MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Kindle not showing up as USB-Device after "DO_FACTORY_RESTORE"

shamanNS · 12-19-2023, 01:10 PM

@kotyledone To me it looks like it could maybe be one more victim of "killed by a reboot / restart" issue Kindle PW5 (aka Kindle Paperwhite 11 Gen) still has? (and definitely had in the past, I would know ).

I had 2 out of 2 Kindle PW5 permanently stuck in a "bootloop" ( as in device restarts every 15-30 second, until it discharges the battery, and after recharge it still behaves in the same way) after a device restart was needed because something / whatever glitched while using it normally .

That seems to be a common thing between various people that had their Kindle PW5s "self-brick on restart": something doesn't work (like transferred book doesn't show up on screen, or in my case Kindle stopped displaying screensaver image) correctly and then the user tries to see if a restart / OS reboot will fix things.. and then there is nothing more to be done except ask Amazon support to send a replacement unit.

First of my two PW5 brick isn't even detected at all, not for a second when connected to computer via USB cable and the second gets detected as a removable drive without any file system of disk size being seen as existing on that Kindle drive. So size 0 & unformatted Kindle drive is what my computer detects for some number of second between two restarts.
So in my case not even a chance of copying that "DO_FACTORY_RESET" file to try and factory reset it.

So, from you comment I'm not sure what state you Kindle is currently (other than kindle files not showing over USB cable), as in is it restarting itself? Does the image / content displayed on the screen changes or stays always the same, and what does it display?

Is it disappearing and reappearing inside Device Manager on Windows PC?

If WiFi was turned on on your Kindle prior to that getting stuck do you see it as an online device on your home router??

I'm curious about a few things: what firmware version was on your Kindle PW5? And is your unit a 8GB or 16 GB model?
I was really hopping that maybe newer firmware version and/or transitioning to 16 GB eMMC chip has fixed the issue that "bit" me 2 times already has been resolved.
Since both of my now "dead" PW5 were using the same firmware v5.14.1.1 (and I've blocked the OTA updates so they stayed on that early firmware build) and both were 8GB models.
Now the replacement of a replacement I'm gonna get finally in ~10 days from now will be a 16GB PW5 model...

12-19-2023, 01:10 PM	#3
shamanNS Wizard Posts: 1,125 Karma: 12345678 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Serbia Device: Kindle PW5, Kobo Libra 2, Kindle PW1	@kotyledone To me it looks like it could maybe be one more victim of "killed by a reboot / restart" issue Kindle PW5 (aka Kindle Paperwhite 11 Gen) still has? (and definitely had in the past, I would know ). I had 2 out of 2 Kindle PW5 permanently stuck in a "bootloop" ( as in device restarts every 15-30 second, until it discharges the battery, and after recharge it still behaves in the same way) after a device restart was needed because something / whatever glitched while using it normally . That seems to be a common thing between various people that had their Kindle PW5s "self-brick on restart": something doesn't work (like transferred book doesn't show up on screen, or in my case Kindle stopped displaying screensaver image) correctly and then the user tries to see if a restart / OS reboot will fix things.. and then there is nothing more to be done except ask Amazon support to send a replacement unit. First of my two PW5 brick isn't even detected at all, not for a second when connected to computer via USB cable and the second gets detected as a removable drive without any file system of disk size being seen as existing on that Kindle drive. So size 0 & unformatted Kindle drive is what my computer detects for some number of second between two restarts. So in my case not even a chance of copying that "DO_FACTORY_RESET" file to try and factory reset it. So, from you comment I'm not sure what state you Kindle is currently (other than kindle files not showing over USB cable), as in is it restarting itself? Does the image / content displayed on the screen changes or stays always the same, and what does it display? Is it disappearing and reappearing inside Device Manager on Windows PC? If WiFi was turned on on your Kindle prior to that getting stuck do you see it as an online device on your home router?? I'm curious about a few things: what firmware version was on your Kindle PW5? And is your unit a 8GB or 16 GB model? I was really hopping that maybe newer firmware version and/or transitioning to 16 GB eMMC chip has fixed the issue that "bit" me 2 times already has been resolved. Since both of my now "dead" PW5 were using the same firmware v5.14.1.1 (and I've blocked the OTA updates so they stayed on that early firmware build) and both were 8GB models. Now the replacement of a replacement I'm gonna get finally in ~10 days from now will be a 16GB PW5 model...