I went through a metal detecter with my paperwhite tablet

If you have not already tried a standard reset it may solve your troubles. Press and hold the power button on the bottom edge of your Paperwhite for 20 to 30 seconds. This will reboot the operating system. A reboot may take several minutes. If this first step does not solve your problem you can read more about the standard reset and the factory default reset here. If you have important documents saved on your Kindle that are not backed up you should connect the Kindle to a computer with the USB cord and backup any important files. Note that a factory reset will erase everything saved on your Kindle. You should be able to restore any content that you purchased from Amazon as it will be linked to your Amazon account, but third party or personal documents may be lost. If you are still having problems after trying the resets above have a look at the Paperwhite troubleshooting page.