After weeks of seeing how much Esther was enjoying her new Kindle I decided to get one for myself. I went to a local Target store and picked up a white one and the standard Amazon branded leather case.
When I got home I put it in the case, plugged it in to charge, configured it for my network, and tied it to my Amazon account. I browsed the site for a book to start with and eventually settled on one. After the purchase I tried to wake up the device but it wasn’t about to cooperate. I had to do a hard reset to get back in.
After the device restarted I found my new book and read a bit of it before taking a break. A while later I picked it back up and again it wouldn’t wake up. This cycle repeated many, many times. I tried restoring factory settings and I even tried upgrading the device to the pre-release 3.0.3 firmware. When neither of those options solved the problem I got fed up and called Amazon’s Kindle support line.
After describing the problem the rep suggested that because I purchased it at a retail store I should return it to them and exchange it. I exchanged it and followed the same routine as I had with the first one and incredibly I had the exact same problem!
After fighting with it again for a bit I called the support number again and explained the situation to the rep who transferred me to someone else. After describing the situation again this rep asked about the case and suggested I remove the device from the case and try hard resetting it yet again. Since removing the case I haven’t had any issues at all! Amazon also gave me credit toward the purchase of a replacement case.
I was completely baffled by the solution since it doesn’t seem like the case should cause that type of problem but apparently it’s a known issue. Amazon’s customer care was great to work with but if the issue is so common I can’t help but wonder not only how the first rep missed it but why these cases are still being sold.
References:
Didactic Code 