[UPDATE 2] - Steps I took to (finally) get mine working

Note: If your device is recognized in Device Manager as something *other* than "Unknown
Device* (such as "kindle" or "Android ADB Interface"), skip to step 3.
1. Turn off the device.
2. Plug the device into USB to your computer. This should turn the device on.
3. Delete the ".android" folder from your Windows profile. This is very important. If you just
uninstall the device and driver, Windows will still use this to reinstall the device. You want to
start as fresh as possible to eliminate complications from previous attempts.
4. Uninstall it from Device Manager. Make certain to check the box to uninstall the driver as
well.
5. Start a new scan for hardware changes in the Device Manager.
6. As mine was stuck in fastboot mode, it recognized the device as "kindle" (lower-case "k")
7. Run the "install_driver.bat" from the Kindle Fire Utility.
8. After driver install, run the Kindle Fire Utility.
9. ADB status will say "offline", that's fine.
10. Choose option 1 to go into the Bootmode Menu.
11. Choose option 1 to boot into Normal Mode.
12. It will be stuck at <waiting for device>.
13. Turn off the device, keeping it plugged into the PC. *very important* This step was one
among others that made THE difference for me.
14. Turn on the device. *Hopefully*, you should immediately see the utility spit out some text
and your device should reboot.
15. Boots up!! (well, mine did, and I had almost give up hope were it not for my pride and
stubbornness).

http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1552547
with emphasis on device drivers.
"Android ADB Device" typically means the device is in fastboot mode and you cannot use adb
while in fastboot mode.... you must use fastboot.
With your KF off and disconnected from your work computer, run this command...
Code:
fastboot -i 0x1949 getvar product

and then connect it to the computer. The KF will turn on automatically. The computer will say
"<waiting for device>" for a bit, but if the command works, it will eventually return "product:
kindle" as output. If that works, you can actually flash TWRP from there, but if you are anxious
for it to do something again...
Code:
fastboot -i 0x1949 oem idme bootmode 4000
fastboot -i 0x1949 reboot

should get it booting normally again. If it doesn't, look at the link I gave you and focus on
getting your drivers fixed. You won't be able to execute any commands (fastboot or adb)
through Windows if the device drivers don't work. You might want to go back to Firekit if drivers
remain problematic for you.
Everything you need to know to fix your KF is in that link at the beginning of my post, including
the commands you need to run. At the bottom of post #3 is also another link to a how-to
root/install ROMs page.

What can I do if the drivers won't load?

Windows can be very temperamental when it comes to device drivers. Don't assume the worst
right away, but try rebooting the computer, disconnecting/reconnecting the device, and
restarting the device in both modes. Fastboot in particular sometimes won't get detected by
Windows on the first try and may require a reboot of the Kindle Fire.
If the Kindle Fire comes up as a different device or you get a "Code 10" error, you'll have to
explicitly tell Windows what driver you expect to see for the device. The steps below are for
Windows 7, but they should be very similar for earlier versions of Windows as well. The
following may have to be performed twice, once for normal mode and again for fastboot mode.
The steps below are listed for normal mode (and the fastboot equivalent in parentheses). Be
sure to have tried installing the drivers using the batch file at least once or you will not be able
to complete the process.

Connect the Kindle Fire in normal mode (fastboot mode) to the computer

In the Device Manager, right click on the device and select "Uninstall"

Check the "Delete the driver software for this device." box and press "OK"

Disconnect the Kindle Fire, reconnect and reboot in normal mode (fastboot mode)

The Device Manager should show "Other devices -> Kindle" ("Other devices -> kindle")

Right click on "Kindle" ("kindle") and select "Update Driver Software..."

Select "Browse my computer for driver software"

Do not click the "Next" button, but select "Let me pick from a list of device drivers on
my computer"

Select "Android Phone" and then press the "Next" button

Press the "Have Disk..." button

Click the "Browse..." button, point it to the "C:\kfu\drivers\kindle" directory and press
"Open"

Press the "OK" button

Uncheck the "Show compatible hardware" checkbox

Select "Android Composite ADB Interface" ("Android ADB Interface") and press the
"Next" button

Select "Install this driver software anyway"

Press the "Close" button

The device should now appear in the Device Manager.

