Quote:
Originally Posted by jraw123
I bought one of these at a snip from a store and got lucky with this. held the off button until off properly (15-20 second). I then switched it back on. Then I repeated the step but also held down both volume keys. I messed around like this always keeping the off button pressed in then released them all and switched it on again. It upset itself and sent me to the factory reset screen. Which I did. on reboot it downloaded the latest software updates and registered etc etc. Works a charm.
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I know this is an old post, but this post from JRaw123 was the key to figuring it all out! Thank you so much for taking the time to post what you found out. I too am posting for those that are searching for the answer to this.
Here's the skinny on this: I bought, on purpose, a Kindle Fire 5th generation demo unit from eBay ($10!) as it initially appeared easier to reload than a paperwhite kindle. HA! Nothing worked - bought a factory cable, couldn't get it to work with any of the downloads for reflashing the Kindle Fire. All attempts to reload it resulted in the program(s) either hanging or claiming that the unit was not in fastboot mode.
Turns out you don't need any of that stuff! Here's what you do:
1) Turn the Kindle Fire off.
2) Press and hold the Volume Down button.
3) While holding that button down, press and hold the Power button until the unit turns on. This will take at least 10 seconds to start up. Be patient and keep holding the buttons.
Normally, when you turn on the Kindle Fire, you see in the upper left corner "Normal Boot". When you power on the above way, you will instead see "Recovery Mode". After a few seconds a menu pops up that looks like this:
-----------------------------------------
Amazon system recovery <3e>
Volume up/down to move highlight;
enter button to select.
reboot system now
(highlighted)
apply update from ADB
wipe data/factory reset
(<-- this is the one you want!)
wipe cache partition
reboot to bootloader
power down
view recovery logs
------------------------------------------
4) Use the Vol up/down to move the highlight to the "wipe data/factory reset" entry and press the power button (i.e. 'enter') to select it. Follow through all the warnings and do it!
5) Reboot the Kindle Fire. Be patient - it will take several minutes for it to boot. When it does, it's like a new Kindle. It will ask for you language, etc. Amazon had no problem recognizing it and accepting it.
Hope that helps someone out!
Uncle Rogi
P.S. If anyone is interested, holding both the Vol Up and Vol down and Power button at the same time will boot up the unit in "fastboot" mode. I.E. instead of saying "Normal Boot" or "Recovery Mode" in the upper left corner, it will say "Fast Boot".