My kindle will not charge

Hi Kathleen -

The Kindles I've seen all recharge off a standard USB type charger or from the USB port of a PC / Mac. The fastest charge will come from a 5VDC / 2.1 amp USB charge port on an AC (home) or DC (car) charger. There are some expensive types with "Quick Charge" or "Rapid Charge" technology that your Kindle will not be able to make use of - so skip those and save your money for the 5VDC / 2.1 amp USB types.

Not familiar with this but it should have a light next to the charge port. Yellow needs charging, green charged. If you get nothing try another cord. If still the same contact Amazon. Amazon. com, click on "Your account", choose Your account at top of page. On far right of page find Kindle help home. On left of next page click contact us. Leave a message and ask for phone call. They will call back soon as possible. I'm sorry to say it could be a faulty device but Amazon help desk will have the answers for you.

Not many buttons to control it but you might hold down the on button for a long time while the charger is connected.

Try charging it with another charger with the same USB Plug, such as your Kindle charger. Charging from a computer can take a long time, due to the limited power available from the USB port. This will be the definitive test to ensure the Kindle will charge.

Same happened to me on a keyboard kindle. I found a very helpful repairer who swapped batteries but still couldn't make it work. He said that a component in the circuits had failed and that repair was uneconomical since a new circuit board was required. He didn't charge me! There is of course a chance that your charger has failed. Find another kindle user and borrow the charger.

I see a trend here, get another charger and be gentel with the cables they are fragle.

Yes you can use any charger that will fit into your Kindle, some might be low power and take longer to charge. It will take awhile before the kindle will turn on but just give i

Replace the battery.

Is the device new or still under warranty? Is return to the store (RMA--"Return Merchandise Authorization"--through an online vendor) still possible? Extended warranty?

Is the charger (and outlet) OK? If you may attempt to use USB current from your PC/Laptop/etc., is that port workable and powered? Have you attempted an alternate method of charging? Is syncing then possible?

Chargers are not invulnerable--rarely, they sometimes overheat and die. After all, they're fabricated PRC items too--thus, even they may prove defective. (They're far less complex than a Kindle or phone, though--defective chargers thus prove quite rare.)

Chargers can't last indefinitely or through overly heavy use, either. (Chargers do tend to last longer than devices--failure proves quite rare!) Is the charger unusually hot after plug-in? (Such failure could prove a great danger to electronic devices. Very rarely, even fire or sparking is possible.) Is charger connection at the wall OK? (Is the outlet overloaded?)

Is it a "block" charger?: These may be replaced easily. Just get the connector and the Volts correct--with sufficient amperage (current). You don't need even to obtain the same brand and model as OEM--that which came originally with your charger. Online, amazon, Radio Shack, etc. may prove very helpful for such purposes.

Does the connector have sufficiently good contact through your Kindle's circuitry to its batteries? (Is the connection overly loose? Often, this occurs over time.)

Are you certain that the charging cable is OK? Does the connector in the Kindle need "doctoring" with a small tool, somehow? If the batteries are dead, it's likely possible to replace them.

It's possible that the device simply is dead (shorted-out)--power surge or fluctuation certainly are possible and likely culprits.

An extremely remote possibility is that the CPU or other key chipset is dead--even those prove useful for limited numbers of cycles. (Failure then implies quite extreme usage! Probably not!) It's not immortal!

Please clarify: what charger did you use to connect to an outlet? The Kindle 3 comes with an USB cable to charge from a PC or Mac computer and no charger outside for many countries outside the US (for other countries an external charger is available from Amazon as optional accessory). Use of a different charger (e.g. mobile phone charger with USB connector) is not supported, not recommended and may fry your Kindle if a wrong voltage is hooked to it.

Things you can try:

1. Use a different outlet to charge the Kindle.
2. If you use the supplied USB cable to connect to a PC, make sure its firmly seated on both ends. Connect to a powered USB port directly on your computer. Some external USB hubs do not come with a separate power supply (external power supply is mandatory for an USB 2.0 hub, some cheap models are sold without one anyway) and are not suited to charge anything. Just to make sure, disconnect any other USB device except mouse / keyboard to check if the USB port in use is not burdened by too much drain.
   
3. The Kindle power LED should glow amber while charging and green if the device is fully charged.
   
4. Give the Kindle a reset pressing Home --> Menu --> Settings --> Menu and select "Restart." If the charge light is on but the device is still not charging, contact Amazon customer service.
5. If the charge light does not light, the AC adapter or cable needs to be replaced.
6. Contact Amazon customer support for any warranty issues.