K3 My kindle is acting up.....

[qlob]

2 days ago, I was exiting out of the browser when my K3 froze..... I plugged it in, waited overnight, and in the morning, I was "stuck under the tree" with no progress showing. The next night, I plugged it in again. The next morning, I was overjoyed to see the Kindle wallpaper (I still do not have the custom ones....), but quickly dismayed that I could not unlock the Kindle with the switch. I would normally think that the power switch is broken, but when I plug it in, it takes forever to show the yellow charging light....

Maybe a bug in the kindle, or extreme cpu usage by something is causing this? I can't ssh or anything into the Kindle, as of now.......

I have Kite, Launchpad, Custom Fonts, myts, Jailbreak, Kaffeine, USBNetworking, etc...

Oh well, I'll probably just use K3flasher to redo the rootfs.

[knc1]

Check the firmware version.
Was an OTA update pushed to the machine?
Perhaps a new version of the firmware (or its installation) is conflicting with what was on there.

How many books?
Any book or books added about the time these problems started?
The indexer may be running in a forever loop, trying to index something it can't handle.

Has your 3G stopped working?

If you do decide to jump straight into the "redo the rootfs" process -
Could you first use K3flasher to dump the file system to a file where we (or you) can play with it?

There has been an unusual number of K3 problem posts recently, an "almost dead" K3 image might help find out what is going on.
(I can provide you with a place to push it to, PM me - - I recall your recent problems with finding a home for an image.)

[qlob]

Originally Posted by knc1

Check the firmware version.
Was an OTA update pushed to the machine?
Perhaps a new version of the firmware (or its installation) is conflicting with what was on there.

How many books?
Any book or books added about the time these problems started?
The indexer may be running in a forever loop, trying to index something it can't handle.

Has your 3G stopped working?

If you do decide to jump straight into the "redo the rootfs" process -
Could you first use K3flasher to dump the file system to a file where we (or you) can play with it?

There has been an unusual number of K3 problem posts recently, an "almost dead" K3 image might help find out what is going on.
(I can provide you with a place to push it to, PM me - - I recall your recent problems with finding a home for an image.)

The problem is, I can't do anything..... I'm stuck at the screensaver....

About 20 books, mostly short stories, 3 kite scripts,and about 7 Kindlets.

No idea, I cannot check

Sure, no problem. The problem wasn't finding a home it was uploading, but I'm willing to try again.

Edit: I really shouldn't have wiped my windows partition, as I now don't have the kernel needed from ATK.... Hopefully I don't have to install "winwoes".....

[qlob]

Hrm.... Just plugged it in after leaving it "off" for a day. Without pressing the "magic key"(or anyother buttons for that matter), It was in USB Download mode.... Weird........

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by qlob

Hrm.... Just plugged it in after leaving it "off" for a day. Without pressing the "magic key"(or anyother buttons for that matter), It was in USB Download mode.... Weird........

USB Download mode is the default boot mode if it cannot find a boot device (mmc, in this case).

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by qlob

Hrm.... Just plugged it in after leaving it "off" for a day. Without pressing the "magic key"(or anyother buttons for that matter), It was in USB Download mode.... Weird........

USB Downloader mode is the default boot mode if it cannot find a bootloader firmware image on a boot device (mmc, in this case). Perhaps your u-boot firmware image is damaged, or perhaps the mmc mis-read due to a low battery or cosmic ray or other random fluke?

[qlob]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

USB Download mode is the default boot mode if it cannot find a boot device (mmc, in this case).

Uh-oh...... I did drop it (not enough to damage the screen, though. Interestingly enough, it was the exact same circumstances to cause the drop as the ones that caused me to go from a K2 to a K3), maybe I disconnected the MMC or something........

[knc1]

qlob is pushing the broken image to one of my servers.
We can play with the broken image and maybe find out why the recent surge of K3 problems once the upload is completed (say, after tomorrow).

Until its ready, bookmark this page for future reference:
http://www.webdavsystem.com/server/access

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by qlob

Uh-oh...... I did drop it (not enough to damage the screen, though. Interestingly enough, it was the exact same circumstances to cause the drop as the ones that caused me to go from a K2 to a K3), maybe I disconnected the MMC or something........

