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Windows Bug

Windows 10 Computers Crash When Amazon Kindles Are Plugged In (theguardian.com) 259

Posted by msmash from the software-bug dept.
It appears that many users are facing an issue with their Windows 10 computers when they plug in an Amazon Kindle device. According to reports, post Windows 10 Anniversary Update installation, everytime a user connect their Amazon Paperwhite or Voyage, their desktop and laptop lock up and require rebooting. The Guardian reports:Pooka, a user of troubleshooting forum Ten Forums said: "I've had a Kindle paperwhite for a few years no and never had an issue with connecting it via USB. However, after the recent Windows 10 updates, my computer BSOD's [blue screen of death] and force restarts almost as soon as I plug my Kindle in." On Microsoft's forums, Rick Hale said: "On Tuesday, I upgraded to the Anniversary Edition of Windows 10. Last night, for the first time since the upgrade, I mounted my Kindle by plugging it into a USB 2 port. I immediately got the blue screen with the QR code. I rebooted and tried several different times, even using a different USB cable, but that made no difference."
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Windows 10 Computers Crash When Amazon Kindles Are Plugged In More

Windows 10 Computers Crash When Amazon Kindles Are Plugged In

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  • Even tried a different USB cable (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 25, 2016 @02:54PM (#52770609)
    Best results will be obtained by using Monster (tm) brand USB cables.

  • I thought Windows 10 was so stable that those were a thing of the past?

    So, if I scan the QR code, does it give me a coupon for a discount on my next Microsoft purchase?

  • What? Amazon has a device called the "Paperwhite"? Did anyone else initially read that as "paperweight"? I guess technically it's the Win10 system that because a paperweight, but if you can't charge it because it crashes your computer, the reader will eventually become one too.

    Who names these things?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by HiThere ( 15173 )

      Reading problem? Many people have reported in earlier posts that this had worked fine with their systems before the update.

      Others have reported that this happened for awhile, then they got another "Windows 10" update, and then it stopped happening.

      So clearly the problem was a defect with Microsoft Windows 10 which they have since fixed.

    • if you can't charge it

      You can. People just find it convenient to do it while they're on their computer.

  • Constant Development = Totally Unstable (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 25, 2016 @03:08PM (#52770715)

    Windows 10 is absurdly unstable because it's under constant development. One day your computer is working, the next they decide to do an update and break everything. Of course, instability is just one of the major problems with 10. An equally big problem is that it has no customisation options and gives you no control.

    I had Windows 10 on four PCs and I wasn't happy with it, but I thought I'd have to upgrade at some point anyway so I was sticking with it. However, when the Anniversary Update came along and completely destroyed my computers I moved them all back to 8.1. The Anniversary Update is an update in name only, and the reality is that it is a completely new installation of Windows. It downloads the 4GB image, does a clean install (renaming your current one to windows.old) and then tries to transfer your programs and settings across. It fails utterly at doing this and afterwards it's not a case of "what's broken?", more like "does anything still work?"

    Windows 8.1 is supported until 2023 so I've got that long to switch to Linux. After all the trouble reinstalling 8.1 on all my computers I wouldn't consider installing 10 again. Windows 10 gets a lot of criticism around here, but I suspect most of the criticism comes from people who haven't actually use it. If you do use it the reality is far worse.

    • Windows 10 gets a lot of criticism around here, but I suspect most of the criticism comes from people who haven't actually use it. If you do use it the reality is far worse.

      This is a good point. Having read all the horror stories and comments, I don't want to risk using Windows 10. So, yes, at least implicitly I'm criticizing it without having used it. I'll stick with Linux Mint and very occasional use of a Windows 8.1 partition (which I really don't need except for seldom played games).

  • One of the things M$ changed in Anniversary was that they were going to start enforcing that all drivers will need to be signed. Perhaps the Kindle driver is not? Maybe uninstall Kindle driver, see if Amazon has posted a new signed driver, install that, see if Kindle and Windows are happy together again?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ebcdic ( 39948 )

      The kindle just appears as a USB memory device. Why would there be a driver?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DaHat ( 247651 )

        Because even generic USB devices that adhere to standard device classes use drivers? And it is perfectly possible for a device manufacturer to still have a custom driver because they want added functionality?

