It’s a Paperwhite from slightly less than 2 years ago so out of warranty but WTF it is too new to not be working.
Luckily - by god I have library books to read - I still have a Kindle Fire I replaced because it doesn’t like to hold a charge and now I can read this weekend.
But, seriously, not even two years old!
I googled what to do - as one does - and the rebooting instructions don’t help. I guess the next step is contacting customer service to get help but that sounds super frustrating and - meanwhile - I can read the old kindle.
In my limited (one time) experience, Amazon customer service is pretty good. When I had a somewhat obscure problem with my Kindle and the rep couldn’t help, they promised that someone more knowledgeable from second level support would call me back in a couple of hours. They did – even on a Sunday – and fixed the problem. Turned out that a software update hadn’t completed successfully.
Can you tell whether or not it’s charged/charging? On my Paperwhite (which is a few years older than yours), there’s a little orange light that comes on when it’s charging and turns green when it’s fully charged.
If it won’t charge, that could certainly explain the brickitude. Have you tried more than one charger cable? Can you see if there’s dust or lint in the charging port that might be keeping it from making a connection?
when I follow the reboot instructions of “press power button for 40 seconds” it cycles from green to blinking yellow and the screen goes blank a couple times but always returns to the “tree screen” and green light.
Since reading about other’s attempts to fix this on various websites (amazon, reddit) I did know to try charging it using various cables, etc. I think it is fully charged and my next plan was to let it go completely dead, plug it in and try again.
I had a Kindle Oasis and accidentally ran the charge all the way down. After that it wouldn’t charge at all. This is only one data point, but are you sure that letting the battery run all the way down is a good idea?
I have a Kindle Paperwhite that’s a slightly older model than the OP’s. At least once I left it long enough that it completely lost its charge. It gave me a scare when I plugged it in to charge and nothing happened, but it came alive after a few minutes. The screen came on along with the orange light and it began to charge.
The thing with my particular model or software version is that if it completely loses its charge, it seems to forget the “most recent” order of books which I find very useful. There’s a way to fix it but I don’t remember what I did to fix it. Possibly resetting the date and time.
Back to the OP’s problem, I think it’s worth a call to Amazon support. They may be willing to help despite it no longer being under warranty. I’m fairly sure that mine was out of warranty when they helped me with my problem. Letting the battery completely run down isn’t likely to help if some part of the OS has become corrupted. One way Amazon may be able to help is to push a fresh system image up to it.
no, but feels like a last resort. besides, my old kindle (fire) has a bad battery and that happened gradually. My new kindle has never had a charging issue that I noticed (and I was paying attention because of the old one) and it was almost certainly at least 50% charged when it turned into a brick.
so feels like it’s not a battery issue.
I plan to contact them (calling if that seems easiest) sometime in the next few days when I won’t get frustrated and am willing to put up with all the fun customer service can be these days. An at-home, on my computer kind of day.
OK, that doesn’t really express the mild astonishment I feel but let’s go with it. what I mean is, really? whut?
and apologies to anyone who was expecting a more exciting thread since I started it in the Pit.
I have had both Kindles (e-readers, though never an Oasis) and Fires (tablets) run all the way down, and there was never a problem once they had charged back up, although (as with @wolfpup’s experience) it took a little while between plugging it in and seeing signs of it waking up.
I’ve found Amazon more than helpful in numerous occasions.
I generally go for the live chat. You have to get through the bot chat early in the convo, but eventually you’ll get a live one.
My concern would be whether you bought from Amazon or thru a 3rd party seller. That’s a tougher fix…if you’re looking for replacement or mechanical fix.
If tech support will fix your issue the live chat will be able to help.
Some years ago I had a Kindle battery that wouldn’t charge. I found a place online that will send a new battery along with the tool and instructions on how to take the thing apart. Sorry, can’t remember the name of the company, as it’s been too long.
I have seen videos on YouTube from those outfits selling replacement batteries and tools, you can just search YouTube. I think which ones you can find depend on which model Kindle you need a new battery for.
Same here. Their customer service is better than most vendors I’ve had to talk to. It’s one thing they tend to do fairly well. And I like to do the online chat feature.
Calling is fine also if you have to do it, but I get through faster doing a chat.
It really is painless. You can leave and they give you a way to reconnect.
The bot chat is pleasant, doesn’t “know” much so you get to the human faster.
I can’t remember if they ask you if you want a live person up front. Just keep clicking on “I have another issue” or “Its a different problem”, you’ll get there.
I was afraid I had another brick just now. My Kindle Scribe said it needed to charge, but nothing happened when I plugged it in.
The odd thing was, the battery charge on these things seems to last a very long time, and I could swear a couple of days ago it said it was at 76%. Here’s my question: I had a problem with the case, and took it out of the case, and then put it in the case but upside down, so the charge socket was covered. It was like that for a few hours, I guess. Could that have somehow caused the battery charge to drain? Is a puzzlement.
p.s. All is well now, the screen came back after 10 minutes or so, and it is charging. It’s up to 11%.
Maybe if you put it in the case in such a way that there was pressure on the power button?
I don’t have a case for my Kindle—I just carry it loose—but something similar has happened to me once in a great while, and my guess has been that either something was pressing against the power button long enough to wear down the battery, or something pressed against it just long enough to activate the touchscreen and then something rubbing against the screen activated it in a way so as to wear down the battery.
There’s a few on these, even possibly stores in your town that will do it for you. One of the bigger ones is ifixit.com. They’re legit, here’s their Amazon tablet page
I had the same thing happening to my Kindle Paperwhite some years ago. Normally, a full charge holds for at least 4 weeks, but the next day after a full charge, the device was dead and unresponsive. I plugged it into the charger, but the charging LED didn’t light up, so I was afraid it was a brick. I called the Amazon Kindle help desk, and as others noted, they were very helpful and effective. They told me to let the device charge for half an hour and see if the charging LED came up, which it did, and then do a full charge. After that procedure, everything went back to normal, and now, a few years later, my Kindle still runs great and holds its charge for weeks. Why that time it lost its charge in one day, I have no clue, but it never happened again.
OK, that doesn’t really express the mild astonishment I feel but let’s go with it. what I mean is, really? whut?
