# Fire HD not USB recognised on WIN 7 Home Premium 64bit



## Pandorachaser (Jan 11, 2013)

Hi all,

Been a lucky HD owner since christmas and I've been trawling through the forum for hints and tips on various points, flash, dolphin browser, calibre, rooting etc but sadly my PC just will not SEE the Kindle HD and allow me to transfer any files to it from the PC.  

I found threads here that suggested it maybe the supplied cable at fault (which charges fine but illicits zero response from my PC), so I tried two other cables and they both cause the Kindle to display a USB compatibility message 'Some computers require a free file-transfer utility to copy files between PC and Kindle,  goto kindle/support/downloads. OK' and cause the PC to recognise that a 'Kindle is ejectable' under the system trays 'safely remove USB devices' icon.  The support page offers only downloads for XP computers and that media player 11 is upto date (which it is).

Under 'My Computer' however, no Kindle is shown as a Drive or Drive Letter that can be opened.  It simply doesnt show up.  

No drivers appear to be attempted to be loaded from the Kindle, or from the OS, to get it recognised properly for transfer. No driver appears under the 'installed programs list' under the control panel either & Windows offers to update the driver by searching the web are as effective as ever  

So...

I've also tried two different sets of 'Kindle Fire and Fire HD ADB drivers packages' from threads linked, to do with rooting the Kindle HD....

Both sets claim to 'install improperly' and prompt to 're-install the driver manually'.  The PC then attempts to load the drivers when the kindle is connected but claims they 'failed to install successfully' with one set and 'install successfully' with the second and the device is not ready for use/ready for use respectively.  Device manager shows a Kindle ADB device as OK but MTP as having no driver. 

Either way, the Kindle remains an invisible device in terms of transferring to it but is recognised as an ejectable device in the system tray, with the 2nd set of the ADB drivers.

I've tried every USB port on the PC both 3.0 and 2.0 and via a powered and unpowered 2.0 hub aswell.

As a result I can't side load anything, add any pics, books, movies etc except and cant root it either if I cant even see it as a drive. 

Any ideas folks?


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## Linjeakel (Mar 17, 2010)

Hi, Pandorachaser, welcome to Kindleboards!

I also have Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit and I just tried connecting my Fire HD to a random USB 2.0 port with just a regular Kindle cable and the PC recognised it immediately.

Some questions come to mind - 

My Fire is the 7" model - which model is yours?

Have you tried checking to see if you need any Windows updates?

When the Fire is connected, does it show as charging, even though the PC doesn't recognise if as a drive?

Edit: I just now noticed that my Fire shows up on My Computer under "Portable Devices", whereas my PW e-ink Kindle shows up under the "Devices with Removable Storage" section. I'm not entirely sure of the significance of that difference, but clearly the PC sees them differently. For example, only the e-ink Kindle shows up on the 'safely remove' list in the system tray.


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## Pandorachaser (Jan 11, 2013)

Hi Linjeakal,

Thanks for the fast response.  I also have the 7" model.  The pc is totally up to date 're Windows, not so sure regarding chipset drivers or bios though, as its my partners and I haven't really examined its make up yet.  

The kindle does charge with all 3 cables, although the notifications acknowledged it would be faster via a wall charger.

It doesn't show up as portable storage (only under 'open devices and printers' from the sys tray where it's ejectable, where it does show as such but cannot be opened, only it's Android ADB device properties can be viewed as 'this device is working correctly'), only my sd card does, when attached. 

It's definitely not playing ball as it should.  Thanks for your suggestions already though.


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## Morf (Nov 18, 2010)

With the Kindle disconnected, on your PC, pick Start...then right click Computer and pick Manage.

Go down to Storage and select Disk Management.

Make a note of the disks that are listed in the lower part of the central window (note here then are listed as disk 0, disk 1 etc not by drive letter).

Then connect the Kindle, right click "Disk Management" and select Rescan Disks".

