Odd thing happened with K3...update

837 Views 7 Replies 3 Participants Last post by Ann in Arlington, Jun 16, 2011

Tatiana

Discussion Starter · Jun 15, 2011

I was making some notes in a book and the K3 froze. I know it does this sometimes that's not what was odd.

I RESTARTED it by holding the power button over and it was fine but my entire 935 book library began to re-index. It took about 13 hours to re-index and when it got down to 4 books (or less) left to index it spontaneously began to RE-RE-INDEX my entire collection. I had not restarted my device.

I was reading and checked and only 4 books were left to index. I read for 15 more minutes and checked that the indexing was done and it said (after waiting almost 5 minutes after typing in the nonsense string of xwzp that I had been using all day) that there were 920 books to index. That was at 11:00 last night and it's still indexing 14 hours later with 224 books left to index!

Any input as to why this happened? This is my replacement K3 that I got last week to replace one that was having severe battery drain issues.l

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Morf

· #2 · Jun 15, 2011

Tatiana said:
...This is my replacement K3 that I got last week to replace one that was having severe battery drain issues.

This makes me wonder if your old Kindle was also doing the same thing and you didn't notice it. Constant re-indexing will obviously lead to severe battery drain because it works all the time, even when the Kindle is asleep.

My guess would be that there is one of your books which is faulty in some way and is causing the indexing process to crash spectacularly. You probably need to find that book and delete it or get a new copy.

Which of the 935 books is it, I hear you ask?

{Yep, I've got good hearing!

} I wish I knew! My first guess would be one of the ones that is left at the end, you mentioned 4 books left to reindex shortly before it started all over again. I'd start by removing those books and see what happens.

If all else fails you may have to do a "binary search" approach - remove all the books, then add the first half. If it is OK then, you know the problem is in the second half, so add half of those and try again, when it fails you know the troublesome book is in the last batch you added, so remove them and then add only half of them and so on.

A pain, I know, but I don't know how else to pin it down. Other people may have better ideas - or may even say I'm talking rubbish, it has been known!

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Tatiana

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jun 15, 2011

The old K3 was not indexing and draining the battery because I checked that as I was documenting it's behavior before I called KCS. With the old K3 it would have a full battery and just turning in on would drain it 10% or more. Reading for 20 minutes would drain it 10 - 20%, reading for 3 hours (wifi off at all times unless downloading a book would drain it 90%).

This new device was fine. No re-indexing at all until it froze when I was typing in a note. Since then it has re-re-indexed. It's still re-re-indexing with 71 books to go...it's been 20 hours now. I just hope it won't start over again.

I don't know what the last 4 books were, I didn't check what they were last night and a few minutes later it had started re-re-indexing.

As a last resort, I can remove them all and bring them over again in 100 book batches and index those before bringing the next 100 over. I did that last week when I got this new device and there were no books that were troublesome.

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Ann in Arlington

· #4 · Jun 16, 2011

First I'd suggest a restart -- do it from the menu: menu/settings/menu/restart. . .that might clear out any weirdness. Then see how it does. If you're still having problems do a hard restart by holding the switch for 15-30 seconds -- however long it takes to restart.

You can check to see if any books are corrupt files by searching for a nonsense string. I usually check the indexing every half hour or so to make sure the number of books is going down. If it doesn't during one interval then I click to see what book is grayed out -- that will be the book that's potentially stuck. Delete it the usual way and let the indexing continue. When it gets all done, reload the book that had been the problem.

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Tatiana

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jun 16, 2011

Ann in Arlington said:
First I'd suggest a restart -- do it from the menu: menu/settings/menu/restart. . .that might clear out any weirdness. Then see how it does. If you're still having problems do a hard restart by holding the switch for 15-30 seconds -- however long it takes to restart.

You can check to see if any books are corrupt files by searching for a nonsense string. I usually check the indexing every half hour or so to make sure the number of books is going down. If it doesn't during one interval then I click to see what book is grayed out -- that will be the book that's potentially stuck. Delete it the usual way and let the indexing continue. When it gets all done, reload the book that had been the problem.

If I do a RESTART won't it just re-index everything, again? It's already done that twice in the last two days. It's hour 22+ of the 2nd indexing c ycle and it still has 20 books to re-re-index.

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Ann in Arlington

· #6 · Jun 16, 2011

But if it's doing it spontaneously, that's not normal. . . . .FORCING a restart with the software might clear out whatever hiccup is happening. And, in my experience, a restart doesn't necessarily trigger indexing.

And, even so, indexing shouldn't take that long.

What cover are you using? Last fall there were reports that the stock Amazon case (without a light) were linked to spontaneous restarts. If that's the case you're using, take the Kindle out and see if it settles down.

Whether removing it from the case solves the problem or not, I'd say it's time to contact Kindle Customer Support. If the issue seemed to be with the cover, they'll replace/refund it. If not, they should help you troubleshoot it or replace the device.

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Tatiana

Discussion Starter · #7 · Jun 16, 2011

Ann in Arlington said:
But if it's doing it spontaneously, that's not normal. . . . .FORCING a restart with the software might clear out whatever hiccup is happening. And, in my experience, a restart doesn't necessarily trigger indexing. And, even so, indexing shouldn't take that long.

What cover are you using? Last fall there were reports that the stock Amazon case (without a light) were linked to spontaneous restarts. If that's the case you're using, take the Kindle out and see if it settles down.

Whether removing it from the case solves the problem or not, I'd say it's time to contact Kindle Customer Support. If the issue seemed to be with the cover, they'll replace/refund it. If not, they should help you troubleshoot it or replace the device.

Last night it got to 5 books indexing and would not go any further. This was from a spontaneous re-indexing and took 25+ hours for 935 books and then froze the device.) I removed four of the five books and the device began to cycle (with the little circle in the upper left corner circling and a buzz came from the Kindle). The device would not allow me to do anything. The circle kept circling and it would go to sleep. When I woke it up and tried to open a book the circle would begin to circle and nothing else could happen. Finally, after 45 minutes of this I did a hard RESTART and IT STARTED RE-INDEXING AGAIN (third time in three days).

I have an Oberon cover on it. I spoke with KCS and the tech seemed confused with what is going on. He said rather than deal with trying to figure it out they would send a replacement to replace this replacement Kindle.

Let's see now...I had Replacement #1 in February when my K3 froze terminally while downloading new software update. Replacement #2 June 6th due to severe battery drain issues (waking it up made it drain 10 -20% immediately AND reading for less than thee hours would drain 90% of the battery - there was no indexing going on and no WiFi on), Replacement #3 now because it spontaneously re-indexes my entire collection constantly since Monday night! It worked fine...no problems until I was typing a note and it wouldn't save it and froze the device and it had to be Restarted. Since then it hasn't stopped re-indexing and even spontaneously starts re-indexing my entire collection.

I just want one that works properly long term...PLEASE!!

Since I'll have to redownload my entire collection to a new device, do you think that it might help this one if I Reset to Factory and started all over again?

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Ann in Arlington

· #8 · Jun 16, 2011

Couldn't hurt to try. . . .sorry you're having these issues. . . . .

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