How To Fix Your Kindle 2 When It Won’t Charge
Egad! My Kindle stopped charging!
I settled in to bed the other night and grabbed my Amazon Kindle, looking to pick up where I left off in The Hades Factor. I was met with a familiar “Your battery is running low” message, so I plugged the Kindle in to the charger for the night and instead settled in with an old-fashioned, low-tech, printed-on-dead-trees style book.
The next morning, I unplugged my should-have-been-fully-charged Kindle & sat down to read the morning paper, only to be met with the “your battery is CRITICAL error!” Zoinks! For some reason, despite being plugged in all night, my Kindle had not charged!
I quickly ran to my computer & attached the Kindle. My Windows XP PC popped up that dreaded “USB Device Not Recognized” balloon. “It’s OK,” I thought. “It’ll be OK. I’ll just power the Kindle off by holding the power on/off slider for 15 seconds, and I’ll check back later.”
I returned later and … No dice! The Kindle was still not charging!
Thankfully, I was able to find a solution to this problem. (Whew!) After searching for things like “Kindle reset,” “Kindle hard reset,” and “Kindle soft reset,” I learned that while the Kindle 1 can be reset with a paper clip, or by using the Shift-Alt-R trick, these methods didn’t work on the Kindle 2.
I eventually came across a page that relayed a tip by Amazon Kindle Tech Support. I followed these steps, and within a couple of hours, I was back in action.
How to reset your Kindle when it won’t charge
1. Slide the power button and hold it for 30 sec.
2. Release and wait for 20 sec until the screen begins to flash.
3. As soon as it does, plug in the power and keep it connected for 2 hours.
Big thanks to The Epistemist for pointing me in the right direction. Now, back to my Robert Ludlum book…
March 8th, 2010 at 6:35 am
The method described in the blue box works perfectly for the Kindle 2. Just don’t panic during the wait for the screen to start flashing!
March 24th, 2010 at 11:33 pm
I tried to reset my Kindle 2 exactly like recommended– slide for 30 sec, wait 20 sec and no screen flash. Any other thoughts? Getting desperate. Steve
April 26th, 2010 at 8:19 am
Thank you for the tip, worked as a charm! I was really beginning to panic there for a second.
May 5th, 2010 at 3:29 am
Thanks for the tip. My Kindle 2 was frozen with the “low battery” message – even though it had been fully charged. I tried your tip and it worked perfectly. Thanks!
May 18th, 2010 at 11:20 am
Thank you so much! I was going into panic mode as I’ve only had my kindle not quite 6 months….I’d have been devastated to not be able to use it it’s become my favorite thing! I did the same thing as you, when the battery was low I plugged it in overnight and this morning it wasn’t charging, no little orange charging light…I tried all the plugs in my house and my computer and finally came across your answer! Worked perfectly! Now it’s charging so I’ll just have to wait to get back to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies :)
May 20th, 2010 at 8:31 pm
Thanks a Lot! Worked great! Does antony have an idea as to why this happens? Has Amazon been notified of this problem – maybe they could incorporate a fix that could be transmitted to us all. I have had the Kindle 2 for 14 months and this had never happenned to me before. I plan to keep the instructions at the ready – just in case.
May 22nd, 2010 at 1:34 pm
I’m afraid that tip didn’t work for me but this did:
Plug your Kindle into your computer. In a few minutes it will say it’s in recovery mode.
Leave it there for 1 and a half hours.
After 1 and a half hours, press the “R” key once and it should come back to life in a few seconds.
Leave it there until it’s fully charged.
June 1st, 2010 at 10:55 am
Saved my day! Husband’s favorite device is his Kindle and he was leaving on a six month trip — without a working Kindle! Horrors! Your tip worked like a charm! Thank you!!!!
June 3rd, 2010 at 12:42 pm
Thank you, thank you, thank you – worked perfectly
June 25th, 2010 at 6:44 am
Thank you so much! I was really afraid I’d never get the documents onto my kindle!
July 18th, 2010 at 1:46 am
OK I have been through the whole procedure with two Kindle DX’s now, both had issues with charging, where it showed CRITICAL BATTERY and would not charge. The orange light would come on and then go out. I did it all, including the key sequences, holding this, pressing that. Called Amazon support, who were really helpful and knowledgeable, and pleasant too. Honestly. But after two Kindles doing the same thing, a bit odd isnt it??
I THINK I HAVE IT WORKED OUT.
The Kindles are picky about the USB ports they will charge with. I tried charging on two different PCs, using the USB ports hardwired to the motherboard and on the case front, no dice. Then as a last ditch effort I decided to plug into the LCD monitor, which has its own USB ports. And BINGO, after 5 minutes or so the thing started charging again and has worked fine since. The USB standard dictates limits on how much current they will provide to devices connected to them, and my guess is that some ports are more compliant than others. In the end when I gave the Kindle to my father, since the USB ports on his PC did not charge the device, I gave him the USB charger that Amazon sell, ie. the device that plugs into the mains and has a USB port on the back. It charges fine with that.
Amazon sell the charger separately. You can also buy third party USB mains chargers cheap on Ebay etc. but be careful, they are Chinese and cheap. Probably stick with the Amazon one though, its is pretty cheap as well, and designed to work with the Kindle. To those who are having this problem but are reluctant to return their Kindle to Amazon, please try this method. Plug into as many USB ports as you can before giving up. Try your desktop, try your laptop, try your neighbor’s PC, try your work PC. Or just order a mains to USB charger. It was worth the effort for me.
July 18th, 2010 at 1:20 pm
http://www.kindleboards.com/index.php/topic,5967.msg544887.html#msg544887
Try this if the above fails.
August 10th, 2010 at 7:04 pm
worked perfectly. Note: if you have any sort of case on your Kindle you might want to take it off to reset it. Apparently my case must have been pressing a button in, which seems to have prevented my Kindle from resetting until I took it off. Took the case off, did the reset, plugged it in and I was good to go.