Introduction
My Kindle 4 had a motherboard issue and did not start even after I changed the battery. Fortunately, I found a second Kindle 4 with screen damage to salvage a working motherboard and change it.
Although removing a damaged screen from a Kindle 4 is pretty difficult, changing the motherboard proves much easier. Every single part of the device is glued, but the glue is sensitive to heat and will not be such a bother.
What you need
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Follow the Screen Replacement tutorial up to Step 4
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Open the back cover
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Remove the front cover
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Disconnect the battery
Ask FixBot
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Disconnect all flex cables from the board
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There are 4 connectors to unclip:
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Right buttons
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Left buttons
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Screen
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Battery
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Unscrew the board from the back
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3 Torx screws on this side
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Heat the plastic piece to help unglue it
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Turn the device and push the piece out through the casing
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Unscrew board from the front side
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That’s another set of 2 screws !
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The board has no more screws left, but it is still glued to the casing
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Use some more heat to weaken the glue
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Lever the board to unglue
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Then, remove it by sliding it out
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Here is what it looks like with EMC shields removed
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Don’t try to remove the shields on your new board, they are directly soldered, and you risk damaging the whole PCB.
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If you have another device from which you extract the new motherboard, run steps 1 to 7 again
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Place the new motherboard
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Before closing it back, test the device
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Replug all connectors, connect the battery last
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The LED should blink green upon battery reconnexion
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Try turning the device on
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Unplug the battery again
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Rescrew the board
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Replug the battery
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Reassemble the plastic piece holding the buttons, the front cover, and the back cover
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Amazon apparently discontinued service for this model: the service will expect double authentication, which apparently is not implemented in the Kindle firmware.
However, you can still use your Kindle 4 with USB : it is recognized as mass storage, and you can load ebooks in PDF or MOBI format in memory.
Check out the open-source software Caliber to convert your files in a vintage Kindle-friendly format.
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