Now I can use KFU for everything, right?
KFU is great as a preliminary setup tool, but not so good as a troubleshooting tool. Making it
easy also means hiding many details from the user and those details can help you understand
what's happening with the device. If you get into a jam with the Kindle Fire, you're much better
off getting your hands dirty with fastboot and adb. Whether you've used the SDK or KFU to
install the drivers, you got the fastboot and adb programs as part of the package deal. You
might as well learn to put them to good use.
Users seem to balk at the idea of using the command line, but all you really need to know is a
few simple Windows "cmd" commands to get around the directory structure. Then, you just
have to learn a handful of fastboot and adb commands to become a Kindle Fire expert. That
doesn't sound so bad, does it?

Windows cmd, fastboot and adb

OK, so what are these commands?

To get started, click on the Start Menu to begin. Then, depending on the
version of Windows, either use "Run" or "Search" and type "cmd" to open
up a command line window that will look a lot like...

The last line in this example is called a prompt and it's followed by a blinking
cursor.

The prompt tells you where you are in the directory structure. When the
"cmd" program first starts up, that location is your Windows user's home
directory by default. In the above example, my username is "kinfauns" and
my home directory by the same name is in the "Users" directory located on
the "C:" drive. The "C:\Users\kinfauns" part of the prompt is the directory
path and it uniquely describes the location of the home directory owned by
the "kinfauns" user.
The blinking cursor indicates the program's readiness to accept a new
command. Each time you execute a command, a new prompt/cursor will
appear at the bottom, telling you that it's ready for you to type another.
Now type "dir" (without the quotes) and press Enter, and you'll see the
names of all the folders in your home directory. The "dir" command just
prints out a content listing of the directory indicated by the prompt. If you
open up your home folder in Windows Explorer and look inside, you'll see
everything in that folder shown in the list you got from the "dir" command.
The "dir" command implicitly operated on the current directory shown in the
prompt, but you can also provide an explicit argument to tell it what directory
to list. For example, "dir C:\Users" lists all the users directories. Providing an
argument after the command name will be important for the next command...
The "cd" command is used to change the current working directory. We need
to get to the KFU directory, so we can use "C:\kfu" as an argument to the
"cd" command. Type "cd C:\kfu" and press Enter to change to that directory.
No output was provided, but the new prompt has a different directory path to
confirm the "cd" command has executed successfully. You can try "dir" here
to list the contents of the "C:\kfu" directory, but it's not necessary to first list it
if you know what's in there already. In this case, we'll "cd" into the
"C:\kfu\tools" directory, but you won't have to provide the full path. Since
"C:\kfu" is already the current working directory, "cd tools" is equivalent to
the "cd C:\kfu\tools" command. The one other key component to navigating
the directory structure is the ".." directory. The ".." directory refers to the
parent of the current directory, so "cd .." will take you back up to "C:\kfu" and
another "cd .." will take you up to the "C:\" directory.
Now you'll be able to navigate through the directories and you should have a
fair idea about how to construct a directory path (this will come in handy
later). The fastboot and adb executables are in the "C:\kfu\tools" directory, so

you'll have to get there using what you learned to be able to use them in the
next section. There are just a few more tips that might come in handy...

Shift-right-click on/within a folder and select "Open command window here" to open a
command line window with that directory path as the current working directory.

File/folder names or directory paths containing spaces must be enclosed in double

quotes.

Drag and drop a file or folder from the Windows Explorer windows into the Command
Prompt window. The complete, absolute path of the object will be pasted into the
Command Prompt window automatically.

Utilize the "Tab" key to complete a file/folder name without typing it in its entirety (e.g.
Try typing "cd C:\kfu\to" and then hit the "Tab" key).

