Troubleshooting Books download slowly

[fetito666]

Hello!

On my new Kindle Paperwhite 3 the downloads are extremely slow. It takes hours to download a 3 MB file.

How can I troubleshoot this?

[IFixKindles]

Are you on WiFi or 3G? 3G speeds will depend on the strength of the connection in your area.
WiFi should be much faster.

Have you tried a reboot? Charge it, unplug it, press and hold power a full 30 to 40 seconds, then release power and let it reset.

Is your software up to date? It should be version 5.8.9.2.

How many books are on the device? More than a few hundred can cause significant slowdowns of some processes.

You might need to contact Kindle Support if it is still having problems.

[knc1]

In addition to all of the above:

Check if the kids (or other household members) are streaming video over the household Wifi.

If not using some type of access protection on your household Wifi, then check all neighbors and/or passers by to see if they are streaming video or playing real time games on your nickel.

Translation: If you have non-protected Wifi at home, add protection.
Kindles have supported WPA2-PSK (aes) for a long time now (my KT, fw-5.3 uses it).
That is good enough to keep the bums hanging out in front of your home off of your Wifi system.

[fetito666]

@IFixKindles and knc1: Thank you for your replies.

1) I use Wifi. My tablet and desktop PC work at a perfect speed of 25 MB.

2) I rebooted the Kindle, charged it. I even did a factory reset.

3) Yes, the latest firmware 5.8.9.2. is installed.

4) I do not have a lot of books on the device. I have 3 GB available on the device.

5) No one streams videos or uses the bandwidth. On my desktop PC and on my tablet the internet works with normal speed. No other person has access to my wifi-connection.

[knc1]

That makes it sound like it is something specific about the Kindle.

Do you have it in a case?

Do you hold it by the bottom edge?

The antenna of the PW-3 does not use a connector, so it couldn't have become unplugged.
But anything that would have the same effect of weaking the signal @the Kindle (only) is what I am trying to think of.

[fetito666]

Originally Posted by knc1

That makes it sound like it is something specific about the Kindle.

Do you have it in a case?

Do you hold it by the bottom edge?

The antenna of the PW-3 does not use a connector, so it couldn't have become unplugged.
But anything that would have the same effect of weaking the signal @the Kindle (only) is what I am trying to think of.

Yes, I use a case. Could the leather cover prevent it from downloading at full speed?

I attach a photo of the case.

[IFixKindles]

Have you tried downloading a book at a different WiFi connection? That way you could determine if it is a problem connecting through your home WiFi, or if it is a problem that the Kindle has with any WiFi connection.

I doubt the case is an issue, but you could try it out of the case just to rule out that possibility.

[fetito666]

This Kindle Paperwhite 3 does not connect at a public library at all. With my old Kindle Paperwhite 2 I did not have any issue.

Once I am at home I'll try to download the books without the case.

[barryem]

For what it's worth when I download a book to my Paperwhite 3 it never takes a full minute. But I'm not downloading 3 meg books. Most of mine are about 200k to 500k. Offhand I'd say a typical download time is about 20 to 30 seconds.

I'd try testing this with more normal sized books to see what happens. I doubt it'll matter but it's simple enough to find out.

If you don't come up with a solution pretty quickly I'd contact Amazon's Kindle support. They'll probably make you try all the things you've already tried all over again but if you're patient they'll either find an answer or replace it.

Barry

Barry

[fetito666]

Thanks! I'll try to contact Amazon customer support in case this does not resolve the issue.

Moreover, I'll reset the modem too.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by fetito666

Yes, I use a case. Could the leather cover prevent it from downloading at full speed?

I attach a photo of the case.

Originally Posted by IFixKindles

- - - -
I doubt the case is an issue, but you could try it out of the case just to rule out that possibility.

Originally Posted by fetito666

- - - -
Once I am at home I'll try to download the books without the case.

Not likely.

So do I.

I admit I am grasping at straws here, but just maybe there is something about that case we can not see (metal stiffing inside the leather? ).

Just before you reset the modem, see if it has any kind of logging that you can see.
Some do, some don't, there isn't any rules about what is available to the user.
If your lucky, you will have a log that includes things like base speed and error rates.
Whatever it has, that information might help point us in the correct direction.

[fetito666]

Can I run something like a network diagnosis on the Kindle?

[knc1]

Originally Posted by fetito666

Can I run something like a network diagnosis on the Kindle?