Modern devices use lead-free (RoHS) solder that is very brittle.

I have had chips and connectors pop loose from circuit boards after dropping. Touching the connections up with lead-based solder fixes them, after removing excess solder from solder-bridges using solder wick. A low temperature soldering iron (just enough to melt the solder) helps to protect the board and the chips.

But with BGA chips such as used in the kindles (including the mmc), you need to "bake" it to reflow the solder. The problem is that there is a fine line between hot enough to reflow the solder and hot enough to damage the chips. There are videos showing how to do that with notorious MicroSoft gaming consoles, in which they used expensive thermal cameras to monitor and control chip temperature.

Damaged screens can start with little or no visible damage, with a growing screen substrate crack over time. Perhaps you lucked out there. I have a working K3 that needs a screen. Amazon's "half-price" replacement offer was a lot more than I paid for it originally, so it sits waiting for a screen.

[qlob]

Originally Posted by knc1

qlob is pushing the broken image to one of my servers.
We can play with the broken image and maybe find out why the recent surge of K3 problems once the upload is completed (say, after tomorrow).

Actually.... I haven't gotten the image due to lack of the RAM kernel for K3flasher and schedule problems and me breaking dependencies in YUM. (most work, but when I install a huge program with huge amounts of dependencies it breaks.)

....Time to install Winwoes, I guess......

[qlob]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

Modern devices use lead-free (RoHS) solder that is very brittle.

I have had chips and connectors pop loose from circuit boards after dropping. Touching the connections up with lead-based solder fixes them, after removing excess solder from solder-bridges using solder wick. A low temperature soldering iron (just enough to melt the solder) helps to protect the board and the chips.

Damaged screens can start with little or no visible damage, with a growing screen substrate crack over time. Perhaps you lucked out there. I have a working K3 that needs a screen. Amazon's "half-price" replacement offer was a lot more than I paid for it originally, so it sits waiting for a screen.

Wow, I only paid $40 for mine when I called amazon about my broken K2, they gave me a discount.

I doubt the mmc popped loose though.... How would the default screensaver have shown if the mmc was off? Does the MMC have a connector on the board somewhere? Or is it soldered straight in?

I've never learned to solder, and I doubt that my K3 would be a good place to start..My friend who knows how is gone until Thursday....

[geekmaster]

Images can be had with a little help from a friend.

Here is a video of a cheap solder reflow repair:

But I would save this as a last resort. Try flashing it with a serial port connection first.

And if it really is a damaged board (solder joints), I would use my good screen to put on a cheap kindle with broken screen from ebay (I got one free for only $5 shipping cost). Now I have two K3s with damaged screens.

[qlob]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

Modern devices use lead-free (RoHS) solder that is very brittle.

I have had chips and connectors pop loose from circuit boards after dropping. Touching the connections up with lead-based solder fixes them, after removing excess solder from solder-bridges using solder wick. A low temperature soldering iron (just enough to melt the solder) helps to protect the board and the chips.

But with BGA chips such as used in the kindles (including the mmc), you need to "bake" it to reflow the solder. The problem is that there is a fine line between hot enough to reflow the solder and hot enough to damage the chips. There are videos showing how to do that with notorious MicroSoft gaming consoles, in which they used expensive thermal cameras to monitor and control chip temperature.

Damaged screens can start with little or no visible damage, with a growing screen substrate crack over time. Perhaps you lucked out there. I have a working K3 that needs a screen. Amazon's "half-price" replacement offer was a lot more than I paid for it originally, so it sits waiting for a screen.

Ahh... didn't see the DarkRed. I'm scared to bake my Kindle....

[qlob]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

Images can be had with a little help from a friend.

Here is a video of a cheap solder reflow repair:

But I would save this as a last resort. Try flashing it with a serial port connection first.

ugh... Flash is broken here. Will try switching to a different computer.

[knc1]

The K3 (or any surface mount device thing) is **not** the place to learn to solder.

I think that "firmware error" is more likely than mechanical failure.
If the K3flasher can't take a dump of it - well then we will have to give this problem a bit more thought.

PS: @qlob - what is it with your location? Is there a resident hardware jinx or grimlin?