Scrambled text in Kindle Reader for PC

[Deskisamess]

This has to be a video driver issue. I've used the K4PC app on several different systems over the years, and have never seen anything like this.

[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

This has to be a video driver issue. I've used the K4PC app on several different systems over the years, and have never seen anything like this.

I have seen it and I've seen screencaps of it, too. Weird as hell and weirder yet, it's been seen on Macs, too.

Hitch

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by Hitch

I have seen it and I've seen screencaps of it, too. Weird as hell and weirder yet, it's been seen on Macs, too.

Hitch

I think it's still a GPU driver issue. There's obviously some gremlin in Amazon's code that causes this to happen on multiple platforms but the fact that this is happening on every book suggests it's a bad interaction between Amazon's rendering code and the GPU driver to me.

[Bookchin]

Originally Posted by Hitch

You can always use KCR, if you don't wish to use a device. Or your phone with K4...(droid or iOS), or a tablet (ditto).

Hitch

What is KCR?

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

Did you upgrade to Windows 10 by upgrading your existing 7 install? Have you tried updating the drivers for whatever GPU your computer has?

No, I was upgrading my computer at the same time and put a new SSD in it. So I did a fresh install of Windows 10.

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

This has to be a video driver issue. I've used the K4PC app on several different systems over the years, and have never seen anything like this.

It could well be a video driver (I only have onboard graphics from 2009). However, like I mentioned, K4PC was finally working fine on Windows 7 with no issues before I upgraded. The previous different issue with Windows 7 was not being able to open/launch K4PC.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Bookchin

What is KCR?

Kindle Cloud Reader

Originally Posted by Bookchin

It could well be a video driver (I only have onboard graphics from 2009). However, like I mentioned, K4PC was finally working fine on Windows 7 with no issues before I upgraded. The previous different issue with Windows 7 was not being able to open/launch K4PC.

It's doubtful that Windows 10 is using the same video driver as Windows 7. I would suggest checking with the manufacturer of your computer to see if they have a newer driver or with the manufacturer of the video chipset (Intel, AMD, NVidia, whomever).

The sad alternative is that your video is not capable of supporting some features that K4PC is trying to use under Windows 10. You might try uninstalling the video driver and falling back to the Microsoft Basic Display driver to see if that works for you.

[Deskisamess]

Does Win 10 have a "safe mode"? Can you launch the Kindle app while in safe mode?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Deskisamess

Does Win 10 have a "safe mode"? Can you launch the Kindle app while in safe mode?

Win10 does have a safe mode. You can run msconfig to get there. It's handy for eliminating quite a few issues caused by programs interacting with each other. There are several other ways to open safe mode such as holding shift while clicking on the power icon => restart in the login screen. Check Start your PC in safe mode in Windows 10 for more information.

K4PC runs in safe mode and allows me to open and read an ebook. Safe mode with networking allows downloading.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Kindle Cloud Reader



It's doubtful that Windows 10 is using the same video driver as Windows 7. I would suggest checking with the manufacturer of your computer to see if they have a newer driver or with the manufacturer of the video chipset (Intel, AMD, NVidia, whomever).

The sad alternative is that your video is not capable of supporting some features that K4PC is trying to use under Windows 10. You might try uninstalling the video driver and falling back to the Microsoft Basic Display driver to see if that works for you.

It actually might be and that might be the problem. I put Windows 10 on my ThinkPad X200T. It did not run well and suffered from glitches as Intel did not give updated drivers for the Intel GMA X4500 integrated card for Windows 10 so I had to use the ones designed for I think 7 or 8. The OP mentioned it's onboard graphics from 2009 so there may not be a Windows 10 specific driver. It might still be worth checking if there is a newer/different GPU driver to use and see if that clears it up.

[teleological]

Originally Posted by Bookchin

It could well be a video driver (I only have onboard graphics from 2009). However, like I mentioned, K4PC was finally working fine on Windows 7 with no issues before I upgraded. The previous different issue with Windows 7 was not being able to open/launch K4PC.

I have the same issue as well and I also have a 2009ish onboard graphics. I have downgraded to older version until amazon gets it together. Its just poor software development. An ebook reader should not need next gen graphics to function.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by teleological

I have the same issue as well and I also have a 2009ish onboard graphics. I have downgraded to older version until amazon gets it together. Its just poor software development. An ebook reader should not need next gen graphics to function.

This is likely a bug between Amazon and your GPU vendors driver. It doesn't need "next gen" graphics to function. It's impossible to test on every single hardware combination in the PC space. There is simply no way. You can report it to Amazon and hope they fix it.

You have 12 year old graphics hardware and lowend hardware at that. That's not current gen graphics or even last gen. It's way old and most likely long abandoned by the manufacturer. It's a miracle it still boots a current version of Windows. You wouldn't have been able to do that with 1997 hardware in 2009.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

You wouldn't have been able to do that with 1997 hardware in 2009.

In Oct., 2009 I installed Windows 7 Pro on an IBM Thinkpad 760 from 1995. It installed and ran (well, run might be an exaggeration, walked slowly is probably a better description).

[teleological]

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

This is likely a bug between Amazon and your GPU vendors driver. It doesn't need "next gen" graphics to function. It's impossible to test on every single hardware combination in the PC space. There is simply no way. You can report it to Amazon and hope they fix it.

You have 12 year old graphics hardware and lowend hardware at that. That's not current gen graphics or even last gen. It's way old and most likely long abandoned by the manufacturer. It's a miracle it still boots a current version of Windows. You wouldn't have been able to do that with 1997 hardware in 2009.

Its a perfectly capable core 2 extreme that still does most tasks effortlessly including playback of 4K videos with gpu offloading. I don't want to throw away a perfectly working system.

Regarding your condescending lecture on last gen-next gen, I would like to point out that every other software vendor is still supporting it including Adobe Acrobat Pro 2021, Foxit Reader 11, SumatraPDF etc. Since every other vendor is not having a problem, then amazon shouldn't as well. And again if Amazon did not support this Hardware, they should have made it clear.

This was clearly a help post and if you had nothing better to contribute (for example a solution) except lecturing on how old my hardware is, then you should've kept your opinion to yourself.

Aand Windows 11 (after patching and deployment with DISM) also runs on this old hardware fluidly. I plan to upgrade after it RTMs. So much for old hardware right mate?

[binaryhermit]

Pfft, someone managed to install XP on a Pentium Overdrive underclocked to 8 MHz with 20 MB of RAM.

Apparently it took 30 minutes to boot and the system itself pegged the processor to 100% usage, but it "ran"

[CathyA]

Does this have any effect on the problem?

- right click on the Kindle for PC shortcut
- go to the Compatibility tab
- click on the "Change high DPI settings" button
- check the box for Override high DPI scaling behavior and select Scaling performed by Application

[Bookchin]

Originally Posted by CathyA

Does this have any effect on the problem?

- right click on the Kindle for PC shortcut
- go to the Compatibility tab
- click on the "Change high DPI settings" button
- check the box for Override high DPI scaling behavior and select Scaling performed by Application

Nope, it didn't work. I tried changing all the settings one by one under the Compatibility Tab.