Kindle Paperwhite for Dummies (40 page)

Some web pages have
articles,
which are defined areas that can make reading a web page easier. For example, news sites often organize their content into articles to define sections of text and graphics that belong together. You can view articles more conveniently by tapping Menu⇒Article Mode. This causes your Kindle Paperwhite’s web browser to filter the content it displays to the desired article’s text and images.

Article Mode works well with many news sites. When viewing the article, swipe the display to scroll up or down. To turn off Article Mode, tap Menu⇒Web Mode.

Chapter 10

Troubleshooting

In This Chapter

Finding help online

Getting help from Amazon

Troubleshooting common problems

Resetting your Kindle Paperwhite

M
ost people find that their Kindle Paperwhite is a reliable, problem-free device. For the infrequent occasions when glitches occur, they’re usually resolved easily. In this chapter, we show you some troubleshooting tips that solve the most common difficulties encountered by Kindle Paperwhite owners.

For other, more complex, problems, we provide some steps you can take to solve them. First, though, we point you to ways you can get help from online resources, from other Kindle Paperwhite owners, and from Amazon’s Kindle customer service.

Getting Help Online

Many Kindle owners join user forums, where a wide variety of problems can be addressed by helpful forum members. Amazon has a Kindle product forum that covers Kindle Paperwhite and all its e-reader devices. You can access the forum in several ways. The easiest is to go to the main Kindle Store on Amazon and choose Discussions, at the top of the page, as shown in Figure 10-1.

Figure 10-1:
Accessing the Kindle Discussion forum at Amazon.

To find independent Kindle user forums, use your favorite search engine to search for
Kindle user forum.
Posting your Kindle Paperwhite problem in the troubleshooting area of an active forum can be an efficient way of resolving perplexing issues. Most forums have resident experts who have seen it all and can provide quick answers to common questions.

Amazon also provides a Kindle Support page with links to troubleshooting tips. Go to the Manage Your Kindle page at
www.amazon.com/myk
. (Note that you’ll be prompted to log in to Amazon if you aren’t already signed in.) From the Manage Your Kindle page, you can access Kindle Support through the Kindle Help link or the Kindle Support option, as shown in Figure 10-2.

The Kindle Support page includes a selection of how-to videos. Click the link for Helpful Kindle Support Videos and then click the Kindle Paperwhite image to see the videos available for your device. These short videos cover the following common topics: getting started with your Kindle Paperwhite, using your Kindle Paperwhite, transferring content over USB to your Kindle, setting your Kindle payment method, and troubleshooting your Kindle Paperwhite.

Figure 10-2:
You can access help from this page.

The support page also has links to general Kindle topics, including frequently asked questions (FAQs), troubleshooting, software updates, getting started, and connecting to Wi-Fi. You can click the Kindle Paperwhite image lower on the page to see help topics specific to your device.

Your Kindle Paperwhite comes with the user guide already downloaded on the device. You can also download it from the Kindle Support page. (To download a user guide in German, French, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, or Portuguese — go to your library through the Manage Your Kindle link (
www.amazon.com/myk
).

Contacting Amazon Kindle Customer Service

Kindle forums are full of appreciative reports about positive experiences with Amazon’s Kindle customer service. These customer service representatives have a reputation for quickly resolving issues and for treating Kindle owners fairly and respectfully.

If your Kindle Paperwhite problem isn’t readily resolved by basic troubleshooting steps, you may be best off contacting customer service. More than likely, a ready resolution to your issue is waiting on the other end of the telephone line. The direct toll-free number for Kindle customer service is 1-866-321-8851. Customers outside the United States should call 1-206-266-0927.

From the Kindle Support page, you can choose to have a customer service representative call you. In this way, the representative can access your account before making the call, which might speed up the support process. You can also e-mail customer service or initiate a chat session from the Kindle Support page. Click the Contact Us button on the Kindle Support page to initiate help from Amazon by telephone, e-mail, or chat.

Common Problems and Solutions

In the following sections, we provide some of the more common problems reported by Kindle Paperwhite owners in community forums. For many of these problems, we provide steps for a quick resolution.

You see ghost images on the screen

Ghosting
is the faint display of text or graphics that remains from a previous page even after you page forward.

This phenomenon may seem similar to the burn-in that can occur on older computer monitors — in which images of screensavers, for example, are permanently branded on the display. Fortunately, the e-ink screen doesn’t burn-in, and you can safely have your Kindle Paperwhite display a page or a screensaver for long periods of time.

If you encounter ghosting of a prior display on your Kindle Paperwhite, refresh the screen. To refresh the screen while reading an e-book or other content, tap near the top of the screen to display the toolbar, and then tap anywhere on the page. The display briefly flashes black as the screen refreshes and the toolbar disappears. From the Home screen, opening a book or other content causes the page to refresh — you’ll know this is happening because the display briefly flashes black.

By default, your Kindle Paperwhite does a page refresh of its e-ink display every six pages. If you’re experiencing ghosting issues, change the setting to have the display refresh with every page turn. Tap Menu⇒Settings⇒Reading Options. Set the Page Refresh option to On.