For more information on Windows cmd commands, bleepingcomputer.com has a nice

introductory tutorial and ss64.com has a full reference page of commands.

How about those fastboot commands?

Just to review, fastboot is a command line tool used to erase or flash
partitions on Android devices. To use fastboot commands, the Kindle Fire
must be put into fastboot mode by one of the following three methods...

Set the bootmode to 4002 and reboot

Connect a factory cable and reboot

Issue a fastboot command during FFF's temporary fastboot mode

Fastboot mode can be confirmed in Windows Device Manager as "Android

Phone -> Android ADB Interface" when the proper drivers have loaded.
You can also verify the Kindle Fire is in fastboot mode by issuing...
Code:
fastboot getvar product

and it will confirm by returning "product: kindle" as the output. Alternatively,

Code:
fastboot devices

returning "0123456789ABCDEF fastboot" also means the device is in

fastboot mode, but this does not seem to stop the FFF temporary fastboot
countdown, so the first command is probably more useful to remember.
When using the stock bootloader (plain "kindle fire" boot logo), the fastboot
command must always specify the custom vendor ID used by the Kindle
Fire. For example, the commands above must be slightly altered to...
Code:
fastboot -i 0x1949 getvar product
fastboot -i 0x1949 devices

and likewise, all of the following commands will need the "-i 0x1949" switch
when using the stock bootloader. The FFF bootloader's vendor ID has been
changed to one that is normally recognized by fastboot, so the "-i 0x1949"
switch can be omitted.
Now onto some more useful fastboot commands...
Code:
fastboot oem idme bootmode 4000
fastboot oem idme bootmode 4002
fastboot oem idme bootmode 5001

Using one of these commands will change the bootmode to normal (4000),
fastboot (4002) or recovery (5001). Then issuing...
Code:
fastboot reboot

will reboot the device into the respective bootmode.

Use one of the following to wipe a partition on the device...
Code:
fastboot erase bootloader
fastboot erase recovery
fastboot erase boot
fastboot erase system
fastboot erase cache
fastboot erase userdata
fastboot erase media

You must be very deliberate when using these commands. The fastboot
erase command will immediately start erasing the partition and it will not be
recoverable if you change your mind. Erasing the bootloader, boot, or
system partitions (especially the bootloader) can seriously brick your device
if they are not replaced. In most cases, it's probably best and safest to flash
a new image on top of the existing data, but they are listed here for
reference. The last two commands are probably more useful than the others.
Erasing the data partition is roughly equivalent to a factory reset and the last
command will erase the sdcard partition.
Rather than use the fastboot erase commands above, the fastboot flash
command can be used to overwrite the partitions...
Code:
fastboot flash bootloader \path\to\u-boot.bin
fastboot flash recovery \path\to\recovery.img
fastboot flash boot \path\to\boot.img
fastboot flash system \path\to\system.img
fastboot flash userdata \path\to\userdata.img

Most users will most likely only need to utilize the first two of these
commands to flash a new bootloader and recovery, but the others may still
be useful if there's ever a reason to flash them separately.
Just in case you are unsure about what the "\path\to" part of the command
means, it refers to the directory location of the file you are flashing. Let's say
you want to flash a new recovery image and have the recovery.img file in the
C:\kfu\software folder. You would replace the "\path\to" part with
"C:\kfu\software" in the command to look like...
Code:
fastboot flash recovery C:\kfu\software\recovery.img

The file name at the end is also a generic example and should be changed
to the actual name of the downloaded file.
The Kindle Fire can also be booted directly from a boot image on your
computer without first flashing it to the device...
Code:
fastboot boot \path\to\boot.img

Because a recovery image is just another boot image, this feature is useful
for testing out another recovery without overwriting the one currently
installed. For instance, if you have CWMR installed, but you just want to take
a look at the new TWRP release, use "fastboot boot" to boot from that
image. It won't affect your CWMR installation and the next restart into
recovery will boot into CWMR. Note: This will not work with TWRP 2.0.0
because that distribution is a boot image that automatically flashes the
recovery image contained within the boot image. TWRP 2.1.0 and above will
behave as previously described.
For even more fastboot commands, take a look at...
Code:
fastboot help

What about the adb commands?

