# Troubleshooting Kindle (second generation)



## lhcolvin (Oct 5, 2015)

I have a Kindle, second edition, with keyboard and 5 position track switch.  Although it connects to wifi (four bars and wifi indication), it will not communicate with the Internet for Kindle store or synch with my other kindles.

After two wasted hours with Amazon customer service repeating unsuccessful troubleshooting steps, the rep had me restore the device to factory settings, wiping out all my stored books.

Since my wifi will not connect to Amazon, I cannot reregister the unit and now have a blank paperweight instead of my beloved kindle.  Amazon will not take it back for repair (hopefully) or replacement. 

Any ideas on a facility that can repair them or sell an older rehabbed kindle (not touch screen and without "special offers")

LHC


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## tsemple (Apr 27, 2009)

lhcolvin said:


> I have a Kindle, second edition, with keyboard and 5 position track switch. Although it connects to wifi (four bars and wifi indication), it will not communicate with the Internet for Kindle store or synch with my other kindles.
> 
> After two wasted hours with Amazon customer service repeating unsuccessful troubleshooting steps, the rep had me restore the device to factory settings, wiping out all my stored books.
> 
> ...


I would not give up on it.

First of all, it used to be possible to register a Kindle without a wireless connection self-service on Manage Your Kindle. That has been redesigned, and I can't find this option there now, but I would be surprised if Amazon CS could not do it over phone if you get to the right person. They would probably need the serial number. This would at least let you download books from your account page and copy them to the device via USB and then read with it.

Next a dumb question: are you sure you know what your amazon password is? has it changed recently? I found my K1 would not connect at some point and solved that by deregistering it and re-registering it with the new password. Normally password changes don't orphan Kindles but that may be something they didn't fix until later.

Have you tried connecting from a different location? maybe there is some anomaly in the local cellular network that is preventing connection to amazon.com to complete registration.

If you go to Settings, then type ALT-4-1-1 (4 key presses, but you may find ALT is not needed), it will bring up a diagnostics screen and show you a bunch of stuff, one of which will show a summary of connection status and a bunch of other stuff. I don't have my K2 handy, but my K1 should be similar. When I'm successfully connected, the first couple of lines say:

The FRAS, FIRS, WEBSITE, TODO, CDE server is UP, UP, UP, UP, UP
Certificate: FOUND
Device Registered? YES
Serial Number: xxxxxx

I would be particularly interested in which things are DOWN, or in the case of Certificate, if it had been FOUND.

...

Returning to Settings screen, ALT-6-1-1 will bring up a diagnostic specific to wireless, it will frequently refresh so it is a little difficult to take in, and you'd need a telecom person to interpret what it says there.

There's also ALT-5-1-1, which initiates something called a 'loopback test'. This always fails on my K1, and seems to kill the wireless connection I had (have to turn off wireless and back on) so it evidently is of no value.

Finally, there were 2 models of the K2, a 'US only' model and an 'international' model. If you happen to have the latter, there is yet another magic screen you might try: ALT-3-1-1, as described here:

http://teleread.com/ereaders/if-kindle-wireless-never-connects-amazon-support-options/

If Amazon CS did not go through any of these things with you, then you might call them again and see if they can check around to find the internal documents that would allow someone to interpret the findings. At least it should be possible to learn if the issue is failing hardware or something else.

I'll try to remember to pull out my K2 to 1) make sure it still works and 2) see what is different from K1. It will be a few days before I can do this.


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