# USB to Kindle connection, drive letter questions



## Raonaid (Aug 17, 2009)

So I'm more accustomed to the simplicity of the Sony e-Reader. I've had that for over a year until my boys took a magnet to the screen. The hubs and I were planning on buying another Sony-ereader until I won a Kindle2 from a book contest. We thought "awesome" we can finally read ebooks again (reading on the computer is just urgh awful).

  So when I received the Kindle2, the immediate thing I did was charge it. Then, once it was fully charged, the hubs and I decided to load ebooks via USB. The moment we hooked up the USB to Kindle to computer, my computer starts to lag until it no longer responds.

  To make matters worse, the driver does not show up. The moment we unplug either Kindle or computer, my computer works like it generally does. The driver shows up briefly, and then gone. This has seriously peeved both my husband and myself.

  So I drop a line to customer service, and after a week without response, I pen another. That got a response but nothing that was helpful, more like guilding me back to their Questions and Answer part that had nothing pertaining to my problem.

  As a last recourse, I called customer service. The male asked me how old my computer. It is only a year and half. Then asks me what windows I run. Which I told him it was the evil Vista (which I'm starting to grow angrier with that as the days go onward on its finickiness of things it'll let work). 

Another question asked was "Have you tried the other ports on your computer?" Which I answered with "Yes, all four ports in the front of my unit and three out of the four in back." I've never had troubles with those ports with my external harddrive, my printer, Zune, and my two boys' mp3 players.


Then he asks how much room I have. Which I have plenty of room. Then asks "Do you have another computer in your household to check." Uhh, if I had, I would have already thought of that. Then asked if I let windows update.

I'm starting to wonder what all these questions pertained to this. I started to get very aggrivated so I passed the phone off to the hubs. He's more levelheaded than I am. They are on it for five to six minutes when he hangs up.

He said "According to customer service, the kindle works fine. It's not their problem. It's microsoft's problem." I was assured that Kindle works with Vista. The hubs decided to take the kindle to work with him to try their computers since they run XP. Wouldn't ya know, it worked.


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## amyrebecca (Jul 28, 2009)

Sorry for all your trouble! My computer runs Vista, which I have come to like. I haven't had any problems syncing my K2 via USB. Wish I had a suggestion, hopefully someone will.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

A few random thoughts on trying to narrow down where the problem is....

The first thing I'd try if you have not yet done so is a full reboot of the Kindle. Slide the on/off switch to the right and hold it there for at least 20 seconds, allowing the K2 to then do its reboot thing. Then try connecting it again and see if (cross your fingers and knock on wood) it works.

If not, is it possible to test your Kindle on a friend's PC? That would give you a pretty good indication as to whether it is the Kindle or your PC. If the Kindle does not work on that PC, then we can be pretty sure it's the Kindle and not your PC. If so, it could even be the Kindle's USB cable, in which case if you happen to know anyone with a K2 that would let you try connecting your K2 with their USB cable, you could eliminate or identify the cable as the culprit.

If these tests give no joy or are not logistically possible for you, if the K2 is still under warranty, Amazon is usually pretty good about doing exchanges (though it may be for a refurbished unit). Of course, if it shows up and still does not work with your PC, then it will definitely be time to look at the PC as the problem.

If it does, in fact, appear to be an issue with your PC, it *might* just possibly be something that could be fixed by updating the USB drivers, though I'd be a bit surprised if that had an impact with such a fairly recent machine. Another thing would be to make sure you're up to date on all Windows upgrades (probably not an issue if you have automatic updates enabled). A last-ditch effort would be to boot from the Windows install disc and select the "repair windows" option and let it do its thing to make sure everything is installed correctly. Or perhaps before doing that, I would boot the PC in "safe mode" and see if it then works with the Kindle. (If it does, that would tend to tell me that some other software/device on the PC is somehow interfering with things in some ugly way.)

Oh well, that's enough rambling for now. Hope at least a little bit of it is useful.


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## CegAbq (Mar 17, 2009)

NogDog said:


> If so, it could even be the Kindle's USB cable, in which case if you happen to know anyone with a K2 that would let you try connecting your K2 with their USB cable, you could eliminate or identify the cable as the culprit.


On the K1, any USB cable works. I've got 3 or 4 different ones I've used to connect my KK. Though, I don't know whether the K2 is more finicky. My smartphone is very finicky & will only connect through its very own "special" USB cables.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

CegAbq said:


> On the K1, any USB cable works. I've got 3 or 4 different ones I've used to connect my KK. Though, I don't know whether the K2 is more finicky. My smartphone is very finicky & will only connect through its very own "special" USB cables.


The end that plugs into the K2 is smaller than that on a "standard" USB cable, though I don't know if it's peculiar to the K2 or if it's an alternative standard that other devices are starting to use, too. (I suspect the latter, as it would be much less expensive to use standardized parts than to have to design and build non-standard ones, but I don't know -- not that that ever seems to stop me from typing things.  )


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

The cable for letting the KK talk to a computer has a mini USB plug.

The cable for the K2 and DX has a micro USB plug.

Both are 'standard', just different.


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## BK (Feb 5, 2009)

I've had my K2 since February, but I just tried to connect the Kindle to my computer for the first time, and it makes a "connect" sound, but no new drive letter appears.  Shouldn't it create a drive letter when connected?  Will the drive say "Kindle device" or something descriptive?

I have a less-than-1-year-old computer with Vista (64-bit), 4GB RAM, and lots of available hard drive space.  I've tried different ports.  Don't know what else to try to make it show up...  Does anyone have a suggestion?