As noted before, adb commands can be sent to the Kindle Fire when it is
either booted into the OS or recovery. First check the Windows Device
Manger to make sure "Android Phone -> Android Composite ADB Interface"
appears in the list and then verify adb is working properly with the following
command...
Code:
adb devices

To manage communications between the computer and the device, adb

utilizes the services of a background server (daemon). When an adb
command is issued, it checks to see that the server is running and starts one
as necessary. After this server starts running, adb will output a line with a 16
digit alphanumeric identifier and a short description for each devices that
responds to the query (e.g. "3A8F010600000001 recovery"). If you don't see
this identifier, then the device drivers are probably not installed or not loading
properly... see the previous post about device drivers.
Like fastboot in the previous section, adb can also be used to change the
bootmodes on a rooted device...
Code:
adb shell idme bootmode 4000
adb shell idme bootmode 4002

adb shell idme bootmode 5001

These adb shell commands will change the bootmode to normal (4000),
fastboot (4002) or recovery (5001). Then the device can be restarted with
Code:
adb reboot

These adb commands copy files and folders to and from the device...
Code:
adb push <source on host> <destination on device>
adb pull <source on device> <destination on host>

The arguments enclosed in angle brackets (<>) must be replaced with the
path to files and folders as appropriate. To copy a file or folder from the host
computer to the Kindle Fire, use the "adb push" command. To illustrate by
example, let's say there's a folder full of mp3 files, "C:\mp3" on the computer
and you want to copy some or all of them to the Kindle Fire's Music folder.
Code:
adb push C:\mp3\track1.mp3 /sdcard/Music/
adb push C:\mp3\track1.mp3 /sdcard/Music/newtrack.mp3
adb push C:\mp3 /sdcard/Music

The first command copies the track1.mp3 file to the Music folder on the
Kindle Fire. The second command copies the same file with a new name on
the device. The last one copies the entire contents of the mp3 folder to the
Music folder. Note that Windows uses the backslash as a separator while the
Kindle Fire uses the Unix/Linux conventions with the forward slash.
Conversely, "adb pull" copies a file or folder from the Kindle Fire to the host
computer.
Code:
adb pull /sdcard/Music/track1.mp3 C:\mp3
adb pull /sdcard/Music/track1.mp3 C:\mp3\newtrack.mp3
adb pull /sdcard/Music C:\mp3

These commands are equivalent to the "adb push" examples, but move the
files and folders in the opposite direction.

Another useful command is used to sideload an app onto the device...

Code:
adb install \path\to\App.apk

Some of the most powerful adb commands are actually Linux commands.
One such example to change the bootmode of the device was covered
earlier in this section. "adb shell" commands in this form...
Code:
adb shell <Linux command>

actually execute a Linux command directly on the device. The entire range
of available Linux commands cannot be covered here because of the limited
scope of this document. Just be aware that any commands in this form are
really Linux commands being run through adb. For more information on
Linux shell commands, An Introduction to the Linux Command Shell For
Beginners is a good place to start.
Most users will be able to get by with the commands covered here, but adb
has many other useful commands as well. Be sure to take a look at the builtin help for other useful adb commands...
Code:
adb help

How do I put all these commands together?

A supplement to this guide has been posted with details on how to root a
stock device and install a custom ROM. The how-to guide outlines the use of
these adb and fastboot commands in real-world tasks to modify the Kindle
Fire.
Kindle Fire For Beginners - Supplemental How-To Guide
How can I thank you for this guide?
Hit the "Thanks" button and share your positive experiences in this thread. If
you feel like you have more to give, consider donating a few minutes of your
time to new users who come here looking for help. None of us were born

with this knowledge and we all need a hand up from time to time. Be kind
and generous when you post. Thanks for reading!