Troubleshooting Completely Frozen - NOTHING works

[nineathena]

I've had my dear Kindle for about 2.5 years. Loved and cared for dearly. (It's in a Golla e-reader case, no light. Always well charged, the works)

And last week it just froze. I did the hard reset, and Bob's your Uncle, it worked. For 2 - 3 key presses. Then froze again.

Now it's just dead. Dead. Dead. I just have the Amazon Tree screensaver, and nothing I do turns it back on. PLEASE help. (I've done a bazillion resets, it started resetting itself as well, and now NADA. Doesn't want to reset, and I left it on the wall charger for hours just to make sure the battery was charged)

I even VERY CAREFULLY opened it up (it was like brain surgery), took out the battery, put it back in, and still nothing. (I was hoping a stupid BlackBerry trick might work).

Spoke with a dude from Amazon. And because it's out of warranty, they will 'very happily' replace it for $85 + postage to SA.

I'm prepared to do anything to try and give this a go before forking out more dosh that's needed in other places.

ETA: It's a Kindle 3 Keyboard with 3G

[ixtab]

You may want to try to reflash the entire thing. See this thread for more information.

[nineathena]

Thanks. I'm going to have a read and see if I can do it. I really hope so.

[ixtab]

It's definitely doable (there are at least 3 reports from people who successfully debricked their devices that way), but it requires to carefully read, understand, and follow the instructions. Good luck!

[geekmaster]

You might want to start with the "K3 noobs guide" at the top of the "References" list at the link ixtab provided. The noob's guides help prevent being overwhelmed if you are just getting started with this debricking method. You can read the rest of the thread and its links if you have problems after using the noob's guide.

[HarryT]

From the description of the symptoms, I strongly suspect that the OP has a dead battery.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by HarryT

From the description of the symptoms, I strongly suspect that the OP has a dead battery.

The debricking instructions start with "charge the battery".

Be sure to use a wall charger. The kindle needs to have enough battery charge to boot up to where it configures the USB port for charging when attached to a computer, and it can freeze before it gets that far if the battery is TOO discharged. With a wall charger you can charge a totally discharged battery.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

The debricking instructions start with "charge the battery".

No, I don't mean a discharged battery; I mean a battery which has died, so it CAN'T be charged. It's a not uncommon thing to happen. The average life of a lithium battery is around about 5 years, but as with everything there will be those on the extremes of the bell curve which will die a lot sooner.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by HarryT

No, I don't mean a discharged battery; I mean a battery which has died, so it CAN'T be charged. It's a not uncommon thing to happen. The average life of a lithium battery is around about 5 years, but as with everything there will be those on the extremes of the bell curve which will die a lot sooner.

Ahhh...

Yes, lithium batteries go dead over time even new in the box. They go dead faster if they are stored with their voltage not close to 40% full charge (too much or too little will both accelerate aging). I learned that years ago by buying an expensive spare (for later) and when I needed it, it was "already dead". Be sure to buy new stock to replace it. A battery from a salvaged kindle may have little life left in it.

[Pookeysgirl]

I regularly leave my Kindle to charge overnight. Should I be unplugging it as soon as possible after the light goes green? I need to make sure my baby lasts as long as possible

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by Pookeysgirl

I regularly leave my Kindle to charge overnight. Should I be unplugging it as soon as possible after the light goes green? I need to make sure my baby lasts as long as possible

I would not charge it until it tells you to (or just before taking it on a trip where you will not be able to recharge it). Too many unnecessary recharges shorten its lifespan.

Here is WHY:

Spoiler:

There is a trade-off between time between charges and total battery lifespan. The same battery can be "programmed" to use a different "full charge" voltage, depending on its application.

When lithuim batteries are used in life-critical and mission-critical applications, they are only charged to 70% of what the same battery would be charged to in a consumer application. They last a lot longer if never charged beyond 70%. They need to be charged more often this way, but they have a much longer "shelf life".

But for consumer apps, the device would probably be obsolete before the battery is at end of life when charged that way. To maximize time between charges (such as when using tiny cellphone batteries) they are charged to the full 100% charge. That maximizes the usage time before it needs recharging, but reduces the overall lifetime of that battery.

As lithium batteries age (determined by time since manufacture, storage voltage, storage temperature, total number of charge/discharge cycles, and specific chemistry), the time between charges gets shorter. The lithium in the battery that can no longer hold a charge is called its "rock content".

Lithium batteries are limited to the total number of charge cycles. Some of them are only good for as little as 300 charges. The definition of a "dead" lithium battery is when the time between recharges is too short to be useful.

[HarryT]

What you say in your spoiler is true, and is extreme important for high-power devices like laptops, but it's pretty irrelevant for a Kindle. The "ageing with time" effect swamps the "ageing with charge cycles" one.

A typical lithium battery will last something like 5 years, purely due to ageing as the result of time. If you recharge it once a month, in that 5 years it will only have gone through 60 charge cycles, which is insignificant.

It's the complete opposite with a laptop, where the number of charge cycles does dominate.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by HarryT

What you say in your spoiler is true, and is extreme important for high-power devices like laptops, but it's pretty irrelevant for a Kindle. The "ageing with time" effect swamps the "ageing with charge cycles" one.

A typical lithium battery will last something like 5 years, purely due to ageing as the result of time. If you recharge it once a month, in that 5 years it will only have gone through 60 charge cycles, which is insignificant.

It's the complete opposite with a laptop, where the number of charge cycles does dominate.

Regarding the kindle, that is true ONLY if you recharge it when it shows a low battery (once a month or so). But if you make a habit of recharging it EVERY NIGHT"regularly" as Pookeysgirl said, then the recharge cycles can become much more dominant (unless the recharge algorithm is smart enough to just do a "top off" trickle charge). The battery longevity determinants are a bit complex, but I would not recommend leaving it plugged into a wall charger except when you want to recharge it because it showed a low battery (especially not every night).

[Pookeysgirl]

Thanks guys I usually only charge it when I get the message telling me to do so. But sometimes I charge it when it gets down to below 1/4 (same thing I do with the gas in my truck). I'll wait for the message from now on. This is good to know, thanks again!

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by Pookeysgirl

I regularly leave my Kindle to charge overnight. ...

Originally Posted by Pookeysgirl

... I usually only charge it when I get the message telling me to do so. But sometimes I charge it when it gets down to below 1/4 (same thing I do with the gas in my truck). ...

Are you saying that it gets down below 1/4 "regularly"? I guess I misinterpreted "regularly" to mean "usually". "Once a month" is "regular" too though... Now I am confused.