Troubleshooting Kindle Voyage stuck in a bootloop

SaddFox · 11-22-2017, 03:44 PM

Hi there,

My Kindle Voyage is stuck in a bootloop. To make things even more interesting, only the top right part of the screen is working (3/4). You will see better from picture and video.

Some quick backstory. I got this one as a free replacement from Amazon.de after I broke the first one. Upon arrival about 4 months ago, it was already showing some strange behaviour. During initial boot, only a part of the screen was working (same as now, see above). Not that the rest wasn't/isn't, everything was/is just squeezed into about 3/4 of the top right corner. Afterwards, the whole screen was working (refreshing), but text was fuzzy, blurred. Trying to solve this, I did a (factory) reset, resulting in a similar bootloop. Now I can't remember exactly how I solved it then, but I believe it booted fine after being plugged to a wall charger for a day. Afterwards, text was even fuzzier, but updating to 5.8.10 miraculously solved everything. See HERE for more detail.
The reason I didn't return it to Amazon, was that the first one was already over a year old by then, thus out of warranty (shouldn't warranty be at least 2 years in the EU?). OK, so I actually fixed it before that, never mind.

How did it end up like this? Well, I tried to update it to 5.8.11. I downloaded the update .bin and transferred it to the Kindle, and initiated the update from the menus. It was soon obvious it will go wrong (check picture above), and it did (check video). I have downloaded the update multiple times and verified md5 checksums, the possibility of it corrupting during transfer is minimal and considering the exact same problems in the past, I'd say there is a deeper problem. It was charged to at least 50% btw.

What I have tried:
-Plugging it to a wall charger for over 36 hours (light indicator changes from orange to green every time later in the booting process.
-Holding power button for 15/40 seconds at various boot stages (after 15 seconds Kindle restarts, orange light blinks 5 times before)

Some other info:
-At no point was my Voyage jailbroken or atempted to be
-It does not show up on my PC
-I can't stop it from booting, it just continues to do so
-It is physically intact. I broke the display on the previous one so I have some experience with that...

I will call amazon support tomorrow (so they offer me a discount at best, yay). I am currently leaving the Kindle to discharge completely, no point in torturing it any further (wish the battery would drain faster...).

So here I am, hoping some of you gurus will be able to help me out. Any ideas as to what else I can try? Is there a way to disconnect the battery to shut it down?
What are my chances of recovering it via a serial port? Never done it before so I'd need a lot of guidance.

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: I have found my old post on Reddit about the issue. Might be helpful in understanding what is wrong.

HarryT · 11-22-2017, 04:26 PM

Unfortunately that looks awfully like a hardware fault to me, probably with the screen controller.

SaddFox · 11-24-2017, 10:31 AM

It works again! After a day of bootlooping the battery dried out. Next I plugged it to a charger and after another 15s reset it booted up. It's now working perfectly fine, minus a ~1 pixel wide line at the bottom (not disturbing).
Something is obviously wrong, and I am fairly sure another restart/reset/update would cause bootloop again. Most importantly however, my Voyage currently works.

11-22-2017, 03:44 PM	#1
SaddFox Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2016 Device: Kindle Voyage	Kindle Voyage stuck in a bootloop Hi there, My Kindle Voyage is stuck in a bootloop. To make things even more interesting, only the top right part of the screen is working (3/4). You will see better from picture and video. Some quick backstory. I got this one as a free replacement from Amazon.de after I broke the first one. Upon arrival about 4 months ago, it was already showing some strange behaviour. During initial boot, only a part of the screen was working (same as now, see above). Not that the rest wasn't/isn't, everything was/is just squeezed into about 3/4 of the top right corner. Afterwards, the whole screen was working (refreshing), but text was fuzzy, blurred. Trying to solve this, I did a (factory) reset, resulting in a similar bootloop. Now I can't remember exactly how I solved it then, but I believe it booted fine after being plugged to a wall charger for a day. Afterwards, text was even fuzzier, but updating to 5.8.10 miraculously solved everything. See HERE for more detail. The reason I didn't return it to Amazon, was that the first one was already over a year old by then, thus out of warranty (shouldn't warranty be at least 2 years in the EU?). OK, so I actually fixed it before that, never mind. How did it end up like this? Well, I tried to update it to 5.8.11. I downloaded the update .bin and transferred it to the Kindle, and initiated the update from the menus. It was soon obvious it will go wrong (check picture above), and it did (check video). I have downloaded the update multiple times and verified md5 checksums, the possibility of it corrupting during transfer is minimal and considering the exact same problems in the past, I'd say there is a deeper problem. It was charged to at least 50% btw. What I have tried: -Plugging it to a wall charger for over 36 hours (light indicator changes from orange to green every time later in the booting process. -Holding power button for 15/40 seconds at various boot stages (after 15 seconds Kindle restarts, orange light blinks 5 times before) Some other info: -At no point was my Voyage jailbroken or atempted to be -It does not show up on my PC -I can't stop it from booting, it just continues to do so -It is physically intact. I broke the display on the previous one so I have some experience with that... I will call amazon support tomorrow (so they offer me a discount at best, yay). I am currently leaving the Kindle to discharge completely, no point in torturing it any further (wish the battery would drain faster...). So here I am, hoping some of you gurus will be able to help me out. Any ideas as to what else I can try? Is there a way to disconnect the battery to shut it down? What are my chances of recovering it via a serial port? Never done it before so I'd need a lot of guidance. Thanks in advance! EDIT: I have found my old post on Reddit about the issue. Might be helpful in understanding what is wrong. Last edited by SaddFox; 11-22-2017 at 04:12 PM.

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11-22-2017, 04:26 PM	#2
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Unfortunately that looks awfully like a hardware fault to me, probably with the screen controller.

11-24-2017, 10:31 AM	#3
SaddFox Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 10 Join Date: Oct 2016 Device: Kindle Voyage	It works again! After a day of bootlooping the battery dried out. Next I plugged it to a charger and after another 15s reset it booted up. It's now working perfectly fine, minus a ~1 pixel wide line at the bottom (not disturbing). Something is obviously wrong, and I am fairly sure another restart/reset/update would cause bootloop again. Most importantly however, my Voyage currently works.

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