Several reports have surfaced on Windows 10 PCs crashing with the blue screen of death when an Amazon Kindle e-reader is plugged into them, with the crash happening as soon as the devices are connected to each other through a USB cable.
The issue is said to be due to the recently released Anniversary Update for the operating system, which was rolled out by Microsoft at the start of the month.
The versions of the Amazon Kindle affected by the crashes are the Voyage and Paperwhite. Users who would try to transfer books to the e-readers or to charge them by connecting the devices to their Windows 10 PC's USB port will be greeted with a blue screen of death, often alongside an error message that reads "SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED," followed by a forced system restart.
Windows Ten Forums user Pooka says that the problem occurs as soon as the Kindle Paperwhite is plugged into the PC, which recently installed the Anniversary Update. Other storage devices, such as smartphones and a PlayStation Vita portable gaming console, were not experiencing the problem.
Users have also flocked to the official Microsoft support forum for help regarding the matter, with an example of such a thread started by a user who goes by the name Tucsat.
"We are aware of an issue with a small number of Kindle Voyager and Paperwhite e-Readers causing an unexpected behavior when plugged into Windows 10 devices after installing the Anniversary Update. We are currently working on an update to address this issue," a moderator posted in the forum.
Some users suggested that the issue only happened when the Kindle e-reader was plugged into the Windows 10 computer with the magnetic cover open. However, one workaround to the problem is to keep the Kindle plugged into the PC after the blue screen of death and restart. After the computer is back on, users would be able to access the Kindle to transfer files.
There is also the option, as suggested by user SeanHsi in Tucsat's thread in the Microsoft forum, to connect the Kindle to the computer before booting the system or while the computer is sleeping. When doing these things, SeanHsi says the Kindle Voyage worked fine, with no blue screen of death popping up.
While waiting for Microsoft to roll out a fix to the problem, it seems users will have to try these workarounds and simply hope that one works for them.
The blue screen of death problem on plugged in Kindle e-readers is the second high-profile issue being experienced by Windows 10 users who have installed the Anniversary Update. The first problem, reported last week, are the millions of webcams that no longer work with Windows 10 systems due to Microsoft deciding to drop support for two major video compression formats with the Anniversary Update.
