Possible MAJOR discovery regarding battery/red lite issue.

Good find. Maybe you could try packing the back in places so that no pressure is put on the battery

Nice find dude!

I always thought it was a software issue but turns out it is not!

It's still strange that most people have encountered the issue when benchmarking.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

alwaysbboy said:

I always thought it was a software issue but turns out it is not!

It's still strange that most people have encountered the issue when benchmarking.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

If the finding is true then here my theory on why it happens mostly during benchmarks.When you run benchmarks, your phone and battery heats up a lot. This can cause the connectors to expand causing screws to get tightened.

i can confirmed this find is true, altough its kinda late for me to read this thread.

here is my version.

im a proud owner of nexus 4. got my phone from the 1st batch order, and the original bumper also :angel:
this morning while watching my kid at school, got nothing to do but overclocking my nexus 4 with morfic's latest beta kernel.

silly i put the min and max at 1.8++ghz and run an antutu test on it. and in another 5 seconds the N4 turned off and practically dead. all buttons combo were negatives. as soon as i arrived home i plugged in the official charger. it just blinking red. few moments after i plugged in the N4 to my laptop. blinking red and driver installed notification showed up. then the red light gone. like forever... no red when i put it on charger nor when connected to the laptop.

ok its a dead meat. im in JAKARTA n got my n4 from the US. none of any LG service centre in my country could help me with it. and the RMA things just too far from me.

so since i left with zero to none option, i was wondering "what if i take off the battery?"
i remember read an article from ifixit about how to teardown the nexus 4 then i found the link.

here it is:
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nexus+4+Teardown/11781/1

what i did was:
1. follow steps number 6 [pictures #1 & #2]
2. number 7 [pictures #1 & #2]
3 and number 9. [pictures #1 & #2. no need do the pictures #3]
4. see the white wire with blue sticky tape right next to the battery? i dont know what is that but i unplugged the golden head off also.

i left it that way for 10 minutes before i put it back all together again [ including the screw battery port holder. just dont screwed them too tight. give a small effort to none power ]

all done and i pressed the power button. its ON like nothing happened before.

when im about to share my fixed in the other thread, i got someone direct me to this thread. so here i am confirming this fixed is legit

Wow!! This fixed my nexus that didn't even have an LED light. You are a life saver!

It's been dead for a week and I was just waiting on warranty. But now it's up and running like a bawse!

Hi

ethugp3pp3r said:

So I'm one of the people that's been having major issues with the red light/ no boot issue.

I think the issue (for me at least) is a hardware flaw. Upon completing the steps to reboot the phone (take case apart, disconnect battery, connect power, wait for battery charge indication, reconnect battery) I can get the phone to boot and function just fine.

I have discovered that upon screwing the battery connection back into the phone, it applies a bit too much pressure on the connection which sends the phone back into the redlite "no boot" mode.

TL;DR, If the battery is connected to the phone too "tightly" with the screws, the issue is caused.

Hardware flaw? I think so.

My Fix? Took out the connecting screws, the connection seems to hold without them and there is no more pressure on the connection without the added thickness of the screws (when putting the back of the case on)

EDIT: Here's a video of what I'm talking about, for those of you who haven't had to deal with this (yet?)

Video of Issue

Hey Google/LG, if you're reading this, Send me a new phone, please!! This is unacceptable!

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

This is simply a fault with your phone. Most likely a chip or component isn't soldered correctly or you have a dry joint. When the board is flexed by some force it is breaking or making the connection.

The time will come when even this "fix" for you stops working.

The reason the phone is sometimes failing during stress tests and not coming back on is a safety device. The lithium battery is reporting it is under stress or too hot and the phone shuts down to avoid an explosion. Because there is a big chance the battery is permanently damaged and so potentially dangerous the phone remains in a safety condition wanting to be returned to the manufacturer for testing. Lithium batteries if damaged can explode, imagine if a phone explodes next to your face while you are talking on it? The manufacturers, not wanting a law suit that disfiguring someone might bring, deliberately er on the side of caution.

It's a bit like the limp home mode some cars have when they detect some parameter outside of the norm. You might be able to reset that back to normal by some hack found on the internet but it hasn't fixed the underlying cause.

