Kindle On The Fritz? Remove The Cover.

Here’s a weird one… Should your 3rd generation Amazon Kindle begin spontaneously shutting down, fail to reliably power up, sprinkled with a dash of page sync issues, the culprit is most likely your official Amazon Kindle Leather Cover. Apparently, Amazon has been aware of this issue since at least late last year… and the cover is no longer available for purchase. Yet, for obvious reasons, they haven’t wanted to draw attention to it with any sort of support note or user outreach that I’m aware of.

Unfortunately, Mom found out the hard way while away on travel. I suggested she contact Amazon, upon returning home, to troubleshoot the unidentified weirdness and/or replace the unit. Her rep stated that what she’s been experiencing is not unusual, but wouldn’t elaborate on the cause, other than to finger that official Leather Kindle Cover. He guided her through removing the offending model and provided a $60 credit to purchase the fully functional upgraded cover with light.

Based on what appears to be symptoms of electrical flakiness and what I gather from the commentary, it seems like the cover’s integrated metal clasps could be getting bent or paint may wear off, resulting in some sort of short. However, regardless of cause, the course forward is clear. Remove Amazon’s leather cover… and call in for your free replacement.