question

C. Mancini asked Jan 19, '16

Fire OS 5 Developer Preview Bricked My Device

Last night, I began the upgrade from 4.5.5.1 to 5.0.1. The device was near 100% charged, plugged into my Win10 desktop. The update downloaded, I clicked to restart and update. It began the update as normal, I looked after a few minutes and it was half way through the update. I look again a few minutes later and the screen is black. I tap the power button, nothing. I disconnect it from my computer, no beep / chime or anything. I push the power button again, holding it for a second or two thinking that it just shutdown, nothing. I push and hold the power button for about 20+ seconds, nothing. I push and hold volume up + power for about 20 seconds, nothing. Plug it into wall, no indicators or anything on the screen. I plug it into my computer and I get a chime that windows recognizes the device, then a few moments later the device disconnect chime, nothing on the tablet. Left it plugged in to an amazon power adapter all night, this morning, nothing. Its bricked. Amazon support won't help me, its out of warranty despite their software update likely corrupting the bootloader or partition.

fire tablet

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SJOY answered Jan 19, '16

You describe exactly what happened to me and two friends. We were OTA updated to OS 4.5.5.1, requested the developer preview and our Fire HDs were destroyed as soon as Amazon installed the developer preview. I hope someone here can offer some guidance because Amazon CS is not acknowledging that it has released an update that is incompatible with the developers preview.

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C. Mancini answered Jan 19, '16

I feel better that I am not alone, make sure your friends +1 this thread so that hopefully Amazon will acknowledge their mistake.

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LexLuthor answered Jan 19, '16

There a whole bunch of people (including me) in a slickdeals.net forum thread (people who purchased these recently cheaply through Amazon warehouse) who have had bricked devices when updating from 4.5.5.1 to 5.0.1 developer preview. Seems like people are having no problem updating from 4.5.5, but devices coming from 4.5.5.1 all get bricked. Hopefully, Amazon can pull 5.0.1 for anyone on 4.5.5.1 until they fix this.

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C. Mancini answered Jan 19, '16

Finally got someone to listen to me on Kindle support, they escalated a ticket to the technical team. Ticket ID: 0070092191 Will keep you updated with what I find out.

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Robert B. answered Jan 20, '16

Good luck. This was such a pain having to send back 2 perfectly good HD 7's over a firmware issue. But this might explain why I didn't see 4.5.5.1 as an upgrade option an hour ago...

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justin answered Jan 20, '16

Hi C.Mancini, Thanks for posting this, and we're extremely sorry to hear this has happened! If you could, please open a contact us case and call out what type of device you have that is not functioning after signing up for the Developer Preview. Additionally, please provide your preferred mailing address in the event that we are required to replace your defective device. We are investigating a root cause at this time, and will reply if a solution is determined. Thanks again for reaching out, and we appreciate everyone sharing these details for our investigation. https://developer.amazon.com/appsandservices/support/contact/contact-us Justin

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C. Mancini answered Jan 20, '16

Thanks for the response Justin. I already have a case opened, 1626025961. I just sent a new message to it as requested providing my mailing address should the device be determined to be unrecoverable.

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LexLuthor answered Jan 20, '16

I just submitted a report through that some contact us link. Justin, C. Mancini obviously has an issue with getting his device replaced, but you need to get this reported to the development team as many people are winding up with bricked devices when updated from 4.5.5.1 to 5.0.1 developer preview. If you don't fix the core issue, you are going to get lets more complaints and more bricked devices. Is someone looking into this?

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justin answered Jan 20, '16

Thanks LexLuthor, This is absolutely a priority for investigation. We are investigating workarounds and having necessary discussions on outcomes. We have a backlog of potential devices affected and will use this information accordingly. Justin

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LexLuthor answered Jan 20, '16

Glad to hear. Looking forward to a resolution. I'm certainly not going try to update my 4.5.5.1 fire hd 7 to 5.0.1 again until I get confirmation that the issue is resolved.

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