Broken Kindle Help!

Double_Chris

A few months ago, I moved a significant distance via Greyhound Bus (wouldn't recommend it). One of the things I had in my carry-on bag was my Kindle. I didn't use it a whole lot, but it was a nice distraction from the more boring drive-through states.

However! Upon arriving to my final destination, I had a few hours to wait in the bus station. So, I plugged in my Kindle and DS to charge them. When I went to unplug my Kindle so I could read, the screen was scrambled. Only parts of the screen seemed to be changing when I tried to turn it on, and now the whole screen is just a scrambled mess. I've tried recharging it overnight, tried resetting it, all to no avail.

Looking online, it seems like this is a somewhat common problem, and it's possibly caused by physical damage to the screen or Kindle itself. However, it was working just fine up until I plugged it in to charge it.

What has happened to my Kindle? Is this something I can fix on my own, or am I going to have to call Amazon? Also, is this something they might replace for free, or am I going to get stuck doing without until I can afford a new one (probably never)?

Akilae

Call Amazon, the CS they've thrown behind the Kindle is great. If your Kindle is still within warranty usually they'll replace it no questions asked. If not, you might have to shell out a bit of coin.

Double_Chris

Yeah I got it as a gift 2 years ago, so it's probably out of warranty.

Elin

Have you tried a hard reset? Hold the power slider switch for 30 seconds and the Kindle will reset, if there was no physical damage it may fix it.

Blake T

Regardless, try calling then up and see. They might do a replacement (seriously, their replacement policies are amazing)

Double_Chris

Yeah I've tried a hard reset. I can still see bits of the screen that are responding, but the majority of the screen is still scrambled.

Gonna probably end up calling them, just haven't really felt up to it yet. Just figured I'd see if there was anything I could do on my own to fix it.

Essee

Yeah, that whole scrambled/frozen thing happened to my rather techy dad's Kindle, and basically he's gathered that it just kind of happens to some of them (certain models, I presume) and there's nothing you can do about it. Sooo either get Amazon to help you or that's probably it, unfortunately.

Hevach

Fixed this a couple times, once in a while reseating the ribbon cable for the screen (it loops through a small slot on the front half of the case and connects to the back of the motherboard, only need to take the back off and carefully remove a couple screws) fixes it, otherwise, it's a screen replacement.

Call first and get a price check at least. They're hard to take apart even with specialized tools, and there's almost always going to be some cosmetic damage around the edges from doing it. If you're not at least familiar with taking apart netbooks or cell phones I wouldn't recommend trying it yourself. Even a fairly cheap shop like mine would probably still be more than Amazon charges, they charge out the nose for parts but pretty much just throw them at their customers.

KrubixCube

I had this problem with a first generation Kindle...unfortunately I had to replace it. But if it's a known defect Amazon MIGHT be willing to work with you, however given how old it is you could at least try to negotiate a price drop on a new one?

Sorry, not sure if that's horribly helpful but I've had good experiences with Amazon customer service in the past, so I'd say go to them first and see what prices you can get to.

Psychotic One

I had pretty much the same issue with my first kindle. I called Amazon and they pretty much replaced my Kindle under the Warrenty after like 3 Troubleshooting steps over the phone.