If you're experiencing screen flicker after recent 5.6.1.0 update

[k9reeder]

According to a post by an Amazon employee on the amazonforum, yesterday, April 5, Amazon is: aware of the problem, there is no fix yet, and be patient while they work on a fix.

As I just received my Fire HD8 a few days ago, and it updated itself yesterday, and then the screen started to flicker weirdly on occasion, I'm relieved to know that it appears the problem is caused by the recent defective software update, rather than a defect in my brand new device/hardware.

I guess they're working on a software fix and will send out another update soon. I hope.

[HLS]

I took the update and I am got getting a flicker but the odd thing is I updated my 2016 and 2017 fire tablet at the same time, same update and only my 2017 model got the handsfree Alexa feature. Does not matter much I will never use it sine I have the dot

[k9reeder]

Originally Posted by kcladyz

I took the update and I am got getting a flicker

You may be a lucky one. I understand many people noticed the problem when reading an ebook, say with the Kindle App. This is exactly my experience as well. I hadn't noticed any flicker at all except when I'm using the Kindle App (which is what I've been mainly using it for so far).

[copyrite]

Argh. I had to reset my Fire 8 because the Kindle app didn't work after this update. I really don't use it that often to read, but last night I did, and it has the flicker. So they're going to send another update and I'll have to reset the device again?!? Sure hope not. What a pain.

[Barbara1955]

4/11 I received my new 7th gen Fire 10... Update to 5.6.1.0 I been reading for 3 hours I am NOT experiencing screen flicker! Hopefully I wont & the problem has been fixed

[Blossom]

No flicker here. I had a Kindle Fire HDX once start flickering and had to return it. I got a follow up from a lab saying a controller was failing. It wasn't in just the Kindle app though but any app.

Maybe disable adaptive brightness? My KF8 main problem is battery life and keeping the screen clean from an mysterious oily film.

Sent from my Nexus 7

[Blossom]

Since the update I seem to have a dead pixel. I'm not too concerned because this is a gaming tablet. It's pretty noticable on some screens though.

Sent from my Nexus 7

[k9reeder]

Apparently people with Fire HD8 (I'm not sure about other devices) are now able to manually download a small system update. People on amazonforum are reporting that the fix seems to have stopped the screen flicker. Yay! :-)

I just manually updated mine and received the patch, so don't know yet if the patch is working for me.

I note that the patch didn't change the firmware version, the device still reports version 5.6.1.0

[tomsem]

Kindle app is not part of the system firmware: most bug updates for Kindle app come as silent ‘component’ updates (there are many dozens of components, most of which are services that users do not interact with directly). There will typically be several Kindle app updates between firmware updates, but as there is no notification associated with component updates, it is difficult to keep track of them, and even if you do, there is nothing to tell you what changed. (You have to go to All Apps panel in Settings, scroll through and select each one to see what the component version is).

Based on what I’ve observed, I think it is probably true that for major (x.y as opposed to x.y.z) updates, system (firmware) and component updates are bundled in the .bin file that you can download. But minor system update .bin downloads probabably do not have any component updates bundled, else they’d have to keep incrementing the version every time they wanted to update any of the dozens of components. Fire needs to be connected to internet occasionally to keep up with component updates following any system update, major or minor.

Anyway the point is that you cannot assume that if something still seems broken after a system update that it will remain broken until the next one (as with Kindles). Many fixes and even some minor features will just show up (again, as long as you aren’t offline all the time), and don’t require restarting the device. If something is not working correctly, you can always go to Settings and Check For Updates (when device is online of course) to see if everything is up to date, and see if it says if any component updates are ready.