Crunchgear received and email from a reader who’s Kindle has been showing signs of a rather worrying problem;
From Crunchgear:
A reader writes:
I got my girlfriend an Amazon Kindle for xmas and over the past few days it has progressively gotten worse and worse screen damage, despite barely being used (and never abused). Amazon acted like they had heard of the issue before and are trying to advance us a replacement but the backorder list is apparently huge so we don’t have very high hopes to see a replacement anytime soon. Have pic if you are interested, was mostly just curious if you had heard anything from anyone else about similar issue because Google finds nothing of the sort
its to the point now where the unit is unusable, about the top 1/3rd of the screen is garbled beyond recognition, and each time we turn it on it seems like more rows of pixels go outI haven’t seen this issue, but now I can’t download fresh content, which makes Trog angry. Anyone else seeing weird eInk problems?
UPDATE – Jason just sent us a pic and an update:
The unit hasn’t even been out of the box long enough to
require being recharged, not to mention being abused, so I really
suspect that there is just a loose connection inside or faulty
soldering. I purchased it on launch day so hopefully this is just a
first-run QA mix-up, not an indicator of long term trouble with the
technology.Thanks for posting my issue, I see that someone else had a similar
problem and Amazon resolved it reasonably quickly (which is
reassuring).
Crunchgear speculates that the culprit behind this fault is the E-Ink technology, however one reader seem to think that the problem lies with the TFT screen and its manufacturer Prime View International.
Amazon appears to be on top of thing it seems, another reader reports that his Kindle was experiencing similar problems and Amazon quickly replaced his device, which is good news for Kindle owners who may have this problem.
Source: Crunchgear
Arrrrhhhhgg, this is EXACTLY what just happened to me. mine is the whole right half. I have had it for one month. I guess I will call amazon tomorrow.
I had a similar issue with my kindle after 4 months of ownership they were quick to replace it. Kudos to amazon the customer experience on this was excellent.
it also just happen to me on my 3 days old Kindle3. WTF?
I had the same issue with my kindle 3. I got it seven days ago October 2, 2010 and now it is unusable due to the screen damage. I Very disappointed in the quality and reliability of the Amozan Kindle.
Three days?? Seven days?? Lucky people! My Kindle 3 lasted only 2 hours before the screen went kaflooey.
My kindle 3 got the stripes of death, but it was one of the first-run batch, so I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. the customer service was top notch, and the customer service rep “Michael P” was a really cool dude.
This has just occured to my latest gen Kindle 3G after a week…
Amazing Amazon has not yet rectified this problem
Same with me, same crappy screen, after 6 months of use and taking good care of it like a jewel