See if another disk appears.

If it does, report back the details of what it says and we'll take it from there.


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## Pandorachaser (Jan 11, 2013)

Hi Morf (love the name/avatar btw),

Thanks for your input. 

I just tried this and there is sadly no difference with or without the kindle connected.  I basically have a single HDD disk 0 that is partitioned into a recovery section 18gb, active partition 100mb, C partition 500gb for windows and D partition 500gb for data.  CD ROM 0 is the only other drive/disk listed.

hmmm....


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## Morf (Nov 18, 2010)

OK, well that's told us that the problem is at a fairly early stage, the PC is simply not recognising the Fire as a USB mass storage device.

The next stage is to work out where the problem lies. You've ruled out cables, so we need to find out if it is the Fire or the PC.

Do you have access to another PC? A friend or family member? Do you know anybody else with a Fire? If you can try with another device then that would lead us in the right direction - if the Fire works with another PC then we know it's your PC that has the problem, for instance.

The only other thing that comes to mind is to make sure you have no other USB devices connected. Probably irrelevant but worth a check...


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## Pandorachaser (Jan 11, 2013)

I've tried without other devices attached but I shall give it a go at my landlords PC, as my two are currently dead and in storage.

I do have a pocket OpenPandora PC that is angstrom linux based and I'll give that a try first aswell. It may not have the MTP driver but should at least see it as a USB storage drive. 

Thanks for the help I'll let you know what happens


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## Pandorachaser (Jan 11, 2013)

Tried the kindle on a friend's laptop with the same OS and it worked first time with  the Amazon cable.  Seems my partners pc is the cause. 

My pandora could charge it only, as it will need an mtp driver installing first. 

Any suggestions of what to try with my home pc at all?


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Pandorachaser said:


> Tried the kindle on a friend's laptop with the same OS and it worked first time with the Amazon cable. Seems my partners pc is the cause.
> 
> My pandora could charge it only, as it will need an mtp driver installing first.
> 
> Any suggestions of what to try with my home pc at all?


If you have a plug adapter, you don't need the computer to charge. A regular adapter only costs about $10 from Amazon; the PowerFast is $20 but will charge more quickly. You may also find them cheaper at places like Radio Shack. The PowerFAst is 9W, 1.8A; the regular one is 4.5W.

Are you wanting to load stuff onto it? You could load it to the Amazon cloud and then download wirelessly. Dropbox is popular as well and works well.

Something else occurs to me also: do you have your own log in to the computer? Maybe you're not an 'administrator' level user and that's why the kindle won't show as a drive.


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## Pandorachaser (Jan 11, 2013)

Hi Ann,

The administrator idea is possibly valid and I'll check that out shortly.

Yes I am looking  to load things, apps, movies, large book collection etc and its just a pain to not directly do it and involve upload and downloading for no good reason.  It's just quicker direct.  Would be nice to just have the SD as a slot and hence expandable as well.  My pandora can handle 256GB per slot + full usb host and OTG for flashdrives, hdd, hubs etc.
  
Drop box is a great idea too though,  so I've grabbed antek explorer and its drop box.net related app to give that a try. 

I do charge via a wall outlet but the faster adapter wouldn't go amiss, although the HD does have very  very good battery life which I was pleased to find, given you can't swap batteries.

Thanks for your tips


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## Morf (Nov 18, 2010)

The admin idea is a good one.

Failing that, I'm starting to run out of ideas. Does the PC work OK with other USB mass storage devices - pen drives, hard disks etc? Might be worth checking with one you haven't used before so it has to do driver install.

I'm afraid it might be that a rebuild of the PC is the only thing that will solve it...


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## Pandorachaser (Jan 11, 2013)

Hi,

Sadly the account was already administrator but I then tried new accounts in standar or admin, guest acc etc.  All to no avail. 

I shall attempt to update bios and chipset then re-do windows if I have to.

