[JohnnyBook]

The K3 power cables insulation cracking and flaking off has been a problem for a LONG time.

After I had my K3 for about a year, I noticed that the insulation was cracking badly near the plugs. the wires were visible in the cracks. My Mother who I was visiting at the time, had a K2 for about 2 years and we looked and hers were just as bad. BUT she also had a spare cable she bought still in its origional cardboard sleeve in a cabinet. we got it out and even unused it was also cracking and flaking worse then either of the ones we were using. The wires were exposed due to some missing insulation.

So we taped up the ones we were using and Google-ed it. I found Lots of reports of people having the same problem.

So we contacted Amazon. They knew of the problem and happily send us each a free replacement cable. (But would not replace my mothers spare for free [only 1 per customer?] and said something like, if these went bad we would need to buy new ones) So I did bought a second cable at that time.

A year and a half later BOTH my cables are cracking and flaking badly. I tried taped them up again. and they just kept getting worse. Now one of them has 2" of bare wire on each end.

At that time I noticed that my GFs cellphone charger used the same plug and started sharing it to charge my Kindle, but could not use it to connect to my computer.

So I went to a local electronics store and bought a "USB to Micro USB" cable for under $4. and threw out the Kindle cables. (I still use the Kindle AC plug)

EDIT: And yes I am still using a K3 Keyboard. My original got a bad screen after 2 years. (Someone sat on it?) and I got a free K3 Keyboard replacement from Amazon just before they stopped offering them for sale.