Troubleshooting Paperwhite 1st gen frozen on tree

[MagicDragon]

Good morning forum!

Well I guess I was dumb and let my kindle go dead. Opened it up to look for something and got the screen that says "hey you're a dumbass. Charge your kindle." So I did. Problem is it's stuck on this guy sitting under a tree. I've let it charge for 2 days now and tried 40 second reset about 100 times both plugged and unplugged and using a couple different wires (on AC plug). The charge light is sometimes amber sometimes green. Sometimes the screen lights up when I open it sometimes not. But I'm getting nothing but this tree.

I did a bit of reading on here and from what I can figure this is either a firmware issue or a battery issue? I'm hoping for battery. I'm much better with little tiny screws than software fixes.

I don't mind buying a new one but certainly not if I don't have to. I just don't want to spend $30 on a battery and it not work THEN have to buy a new one.

Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks for reading.

[coplate]

You can get a replacement battery for very cheap here.

http://www.powerbookmedic.com/Amazon...y-p-23506.html


I will let people who know what they are talking about respond, but I have read before that sometimes a dead battery can corrupt the internal memory, while it is booting up and shutting down?

Unfortunately, the only way to really check that is to hook up serial port internally to the kindle.


A couple of clarifying questions people have asked in the past.

If you hook it up to your computer, does anything show up in device manager? Either the usb drive or a serial recovery device?

You can use this to monitor usb devices by connect time: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html


After you have charged it for 48 hours, if you unhook the cable and hit the power switch, does the light flash at all?

Does the light flash when you hold the power button for 40 seconds while it is unplugged?


My understanding of the method of recovering from dead battery is this.

1. Put the kindle n a wall charger for 48 hours.
2. Press the power button once
3. Leave the kindle on the wall charger for another 48 hours.

[MagicDragon]

Ok the light is amber right now. When I do the 30-40 second press the screen does flash blank screen then just goes back to the tree. I am going to leave the case cover open and keep charging it until it turns green then try the power button and see what happens. It almost seems like the screen light only turns on when it's showing green but drains whatever it's building up but I'll keep checking on that.

Thank you for that battery link! I found a new one at newpower99 for $30 but if there's a chance I'm going to need to replace the device I like the used price of a hopefully easy fix much better.

I did plug it in to my laptop Saturday and it did show up (IIRC it just said Amazon kindle) but there wasn't really much I could do or see when I clicked on it. Was just kinda grayed out but I can check on that again as well.

Thanks much! You've given me some new things to try

[coplate]

dont try to check it very often, let it charge up for 24 hours, and press the button once.

After tha, if the screen is still locked up, and it does show up on the PC, you can do the DO_FACTORY_RESTORE command that is built into the kindle.

Here is a recent post about it

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=273542

And one of the originals with the full instructions on using it.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=223067

Again, after you do this, remember to leave the device charging for 24 hours while it does the restore. the restore and repair functions in the kindle drains the battery much much faster than normal use.

[MagicDragon]

Ok I may not have access. When I plug it in to my laptop it shows it as Amazon kindle but only under devices and printers. And there it shows under the Hardware tab 3 things: E:/, Kindle Internal Storage USB Device, and USB Mass Storage Device. I've clicked on each one and don't see anywhere to be able to add folders here. Tried searching for E:/ drive anywhere else. Nothing. I guess that fix won't work for me. And now it's rebooting itself every few minutes which wasn't happening before? I'll try and get through the ixtab thread but that's honestly like trying to read a different language for me

Thanks I'll keep trying

[MagicDragon]

Now it shows a driver error and can't find updated drivers I may just have to bury it in the backyard. I'm not equipped to talk to computers

[coplate]

Can you install that USBDeview app and provide a screenshot?

It may have put itself into recovery mode, and this will help us.

[MagicDragon]

I'll try but it doesn't look good. WinRAR is asking for money and WinZip doesn't seem to do anything except ask if it can make changes to my computer then disappears.

[MagicDragon]

Can't upload a screenshot for whatever reason from my phone but I'm in the USBDeview screen looking at a bunch of device names. Kindle Internal Storage is one of them. I'll try on my laptop

[coplate]

There should be some information about USB device ID and code. one of them should be 1949, I cannot remember the name of the one next to it.


You are describing the symptoms that my kindle goes through when the battery is unplugged, but it is plugged into USB.

I also get these symptoms when the e-ink screen is unplugged from the motherboard.

I would start with a new battery, and move forward.

[MagicDragon]

Was too big I suppose

[MagicDragon]

Appreciate the help. I'll keep digging thru those threads and see if anything works and order a battery

[coplate]

the columns in that app I would like you to look at are labelled "Vendor ID" and "Product ID".

if it is like mine,with no battery it would be "1949" and "dead".

[feavfas]

Originally Posted by coplate

the columns in that app I would like you to look at are labelled "Vendor ID" and "Product ID".

if it is like mine,with no battery it would be "1949" and "dead".

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I am facing a similar issue.

Attached is the screenshot from USBDeview, btw I am using Paperwhite Gen 1

[knc1]

Originally Posted by MagicDragon

I'll try but it doesn't look good. WinRAR is asking for money and WinZip doesn't seem to do anything except ask if it can make changes to my computer then disappears.

WinRaR not only costs money, but they continue to keep their compression algorithm closed source.
== Not recommended

WinZip has some strange and at times surprising behaviors.
== Not recommended

Get: 7-Zip
They seem to 'get things right' - even on Windoze.
And it is fully open source.