Troubleshooting Kindles bricking in Papua New Guinea

SenorClean · 04-15-2019, 08:36 PM

I've got an interesting issue for you all to ponder - 3G / LTE kindles seem to be bricking themselves when taken to Papua New Guinea.

My mother in law lives in Port Moresby, is an avid reader and uses her kindles heavily - particularly because getting paper books locally can be a pain.

A bit of history:

Original kindle is a 3G keyboard - still works but obviously isn't as nice to use as newer ones. This one was sourced from the USA before they are available in Australia.

Next kindle was a PW3 3G - had been working fine until late 2018 when it bricked and got stuck on the 'boy under a tree' screen. Amazon support couldn't help revive it, and offered a discount on a replacement Kindle. I couldn't get it to mount the internal storage to be able to factory reset it but I eventually opened it, soldered in serial port connections, wiped the MMC (stupidly) but was then able to flash a fresh imagine, bring it back to life and it has been working well since (even took an OTA update fine). It hasn't been to PNG though - just Australia, USA and Kiribati. Frustratingly, I didn't keep enough logs to be able to fine down on what was stopping the boot sequence when I first connected over serial.

Her new Kindle was bought in December from Amazon AU and is a current 10th gen waterproof LTE unit. It was used for a few weeks in Australia, taken to the UK - working fine but, then bricked in the same way (boy under the tree) shortly after being taken to PNG.

Amazon replaced it with a refurb under warranty. Before sending the old one off - I tried to see if I could get the internal storage to mount, but couldn't.
The replacement was delivered to me in Australia, I updated it to the latest firmware and downloaded a bunch of her books on to it, sent it to her in PNG and now it is stuck on the boy under a tree screen too before she got a chance to use it!

So... Where to from here? Give up on LTE and replace it with a wifi model?

Any ideas what could be causing this and how I can properly report it to Amazon in a way that will get it fixed? What on earth could it be? Some kind of message about 'roaming fees' that prevents them from booting maybe?

I asked Amazon support how I can stop this happening again after the second time and they told me not to overcharge them.. ugh.

PNG doesn't seem to be on the Amazon coverage maps - but the 3G Kindles have worked up there over the last 10 years or so regardless.

DeKuns · 04-16-2019, 12:28 AM

Probably software glitches at Amazon side for 3G Kindle are more severe than we thought. You got bricked problem in PNG. That is much more terrible than ours. Kindle DX owners have been frustrated to find they cannot register from their device once factory reset was initiated. So we can only side loaded. Push this problem more and hope that someone influential in Amazon here it.

SenorClean · 05-30-2019, 07:46 PM

A brief update on this - I got in touch with Amazon a bunch of times, apparently they escalated the issue but I haven't heard any more.

They've refunded me, and I've bought a wifi only model to replace it.

They're letting me keep the bricked one, so I'll plan to get serial access and see if I can revive it and learn anything.

04-15-2019, 08:36 PM	#1
SenorClean Member Posts: 19 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2019 Device: Kindle 3, PW3, PW4(Bricked)	Kindles bricking in Papua New Guinea I've got an interesting issue for you all to ponder - 3G / LTE kindles seem to be bricking themselves when taken to Papua New Guinea. My mother in law lives in Port Moresby, is an avid reader and uses her kindles heavily - particularly because getting paper books locally can be a pain. A bit of history: Original kindle is a 3G keyboard - still works but obviously isn't as nice to use as newer ones. This one was sourced from the USA before they are available in Australia. Next kindle was a PW3 3G - had been working fine until late 2018 when it bricked and got stuck on the 'boy under a tree' screen. Amazon support couldn't help revive it, and offered a discount on a replacement Kindle. I couldn't get it to mount the internal storage to be able to factory reset it but I eventually opened it, soldered in serial port connections, wiped the MMC (stupidly) but was then able to flash a fresh imagine, bring it back to life and it has been working well since (even took an OTA update fine). It hasn't been to PNG though - just Australia, USA and Kiribati. Frustratingly, I didn't keep enough logs to be able to fine down on what was stopping the boot sequence when I first connected over serial. Her new Kindle was bought in December from Amazon AU and is a current 10th gen waterproof LTE unit. It was used for a few weeks in Australia, taken to the UK - working fine but, then bricked in the same way (boy under the tree) shortly after being taken to PNG. Amazon replaced it with a refurb under warranty. Before sending the old one off - I tried to see if I could get the internal storage to mount, but couldn't. The replacement was delivered to me in Australia, I updated it to the latest firmware and downloaded a bunch of her books on to it, sent it to her in PNG and now it is stuck on the boy under a tree screen too before she got a chance to use it! So... Where to from here? Give up on LTE and replace it with a wifi model? Any ideas what could be causing this and how I can properly report it to Amazon in a way that will get it fixed? What on earth could it be? Some kind of message about 'roaming fees' that prevents them from booting maybe? I asked Amazon support how I can stop this happening again after the second time and they told me not to overcharge them.. ugh. PNG doesn't seem to be on the Amazon coverage maps - but the 3G Kindles have worked up there over the last 10 years or so regardless. Last edited by SenorClean; 04-15-2019 at 08:41 PM.

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04-16-2019, 12:28 AM	#2
DeKuns Connoisseur Posts: 89 Karma: 133654 Join Date: Apr 2019 Device: Kindle DX Graphite	Probably software glitches at Amazon side for 3G Kindle are more severe than we thought. You got bricked problem in PNG. That is much more terrible than ours. Kindle DX owners have been frustrated to find they cannot register from their device once factory reset was initiated. So we can only side loaded. Push this problem more and hope that someone influential in Amazon here it.

05-30-2019, 07:46 PM	#3
SenorClean Member Posts: 19 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2019 Device: Kindle 3, PW3, PW4(Bricked)	A brief update on this - I got in touch with Amazon a bunch of times, apparently they escalated the issue but I haven't heard any more. They've refunded me, and I've bought a wifi only model to replace it. They're letting me keep the bricked one, so I'll plan to get serial access and see if I can revive it and learn anything.

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