My Amazon Fire HD Tablet Stopped Charging

Published April 21, 2019

A few months ago (November 2018) I bought an Amazon HD 10 Fire tablet. I love the tablet. It’s quick, relatively inexpensive (compared to my now defunct overpriced Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1). The fire tablet’s integration with Amazon’s videos and downloaded books made my life easy.

In addition to its seamless integration with my downloaded Amazon books, I was able to download almost all the apps I previously had on my Samsung. I was really getting into the swing of using the device. It was my portable movie/YouTube player when I was cooking and my Kindle book reader before bed. All was going well until it stopped charging.

Amazon HD Charging Issues

Normally, when settling down to my nightly reading, I'd put the tablet in airplane mode. No sense in attracting more EMFs than necessary. Then I'd make sure the blue shade feature is on and begin to read as much as I could before I got too sleepy. When I found myself reading the same paragraph twice, I’d turn off the device, place it in the nightstand drawer and go to sleep.

The following morning, my ritual was to charge the tablet in preparation for another day’s use. My tablet’s battery was at 49% charge, so I knew it wouldn’t take too long to get it up to 100%. I plugged it in and went about my usual morning routine. It wasn’t until late morning when I checked to see how it was doing. Much to my surprise, four hours later it was only charged to 53%. Hmmm, maybe I didn’t plug things in properly.

I was a little concerned but figured I hadn’t secured the USB connections correctly. I adjusted the cord and went on with my day. An hour later I checked in and the tablet was still at 53%.

Questionable USB Cord and Fast Connect Cord

Fortunately, there are other Amazon tablets in the house so I was able to run a few tests. At first, I thought my cord was defective so I borrowed my husband's power cord, plugged it in and left it for an hour. When I came back, the battery charge was at 56%. That was not acceptable.

Next, I used a different charging outlet. I let the device charge for another 2 hours. When I checked it again the battery was at 58%. So now I’ve ruled out a defective cord and defective outlet. My next troubleshooting step was to turn the device off and allow it to charge. Unfortunately, this didn’t solve the issue. After an hour of charging, the battery life dropped to 57%. How could that be?

Dr. Google for Amazon Tablet Repair

I searched Google and Amazon for troubleshooting tips. Several articles gave the advice to press and hold the on/off button for 40 seconds (I used a timer to make sure it was actually 40 seconds). After the 40 seconds, I turned the device back on and charged it for about an hour and a half. The charge “jumped” up to 64%. Not acceptable.

Finally, I was disgusted and discouraged. I turned the device off and allowed it to charge 10 hours overnight. The following morning after 10 hours, the battery charge increased to 75%. I was not impressed.

Amazon Return - Refund/Exchange

By this time I started searching around the Amazon site to see if I could send the tablet back for an exchange or refund. Because I purchased the device on 11/28/18, my return window closed on 1/31/19 with a possible replacement through 11/28/19.

More frustrating than having the Fire HD’s refund window closed was the impossible loop of attempting to initiate a replacement through the Amazon website. When I navigated to the “return/replacement” page in the Online Returns Center, I was instructed to find the order of the item I wanted to return. When I found the order, it did not give me the option to print a return shipping label. That meant the website was of no use to me so I’d have to contact customer service and get lost that loop.

Before annoying myself with that, I decided to try one more thing. I had very little to lose and potentially much to gain.

Amazon Fire HD - Factory Reset

Yes, I decided to go for the factory reset option. I navigated to Settings→ Device Options→ and chose “Reset to Factory Defaults.” It asked me if this was what I really wanted to do (or something like that) and my response was…”Let the Games Begin!”

Once my device had reset to factory default, it was time for me to set it up again. I took the very same steps that I took when I first got the device. The only difference was that it asked me if it should restore my backed up settings, but it couldn’t. I purposely never backed up my Amazon tablet. I didn't’ see why I should. My files are either stored on the cloud or on my SD card. If anything happened to the tablet (as it did), I could reconstruct everything rather easily.

After the tablet came back online, I plugged it in and voila! The battery quickly charged to 100%!

Cleaning Things Out

It is my guess that the battery charging problem was caused by an app conflict of some sort. I’m not sure which app or apps didn’t like each other or the battery, but with everything removed and reinstalled, the tablet responds much quicker, charges quicker and holds a battery charge much longer. I guess it pays to reset the Amazon Fire HD tablet every so often (but 5 months after purchase is a bit soon).

Back in the day, before everything became so internet centered, I used to reformat my computer's hard drive every six months. It kept things running smoothly and quickly. I stopped doing that when the operating system became so entwined with Microsoft’s online presence. Back in the day, I had CDs from which I installed my operating system. Not such an easy task today.

Kind of reminds me of when I was a kid. My mom used to clear us all out right before the beginning of every school year. Ugh! We hated it, but we were healthy and barely missed a day of school. Ok, I know, I know, TMI, but I’m thinking electronic devices could benefit from periodic cleanings.

So, if your Amazon HD Fire tablet charge begins to slow down, maybe it’s time to reset it to factory default. As you can see, it did wonders for me. Maybe it will help you.

UPDATE: Shortly after writing this, my Amazon tablet started acting up again!  I did a factory reset and it didn't solve the problem.  Grrr. I was about to send it flying out the window when I decided to try one more thing.  I charged it without using the Amazon supplied charging chord. You'll never guess what happened!

Yep, the tablet charged just fine! All it needed to charge was a USB chord without the Amazon little black box (who knows what goes on in there). I tossed the black box in the trash and the tablet has been charging fine ever since!  Go figure!

Update 2/18/23: I finally put this tablet out to pasture. It is now relegated to being an office clock.

Last Modified: 21 February 2023

Comments

• Rita Montague April 21, 2019, 12:40 pm
  

  Thanks for the reminder, Felicia. A reboot, reset or factory reset takes care of a lot of things. Also, when I can’t get the help I need at Amazon customer service, I always ask to be transferred to the states. (I didn’t used to have to do that.) It makes a difference. It takes less time and there is more knowledge there for some reason.

• Felicia April 27, 2019, 9:47 am
  

  Thanks for the tip. I’ll have to remember that.