Shut Down Kindle showing critical battery error

[Jeff L]

Found this in my notes.

For system messages:
Search ";dumpMessages"

Will create a text file with messages.


The discussion was on Amazon's forum:
http://www.amazon.com/forum/kindle/r...x37OATDCOD29GR

See the post in the direct link (where Alvin measures the voltage of the board) and the top post (where he notes the system messages).

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The evidence - which seems pretty conclusive to me - is the fact that, when you press the power switch from the so-called "shut down" state, you don't get the lengthy "boy sitting under a tree" boot sequence; the Kindle starts up instantly. What more evidence is needed?

Just because there is a tiny current to keep the "sleeping" RAM from forgetting its contents does not mean that the CPU has power. From what I read, in the off state, the CPU is not powered up at all. Only the RAM has just enough power to keep it from forgetting, so that you can instantly wake it up.

In fact, there is so little battery consumption to keep the RAM from forgetting that you can unplug the battery for a significant amount of time (I did) and it will still wake up instantly after you attach the battery and press the power button. There is enough residual capacitance on the motherboard to supply the insignificant power needed to keep the RAM from forgetting for a significant amount of time, even with no battery and no other source of power. I said this in a previous post, and that basically proves that the CPU cannot be powered on in that "white screen" power off conditon.

That means that the kindle IS powered down.

If you care to learn more about sleep states so that you can backup your opinions with facts, what you are interested in regarding the kindle "power off" state is called "suspend", and you can read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_mode

Suspend mode powers off everything except RAM, and supplies only enough power so it does not forget. That is why the software does not need to reboot when you reapply power to the CPU and all other components, and restore full power to the RAM so you can read and write to it.

In suspend mode, the CPU is powered off, and everything else is powered off too, except the RAM (which is "almost" powered off). I did not see evidence in the provided links to show that it is logging while it is powered off. Of course, you can find battery voltage at various test points on the motherboard, but that does not prove that any components are getting power from those testpoints while the kindle is turned off.

You may want to read about sleep modes and then update your opinions on this subject. Like I said, I am just going by what the hardware and component manufactures have to say. If you prefer to trust opinionated conjecture (gossip and guesses) and non-scientific "evidence" more than you trust official reference manuals, well then, that is a personal preference...

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

Just because there is a tiny current to keep the "sleeping" RAM from forgetting its contents does not mean that the CPU has power. From what I read, in the off state, the CPU is not powered up at all. Only the RAM has just enough power to keep it from forgetting, so that you can instantly wake it up.

Thanks - I am perfectly well aware of the difference between "suspend" (where the RAM is powered) and a true shut-down, and I would assert (as you have in fact agreed) that the two states are different. Holding in the power switch for 7 seconds on the Kindle puts it into suspend mode; it does not shut it down.

But we're just playing with words here. If you prefer to use the term "shut down" to refer to suspend mode, that's fine with me, and Amazon share your terminology, so you're in good company. But I shall continue to regard "suspend" and "shut down" as different states. I can shut down my iPad; I can shut down my BeBook Neo; I can shut down my Sony PRS-350. But I cannot shut down my Kindle.

Let's just agree that we assign different meanings to the words, and move on. It's certainly not worth arguing about.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Let's just agree that we assign different meanings to the words, and move on. It's certainly not worth arguing about.

Okay. Being a systems programmer who writes firmware and device drivers for a living, I tend to think in terms of the CPU, which in this case is powered down. If you wish to think of a trickle of suspend-state power supplied only to the RAM as the kindle being "not powered down", that is indeed a different point of view from my own.

And each man is certainly welcome to his own opinion, even in police states where he does not dare to express his opinions openly. Of course, that may change soon, with recent progress in being able to reconstruct your thoughts back into images, as shown in this recent video: