Bricked Kindle Paperwhite

[negmars]

Hello,

I have a Kindle Paperwhite first generation, firmware 5.3.9 (I think, since I updated it months ago.) Yesterday I tried to add custom fonts by adding USE_ALT_FONTS on the root directory; after restarting my Kindle shows Repair needed screen.

I did this trick before, and when my Kindle is bricked I could just connect via USB mode and delete USE_ALT_FONTS then everything works normally again. This time, connect via USB doesn't work, my laptop (both on Windows 7 and Ubuntu) doesn't recognize/mount Kindle; Windows device manager also did not show any unrecognized (yellow exclamation mark) or new hardware detected at all.

I also notice something odd: while on "Your Kindle needs repair" screen, connect to computer with cable or to a wall charger will restart the Kindle (a kid under a tree screen.) This will just repeat if I unplug then re-plug it in.

I don't think it's a cable issue since I've been using this cable for many other devices including Kindle. Holding the power button will only bring it to restart, nothing further could be done.

I've searched forums and browsing for hours but can't seem to find any thread with a similar issue so I'm really desperate right now.

Any help/suggestion/link is welcome.

[NiLuJe]

Check on another system if you can get it to show up as a mass storage device, which would probably allow you do trigger a factory reset. Without that, you're prrroooobably screwed, unless you can open it up to get serial access.

[knc1]

As NiLuJe said, your #1 problem now is to gain access to USB storage mode.

In your search for the problem:
Don't assume that something is working now, just because it worked before.
After all, your Kindle worked before and now it doesn't.