[jhunie]

I’ve had my kindle touch since 2012. Here in the Philippines my device is considerably worn from heavy use but it has not suffered falls or any undue physical damage. I keep it in a belkin case. Presently the screen is starting to fade. I don’t know how to diagnose the problem, if it is what others call “sun-fade” or severe case of ghosting. But I have stopped using it because the screen is unreadable. I did the ff to fix or mitigate the screen to no avail, save the last expedient:


1) Jailbreak: I thought there was an option to max out screen refresh to sweep away those unsightly artifacts –it seems my kindle’s capacity to fully refresh has weakened (see 3rd attachment in full page refresh below)

2) Downgrade to ancient fw via the Kubrick bootable CD: this confirmed that the screen itself was the problem regardless of fw as it did nothing

3) Changed to a custom blank screensaver to wash out afterimage/ghosting: helped a bit but text remains faded

4) Opted for ‘list view’ because the book covers, graphics and such like worsen ghosting

5) Turning pages with full page refresh on does mitigate ghosting but for a page to be readable I have to refresh the screen a dozen times and if you’re reading War and Peace this is impossible…but still, when I have to use the dictionary, the box that pops up is unreadable and the text just pile up on top of each other (see 4th attachment)

6) Landscape mode did nothing either

7) I put it in the ref (this is silly and bad for the battery I know) but voila! The screen was as sharp and clear-cut as if I just took it out of the box. (see 2nd attachment) In the bedroom with A/C on I have noticed that the screen looks better. I am aware of the kindle’s operating temperature. I have also noticed after I took it out of the ref the screen refresh is much blacker. (see 1st photo; cf. the 3rd attachment) I would advise against doing this if you love your kindle.

I really love my kindle though. Here it has survived earthquakes and typhoons (I have hiked with it to the uplands, slept with it in the middle of roads because of aftershocks, quite fondly I think about it now). But I held off buying a new kindle pw because of what I discovered: climate does degrade the kindle screen. (To be fair, I think all electronics do over time.) I don’t know if that holds water, but for now I will keep to my paperbacks. I wish someone could cast more light on this problem.