Kite + kindlepdfviewer broke my Kindle?

GabiAPF · 01-05-2013, 08:54 AM

I need some help, please!

I downloaded kite from this thread and installed update_kite_k3w-3.2.1_install on my Kindle 3.3. After the update, my Kindle seemed to work normally.

Then I installed kindlepdfviewer following the instructions on this thread (for Kite): https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=157047

I then opened KPDFViewer File Manager, then chose a PDF file and I was presented with 2 options. I chose PDFReader.

Then I clicked on Menu, and a strange series of letters and numbers appeared at the top and bottom of my Kindle screen. I tried clicking Back and it said I was already at the beginning of the document. I clicked Home, and nothing happened.

Then I decided to reset my Kindle. The screen went blank and it has not recovered since then. My computer doesn't even recognize it anymore. If I reset again, the screen blinks and goes white again. Is there anything I can do?

knc1 · 01-05-2013, 09:06 AM

You have at **least** three choices:
A) E-Bay it without warranty or promises of any kind.
B) Toss in trash.
C) Re-charge the battery.

ixtab · 01-05-2013, 09:10 AM

Moved to dev forum.

knc1 · 01-05-2013, 09:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ixtab

Moved to dev forum.

So at least we have both of the duplicate postings in the same forum.
See: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...7&postcount=73

GabiAPF · 01-05-2013, 09:23 AM

I'm sorry, I didn't know the right place to post this.

I understand that I did something wrong and I won't do it again.

I still need halp, though. Can anyone help me?

GabiAPF · 01-05-2013, 09:28 AM

Funny. I'm trying to do C, but, while the orange light is on, the screen is still blank. It used to show a battery screen while I charged it. Now it doesn't.

In any case, I'll pretend you were trying to help in spite of your sarcasm. I'll wait and see what happens, in case it's just the charging screen that got messed up.

ixtab · 01-05-2013, 09:55 AM

@GabiAPF: Nevermind, everyone with fewer than 10 posts is allowed to make mistakes

The dev forum is the right place to ask this - because the developers drop by here more regularly than in the parent forum, but I'm unsure which thread is better suited. Probably this one though, not the general kite thread. Oh, and yes, cross-posting is indeed frowned upon here - that's what knc1's comment was mostly about.

As to the specific problem: Sorry, can't help with neither kite nor kindlepdfviewer, nor the k3 actually. Just wait some time, and you'll probably get answers.

And BTW, knc1's suggestion in the other thread was a good one. Let it charge. On a wall charger, for an entire day, and ignore the light and screen. Then try to restart it.

EDIT: I moved the posts from the other thread over to here. That's why the order of the first 6 posts might look a bit chaotic.

knc1 · 01-05-2013, 10:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GabiAPF

In any case, I'll pretend you were trying to help in spite of your sarcasm. I'll wait and see what happens, in case it's just the charging screen that got messed up.

The charging indications (screen and light) are under software control.
When the software is not working properly - you can't trust the indicators.

"Re-Charge the battery" is the most frequent answer to strange problems.

We have done almost everything we can do - other than making a person re-charge the battery before filling out the forum registration form - to get that message across.

ixtab · 01-05-2013, 10:36 AM

@knc1: We could ask the site owner to rename the sub-forum from "Kindle Developer's Corner" to "Re-charge your battery first!"

twobob · 01-05-2013, 10:40 AM

buzzzz

GabiAPF · 01-05-2013, 11:17 AM

Thank you, ixtab. It was actually plugged when it stopped working, which is why I didn't think it might be the battery, but then again I'm afraid I don't know much about how Kindle works.

Charging for an hour and a half did nothing. I will let it charge for a whole day and see if that helps.

hawhill · 01-05-2013, 01:44 PM

kindlepdfviewer doesn't touch the root file system, so it can't do permanent damage on its own. However, it might use up too much resources for some documents (like those which are composed out of 5000x5000px images, to give an illustrative example). This might bring down Amazon's framework with it (hit-and-miss-decisions when out of memory). Nothing a reset wouldn't fix, though.

I don't know much about kite, but it will install a boot-up script, thus will modify the root file system.