        Ages ago I was developing the USB functionality for a device and accidentally came up with a particular firmware load which did something wrong during the initial connection of sending back & forth device identification info... on any Windows machine (98, 2000 & XP) we tested it on that you plug

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mcgrew ( 92797 ) *

        It SHOULD treat it as a USB memory device, it may not, though. Whenever I plug either of my tablets or my phone in either Win7 laptop it looks for drivers. It even looks for drivers when I plug in a thumb drive!

        No I have to moderate a different thread because I just undid mods... damn.

    • Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday August 25, 2016 @03:32PM (#52770909)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mark-t ( 151149 )
        How did you get that formatted code to show up in your post? I once tried using &nbsp; to try and make indentation in a <tt> I did some time ago, and although the text was in a fixed spacing font, and thanks to using <br>, my line breaks were good, the indentation did not work for me at all.

    • Any drivers that were already installed at the time of the update got grandfathered in and would still run under the Anniversary update. You just can't install new drivers that are unsigned or install a new device with unsigned drivers.

  • Charged my Fire Tablet on my Windows 10 laptop since the update. Have to try it tonight and see if it replicates on the Fire Tablet too.

  • I can confirm this in my Win10 setup. Upon plugging my Kindle Voyage, Win10 Anniversary Update crashes instantly and require a reboot.

    • I can confirm this in my Win10 setup. Upon plugging my Kindle Voyage, Win10 Anniversary Update crashes instantly and require a reboot.

      The problem is, you have an outdated device. But if you call Microsoft within the next 60 minutes, they'll give you $25 towards a new Surface tablet when you trade in your old Kindle!

      And the new Surface is so ergonomically designed, you won't even notice the extra 1.6 pounds!

      Don't be a sap - call Microsoft ASAP!

  • > ...my computer BSOD's [blue screen of death] and force restarts almost as soon as I plug my Kindle in.

    Windows 10 is anticipating the attachment of the device and prematurely crashes? That's pretty efficient.

  • Take action (Score:5, Funny)

    by karmawarrior ( 311177 ) on Thursday August 25, 2016 @03:19PM (#52770805) Journal

    I'm probably not the only one here who's getting sick and tired of hearing about yet another major Windows bug that we can't do anything about. While Microsoft makes their operating system even less stable, update to update, it also makes it harder for us to even pick the updates that we know work and leave those we don't aside.

    That's a serious problem, and downtime due to computers crashing, needing to be reformatted and their operating systems re-installed, together with the time taken for users to learn about these problems and investigate workarounds, costs the world economy trillions every year. In this case the user loses whatever functionality lead them to wanting to plug a Kindle Fire into their Windows PCs in the first place, again having a real cost associated with it.

    Yet while we waste time waiting for our computers to reboot, we feel helpless, unable to investigate workarounds or other ways to achieve the results we want.

    This quagmire of people being unable to fix the problems caused by bugs and other issues will not disappear by itself. Resources need to be devoted, and unless people are prepared to actually act, not just talk about it on Slashdot, nothing will ever get done. Apathy is not an option.

    You can help by getting off your rear and writing to your congressman or senator. Tell them your concerns about bugs in Windows 10. Warn them that trillions of dollars are being lost because of these issues. Tell them this is important to you. Tell them that you appreciate the work being done by organizations like Microsoft and Amazon to fix the bugs, but that without better QA and more reliable drivers, you will be forced to use less and less secure and intelligently designed alternatives. Explain the concerns you have about freedom, openness, and choice, and how vicious, angry, arguments undermines all three. Let them know that this is an issue that effects YOU directly, that YOU vote, and that your vote will be influenced, indeed dependent, on their policies on bugs in Windows 10.

    You CAN make a difference. Don't treat voting as a right, treat it as a duty. Remember, it was thanks to ordinary people like YOU that we are now seeing such innovations as SMP in OpenBSD. Keep informed, keep your political representatives informed on how you feel. And, most importantly of all, vote.

    • A blast from the past.

      Many of us switched to Linux at the turn of the century due to the bugs of dos/win9x. Windows 2000 was meh, XP better, Windows 7 stable and solid! 8.1 light and great and mobile but with terrible UI but still meh with stability. Windows 10 way back to the past.

