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)?