Can my Kindle Be Saved? If not what do I buy?

September 22, 2012 4:54 PM

Can my Kindle second generation be resuscitated? If not, do I take the offer of a discounted discontinued Kindle or wait and buy the Kindle Paperwhite on October 1?

My beloved gen 2 Kindle will only open to one screen - "manage collections." None of the menus or buttons work (turn on, settings, home, back, next page etc.). The cursor moves around, but selecting options doesn't have any effect. I can't connect through 3G. It's fully charged. So I see just that one page, taunting me with the 90 books in my urban fantasy collection.

The very nice, but useless, tech support (including the "specialist") at Kindle had me reboot about five times and declared it unsalvagable.

It's no longer under warranty, so they offered me a Kindle Touch (with wifi and 3G) for $104. The new paperwhite will sell for $184 with wifi and 3G starting October 1. The price differential is not a big issue for me.

Thoughts on saving the kindle?

Thoughts on the replacement

posted by Measured Out my Life in Coffeespoons to computers & internet (6 answers total)

If the price difference doesn't matter too much, I'd spring for the new Kindle. It has a built-in light!
posted by Lobster Garden at 5:14 PM on September 22, 2012

Yeah, second waiting to get the Paperwhite. (Although I myself have been casting coveteous looks at the new Kindle Fire HD 4G LTE --- you know: the $expensive$ one. Sigh. My old 2Gen just isn't so exciting anymore.....)
posted by easily confused at 5:28 PM on September 22, 2012

Totally get the Paperwhite. I'm seriously considering making that switch myself and I have no legitimate reason to do so.
posted by FlamingBore at 5:41 PM on September 22, 2012

I ordered the new paperwhite even though my old touch still works fine. I got the wifi-only one, which was $120ish, since 90% of my life is within wifi range. I say go for it.
posted by rtha at 8:59 PM on September 22, 2012

Saving the kindle: I would try asking on Mobileread, maybe on the Kindle Developers forum. I know there is at least one alternative operating system for kindles called Duokan; installing it might be worth a try. Possibly people at mobileread would also be able to help you reinstall the original firmware and see if that does anything.

Did the reps have you reset the Kindle using the little round reset button near the usb plug?

Replacement: can you wait until the new ones come out and try them out at a store to decide? If not, you could at least try the current Touch ones. If you don't like it, you might be able to get amazon to offer you a Kindle 3 (Keyboard) instead. Some stores that have them are Staples and Best Buy, I think.
posted by mail at 11:59 PM on September 22, 2012

BTW, if you haven't ordered you won't get the Paperwhite on October 1. Shipping is now three weeks later than that.
posted by TheRaven at 2:25 AM on September 23, 2012