[patrickt]

I am not an electrical engineer. I know nothing, really, about battery technology. I'm not even a geek who has Kindles and Kobos and others. I'm just an old guy who likes to read.

I have multiple Paperwhites and I rotate them in use. A week ago I plugged in my Paperwhite/navy blue case to charge and picked up my Paperwhite/tan case to read. When I opened the case I got a notice the battery was low.

"Darn, I must have forgotten to recharge the battery." I never have forgotten but I'm old. I put it on a charger. When it finished charging I was in the middle of a novel on the other Paperwhite so I sat it on my desk. The next day, it's was the turn for the Paperwhite/tan cover. I got the low battery warning again. Overnight, without use, it had lost it's charge.

I started to order a replacement but realized it was the weekend so I didn't have to hurry. I charged the battery again, let it sit overnight, and got another low battery warning.

Then, on a whim, I did a factory restore on the Paperwhite/tan cover.

I don't know why but the battery draining has stopped. After the factory restore, I reset parameters and preferences in the device and then started reading a novel. I'm on the second day now and the battery is holding a charge just fine.

I do a factory reset once or twice a year just on general principles but if anything short of a cracked screen goes wrong, do a factory restore before you panic.