KT2 Bricked on boot-up screen - seen on PC as SE Blank MEGREZ

[dpdsbd]

Hey there,

I went through few threads and though I ound the anwser but unfortunatelly no.

My Kindle Touch (7th Generation - serial number starts with 90C6) recently got stuck on boot-up screen (person/child sitting under the tree), with progress bar stuck in about 30%.

I have tried so far:
- charging with different cables and wall chargers - always the orange light comes on, but never goes to green no matter how long I charge it
- resetting (40s power button) both plugged and unplugged - after 10 seconds the orange light blinks few times and then nothing - screen remains frozen at the same image
- Amazon support (ofc no warranty = no help)
- booted Kubrick 3.6 but as my KT2 does only have 1 button (power button) I cannot put it into USB downloader mode

When connected to PCC it doesnt show up as Kindle but as SE Blank MEGREZ

Any ideas what could be next step or nothing can be done and should sell it for parts?

Thanks in advance for any hints/help!

[dhdurgee]

Is this KT2 jailbroken? If so, are the rescue pak and coward's rescue pak installed? If so you might have some immediate options available. Beyond that what skills and tools do you have? Serial port access will allow you to determine that problem and might allow you to address it.

Dave

[dpdsbd]

It is not Jailbroken - it's standard of-the shelve condition (vanilla?)

I was hoping for software fix but if needed I can go into hardware fix as well but have no prior experience and tools. But do have some engineering education

[knc1]

Originally Posted by dpdsbd

Hey there,

I went through few threads and though I ound the anwser but unfortunatelly no.

My Kindle Touch (7th Generation - serial number starts with 90C6) recently got stuck on boot-up screen (person/child sitting under the tree), with progress bar stuck in about 30%.

I have tried so far:
- charging with different cables and wall chargers - always the orange light comes on, but never goes to green no matter how long I charge it
- resetting (40s power button) both plugged and unplugged - after 10 seconds the orange light blinks few times and then nothing - screen remains frozen at the same image
- Amazon support (ofc no warranty = no help)
- booted Kubrick 3.6 but as my KT2 does only have 1 button (power button) I cannot put it into USB downloader mode

When connected to PCC it doesnt show up as Kindle but as SE Blank MEGREZ

Any ideas what could be next step or nothing can be done and should sell it for parts?

Thanks in advance for any hints/help!

Sounds very familiar, freeze it.
Really, freeze it. Put in freezer for at least two days (to be sure).
Put a soft cloth around it when in the freezer so it does not gather condensate when you do remove it.
Then, connect cloth wrapped Kindle to a wall charger.
Wait.
Sometimes wait for several days, that just depends on the original cause (which mostly you will never see any signs of other than to wait).

[dpdsbd]

Well, sounds like a doable thing. I guess there's logic behind it. Kindle went to freezer but still I'm not 100% sure your not pulling my chain We'll see in few days anyhow

[Junket]

Advice to freeze your battery.. is when we know that forum icon's have been drinking..

No, I'm kidding. That is sound advice and is known to work, although the chemistry of why it works is poorly understood. I would imagine (if you care) that freezing probably fractures type II lithium metal dendrites that degrade battery performance. Which might be expected to improve extended low current capacity.

So try the freezing trick. After freezing, check that there isn't visible condensation on the battery and IMO you should let the battery warm up a bit before connecting to a wall charger. The benefit should be derived from having been frozen, not needing to be frozen while charging. Charging frozen lithium batteries will cause damage. Although that may be a moot point for a battery nearing the end of it's life.

With any luck this will get you going. If it doesn't then you will probably need to replace the battery. And secure a serial port adapter ($10 or less) if critical boot files are corrupt since you do not have a jailbreak in place.

[knc1]

Hmm...
You must have missed my very long and tedious explanation of "Why".
That is Too Long, so Don't Bother to read.

*) You do not freeze the battery, you freeze the Kindle. Whole, complete, unopened (which is sort of the reason a person does this without taking the battery out).

*) You do wrap the Kindle before, during and after the freezing. The wrapping of a light, soft, cloth does not affect the temperature changes. It does minimize the chance of condensation when removed from the freezer.

*) The why this works, when it does work, is not changes to the battery, it is changes to the internal hardware of the battery management chip while at less than its designed minimum temperature.
This process does not actually change either the battery or the battery management chip when within its its normal temperature range.
If you let your Kindle sit around until the battery is deader than the normal conditions the battery management chip can handle, you get to do this again.

PS: Often the reason for no progress in re-booting beyond the 30% point is while the system does filesystem check and repair. That is, there is no progress indicator to show what is being done. File system check and repair on eMMC is very slow and very power hungry. Hence, the fairly frequent "deader than dead" battery condition.

[Junket]

I haven't seen that post, it is taking a while to work though all 17,000.
TIA for what will no doubt be another interesting read.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Junket

I haven't seen that post, it is taking a while to work though all 17,000.
TIA for what will no doubt be another interesting read.

Use our "advanced search" feature.
Top right corner of page, while logged in, leave text box blank, click "Search".
Try "treads started by:" use my nickname here.
That might help.

[dpdsbd]

Thanks for explanation and support. Kindle is out of freezer for few hours already and plugged into wall charger. So far not much changed unfortunately but will stick with it for few days.

Should I try powering it on (pressing power button) or doing hard reset in that time to see will it come to life?

[knc1]

Originally Posted by dpdsbd

Thanks for explanation and support. Kindle is out of freezer for few hours already and plugged into wall charger. So far not much changed unfortunately but will stick with it for few days.

Should I try powering it on (pressing power button) or doing hard reset in that time to see will it come to life?

None of the above, just leave it on wall charger.
Also ignore any colored lights, they don't work as they should without the firmware's help.

[dpdsbd]

Well, my Kindle KT2 was plugged into wall charger for whole week and unfortunately no improvement. Today it went back to the freezer for the second cycle. Hopefully this time it will work out.

[dpdsbd]

So Kindle completed already 2 tours o being put into the freezer for 2 days and then being constantly plugged into wall charger for few days. Nothing changed - still same responsiveness as before (rather lack of responsiveness).

The only difference was that when plugged into the charger right out of the freezer, the orange battery light started to blink. But after a while it went back to being just constantly on while charging.

I assume the approach didn’t work - what could be the next step? Tearing it apart and playing around with serial port? Any recommendation (and hopefully some guidance) would be highly appreciated.

[JSWolf]

My suggestion is to call Amazon and see what they may do for you.

[Junket]

knc1 has considerable expertise and may have further suggestions.

The presumed problem is a weak battery, so replacing the battery is one option. There are usually third-party vendors on Amazon, Ebay, Aliexpress, etc selling them for $5 - $20.

Or you could get a serial port adapter ($3 - $10) which will likely give us some useful status and error messages to narrow down the issue.