Thanks!


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## marianneg (Nov 4, 2008)

Yes, it should come up with a drive letter, and I think it says "Kindle" next to it.  You might try rebooting the computer and restarting the Kindle, then trying again.  That seems to cure most of my problems


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## BK (Feb 5, 2009)

That usually solves most of my problems, too -- but I tried re-booting both and it's still not showing up.  Also when I close and re-open My Computer, it freezes.  This computer has never frozen before, and it looks like the Kindle is the cause!

Guess I need to contact Amazon. Glad I tried this while the K2 is still under warranty.........


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## BK (Feb 5, 2009)

I said in my first note that it was the first time I've connected the K2 to a computer... that's not true.  I've charged my Kindle with my laptop before, but didn't notice a drive listing then.  When I connected it to this Vista computer for the first time, I was going to set it up with Calibre, so I looked for the drive.  It does seem to be charging, just not showing up a a drive.


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## BK (Feb 5, 2009)

I'm having the same problem, Raonaid!

My computer is less than a year old, running Vista Home Premium (64-bit).  Is yours 64-bit?  I had compatibility problems with several programs at work and had to bring this computer home because of 64-bit issues.  Wonder if that's the problem here?


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## CegAbq (Mar 17, 2009)

Ann in Arlington said:


> The cable for letting the KK talk to a computer has a mini USB plug.
> 
> The cable for the K2 and DX has a micro USB plug.
> 
> Both are 'standard', just different.


Good clarification Ann; thanks.


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

Try it on another computer. It's more likely to be a Vista problem than a Kindle problem.

Mike


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## vg (Oct 28, 2008)

BK, I had the same problem and found out that the Kindle was trying to use a Drive Letter that was already being used.  I changed the letter from the F it was assigned, to K (for Kindle of course), and it now appears.  I don't know how to do it on Vista - the help menu should be able to tell you.  Good Luck!


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## vg (Oct 28, 2008)

My kindle wasn't appearing either, and I found that the Driver had been assigned the letter "F", which was already in use by another device.  I changed the Driver letter to "K" and now the Kindle appears and everything syncs perfectly.  I don't have Vista - but the help menu should tell you how to change the letter.  It was pretty easy.  Good luck!


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## HappyGuy (Nov 3, 2008)

I'm running Vista Home Version - 64 bit. No problems with my K1.


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Merging this thread with another of the same topic. . .thanks for understanding. . . .


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## RichardMW (Aug 31, 2009)

I have a related problem.
The Kindle 2 connects correctly, and shows up as drive F, if I connect it to the usb connectors in the back of my PC.

If I connect to the front usb connectors, I hear a beep as it is recognized and the Kindle goes into "usb drive" mode. But, it does not show up as a drive letter on the PC.

Very strange. I am running Vista with all the latest updates. I searched for new usb drivers but nothing new shows up.

Other usb drives work on the front usb connectors on my PC.
I tried rebooting the Kindle 2. Nothing changed.
Very strange.  

Richard.


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## 911jason (Aug 17, 2009)

I agree with others that you should try changing your Kindle's drive letter through Vista's Disk Management.

To open Disk Management, follow these steps

Choose Start->Control Panel to open Control Panel.

Click the System Maintenance link, and then click Administrative Tools to open the Administrative Tools folder.

Click Computer Management to open the Computer Management window.

In the Computer Management pane, expand Storage, and then click Disk Management.




Now look for KINDLE to show up in the middle column (the above image is just a generic image from the web, no Kindle is shown here), either the top or bottom portion, and right click on it, then choose Change Drive Letter and Paths... A small window should open with buttons for ADD | CHANGE | REMOVE, choose CHANGE, then use the dropdown to change your Kindle's drive letter to whatever you like, I used K and then click OK and close the other windows out.

If the drive letter was the problem, then your K-drive Kindle should show up in Windows Explorer now.


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## dejuvenate (Sep 8, 2009)

First of all, thank you for all your responses. I just got my K2 earlier this week and has a lot of learning to catch up as I didn't own K1.

I'd like to bump this post again as I have the same exact problem. I manage to connect everything else I have (ipod nano, iphone, ipod touch, usb thumb drive, portable HDD) without any problem, but I am just at lost as to what to do with Kindle. I can see Kindle at "Safely Remove Hardware" and nowhere else.

Since the OP has summarized the problems I would just jump to the end.
The only way I can see that I have Kindle connected to my PC is by this program: http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html
When I use that program to go to the drive, it hangs, just like my windows explorer.

911jason proposed a solid solution to change the drive letter. I opened Disk management fine until I go to storage -> disk management, at which point it just stops responding.

I have HP D4990y if that can be of any help. I suspect the many USB ports kinda confuse the K2 or something, since my brother's laptop can detect kindle right away. Help?

UPDATE:
- I tried disconnecting the Front USB - After they are disassembled Kindle still crashes my explorer
- I actually can see my Kindle being connected in the "Safely Remove Hardware". I still can't see it in the other parts
- Rebooting and going into Safe mode still crashes my explorer and disk management


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## 911jason (Aug 17, 2009)

The only things I can think of would be 1st to delete your USB drivers from Device Manager and then re-boot. See if it works then.

If that doesn't work, run Disk Management without your Kindle connected to the computer. Once it's started up and working correctly, then connect the Kindle and see if it'll let you see the Kindle as a drive and make changes.

Otherwise, I hate to say, my next step would be to back everything up, then do a format and fresh install of the OS. It's a pain, but periodically a good thing to do.


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