When you said "reset", what did you actually do? You _did_ hold the power slider for about 20 seconds, right? Just "turning it off and on again", i.e. short duration slides, won't fix a stuck userland.

Just don't let your battery go fully empty. In the worst case, you should be able to de-brick your device (look up the debricking instructions) - it's a bit of a hassle, but it will always work on the K3 (except of course when the hardware is broken, which can't be done in software, at least not that we know of).

GabiAPF · 01-06-2013, 06:48 PM

Thank you, hawill. When I said reset I meant I held it for 15 seconds. Now I've charged it for over a day, held it for 20 seconds and nothing happened. I'm afraid I'll have to try to de-brick it. Could you please point me to some instructions? Thanks in advance.

knc1 · 01-06-2013, 07:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GabiAPF

Thank you, hawill. When I said reset I meant I held it for 15 seconds. Now I've charged it for over a day, held it for 20 seconds and nothing happened. I'm afraid I'll have to try to de-brick it. Could you please point me to some instructions? Thanks in advance.

Those are "hidden" in a sticky at the top of the forum:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=170929

GabiAPF · 01-07-2013, 08:22 AM

I feel a bit sorry for knc1 right now.

Anyway, I won't hold you much longer. I just wanted to let you know that my Kindle is working again. The strange thing is... I didn't do anything.

I was planning to de-brick it today, so I left my Kindle near my computer - and my wireless router - as I went to bed. When I got up, my Kindle had updated itself and was working again! It even showed me a message telling me about all the new features that had come with this update.

I hope it's stable now (I'm not sure how the latest update will get along with the broken one from before, here's hoping the broken part has been overwritten). If there's anything I should watch out for, please let me know. Otherwise, I just hope I won't have to bother you anymore.

Thanks for your help.

01-05-2013, 08:54 AM	#1
GabiAPF Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 9054 Join Date: Jan 2013 Device: Kindle 3.3	Kite + kindlepdfviewer broke my Kindle? I need some help, please! I downloaded kite from this thread and installed update_kite_k3w-3.2.1_install on my Kindle 3.3. After the update, my Kindle seemed to work normally. Then I installed kindlepdfviewer following the instructions on this thread (for Kite): https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=157047 I then opened KPDFViewer File Manager, then chose a PDF file and I was presented with 2 options. I chose PDFReader. Then I clicked on Menu, and a strange series of letters and numbers appeared at the top and bottom of my Kindle screen. I tried clicking Back and it said I was already at the beginning of the document. I clicked Home, and nothing happened. Then I decided to reset my Kindle. The screen went blank and it has not recovered since then. My computer doesn't even recognize it anymore. If I reset again, the screen blinks and goes white again. Is there anything I can do? Last edited by GabiAPF; 01-05-2013 at 08:58 AM.

01-05-2013, 09:55 AM	#7
ixtab (offline) Posts: 2,907 Karma: 6736092 Join Date: Dec 2011 Device: K3, K4, K5, KPW, KPW2	@GabiAPF: Nevermind, everyone with fewer than 10 posts is allowed to make mistakes The dev forum is the right place to ask this - because the developers drop by here more regularly than in the parent forum, but I'm unsure which thread is better suited. Probably this one though, not the general kite thread. Oh, and yes, cross-posting is indeed frowned upon here - that's what knc1's comment was mostly about. As to the specific problem: Sorry, can't help with neither kite nor kindlepdfviewer, nor the k3 actually. Just wait some time, and you'll probably get answers. And BTW, knc1's suggestion in the other thread was a good one. Let it charge. On a wall charger, for an entire day, and ignore the light and screen. Then try to restart it. EDIT: I moved the posts from the other thread over to here. That's why the order of the first 6 posts might look a bit chaotic. Last edited by ixtab; 01-05-2013 at 10:33 AM.

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01-05-2013, 09:06 AM	#2
knc1 Going Viral Posts: 17,212 Karma: 18210809 Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Central Texas Device: No K1, PW2, KV, KOA	You have at least three choices: A) E-Bay it without warranty or promises of any kind. B) Toss in trash. C) Re-charge the battery.