One of those PC weirdness things....Love PC's and they Hate me


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## Gary_Berg (Sep 8, 2012)

As I recall, the Kindle Fire HD shows up as an MTP device, not as USB mass storage. So it won't work with anything that expects mass storage.

As far as I know, however, Windows 7 supports MTP out of the box (MTP is why Moses Macs need special software).

It should show up in Computer as a device.

You might try going in to Start Menu, right-click on Computer, and pick properties. From that dialog look for Hardware and then Device Manager. Pick DM and see if you find an unknown device in there. If you do, right-click and select Update Driver and let it search the web for a driver. Might find something, might not. It's worth a try.

You didn't happen to remove Media Player from this PC, did you? It might be where the MTP support would come from...


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## gregm (Feb 14, 2013)

Pandorachaser:

My wife has a Fire(not HD) and I just plugged it into my USB port(Win-7 Pro 64 bit)  and it did not show up as a USB device. But it did show up when I clicked MyComputer with the full directory display.


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## Olmanrivah (Feb 18, 2013)

Pandorachaser said:


> Hi all,
> 
> Been a lucky HD owner since christmas and I've been trawling through the forum for hints and tips on various points, flash, dolphin browser, calibre, rooting etc but sadly my PC just will not SEE the Kindle HD and allow me to transfer any files to it from the PC.
> 
> ...


I had the Win 7 Home Edition and often had problems with USB items being not recognized. I tried everything. I changed OS from Home Edition to Enterprise Edition and everything's now OK. Home edition is a loser.


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## TheWind777 (Feb 10, 2015)

If you can't connect via USB cable... use FTP instead.

Install the free SwiFTP on the Kindle.

Run SwiFTP

It will prompt you to enter a User Name and Password. This will be used when you connect to the Tablet with an FTP program.

click START

It will say something like: Server Status: running
Wifi URL: ftp://192.168.0.4:2221
Wifi Status: Enabled


Next, on your computer, download and install the free FileZilla v3.10.1.1 or above.

Click File->Site Manager and do a 'New Site'.

Enter the same number it gave you when you turned-on SwiFTP (in my case I put Host: 192.168.0.3

Under Port: I put 2221

Under User: put the login name you first entered into SwiFTP
Under Password: type the password you gave it.

Click Connect.

It will connect to your Tablet. You can copy in either direction.

It is always best to backup your Alarms, Audible, Books, Documents, Movies, Music and Pictures folder. 

Go to Settings->Device Options->Backup and Restore and turn ON Backup.

Click on Back Up Now and all your Apps, Device Settings, Network Settings, Bookmarks, Installed Apps, and more are sent to the cloud. Doesn't take long.

Then, if you ever have to do a factory reset, restore from the cloud (turn on the Backup Option and reverse the process). Then use FTP to copy the folders you saved back to their places.

Ta-dah, you just backed up your Kindle without it being Rooted and without the need to connect via USB.

To browse your folders use the free App called ES File Explorer.

Then you can use FTP to copy MP3 music, movies, PDF files, etc. to your Tablet instead of being forced to use Amazon only. All without rooting your device.


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## cinisajoy (Mar 10, 2013)

Have you tried a different USB port?


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## HappyGuy (Nov 3, 2008)

One thing you might try - completely shut down the Fire. Connect it to your computer then bring the Fire back up while connected. I think I had to do that with a couple of devices Win 8.1 refused to recognize.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

FYI: this thread is sort of a zombie -- died two years ago and was resurrected . . . I doubt the OP is still hanging around.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Ann in Arlington said:


> If you have a plug adapter, you don't need the computer to charge. A regular adapter only costs about $10 from Amazon; the PowerFast is $20 but will charge more quickly. You may also find them cheaper at places like *Radio Shack*. The PowerFAst is 9W, 1.8A; the regular one is 4.5W.


Speaking of zombies....


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

I rest my case!


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