# K3 Charging light turns yellow when it is fully charged...



## DD (Nov 9, 2008)

I've noticed the last couple of days that my K3 on my bedside table has a green light and shows it is fully charged but periodically the light turns yellow for no reason.  I usually keep it charging all night and I'm sure it's fully charged when this happens.

When I first got this Kindle, I noticed the charger connection was kinda loose at the Kindle port but it charged OK so I didn't worry about it.  Last night, after being green all day, with no use, in sleep mode, and with Whispernet off, the light turned yellow.  I jiggled around the charging connector and a few minutes later it turned green.  I left it all night and this morning, it was yellow again.  I have a second charger so I plugged that one in instead.  Connection at the Kindle charging port was still loose.  The light remained yellow although the battery symbol shows the lightening bolt through it as though there is a connection.  So, I think it's the connection at the Kindle, not the charging cable.

I called Kindle CS just now.  They wanted me to do a reset.  I did.  They said as long as my battery symbol shows that it is fully charged they're not going to replace it.  They want me to give it some heavy use (been to busy to use it as much as usual lately) and see if the battery depletes rapidly.

I'm concerned that this might be a worsening problem since it was loose to begin with and now seems not to be charging all the time.  It was purchased on Sept. 28th and CS said I have plenty of time to test it out before my 1-year warranty is up.  I expressed concern that I might be on a trip and deplete the battery and be caught in a situation where the problem gets so bad that it won't charge at all (horrors!).  The CS rep said then they would replace it.

So, I'm doing as they asked.  I think it's interesting, though, that Amazon is getting more conservative about offering replacements.  In the past, if I had to call about a problem (on K2 and K3) they offered a replacement immediately even if I didn't ask for one.  Now, mind you, I don't really want to replace this Kindle because I finally got what I thought was a perfect one on the third try but I really don't want to live with a developing problem until it's too late to get a replacement either. 

Am I worrying unnecessarily?  Your comments and advice are welcomed.


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## amafan (Aug 11, 2010)

The battery light could go yellow if the kindle has wi-fi or 3G on and something gets downloaded and indexed.  It may drain the battery just enough to trip the charging threshold.


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## DD (Nov 9, 2008)

amafan said:


> The battery light could go yellow if the kindle has wi-fi or 3G on and something gets downloaded and indexed. It may drain the battery just enough to trip the charging threshold.


No, as I said, no wi-fi or 3G was on.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

amafan said:


> The battery light could go yellow if the kindle has wi-fi or 3G on and something gets downloaded and indexed. It may drain the battery just enough to trip the charging threshold.


I agree. . .I've charged my Kindle -- light turned green. I unplug it. . . .do nothing with it. . . .plug it back in 5 minutes later and the light is yellow. . .turns green within a few minutes. . . .I wouldn't worry about it. Even without wireless it's using the tiniest bit of battery charge to keep the clock on time. It's just topping itself up. 

I usually charge mine when it seems relatively low. . . I charge it over night, then unplug it, and don't plug it back in until it's 'relatively low' again. . . .


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## DD (Nov 9, 2008)

Ann in Arlington said:


> I agree. . .I've charged my Kindle -- light turned green. I unplug it. . . .do nothing with it. . . .plug it back in 5 minutes later and the light is yellow. . .turns green within a few minutes. . . .I wouldn't worry about it. Even without wireless it's using the tiniest bit of battery charge to keep the clock on time. It's just topping itself up.
> 
> I usually charge mine when it seems relatively low. . . I charge it over night, then unplug it, and don't plug it back in until it's 'relatively low' again. . . .


I agree, Ann. That's happened to me too when I unplug it and plug it back in. But what's happening here is that it has never been unplugged and turns from green to yellow and doesn't go back to green until I fiddle with the connector. That sounds like something different to me.


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## mcostas (Nov 22, 2010)

Mine has done that as well. Rechargable batteries discharge even sitting there, I wonder if that's what it happening. When I noticed mine doing it, it was yellow for a long time. I even fiddled with mine and it still stayed yellow. I havn't had any problems with my battery. 

The thing that concerned me was that it stayed yellow for a long time, but usually when it charges it becomes fully charged relativly quickly. 

