[Help Thread][Kindle Fire HD] 3rd Gen (2013) Ask Any Question, Noob Friendly

[sd_shadow]

[SIZE=+2]This thread has been created
for
Questions & Answers/Troubleshooting[/SIZE]​

[SIZE=+2]Specific to[/SIZE]

Kindle Fire HD
3rd Gen (2013)
soho/KFSOWI​

Please feel free to share issues, questions and offer help. Noob questions are welcomed.

It is always best to use the Thanks button , in lieu of simply posting "Thank you".

Please keep discussion focused, on questions pertaining to this Device

List of supporters

@sd_shadow
@DoLooper
...
...
...​

To those seeking help: Please don't bombard the supporters with PMs asking for help. Instead, ask your question here in the thread so others can benefit from the solution to your problem as well. If you want to be sure someone particular gets notified of your question, put his / her username directly after an @.
If you have ROM related questions, post in the relevant ROM Q&A thread (if there is one) or directly in the ROM development thread. If you are not eligible of posting there, you may post here. Thank you!

Supporters: If you want to be put on or off the list, just make a request here in the thread!
Before posting anything, I strongly advise you to read

• Forum Rules
• [GUIDE] - XDA New User Guide - Getting started on XDA
• XDA Tour
• Fire Index: Which Amazon (Kindle) Fire Do I have? There are several Amazon Fires. Be sure you know which one you have
  
• Not compatible with 7" Kindle Fire HD - 2012 Hacks/Roms
• Most supporters are found on the G+ community, along with the up to date Guides.

Please look for a similar thread when visiting another device forum.
If you would like to create a [Help Thread] please Click Here.
​

 

[sd_shadow]

[SIZE=+3]Frequently Asked Questions[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+2]Kindle Fire HD 2013[/SIZE]​

[SIZE=+1]This a short list of frequently asked questions in this device forum and the answers often given as a response. It should serve as a starting point for gathering knowledge and finding solutions to many common problems. [/SIZE]

[SIZE=+1]Q1: How do I tell if i have a Kindle Fire HD 2013?[/SIZE]

Kindle Fire HD 2013 has 7in Screen, Power and volume buttons on the back, No Camera, and No HDMI output?.​

[SIZE=+1]Q2: Can the bootloader be unlocked?[/SIZE]

Yes,
[UNLOCK] KFSOWI Bootloader Unlock and TWRP
​

[SIZE=+1]Q3: What is a Fastboot Cable and Why Do I need One?[/SIZE]

A Fastboot Cable Cable forces the Kindle Fire HD, into Fastboot Mode. See What is a Fastboot Cable? and Setting up Adb/Fastboot Tools​

*​

Forum Rules | New Users Guide | XDA Tour | Report Posts​

A special thanks to everyone who contributed to the production of this FAQ
​

 

[sd_shadow]

Index

Basic Device Information

• Codename: soho
• Model #:KFSOWI
  FAQs for Kindle Fire HD 2013 - Google Doc

USB Drivers

• Kindle_Fire_HD_ADB_Drivers.zip

For those with Windows 8.1 or 10

Watch [Video] How to disable driver signature enforcement - Windows 8.1 & 8
or How to Disable Driver Signature Verification on 64-Bit Windows 8.1 or 10 (So That You Can Install Unsigned Drivers)
and try

1. Open the charm bar and go into Settings and at the bottom click on Change PC Settings.
2. Go to the update and Recovery on left then Recovery
3. Advanced Startup > restart now
4. Choose the Troubleshoot option followed by Advanced options.
5. Choose Startup settings then on next screen click on ‘restart’.
6. Select option
7. Disable driver signature enforcement

Windows 8.1 will now reboot and you can go ahead and use the Kindle_Fire_HD_ADB_Drivers.zip

more here https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/disabling-driver-signature-on-windows-8/all​

Official Stock Firmware

• Kindle Fire HD (3rd Generation) Software Updates

Device Tools, Root/Un-root/Un-brick methods

• HOW TO ROOT THE LATEST 11.4.5.5 OS USING FIREROOTER
• How to Root Your KFSOWI

Unlock Bootloader

• [UNLOCK] KFSOWI Bootloader Unlock and TWRP

 

[sd_shadow]

PM Quote, with permission to share, edited for length.

