battery will surely do it. It is a good idea to press the power button with no battery to discharge any stored voltage in filter capacitors, to guarantee that the CPU sees no residual voltage before reattaching the battery, to give a good clean power-on reset pulse to the CPU.

hawhill · 07-01-2012, 11:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WoenK

I suspect that something crashed the bootloader.
Is there any way to rewrite the thing completely ?

Yep :-) Plus, you can do this by using USB access only. See the thread that geekmaster referenced.

But in order to analyze what is going on, I would rather like to hear more about this part:

Quote:

only brings a short message, but seems to be the standard one when its bricked

What brings a message? The Kindle? What message?

Did you try to reboot while holding the <Enter> (arrow) button pressed? Does the recovery menu pop up? (If so, bootloader and kernel+initramfs are fine and the root filesystem is likely the culprit.)

Otherwise, in the referenced thread I documented how I flashed a kernel. Likewise, I did also flash the root filesystem. And I don't see any difficulties for flashing the boot loader.

WoenK · 07-01-2012, 12:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hawhill

Yep :-) Plus, you can do this by using USB access only. See the thread that geekmaster referenced.

But in order to analyze what is going on, I would rather like to hear more about this part:

What brings a message? The Kindle? What message?

Did you try to reboot while holding the <Home> button pressed? Does the recovery menu pop up? (If so, bootloader and kernel+initramfs are fine and the root filesystem is likely the culprit.)

Otherwise, in the referenced thread I documented how I flashed a kernel. Likewise, I did also flash the root filesystem. And I don't see any difficulties for flashing the boot loader.

Windows gives me short message about an unregonized devece beeing conncted. First time I connected it I wrote it down, but lost the paper. Now it is done too fast. If I remember correctly it was the CPU being recognized (or at least it pointed me in the direction of an ARM chip)

Kindle got bricked over night, was not connecte to a computer but has the "disconnect from USB" screen.

And the USB to serial cable is the FTDI one with 1,8V

Will take a look at geekmasters link...somehow I missed it the past month I read the threads here

hawhill · 07-01-2012, 03:25 PM

Sorry, I made a mistake, the button to press upon reboot is <Enter>.

geekmaster · 07-01-2012, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WoenK

Will take a look at geekmasters link...somehow I missed it the past month I read the threads here

Post #2 in this thread.

07-01-2012, 11:01 AM	#1
WoenK Member Posts: 22 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2012 Device: Kindle3, Trekstor5	How to find out if my Kindle 3 is really dead dead ? Ok, got a bricked Kindle from my girl and have been twiddling quite some time with it now. Bought me a USB-serial cable from FTDI, soldered the contacts on it and still nothing comes out. Checked the cables, checked for any short circuit, parameters in Hyperterm are ok, driver for it is the most recent. The USB port seems to function (orange light goes on when plagged in), but the Kindle is not recognized (only brings a short message, but seems to be the standard one when its bricked). Doing a reset while plugged in turns off the orange LED, computer recognizes a change on the USB port, green LED flashes for a second. Doing a a reset without the USB cable makes it also flash for a second, as well as when inserting the battery. Battery seems to get charged properly also ,left it lying around for a month, checked the voltage, recharged it for a day and seemed to be full. I suspect that something crashed the bootloader. Is there any way to rewrite the thing completely ?

07-01-2012, 11:28 AM	#4
kaneorotar Enthusiast Posts: 41 Karma: 17678 Join Date: Aug 2011 Location: CA, USA Device: K3, KW3, PW4	My k3g hanged about a month ago when I was reading using Duokan. The screen stayed still and no matter how hard I try to restart it or reset it, there were no response except for the LED. This some how seems a little similar with your case. My final solution was to take the battery off which shuts it down completely and then starting it up. Edit: OK, I guess your's is different as it is able to proceed to the "Your Kindle Needs Repair" screen I've also encountered that once and a factory reset solved it. Good luck. Last edited by kaneorotar; 07-01-2012 at 11:32 AM. Reason: Correction

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07-01-2012, 11:25 AM	#3
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	What caused the problem initially?

07-01-2012, 03:25 PM	#8
hawhill Wizard Posts: 1,379 Karma: 2155307 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Goettingen, Germany Device: Kindle Paperwhite, Kobo Mini	Sorry, I made a mistake, the button to press upon reboot is <Enter>.