There isn't any included in the Amazon firmware that I know of.
And you would have to have our jail break installed to run code of your own choice.
You are now using 5.8.9.2, for which there is no available jail break.

I think you are fast approaching the point where your only option is to return it for exchange as a defective device.

How did your out-of-case trial go?
Anything found yet that makes a difference?

- - - - -

Sorry, I have forgotten what country you are in, and the details of the following varies by country ....

All Wifi Access Points (APs) ship set to channel 6.
Meaning that without changing it, yours is operating where there is the most likely chance of interference from other Wifi APs.

When you access your Wifi base station to check the logs and to reset it, also go into the setup and change what channel it broadcasts on.
It might be that your Kindle is not as good at working in a high interference situation as your other, larger (and larger antenna) devices are.

Here is an article with pictures:
https://www.howtogeek.com/197268/how...rating-system/

And if you scroll down, there is a Linux command to find out how congested each channel is (I had forgotten about it), which is a direct answer to your question.
(Your Kindle runs Linux.)
But even so, you have to have your Kindle jail broken to access the command line.

Edit:
I just checked, that utility is included in the Amazon firmware, and it does work as shown in the article above.
Still you need access to the command line, which requires at least our jail break plus the installation of our kTerm (Kindle terminal application).
Which is how I just ran it on my KT3.

Here is an example of the information you see output from that command (just one of my neighbor's - mine is off):

wlan0     Scan completed :
          Cell 01 - Address: 1C:AB:C0:75:D6:38
                    Channel:6
                    Frequency:2.437 GHz (Channel 6)
                    Quality=29/70  Signal level=-81 dBm  
                    Encryption key:on
                    ESSID:"suddenlink.net-D630"
                    Bit Rates:1 Mb/s; 2 Mb/s; 5.5 Mb/s; 11 Mb/s; 6 Mb/s
                              9 Mb/s; 12 Mb/s; 18 Mb/s
                    Bit Rates:24 Mb/s; 36 Mb/s; 48 Mb/s; 54 Mb/s
                    Mode:Master
                    Extra:tsf=000003894ae2f7ec
                    Extra: Last beacon: 30ms ago
                    IE: Unknown: 001373756464656E6C696E6B2E6E65742D44363330
                    IE: Unknown: 010882848B960C121824
                    IE: Unknown: 030106
                    IE: Unknown: 0706555320010B1E
                    IE: Unknown: 2A0100
                    IE: Unknown: 32043048606C
                    IE: Unknown: 2D1AAD011BFFFFFF0000000000000000000100000000000000000000
                    IE: Unknown: 3D1606000500000000000000000000000000000000000000
                    IE: Unknown: 4A0E14000A002C01C800140005001900
                    IE: Unknown: 7F080100000000000040
                    IE: Unknown: DD180050F2020101800003A4000027A4000042435E0062322F00
                    IE: Unknown: DD0900037F01010000FF7F
                    IE: IEEE 802.11i/WPA2 Version 1
                        Group Cipher : CCMP
                        Pairwise Ciphers (1) : CCMP
                        Authentication Suites (1) : PSK
                    IE: Unknown: DDA90050F204104A00011010440001021057000101103B00010310470010BD232187623A533A9EBCD2B2B2025A9D10210017486974726F6E20546563686E6F6C6F67792C20496E632E102300044150787810240008415078782D7878781042001253657269616C204E756D62657220486572651054000800060050F20400011011001373756464656E6C696E6B2E6E65742D44363330100800022008103C0001021049000600372A000120

Of interest in addition to just a count of the number of users on a channel is the line:

Quality=29/70  Signal level=-81 dBm

I.E: How much interference and how strong the signal is, as seen by the Kindle.

[fetito666]

Issue resolved. I restarted my modem and removed the case. One of both factors fixed the problem.

Thank you for your help!

[knc1]

Originally Posted by fetito666

Issue resolved. I restarted my modem and removed the case. One of both factors fixed the problem.

Thank you for your help!

That is good.
But I don't see how either of those should have made any difference.

Rebooting the modem should have effected all three devices (PC, Tablet, Kindle).
But the first two didn't have any problem to fix.

Removing a cover, intended for a Kindle, should not have interfered with the Kindle it was designed to be used on.
That would have effected only the Kindle, but it escapes me as to how/why.
(Yes, I do recall it was my own suggestion.)