...
The index points 2013 Kindle Fire HD (KFSOWI/soho) owners to the Amazon 7" Kindle Fire HD, 8.9" Kindle Fire HD, Kindle Fire 2 2012-2014 forums. The guides in those forums are not for the 2013 Kindle Fire HD. Because this was never clear, many people bricked their KFSOWIs. I understand the index is for XDA, but all info for rooting KFSOWI is at KFSOWI modding on G+.

Also, the device specs and descriptions for 3rd gen 2013 KFHD are incorrect. There's no camera on the KFSOWI. Amazon's product page here links to the 2012 model (idiots!), so is also linked in your post.

Amazon's correct product page is here (It's misleading though, including HDX models with camera and other features...)

 

[sd_shadow]

Added @DoLooper to list of Supporters

 

[sd_shadow]

Alright, since I got the other issue of not even knowing which device I had (or thinking it was something else, basically) I've not got this Fire HD 7 2013 (no cameras, buttons on the back, etc) ready to go for Firerooter. I've installed all the necessary drivers (verified), I have a home-made fastboot cable (works fine, made it from an Atrix HD car dock that I had no further use for, used this cable with multiple devices and when I plug it into the FHD7 (powered off) it goes right into fastboot mode as expected. Using fastboot -i 0x1949 devices shows me the device number so that's a go.

I grabbed Firerooter (latest version), extracted it, put the FHD7 in fastboot mode from the cable (verified it's listed in Device Manager as Google Nexus ADB Interface), checked Task Manager to make sure no instances of adb were running since I know that can cause problems, then ran Firerooter, chose the install option, chose the 11.4.5.2 option, checked all the boxes, waited for it to download all the necessary components and then it went into what looked like the flashing process.

Firerooter is currently still showing the "We have all the necessary information..." and "Installing FireOS..." (the flashing process with the progress bar had already finished) and the FHD7 itself shows "Booted successfully!" with some info at the bottom.

It's been like this going on 35 minutes now so, I suppose after all this my one question is:

How long is this entire process supposed to take, if anyone has either an exact time or even a guesstimate 'cause it seems like it's taking a long time. I've looked at Task Manager and it shows 3 instances of adb.exe*32, a cmd.exe, a fastboot.exe*32, and a lua5.1.exe*32 - of those the only one showing any kind of activity is the lua5.1.exe*32 task which has its RAM usage jumping all over the place (the other tasks are basically static).

I'm tempted to kill everything and reboot the FHD7 to see what's going on but so far it's just sitting here and I'm still wondering how long this should possibly take overall.

Not a tough question to answer, I hope...

I've copied your post to [Help Thread][Kindle Fire HD - 2013] Ask Any Question, Noob Friendly

 

[br0adband]

Well as an addition I waited a solid hour and nothing happened so I scrapped the whole process, deleted all the downloaded files, and shut down my laptop totally. Restarted it, did everything from scratch all over again and the entire process completed in under roughly 9 mins but the subsequent first boot took almost 12. I was tempted to give up and try things yet one more time but it eventually did boot to the setup screen as expected.

We'll see what happens...

 

[sd_shadow]

Well as an addition I waited a solid hour and nothing happened so I scrapped the whole process, deleted all the downloaded files, and shut down my laptop totally. Restarted it, did everything from scratch all over again and the entire process completed in under roughly 9 mins but the subsequent first boot took almost 12. I was tempted to give up and try things yet one more time but it eventually did boot to the setup screen as expected.

We'll see what happens...

Great, normally if a device doesn't boot in 10 mins, is not going to.

 

[DoLooper]

KFSOWI needs OS 4.5.5 for working Play Store

Well as an addition I waited a solid hour and nothing happened so I scrapped the whole process, deleted all the downloaded files, and shut down my laptop totally. Restarted it, did everything from scratch all over again and the entire process completed in under roughly 9 mins but the subsequent first boot took almost 12. I was tempted to give up and try things yet one more time but it eventually did boot to the setup screen as expected.

If you installed OS lower than 4.5.5, Play Store won't work. Follow steps here to install 4.5.5 with Firerooter.

 

[sd_shadow]

original question posted in another thread

Ok, so I'm going to be reading quite a bit I know but what the hell, I'm just going to ask this:

I picked up a Kindle Fire HDX 7 earlier from a pawn shop. They had zero success with getting it functional even after trying to charge it for several hours using several different microUSB cables. It had to have been functional when the person that brought it in pawned it, of course, because they wouldn't have loaned any money on a dead device, so I asked them if they'd lower the price. It had been in the "clearance" case for several weeks for $20, and the Manager on duty noted the price sticker had "notes" written on it that it was dead and wouldn't charge so he said "How about $5?" and I said "SOLD!!!"

