KFHD Bricked- TIme to give up?

[Dishe]

So I have a 2012 era KFHD (I think TATE is the model?) that I had been running Beanstalk 6.0 for the last couple of years or so. It was fun until recently I noticed it would bootloop when the screen isn't on. That is, if I let the device go to sleep, it would reboot, and keep doing that until I either shut down or kept the screen on.

I thought maybe it was a software issue so I decided to wipe everything and start over. I got a little overzealous in my wiping everything from TWRP, and accidentally wiped the system partition too. Now there is no OS.

So I guess the next thing to do would be to install another ROM. So I have a zip to flash, but I can't get it onto my device. If I mount storage in TWRP and plug the USB cable in, it isn't recognized by the computer. Nothing, not even that "dun dun" sound windows makes when an unrecognized device is connected. Its like it isn't there. But the Kindle charges (TWRP shows the percentage going up). I'm wondering if my problem is hardware related, perhaps the USB port is the cause of the problem and therefore it won't let connect?

I'm out of ideas at this point. Any suggestions are welcome, otherwise perhaps time to toss this thing?

 

[Philmstar]

Check your usb cable is NOT a "charge only" type, some of the early cheap cables packed with cellphones only supported the charging pins, hence not being recognized or data

Hope this helps

 

[Dishe]

Appreciate the attempt, but no- I know this is a working USB cable. I leave it attached to my computer for transferring data to/from devices. Just a couple of weeks ago I used it to update TWRP on one of my phones and a few days ago used it to transfer nearly 1000 photos from a vacation. So, I know it isn't the cable.
I'm pretty sure its the USB port, as that's the only thing that would explain why it also shuts off suddenly if I plug it in during certain power states. I think whatever chip is used to regulate power from the power got fried, and it effected the USB's functionality in general. I replaced it with an HD8, but I do miss this little powerhouse. In some ways I think I still liked it better for casual reading / watching / etc than the newer 8" model. And I definitely liked the vanilla Android I could install on it better than Fire OS, which I'm stuck with on the 8" currently, and the HDMI out port was handy on vacations (hotel room TV).
But for now, I'm giving up- Can't bring myself to throw it out so its sitting in a closet until I probably decide it really has no value and chuck it.