      • Windows 2000 was meh, XP better

        Clearly you don't remember very well. Win2k was a freaking breath of fresh air from Win9x and NT4. XP was absolute garbage that everyone hated until SP2 came along.

      • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

        by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday August 25, 2016 @05:53PM (#52771899)
        Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • The reason I wrote that is because Windows 2000 was demanding at RTM and had compatibility issues with programs and drivers. XP had a firewall. XP had a upnp one which didn't require grandma to open ports manually. It had Windows Media player 9 and full directX 9c and IE 6 which was the best browser at the time if you can believe that and was finally supported for consumers that was now stable.

          Windows 10 seems Ok on very new hardware like my surface pro 3 and homebuilt system. No bsod except on a AMD Radeo

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          Microsoft wants to be like Google and Apple. Every time Android or iOS gets an update there is a big conference, news stories, people shitting bricks if they don't get it within hours of release... It's a big deal, people look forward to the new features.

          It works for Google and Apple, but what people really want from Microsoft is stability and consistency and getting out of the way so they can run their software.

    • Don't worry. Microsoft made this much easier by taking away the ability to pick and choose the updates you can install. Not only are updates now mandatory and WILL be installed, all updates to Windows are now rolled up together as one cumulative update. So while you can disable network access and other router tricks to stop windows update from installing updates, updates are STILL an all-or-nothing approach as starting as of this most recent rounds of updates, all updates are issued as roll ups that incl

    • Whoa, there, Cowboy. I'm all for that stuff about votin' and duty (feel a duty comin' on myself). But do you really expect Congress to take action on... Windows 10? You really think that's a good idea?

      Think it through, friend. The best that would happen, Congress holds a hearing, which is Beltway-code for "photo-op" and "time I don't have to spend doing stuff that matters". A few Microsoft execs get subpoenas to answer questions and stay in 5-star hotels, Congress-people reveal how ignorant they are ab

  • Taking Care of the Competition (Score:5, Funny)

    by Sperbels ( 1008585 ) on Thursday August 25, 2016 @03:30PM (#52770891)
    Does this mean MS has a competing e-reader coming to market?

  • There are millions of Windows 10 installations and millions of Kindles. So unless everyone's Kindle crash when they connect it I'd wait a bit before blaming Microsoft.
    It can be caused a faulty USB controller, a bug in some driver (which may or may not be by Microsoft) or some kind of coincidence.

    What may have happened (it has already happened to me) is that some driver was updated and now make use of a previously unused feature of the hardware. However, there is a batch of hardware where using this feature

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ledow ( 319597 )

      Which is why MS should be testing their changes.

      Of course this kind of things happens, on any OS. But you test.

      If you haven't noticed that you've introduced a blue-screen (literally, things that SHOULD NOT happen) within a few hours of pushing out an update, even if it only activates on a small percentage of a popular product, then you're not testing, not recording logs, not reporting crashes in enough detail, not reading crash reports, and just don't care.

      We're talking mass-market OS on massive amounts of

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by lgw ( 121541 )

        MS fired all their QA guys a year or so ago, so lack of basic testing is hardly a surprise.

  • Just google "raw usb aniversary" (sorry, I had the link from one of MS pages confirming it and recommending not to upgrade and not to mess with your disks but I can't find it anymore).

    This is particularly scary as people might destroy their data while "recovering" it. Also from backup drives...

  • I was not affected by this bug. Thankfully, my USB hub is also not working after the anniversary update, so plugging in my Kindle was unable to crash it. I'd make a video to prove it, but the update also broke my webcam.

    All that stuff is working fine for me on Arch though. I had only booted Win10 because I wanted to play the new Deus Ex, but since it looks like a Linux port is likely coming soon (Thanks Feral!), I guess I'll just keep not using Windows, and play the game in a few months.

  • Windows 10 Ain't Done (Score:3)

    by KlomDark ( 6370 ) on Thursday August 25, 2016 @05:30PM (#52771757) Homepage Journal

    Till Kindle Won't Run!

  • Doesn't crash for me (Score:3, Informative)

    by en4ca ( 543233 ) on Thursday August 25, 2016 @06:20PM (#52772035)
    TFA makes it sound like this affects 100% of users, but it doesn't seem to affect me. Just tried plugging my kindle voyage into my windows 10 laptop running the anniversary update. Worked as normal, no bluescreen here.

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