Kindle mystery

So I got a new box (refurbed), upgraded it to Win10 and after about two months of using it, finally got around to downloading and installing Calibre; I wanted to get a backlog of about twenty books that had accumulated into my Kindle.

I start Calibre, plug a USB cable into a front port and the Kindle into the cable and . . . nothing. The light on the Kindle lights yellow so it’s getting power and recharging but Windows doesn’t recognize that anything is going on, not even a “does not recognize a new device” notice. Needless to say, the Kindle does not show as a device in Calibre either.

Using various Google searches I find out this has been cropping up regularly; there were hits all the way back to 2010 talking about Win7. I guess I was lucky because since I got a Kindle in 2013 this had not happened to me, until now.

Going through the suggestions I start trying various fixes, using a back port, manually installing drivers, start the computer with the Kindle already plugged in, etc. All but one that talks about messing around with the Bios. Finally, on Amazon itself, someone suggests using the cable Amazon supplied with the Kindle. To my surprise, that did the trick. I get the USB detected tone, Windows Explorer pops up, the Kindle lights off with the I’m-plugged-into-a-computer screen, and Calibre lists it as a device, just like toe good ol’ days.

Now the cable in question is perfectly ordinary looking: no ferrite lumps, six feet instead of three like the one I tried the first time, colored white (like that would make a difference). What sort of pixie dust does Amazon use on their cables that makes them work better (at least with a Kindle)?

Some USB cables are charge only. You can’t tell by looking at the exterior.
USB cables have two wires for power, 2 wires for data.
A charge only USB has only the power wires.

Pretty much what running coach said
Only other thing i could think is if Kindle reverses the D+ and D- but i would think not

The cable first tried is not just charge-only. In fact it’s the same cable used all the time to connect my Kindle to the old XP box that was replaced when this whole adventure started.

Perhaps cable just went bad or something?
They do that sometimes, never when you expect them to.

(Harry) Newton’s Law: It’s the cable.