# Freezing kindle



## Winter9_86 (Sep 3, 2013)

I'm on vacation and my kindle paperwhite was freezing on me today. Managed to fix it by holding in the power button, but I hope it will not happen again.. 
Anyone else had this happen? 
I was reading it by the pool in a plastic zipper bag, is that bad in some way? It's one of the less hot days, no sun, but the kindle should manage heat anyway?


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

A kindle is . . . at it's heart . . . . a computer. Sometimes you just have to reboot them. It clears out stray bits and bytes and electrons. I wouldn't worry about it. Some even advocate doing a restart via the menu periodically to minimize the chance of a freeze up when you're in the midst of reading.

Pay attention to it's _state_ when it happens. Is the charge low? Have you been doing a lot of note-taking or bookmarking? Had you just been flipping through your library a lot? And pay attention when it happens again. Are you in the same book? If it becomes a regular occurrence, these sorts of observations will help kindle support work out whether it's a problem with a file or with the device.

The plastic bag shouldn't be a problem in and of itself. However, condensation can form. If you put the kindle in the bag while outside where it's hot and humid, and then take it inside to where it's cool without taking it out of the bag, the moisture in the air in the bag can condense on your device. Not a good situation. For best results, only use the bag when you're actually reading, put it in when you're inside, where the air is relatively dryer, and get as much air out of the bag before sealing as you can.

Heat, though _can_ be a problem. Originally, the kindle had a specified optimum operation range between somewhere just below freezing to around 90F. Now it just says don't subject it to "extreme heat or cold." If you're reading outside where it's hot, try to position the kindle so the sun is not shining directly on it as that will cause it to get higher than that temperature quite easily. Don't leave it for long periods in a hot car -- definitely not on a seat or the dash board where the sun can hit it directly. (Also because that's an invitation to a thief!  ) Exceeding those temps for an extended period can cause the device to malfunction.


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## Winter9_86 (Sep 3, 2013)

Thank you, that was great answers! I don't think it was the heat and I was just reading normally, but I will keep my eyes out for it. Seems to be working good now. It doesn't look like it's condens here. There are children spøashing water here a lot, so I thought it safest in a bag.


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## gdae23 (Apr 30, 2009)

This happened to me last week and again last evening, both times while reading indoors. The only thing that occurred to me was that it happened (both times, I think) when I was holding the Kindle a bit above my head and slanted with the top part closer to me. Once I restarted, it was fine. Maybe that particular reading position had some mechanical effect on the Kindle. I'll try to avoid it in the future.


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## John F (May 19, 2014)

It's happened to me twice in the last few weeks. Suddenly I can't get off the current page. Rebooting with the power button cured it with no bad effects that I can see.


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## Wisteria Clematis (Oct 29, 2008)

(raising hand) It's happened to me three times in the last two weeks with my PW. Each time I was indoors so temp was not a problem; I keep less than 100 books on my PW at any given time and I recharge it every night while I'm sleeping. So battery could not have been low. As described, it just seems to freeze and will not let me go forward or backward a page. The only solution has been to do a 'hard reboot' by holding down the switch until the PW restarts. (About once a week I do a soft 'restart' from the menu so I don't think there is any reason for it to freeze and suddenly need to be rebooted). 

This is concerning me a lot because I suspect my extended warranty is just about to expire. I LOVE my PW and hate the idea of asking Amazon to replace it for an unknown quantity, but once the warranty runs out I'll be stuck. This is the first speck of trouble I've had with it and I'm definitely feeling concerned. I do wonder if the fact that I've purposely not downloaded any of the latest updates (not wanting to deal with all the problems) might be creating problems of another kind.

Wisteria


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## John F (May 19, 2014)

My Paperwhite has frozen on me maybe 4 times since I bought it nearly a year ago. Resetting it with the power button took me to the ebook and page I was reading, as if nothing had happened. It's annoying but nothing to worry about, I think. If it starts happening often, like twice a week, regardless of what book I'm reading, then I'd think something may be going wrong.


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