Battery not keeping charge/draining quickly

[ValeriGail]

For the last few weeks, my k2 hasn't kept a very good battery charge. I'm having to recharge it as often as two days and I'm not reading much on it at all. For example, I had to recharge three days ago because when I pulled it out to read, it was fully dead. I charged it completely that day and read for about half an hour that night. I haven't pulled it out of sleep mode since I put it up that night and today there is only a third or less battery power left. I turned the wispernet off about two weeks ago when I started noticing the power issues. So no whispernet for about two weeks except when I bought some books....oh wait!  I noticed books I just bought a few days ago on the kindle though whispernet is off...  Hmm now I'm thinking maybe it's not really off??  And would that cause such huge power drain?  I used to leave it on and read an average if 3 to 4 hours a night and only charge about once every week and a half.  Now it's needing a charge almost every day to every other day, with a lot less use. (about a half hour or less to none each day)

Any ideas what might be going on or what I should check out?

[intinst]

Whispernet being on and the Kindle trying to index books you have downloaded would be my only two guesses.

[NogDog]

It could be a indexing problem. At the home screen, type in a word or phrase that would appear in a few of your items and then move the 5-way to the right and select the "my items" option in the search bar. Check through the results to see if it reports that it was unable to any of your books. If so, delete that book from your Kindle. You can then re-download it and see if your Kindle is able to index the new copy. (It takes a bit of time to index, so don't expect it to index the new version immediately.)

[ValeriGail]

Well, I did the search for three words and it pretty quickly pulls up a good amount of stuff ( I searched the words prairie, trial and love).  Didn't seem to have any issues.  I also tested to see if the wispernet is actually on even though it says its off by picking up a freebie and seeing if it showed up on the kindle.. so far its not there.  I'm gonna leave whispernet off all day and check again in the morning to see if its popping on at all.  Don't know if thats possible, but I do know that I've had it off for 3 weeks and the books I purchased just a few days ago are on the kindle.  I'm 95% sure I didn't turn whispernet on to retrieve them because I was on the iphone when I got them and have not used the kindle except to finish the book I was reading last week.  I don't know...  I'm gonna give it a day and see if it shows up. 

Since this morning, the battery has drained a little bit more leaving me with about a fourth of the battery still charged, maybe less.  I only read for about 5 minutes this morning, and just now turned it back on (out of sleep) to check the indexing and download of new book.  So it hasn't been used enough, in my opinion, to drain the battery at all.  I did not turn whispernet on. 

I'm wondering if it started when I updated to 2.5.3.  That seems to be the time line of about when I noticed an increase in needing to charge the kindle.  Has there been an update since 2.5.3? 

Or could it possibly be sitting where a button is pressed, even though in sleep mode, trying to change pages?  I've been keeping it in my purse, in an insulated little cooler like bag in its javoedge case (for cushion).. but maybe something is pressing just right on it?

I don't know!!!  HAHA  I'm gonna give it a day and watch what happens

[NogDog]

If it's not showing any indexing problem and the wireless is off, then if you can't get a week out of a full charge, I'd call Kindle CS and see about either replacing it if still under warranty, or else getting the battery replaced. (Or they may have something else they can have you check to help diagnose the problem.)

[Ann in Arlington]

To check to see if there's something that's not properly indexing, try searching on a string you know it won't find.  If there are any books it can't or hasn't indexed, you'll get a list.

If there are books that won't index, you may need to go through one by one to figure out which is causing the problem, delete each one and then reload.  It's probably a recently added one.

It might just need a full reboot. . . .Do a soft restart through the settings menu.  (NOT reset to factory.) Or slide the switch and hold it long enough for a manual 'hard' restart.

[ValeriGail]

So search for something that it won't find?  Hmmm..  that might be hard cause I've got so many different things on teh kindle, but I'll give it a go.  

AH HA!  Ok so I searched "The rain falls mainly in spain" and it gave me just one book.. but its not like it was before.  When I searched on the word prairie it gave me in () how many times that word was in each book it listed.  This time, it just lists this one book without the () next to it.  So maybe this is the one that might be the issue?  It is one that I added recently (within the last month, I think).  I will delete it, then do the soft reboot and see what happens.  

Thanks for all the help everyone!

[Ann in Arlington]

Search for  something you KNOW it won't find like a string of meaningless letters:  qxtgprs for example, and see if it lists any items as not having been indexed.  That's how to tell if something is potentially corrupt. . . . .'cause anything you've had on the device for more than half a day should be indexed.  (Though if you load a bunch at once it can take longer.)

[ValeriGail]

Ok did that.. I searched whatever my little fingers typed and it said no items.  But, I do think the book I deleted was the issue.  When I went to select it, it went light grey and wouldn't let me open it at all.  I had to go out of search and find it in the list there and it still wouldn't give me the usual delete from device option under the listing.  I went into the book menu thingy and had to select remove from device that way.  I don't know if maybe I had a corrupt file?  Could be because my whispernet coverage is terrible, at best.  Anyways.. I will see if that helps the issue.  If it continues I'll probably call CS about it.  3 days of battery life, with no use, is crazy! 

[NogDog]

It's possible the file was corrupt. I had a sample once that completely locked up my Kindle when I got to a certain page. (Had to do an on/off switch reboot to resuscitate it.)

[starscraper19]

The Kindle 2's battery is actually user replaceable as this video demonstrates:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ymli5IbOtSo" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ymli5IbOtSo</a>

I went ahead and replaced my own battery using the replacement kit from http://www.newpower99.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=AMAZON+KINDLE+2&Show=ExtInfo and the procedure wasn't incredibly complex. My Kindle's battery life is back to where it was fresh out of the box, perhaps a bit higher. Best of Luck, Ron

[ValeriGail]

Well, now I'm thinking the issue could be the charging cord. When I plugged it in last night after the battery fully drained, it flashed the screen a few times. I left it alone for three hours, only to come back to a still dead kindle with no light on to indicate it was charging or was fully charged. Luckily i have two cords. I plugged it in this morning with the other and it is now fully charged with it's lovely green light. I'm going to watch it and see if it is still draining quickly over this week. Also gonna watch for the weird screen flickering again. I'm hoping that it just wasn't truly getting charged and nothing is wrong with the kindle.

[NogDog]

I believe that it is not recommended that you let that type of battery completely drain. I'm not sure what the consequences would be, but it may not be helping matters. 

[ValeriGail]

I didn't think it was good either, but it's doing it while even plugged in with that cord. This is the third time in 2 weeks that I've picked it up to read (or in this case to see how much power it said it had) and it's been on the fully drained screen. At first I thought it was the wall outlet, and changed to a different one. It did charge then, but I don't think completely. I think it hasn't been getting a full charge this whole time. I checked just a bit ago and there has not been any battery drain today, where it was showing quite a huge drain before even without use after a couple hours of charging.