Kidle freeze, Kindle crash, Kindle alive!
I know there are those out there who dislike the notion, if not the actual device itself. I'm talking about the Kindle. Living in China for the past six months it has been a life saver. Not only can I carry 10 to 20 books with me wherever I go -- and I've been traveling a lot -- but I use it with my students' papers (30 a week!) to create a paperless office. I read and grade on the Kindle.
And then it failed. If it entered "sleep" it wouldn't wake. I had to reset it with a paperclip. I searched the Internet for solutions -- and tried a half dozen fixes. Nothing. Still not working. Then Amazon wrote me to send it back and get a new one -- and I hated to do that, but finally, today called Tech Support to get a return number. And that's when they decided to tell me how to fix it. I was lacking a single step in all the dozens of variations of resets I had done. One button. Nowhere on their site. Nowhere on any of the blogs. But I went ahead and followed his instructions, and now it seems to be working again. Which means I can read, and I can teach (and not waste reams of paper). It galls me that they don't post this solution. So here it is:
ALT-SHIFT-R and then when the screen blanks... release those and hold down HOME KEY until the firmware reset menu appears. (so simple!) press 2 for firmware reset, and the EPROM is wiped clean and you can start all over -- load your books (the Amazon site holds them!) and get going again.
I love real, tangible books. I will continue to buy REAL BOOKS in independent stores, whenever, wherever possible. But the Kindle, both for long distance travel, and paperless reading of Word documents is a terrific addition to a writer's toolbox. I'm glad to have it back working.
And then it failed. If it entered "sleep" it wouldn't wake. I had to reset it with a paperclip. I searched the Internet for solutions -- and tried a half dozen fixes. Nothing. Still not working. Then Amazon wrote me to send it back and get a new one -- and I hated to do that, but finally, today called Tech Support to get a return number. And that's when they decided to tell me how to fix it. I was lacking a single step in all the dozens of variations of resets I had done. One button. Nowhere on their site. Nowhere on any of the blogs. But I went ahead and followed his instructions, and now it seems to be working again. Which means I can read, and I can teach (and not waste reams of paper). It galls me that they don't post this solution. So here it is:
ALT-SHIFT-R and then when the screen blanks... release those and hold down HOME KEY until the firmware reset menu appears. (so simple!) press 2 for firmware reset, and the EPROM is wiped clean and you can start all over -- load your books (the Amazon site holds them!) and get going again.
I love real, tangible books. I will continue to buy REAL BOOKS in independent stores, whenever, wherever possible. But the Kindle, both for long distance travel, and paperless reading of Word documents is a terrific addition to a writer's toolbox. I'm glad to have it back working.
posted by Ridley at 7:15 PM
4 Comments:
My daugther and son-in-law teach at Northwest Missouri State University. 4,000 of the 6,500 NW students are using electronic books this semester. A number of attorneys at work use Kindle when they travel and like the fact that they can read the Post-Dispatch and WSJ without a lot of newspaper litter (and smudgy fingers).
Hey, Sly:
They are amazing WHEN THEY WORK.
I didn't know any of this... pretty amazing. It sure cuts down on paper!
My refurb Kindle had the exact same issue out of the box - but it was because both the Alt and Space key were completely non-functional. Since it also had 1.0.4 firmware, apparently pressing the Home key would not bump it to the reset menu (the Home key worked otherwise). So it went back for replacement (and the new one is a 1.1.11 and works much better).
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I was going crazy trying to figure out what was wrong with my Kindle. I couldn't get it to go to sleep and finally figured out it was a nonfunctional ALT key.
BTW ... love your work.
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