I've had several Kindles in the past few months that were "dead" but I was able to get something out of them, but when I got this HDX7 home it didn't respond as I'd hoped. I went through a few different microUSB cables till I used one that was really tight on the insertion and voila, the battery/lightning bolt appeared and I had one of those "YES!!!" moments.

Anyway, I let it charge up for a bit, it had the previous owner's PIN in place so once I got to 35% on the battery I did the reset. Right now it's just sitting here charging while I do research on what to do with it at this point. Here are the known facts:

- Device info is a Kindle Fire HDX 7 with 16GB
- Wi-Fi is OFF and will stay off until I decide on how to proceed
- System version shows as 11.3.2.5_user_325001620 Build date Tuesday August 5, 2014
- it's in great condition but it has a lot of cosmetic damage to the rubberized coating on the back and edges, the display glass is crystal clear and without damage of any kind

Ok, so, having said that, here's the magic question:

I'd like to get rid of the stock OS for obvious reasons (it's crap as we all know) and get CM on here but I haven't decided which version as of yet, as I said I'm doing a lot of reading tonight into what I can do with this.

Also, can anyone explain briefly what the version system seems to mean as I see almost nothing related to 11.3.2.5 but I see a ton of info about 13.3.2.5 - what the hell is the difference there 'cause I can't seem to decode the versioning numbers and what they relate to on this device, unfortunately.

If I can unlock the bootloader obviously I'd like to get that done first and foremost because it should allow me to do anything I want but I do know that there's a lot of risk with these devices because of Amazon being you-know-whats, so maybe the bootloader is or will be left alone as long as I'm capable of getting CM on here. I really do like Android 4.4.4 for a variety of reasons so, whichever CM that is - CM11 I believe - may be just what I want but I'm not opposed to checking out CM12 for Lollipop I suppose.

I'll hold off doing anything including turning on Wi-Fi for a while in the hopes that someone can answer and set me on the right course of action so thanks for any responses.

Have fun, always...

 

[sd_shadow]

If you installed OS lower than 4.5.5, Play Store won't work. Follow steps here to install 4.5.5 with Firerooter.

as originally posted: System version shows as 11.3.2.5_user_325001620 Build date Tuesday August 5, 2014

 

[DoLooper]

Right. I was addressing OS Firerooter would have installed. (This post, when he was having problem, says he chose OS 4.5.2. I presume that's what he ended up with.)

 

[br0adband]

Well yes, I ended up using 4.5.2 because that's what Firerooter will download natively, but of course that's not the latest and yes I know about that other link to use the same process (with 4.5.5) and then alter the filename to 11.4.5.2 and Firerooter will go from there. I did notice that on 4.5.2 I was able to sign into my Google account but the Play Market was somewhat half working, reboots didn't change anything, etc. So now I'm aware of the issue with 4.5.2.

The issue now is that when I try to do the whole process again with the actual 4.5.5 bin file renamed to 4.5.2 is that it just kinda gets to a point where it never finishes. This 4th attempt I'm working on now has been going for 25 mins and it's just not happening. If I do the "scrap everything start clean" and download everything a second time including 4.5.5 and rename that to 11.4.5.2.bin and use it as required it still just gets to a point where it hangs.

Not exactly sure what the hell is going on so I'm going to scrap it one last time and give the 4.5.5 install one last attempt, if that fails then I'll just take a break and wait while doing some more research.

Thanks for the responses.

EDIT:
Well I got impatient and did the scrap everything and it still got stuck. So I mentally retraced my steps from when it was successful for the 4.5.2 clean one (meaning Fireroot downloaded that directly and not me using 4.5.5 renamed) and realized that I did a reboot of the laptop beforehand. It figures that since I missed it I'll reboot the laptop and make that final attempt to do the 4.5.5 renamed to 4.5.2 install and sure enough it worked. Not sure what's going on because I did verify nothing was running, not adb, not fastboot, etc, nothing related to the device itself.

I can't say why it worked after I did a laptop reboot but it did so, right now it's up and running, shows 4.5.5 under System Updates, has Xposed active and the modules working, Superuser works fine, and so on and so forth. Odd, but that's how it goes sometimes.

