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pmul · 07-21-2012, 10:21 AM

Hi Everyone,
first off, I have searched the forum, and while I was able to find quite a bit of stuff on the subject of bricked K3s, I could not find the definitive answer (perhaps none exists...). Anyway, I have a two and a half year old K3 3G, and recently I started to hear something rattling inside it. Foolishly I ignored this, and a while later (~couple of months) my poor K3 locked up. I popped it open and 6(!) screws fell out, they were securing the PCB. I assume one or more of them had caused a short. I screwed them back in, but my K3 did not recover. Here is a summary:

K3 is frozen.
GUI will not respond.
Occasionally it will reboot of it's own accord, currently it is doing it every few minutes. It can go days without spontaneous reboots though.
When it does boot to the main menu, it is usable for a few minutes or seconds, until it freezes again.
Tried to reset the device (hold power switch for ~20secs), didn't help, device will usually not respond to the reset other than the led goes out.
Enter+Reset boot to the menu with "Export filing system to USB" does work, (provided I catch the system at the right point in it's spontaneous boot loop), but I don't know what to do here.
Volume '-'+Reset to boot to the low level USB "SE Blank Ringo", also works (also provided I catch the system at the right point in it's spontaneous boot loop), also I don't know what to do here. Even in this mode, it spontaneously disconnects and reconnects from Windows every few minutes.
Tried a factory reset, made no difference.
Talked to Amazon, they only want to replace it for $$.

Even if I could do one of the reflashing methods I see talked about here, where can I get an image to reflash? The Kindle firmware files supplied by Amazon seem to only be incremental. I asked the Amazon support people for a suitable image, but, as I say, they only want to replace it.

Any suggestions/comments? Given that a short probably occurred, am I looking at a real hardware fault? Or can it be rescued?

07-21-2012, 10:21 AM	#1
pmul Enthusiast Posts: 35 Karma: 11764 Join Date: Jul 2009 Device: K-1, K-2-3G, K-3-3G, K4PC, K4iPhone, K4iPad, K-Touch-Wifi, K-Fire, DXG	Bricked K3? Comments please... Hi Everyone, first off, I have searched the forum, and while I was able to find quite a bit of stuff on the subject of bricked K3s, I could not find the definitive answer (perhaps none exists...). Anyway, I have a two and a half year old K3 3G, and recently I started to hear something rattling inside it. Foolishly I ignored this, and a while later (~couple of months) my poor K3 locked up. I popped it open and 6(!) screws fell out, they were securing the PCB. I assume one or more of them had caused a short. I screwed them back in, but my K3 did not recover. Here is a summary: K3 is frozen. GUI will not respond. Occasionally it will reboot of it's own accord, currently it is doing it every few minutes. It can go days without spontaneous reboots though. When it does boot to the main menu, it is usable for a few minutes or seconds, until it freezes again. Tried to reset the device (hold power switch for ~20secs), didn't help, device will usually not respond to the reset other than the led goes out. Enter+Reset boot to the menu with "Export filing system to USB" does work, (provided I catch the system at the right point in it's spontaneous boot loop), but I don't know what to do here. Volume '-'+Reset to boot to the low level USB "SE Blank Ringo", also works (also provided I catch the system at the right point in it's spontaneous boot loop), also I don't know what to do here. Even in this mode, it spontaneously disconnects and reconnects from Windows every few minutes. Tried a factory reset, made no difference. Talked to Amazon, they only want to replace it for $$. Even if I could do one of the reflashing methods I see talked about here, where can I get an image to reflash? The Kindle firmware files supplied by Amazon seem to only be incremental. I asked the Amazon support people for a suitable image, but, as I say, they only want to replace it. Any suggestions/comments? Given that a short probably occurred, am I looking at a real hardware fault? Or can it be rescued?