Kindle 2 screen burn in??

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by OakIris

I really would prefer not to have this permanent "ghosting" on my Kindle 3 screen - unfortunately, from what the responders in this thread have to say, the permanent ghosting/burn in is inevitable and must be endured.

Holly

I have a Kindle 1 (since April 2008), Kindle 2 (since March 2009) and Kindle 3, I have no "permanent" ghosting on any of them. All instances of ghosting have been cleared by using the Alt+G key combination.

I'm not sure what is happening with your friend's Kindle but it not the norm and not inevitable.

[OakIris]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

I have a Kindle 1 (since April 2008), Kindle 2 (since March 2009) and Kindle 3, I have no "permanent" ghosting on any of them. All instances of ghosting have been cleared by using the Alt+G key combination.

I'm not sure what is happening with your friend's Kindle but it not the norm and not inevitable.

O.K., so I commandeered the Kindle from my partner to check it out further. After hitting the "Alt-G" key combo several times, the "permanent" ghosting has gone away. Now when the Kindle is off, nothing is showing but a blank screen. Again, I had no idea that ghosting would remain even when the eReader was off. Sorry about my "the sky is falling" reaction. I bow to all of you knowledgeable folks. Let this be a lesson to me (and anyone else) for jumping to unwarranted conclusions.

(My partner probably won't even notice the difference, but the "alt-g" mantra is now permanently embedded in my brain. )

Holly

[curstpriest]

It's more like an etch-a-sketch than anything else, just shake it really really hard and all will be well.

Or at least hit alt+g a lot.

[gca3020]

Originally Posted by OakIris

O.K., so I commandeered the Kindle from my partner to check it out further. After hitting the "Alt-G" key combo several times, the "permanent" ghosting has gone away. Now when the Kindle is off, nothing is showing but a blank screen. Again, I had no idea that ghosting would remain even when the eReader was off. Sorry about my "the sky is falling" reaction. I bow to all of you knowledgeable folks. Let this be a lesson to me (and anyone else) for jumping to unwarranted conclusions.

(My partner probably won't even notice the difference, but the "alt-g" mantra is now permanently embedded in my brain. )

Holly

I think the main point of contention here is that you weren't aware that the eInk screens need no power at all to refresh them. This is why the battery life is so incredible on e-readers, power is only used when pages are turned, and no power is needed to maintain the image on the page. In units without WiFi and/or 3G enabled. In fact, many readers measure battery life in page turns rather than days or weeks (e.g. 5,000 page turns rather than 10 days).

This is also why amazon displays the "screensaver" when the unit falls asleep. Imagine if they didn't do anything and just left the last page up on the screen. People would try to change the page and find that the page turn buttons weren't working, but would have no other indication of power being off. People would assume the unit had locked up and customer service would see lots of angry phone calls.

So basically, no, the screen can't suffer any permanent burn-in, but you will see some latent afterimages when the screen is not fully refreshed, even if power is removed.

Glad you ended up getting it all worked out with a few manual refreshes.

[curstpriest]

It most definitely requires current to refresh the page, a small amount, but then the image remains in that state without a constant application of current like an LCD. There is also no back light lamp to draw continuous current.

[ricsmania]

Originally Posted by OakIris

I really don't understand. What difference does it make no matter what you call it if the result is just the same?? Perhaps it is an argument about semantics?? The fact is that what was showing 2 months ago (just guessing) on the screen is still what is showing now, so it is exactly the same as burn in whether or not you want to call it "ghosting" instead.

Hi,

I saw that you solved your problem in your next post, so I don't know if this is still relevant, but I think burn-in and eInk "ghosting" and 2 very different things, even though the symptom is the same. The main difference being that burn-in is a permanent defect on a screen, while "ghosting" is just a temporary artifact.

I do notice ghosting while using my Kindle, but that's normal when moving the cursor, browsing, etc. But I never turned my Kindle off, actually I didn't even know that was possible until I did a research on Google after reading this.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by OakIris

I really don't understand. What difference does it make no matter what you call it if the result is just the same??

Because the result is not the same. Burn-in is permanent damage to the monitor; ghosting is trivially cleared by a full refresh of the screen.

[OakIris]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Because the result is not the same. Burn-in is permanent damage to the monitor; ghosting is trivially cleared by a full refresh of the screen.

I realized this yesterday!

For some reason, even though you were all telling me that this was ghosting, not burn in, I just couldn't get my head around the fact that a screen could show a ghost image when the power to the reader was off. Old school, I guess - I was just convinced the problem was burn in such as CRT screens experience. It is obviously not burn in since turning the reader back on and doing a refresh of the screen cleared the image.

I'm a believer, now, and apologize for doubting those more knowledgeable than myself.

Holly

[desertblues]

Originally Posted by OakIris

Sorry about my "the sky is falling" reaction. I bow to all of you knowledgeable folks. Let this be a lesson to me (and anyone else) for jumping to unwarranted conclusions.

Holly

Hm, ' sky is falling'........I can understand that: a few days ago I was on my high horse about ' Audible and Amazon' and used terms like 'how they dare on my Kindle' .

Perhaps bonding with the Kindle is very strong in some cases.
Positive about this forum is that they've got a lot of patience, as I found out.

[Pigamma]

Originally Posted by curstpriest

It's more like an etch-a-sketch than anything else, just shake it really really hard and all will be well.

Or at least hit alt+g a lot.

I left my kindle in a bag for about a month and now half the screen has a fixed image from the screen saver "burned" in. I have tried Alt G and I can see the bottom half of the screen refreshing while Emily Dickinson continues to stare back at me.

How long do I have to keep hitting Alt G before someone will admit that this is more than "ghosting". Perhaps we need a new word for the problem. How about pencilling? Pencil lines remain until they are purposefully erased and if the lines are heavily applied erasing them can be difficult.

So . . .
Emily Dickinson is pencilled on my kindle and I am having trouble erasing her.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Pigamma

I left my kindle in a bag for about a month and now half the screen has a fixed image from the screen saver "burned" in. I have tried Alt G and I can see the bottom half of the screen refreshing while Emily Dickinson continues to stare back at me.

How long do I have to keep hitting Alt G before someone will admit that this is more than "ghosting". Perhaps we need a new word for the problem. How about pencilling? Pencil lines remain until they are purposefully erased and if the lines are heavily applied erasing them can be difficult.

So . . .
Emily Dickinson is pencilled on my kindle and I am having trouble erasing her.

Sounds like a broken screen. If you can post screen shots, we can tell for sure.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by Pigamma

Perhaps we need a new word for the problem. How about pencilling?

Try to switch if off an on, using long press (slide) on the off switch.
If that doesn't help, I am afraid that you do not need to invent a new word."Broken screen substrate" will suffice.

Google for "kindle broken screen picture"

[Pigamma]

Ouch!
Ok so my screen is broken.

Thanks for the advice. I have just got off the phone to Amazon and they are sending me a replacement.