 

[sd_shadow]

Need Help stopping my Kindle Fire SOHO 2013 3rd Gen from constantly downloading the 11.4.5.4 FireOS Update.
If I use 11.3.2.5 FireOS, it will not try to download any updates ... XPosed Modules actually work. However using the 11.4.5.2 FireOS, It still downloads the 11.4.5.4 Update with the XPosed Modules activated that are supposed to block these updates.

I'm curious if there is a way to stop this from downloading this everytime I turn the Kindle on? Thankfully it does not let it Install, however when I'm around poor wifi, the download of this unneeded update really hampers my bandwidth.

Is there any updated XPosed Framework or Modules that will prevent this?
-Or-
Is there any specific file that can be altered or deleted to prevent this?


Thank You!

copied from other thread

Sent from my KFFOWI using Tapatalk

 

[DoLooper]

Is there any updated XPosed Framework or Modules that will prevent this?
-Or-
Is there any specific file that can be altered or deleted to prevent this?

Rename extension of /system/priv-app/DeviceSoftwareOTA.apk to .apkoff

 

[_RumRunner_]

Rename extension of /system/priv-app/DeviceSoftwareOTA.apk to .apkoff

Thank You so much!!!
Dern thing has been driving me nuts for the past 3 weeks LOL.

 

[br0adband]

Since I'm on a roll these days I might as well as the most obvious question 'cause in all the reading I've done so far I still can't seem to get a grip on this one aspect:

Can the Soho make use of custom ROMs? Everything I see with respect to the 2nd bootloader setup is related to the Tate, not the Soho, so before I go any further with this experimentation I need to figure that one out for sure since I'd prefer not to hose this device now that it's working. I can't stand Amazon's OS, that much is obvious so, if it's possible to get CM11 or CM12 on here I would like to know - I'm not asking for a step by step, that much I can figure out for myself as time passes with the info in this forum obviously, I'm just asking IF it's possible to get CM11 or CM12 on it because as I noted all the info seems to be about the Tate variant and I have the Soho (confirmed multiple times so far, and I just backed up all the partitions on the device and the shell prompt shows [email protected] so that's confirmed).

I love XDA, I really do, but sometimes even for a relatively experienced person like myself (been flashing devices for 15+ years now, hundreds of 'em) sometimes the treasure trove of info becomes an "overload" of sorts and makes it difficult to actually find that one little tidbit of info that someone is looking for. I hate asking for help, I really do, I find that I'm usually the one providing it, but in this situation I figured there are people vastly more experienced with these Kindles (which I don't particularly like to be honest, I prefer B&N Nook hardware but they're basically dead nowadays since B&N uses Samsung tablet hardware now) so for once I decided to just ask.

Thanks again for any responses...

 

[sd_shadow]

Since I'm on a roll these days I might as well as the most obvious question 'cause in all the reading I've done so far I still can't seem to get a grip on this one aspect:

Can the Soho make use of custom ROMs? Everything I see with respect to the 2nd bootloader setup is related to the Tate, not the Soho, so before I go any further with this experimentation I need to figure that one out for sure since I'd prefer not to hose this device now that it's working. I can't stand Amazon's OS, that much is obvious so, if it's possible to get CM11 or CM12 on here I would like to know - I'm not asking for a step by step, that much I can figure out for myself as time passes with the info in this forum obviously, I'm just asking IF it's possible to get CM11 or CM12 on it because as I noted all the info seems to be about the Tate variant and I have the Soho (confirmed multiple times so far, and I just backed up all the partitions on the device and the shell prompt shows [email protected] so that's confirmed).

I love XDA, I really do, but sometimes even for a relatively experienced person like myself (been flashing devices for 15+ years now, hundreds of 'em) sometimes the treasure trove of info becomes an "overload" of sorts and makes it difficult to actually find that one little tidbit of info that someone is looking for. I hate asking for help, I really do, I find that I'm usually the one providing it, but in this situation I figured there are people vastly more experienced with these Kindles (which I don't particularly like to be honest, I prefer B&N Nook hardware but they're basically dead nowadays since B&N uses Samsung tablet hardware now) so for once I decided to just ask.

Thanks again for any responses...

no custom recoveries, no custom roms

 

[sd_shadow]

see https://docs.google.com/document/d/1flhQjVTm_NBfCuu1xNATpx4eSSwpYMhqETftnMHTlrQ/edit?hl=en&forcehl=1

 

[br0adband]

Ah well, was fun while it lasted. Guess I'll toss it up on craigslist today and see who might bite on it. Considering I paid $5 for it I'm guessing a profit is definitely in sight.

Thanks for your assistance, sd_shadow.