[crisandria]

OK, most of a cup of warm tea spilled on my Kindle 2.

At first it looked like it was working fine. Now it's acting like it's possessed , screen refreshing, paging forward, letters randomly coming up in the search. Some of the buttons not working.

Now it just happened today. I'm hoping that if I leave it for a few days maybe it will dry out and work correctly again. I did buy the extended warranty from Amazon which also has "Two years of coverage (limited to a single claim) for accidental drops or damage". I figure spills should be covered under the "single claim for accidental damage". Expected a drop to be why I might end up using it.
But I really don't want to use it unless I have no choice, since it's only a single claim coverage. But have to decide how long to wait before I decide that my Kindle won't recover.

Any one have an idea how long I should wait to see if it will recover on it's own?

I hate being without my kindle although I can use my iphone to read my books. But it's not the same.

 

[rho]

someone posted in another thread about putting it in a bag with dry rice - that it might pull some moisture out of it -- worth a try --- I would look for the thread since I may have a step wrong and don't want to steer you wrong though -- and maybe that person will pop up here --

I wouldn't turn it on again until I have tried something like this though ....

Good Luck!

 

[KindleKay (aka #1652)]

Any chance of turning it on its "tummy" on a towel and maybe any liquid will come out?  Maybe give it a day or two and see.  I would even try a hard reset after a day of drying...

That stinks.  Good luck!

 

[VictoriaP]

Did the tea contain sugar or milk?  If so, you can probably write it off now.   Sugar, honey, artificial sweetners, or any kind of creamer, etc. will all leave residues that will eventually destroy the circuits.

If not, I would say it could be several days of drying time before you know for certain; and the tannic acid in the tea may still be an issue.  For cameras dunked in water, I've heard the rice trick used before; as well as putting it into a closed plastic container with packets of silica gel to help pull the moisture out.  But every time, I've heard this takes quite a while, anywhere from a few days to a week.

I'm not seeing anything about spills in Amazon's extended warranty, so at least it appears they aren't specifically excluded.

 

[Kind]

Glad to hear that you purchased the extended warranty. Keep us posted.

 

[crisandria]

I work on electronics for a living. Here's the deal...

Any time you get moisture/liquid on a circuit board, it may dry out and work a few days later, but then corrosion starts. It could work for months but at some point in the future, the corrosion will take it's toll, it all depends on how good a "soaking" you gave it.

I don't know if Amazon's ADH insurance covers liquid spills, I believe Square Trade's does. If it does cover it I would insist on a replacement even if your kindle appears to start working properly.

Good luck!

I'm 1/2 tempted to do that, but if it starts working most likely won't. If it dies due to this a few months from now it's still the same accidental damage as it is today. And if it lasts then I still get one claim and dropping is what I was more worried about (i've managed to drop my kindle 1 (still worked) and my sony ereader (broke screen))

I just got the paper "Certificate of Coverage" from Amazon's ADH it does not say specifically that it covers liquid spills, but it does not specifically exclude them. It states it covers "accidental damage from handling" So I'm thinking that it should be covered.

And two years from now Amazon will most likely have a new version out and I'll upgrade to that one.

 

[crisandria]

Did the tea contain sugar or milk? If so, you can probably write it off now. Sugar, honey, artificial sweetners, or any kind of creamer, etc. will all leave residues that will eventually destroy the circuits.

I'm not seeing anything about spills in Amazon's extended warranty, so at least it appears they aren't specifically excluded.

No milk but sugar.

 

[Kathy]

Good luck. I think I would wait as well. Like you said, the coverage is still there until you use it.

 

[pomlover2586]

liquid spills seem to be very common lately.......hope it dries out ok!

 

[LauraB]

Mine has the same symptoms. Screen suddenly freezes refreshes to go
E page. Licks up and won't do anythingg I tried callins de but they have so many calls they told me they had layoffs, kindle tech staff is 1/3 what it was before layoff Friday and there were more than 20 tech calls ahead of me. They told me to call back tomorrow. Seriously.

 

[crisandria]

Mine has the same symptoms. Screen suddenly freezes refreshes to go
E page. Licks up and won't do anythingg I tried callins de but they have so many calls they told me they had layoffs, kindle tech staff is 1/3 what it was before layoff Friday and there were more than 20 tech calls ahead of me. They told me to call back tomorrow. Seriously.

Was yours caused by a spill as well?

Keep me updated on what they say.

 

[LauraB]

Was yours caused by a spill as well?

Keep me updated on what they say.

No. I haven't done anything unusal to mine. No spills, no drops, it just started acting like this all by its self

 

[LauraB]

Ok, just got off with tech support.  The problem with my kindle2 was I was getting "unexpected error" codes, "java ..." error codes.  It would freeze up, spontaneously refresh, the menu wouldn't come up.  CS trouble shooted (? is shooted a word?) and finally had to do a factory restart.  Works fine now. 

 

[pomlover2586]

glad your kindle is better!

 

[LauraB]

Thanks. Me too. Sorry if I side tracked the thread. I just thought maybe the origional posters problem could be same thing and the tea just a timing thing. I hope all works out well for you to crisandrea, it's a bad feeling when the kindle starts acting funny.

 

[crisandria]

I tried the restart myself (had an issue with one book and they had me do the restart "from the menu/setting/menu" i think it was.  Unfortunately did not do any good in my case. 

Will have to see in a day or two after it has a chance to dry out. I'll admit it did seems to be not as crazy the last time I had checked (was not constantly changing the page, but still other odd behavior) but at this point I'm leaving it off till at least Tuesday before I check again.  (that is going to be hard)

I'm happy yours is working. 

 

[crisandria]

OK, so I'm impatient.  I just turned it back on.  The 5 way control is a little stiff. and using the keyboard once  in a bit it seems to backup and delete the key I just hit.  It seemed to be acting fine. 

So I think I've gotten lucky. at least for Now.

 

[LauraB]

I'm glad yours is doing better too, BTW-sorry I spelled your screen name wrong in my previous post 

 

[intinst]

Hope it continues to go better for you and your Kindle.

 

[Leslie]

Mine has the same symptoms. Screen suddenly freezes refreshes to go
E page. Licks up and won't do anythingg I tried callins de but they have so many calls they told me they had layoffs, kindle tech staff is 1/3 what it was before layoff Friday and there were more than 20 tech calls ahead of me. They told me to call back tomorrow. Seriously.

They've laid off 2/3rds of the tech support people? That's unbelievable!

L