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Project: Kindle Paperwhite EY21 rebooting constantly

  • Model: Kindle Paperwhite (5th Generation) – EY21 – s/n starts with B024
  • Buy price: $5
  • Repair cost: $0
  • Error: Rebooting before the end of the tree screen

I picked up a very nice Kindle Paperwhite 5th Gen this week from a post in the small ads. It was bundled in with a bunch of other junk and listed as “e-waste”. I didn’t ask for any details, just bought it since it had an official Amazon case with it and would be good for spare parts if nothing else. It was pretty out of my way to collect, had to take a bus to a remote area, but it turned out to be well worth it. 

After a brief chat with the seller who told me it was “glitching on startup” I brought it home and put it on the wall charger. The first good sign was an amber light, it appeared to be charging fine. An hour or so later it had enough juice to try to start it up and see what the errors were. 

It would boot almost to the end of the Kindle boy under tree screen and then reboot again. However it was also sometimes presenting a passcode screen. Well that was a problem, I don’t have the passcode….I messaged the seller who shared the passcode with me. When I entered the passcode it didn’t work, what to do next?

What if I forgot my Kindle passcode?

Turns out there is a special number code you can enter into the passcode screen that will reset the Kindle entirely back to factory settings. I found the information on the Amazon site here: Forgot Kindle Passcode

Warning: This method will wipe all your books and personal data from the Kindle, including registration information and wifi details. You end up with a device that is as if you just bought it new. 

How to remove a Passcode from a Kindle?

 To reset any Kindle e-reader model 6th generation and newer, or Kindle Touch (4th Generation): 
  1. Tap the passcode field.
  2. Type 111222777, and then tap OK.

 

To reset a Kindle (5th Generation), or Kindle Keyboard (3rd Generation): 

  1. Type resetmykindle into the passcode field.
  2. Press the Enter key (below the Del key)
 At this point I double checked what model my Kindle was, (see my Identify your Kindle Page) , the model number on the back was an EY21,  which is listed by Amazon as a 5th Generation. I was pretty sure the Amazon site had their info incorrect as I had no keyboard to type in “resetmykindle”, so decided to try the number 111222777 instead. 
 
It took a couple of minutes to initialise itself and then came back to life, here’s the result:

The reset code worked perfectly, the Kindle is now like new. This had to be the easiest repair I’ve done so far and now I have a Paperwhite 1 for $5, very happy! I felt a bit bad because it was such an easy fix so i contacted the seller and offered her to buy it back for $35 but she had already bought a new one so wasn’t interested. 

The plan was to sell this one but after my wife saw the nice purple official Kindle case she’s finally decided to give ebooks a try. 

Another successful repair 🙂