01-05-2013, 09:10 AM	#3
ixtab (offline) Posts: 2,907 Karma: 6736092 Join Date: Dec 2011 Device: K3, K4, K5, KPW, KPW2	Moved to dev forum.

01-05-2013, 09:23 AM	#5
GabiAPF Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 9054 Join Date: Jan 2013 Device: Kindle 3.3	I'm sorry, I didn't know the right place to post this. I understand that I did something wrong and I won't do it again. I still need halp, though. Can anyone help me?

01-05-2013, 09:28 AM	#6
GabiAPF Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 9054 Join Date: Jan 2013 Device: Kindle 3.3	Funny. I'm trying to do C, but, while the orange light is on, the screen is still blank. It used to show a battery screen while I charged it. Now it doesn't. In any case, I'll pretend you were trying to help in spite of your sarcasm. I'll wait and see what happens, in case it's just the charging screen that got messed up.

01-05-2013, 10:36 AM	#9
ixtab (offline) Posts: 2,907 Karma: 6736092 Join Date: Dec 2011 Device: K3, K4, K5, KPW, KPW2	@knc1: We could ask the site owner to rename the sub-forum from "Kindle Developer's Corner" to "Re-charge your battery first!"

01-05-2013, 10:40 AM	#10
twobob ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°){ʇlnɐɟ ƃǝs}Týr Posts: 6,586 Karma: 6299991 Join Date: Jun 2012 Location: uti gratia usura (Yao ying da ying; Mo ying da yieng) Device: PW-WIFI\|K5-3G+WIFI\| K4\|K3-3G\|DXG\|K2\| Rooted Nook Touch	buzzzz

01-05-2013, 11:17 AM	#11
GabiAPF Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 9054 Join Date: Jan 2013 Device: Kindle 3.3	Thank you, ixtab. It was actually plugged when it stopped working, which is why I didn't think it might be the battery, but then again I'm afraid I don't know much about how Kindle works. Charging for an hour and a half did nothing. I will let it charge for a whole day and see if that helps.

01-05-2013, 01:44 PM	#12
hawhill Wizard Posts: 1,379 Karma: 2155307 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Goettingen, Germany Device: Kindle Paperwhite, Kobo Mini	kindlepdfviewer doesn't touch the root file system, so it can't do permanent damage on its own. However, it might use up too much resources for some documents (like those which are composed out of 5000x5000px images, to give an illustrative example). This might bring down Amazon's framework with it (hit-and-miss-decisions when out of memory). Nothing a reset wouldn't fix, though. I don't know much about kite, but it will install a boot-up script, thus will modify the root file system. When you said "reset", what did you actually do? You _did_ hold the power slider for about 20 seconds, right? Just "turning it off and on again", i.e. short duration slides, won't fix a stuck userland. Just don't let your battery go fully empty. In the worst case, you should be able to de-brick your device (look up the debricking instructions) - it's a bit of a hassle, but it will always work on the K3 (except of course when the hardware is broken, which can't be done in software, at least not that we know of).

01-06-2013, 06:48 PM	#13
GabiAPF Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 9054 Join Date: Jan 2013 Device: Kindle 3.3	Thank you, hawill. When I said reset I meant I held it for 15 seconds. Now I've charged it for over a day, held it for 20 seconds and nothing happened. I'm afraid I'll have to try to de-brick it. Could you please point me to some instructions? Thanks in advance.

01-07-2013, 08:22 AM	#15
GabiAPF Junior Member Posts: 7 Karma: 9054 Join Date: Jan 2013 Device: Kindle 3.3	I feel a bit sorry for knc1 right now. Anyway, I won't hold you much longer. I just wanted to let you know that my Kindle is working again. The strange thing is... I didn't do anything. I was planning to de-brick it today, so I left my Kindle near my computer - and my wireless router - as I went to bed. When I got up, my Kindle had updated itself and was working again! It even showed me a message telling me about all the new features that had come with this update. I hope it's stable now (I'm not sure how the latest update will get along with the broken one from before, here's hoping the broken part has been overwritten). If there's anything I should watch out for, please let me know. Otherwise, I just hope I won't have to bother you anymore. Thanks for your help.