I tried not charging mine till it ran down some thinking that it would increase the capacity but it runs down pretty slowly, even with wifi on.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

DD said:


> I agree, Ann. That's happened to me too when I unplug it and plug it back in. But what's happening here is that it has never been unplugged and turns from green to yellow and doesn't go back to green until I fiddle with the connector. That sounds like something different to me.


I still don't think it's anything to worry about unless, after being unplugged, the battery drains much faster than expected.

But a couple of things to try:
(1) a different charging cord -- maybe it's really not charging well/making a good connection

(2) maybe there's some 'work' the Kindle is doing -- most commonly a book or two that won't index. The usual way to check this is to search for a nonsense string and see if any results come back. Remember it will keep indexing, even if asleep and that might be enough to drain the battery enough to trigger the color change indicating "charging".


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## DD (Nov 9, 2008)

Well, it's been unplugged all day with wi-fi on and there is no noticeable depletion of the battery.  So, that's good.  Not a battery problem.

I did try two different charging cord.  Same loose fit which made me think it's the charging port of the Kindle.  It just seemed strange to me that the battery could deplete enough to make the yellow light come on when it was never unplugged.  Wouldn't the AC keep it constantly charged?


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Well, I don't really know, but it seems to me that once the battery registers as 'full' the charging would stop.  Even if it was still plugged in. I mean, they do say you can't 'overcharge' them like you used to be able to do with early rechargeable batteries.  So it's possible that it gets 'full' and then because of some background activity it drops enough that the battery starts pulling current to recharge itself again.

I'm going to move this thread to Tips and Tricks. . .some of the more techie people hang out there and may be able to offer additional insights.


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## DD (Nov 9, 2008)

Ann in Arlington said:


> Well, I don't really know, but it seems to me that once the battery registers as 'full' the charging would stop. Even if it was still plugged in. I mean, they do say you can't 'overcharge' them like you used to be able to do with early rechargeable batteries. So it's possible that it gets 'full' and then because of some background activity it drops enough that the battery starts pulling current to recharge itself again.
> 
> I'm going to move this thread to Tips and Tricks. . .some of the more techie people hang out there and may be able to offer additional insights.


That's true, Ann. I never thought about it going into charge mode again. It's working fine so I guess I'll just worry about it when it's time to worry about it.


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## Tip10 (Apr 16, 2009)

Want a guess?  Here tis.  Anne's pretty much hit the nail on the head.

I do not believe the Kindle will run off of external power (hence the messages that it may take a few minutes of charging before it turns on if completely dead).  It runs off the battery at all times. If its completely dead then the battery must gain enough of a charge to power up.  The charging circuit will charge faster than the K drains the battery so things are fine once it powers up. 

What's likely occurring is the protection circuitry in the charging system (which is there to prevent overcharging the battery) is cutting out when it determines the K is fully charged (green light).  After a period of time the K draws down enough of the charge so that it crosses the threshold where the charging circuits think its less than fully charged and charging kicks back in (yellow light) -- it should top up and go back green again. 

At least that be the guess of this engineer.


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## DD (Nov 9, 2008)

Thanks, Tip10.  Very good explanation.  I didn't know that the the Kindle did not run off of external power when plugged in.


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## Tip10 (Apr 16, 2009)

I don't know for certain that it doesn't -- just guessing based upon the information posted that it may take a few minutes before it powers up if the battery is completely flat.  
Well that and the fact that its just been my experience that many battery powered things actually don't -- they run off of the battery and when plugged in the charging system is holding up the battery, which is why a lot of things won't work without the battery in place.  For example, take the battery out of your cell and plug it in -- it won't power up -- same thing will happen if the battery is damaged or non-functional -- or if its completely dead it'll take a few minutes of being plugged in before it'll power up.


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## DD (Nov 9, 2008)

Tip10 said:


> I don't know for certain that it doesn't -- just guessing based upon the information posted that it may take a few minutes before it powers up if the battery is completely flat.
> Well that and the fact that its just been my experience that many battery powered things actually don't -- they run off of the battery and when plugged in the charging system is holding up the battery, which is why a lot of things won't work without the battery in place. For example, take the battery out of your cell and plug it in -- it won't power up -- same thing will happen if the battery is damaged or non-functional -- or if its completely dead it'll take a few minutes of being plugged in before it'll power up.


Makes sense.


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