Regards

Phil

This thread should be stickied as this is a common problem with the Nexus 4.

Just wrote this to bump the thread back to first page so more people can see

Sticky This!

This needs to be stickied!

I'm having a similar issue with my completely stock nexus 4. I can only turn the phone on when it is connected to charger, but this is also very rare. If I manage to turn it on, it shows I have -22% battery left and this doesnt change. I can enter bootloader when charger is connected. I have left it charging overnight, but still it doesn't boot without the charger connected.

Any idea if the fix described here can help me? Can LG service somehow see that the phone has been opened?

I live in unsupported country, so I can't send the phone back to Google. My only hope is this fix here or my local LG service, but I'm not sure if my local LG can even help me, because the phone is not sold here.

Nexus 4, 8Gb, in UK

It arrived Sat (2 days ago) @ 80% charge & about 5 mins after unpacking I noticed it was the 8Gb & not the 16Gb I had ordered

Phoned google for RMA - currently awaiting replacement.

Repacked it, took it to work, had a play, installed maybe 3 apps, browsed a lot though - reboxed it afterward. as I had no case & as I didn't want to risk the RMA I decided not to take it next day.

Case arrives from amazon & I'm back to work today, so I decided to risk it - nexus battery almost dead & powered off.
Connected charger - nexus indicates charging on screen when power button is pushed.

As I lift the phone to power it on 20mins later, charging display blanks & red light starts blinking - swap cable, charger & check connections - all ok - nothing but a red light on a dead phone.

*panic*

read internet: wasted half an hour on button combos streetfighter would be proud of

Found this post here:
http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=37461951&postcount=3
"Seems to hold up, though, even when pressing on the back of the case where the connection is made (down and to the left about 0.5cm from the "n" on the back of the case)."

After pressing down around there, the red light clears instantly, small vibration & nexus is now charging again.

Am glad I'm sending this unit back, if replacement does this within 30 days then I will give up on LG & wait for next gphone; between this and the glass cracking issues I read of, this may not be the best nexus ever quality wise.

tl;dr Almost virgin Nexus got red light & unresponsive on first charge. After all else failing, firmly pressing the back, directly above the battery connection area immediately revived it...

kwft said:

Nexus 4, 8Gb, in UK

It arrived Sat (2 days ago) @ 80% charge & about 5 mins after unpacking I noticed it was the 8Gb & not the 16Gb I had ordered

Phoned google for RMA - currently awaiting replacement.

Repacked it, took it to work, had a play, installed maybe 3 apps, browsed a lot though - reboxed it afterward. as I had no case & as I didn't want to risk the RMA I decided not to take it next day.

Case arrives from amazon & I'm back to work today, so I decided to risk it - nexus battery almost dead & powered off.
Connected charger - nexus indicates charging on screen when power button is pushed.

As I lift the phone to power it on 20mins later, charging display blanks & red light starts blinking - swap cable, charger & check connections - all ok - nothing but a red light on a dead phone.

*panic*

read internet: wasted half an hour on button combos streetfighter would be proud of

Found this post here:
http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=37461951&postcount=3
"Seems to hold up, though, even when pressing on the back of the case where the connection is made (down and to the left about 0.5cm from the "n" on the back of the case)."

After pressing down around there, the red light clears instantly, small vibration & nexus is now charging again.

Am glad I'm sending this unit back, if replacement does this within 30 days then I will give up on LG & wait for next gphone; between this and the glass cracking issues I read of, this may not be the best nexus ever quality wise.

tl;dr Almost virgin Nexus got red light & unresponsive on first charge. After all else failing, firmly pressing the back, directly above the battery connection area immediately revived it...

Click to expand...

Click to collapse

So you didn't even take it apart to revive it? Interesting... I haven't had this issue myself in the 2 and a half months with this phone, but nice to know what to do if it arises.

It sounds like it could be dodgy solder joints, although I'm tempted to say that I'm currently ****ting myself. Things like glass cracking doesn't worry me, people are clumsy and that usually will cause that. However, we have no control over the quality of the circuitry inside.

The thing is, the poster above says wait for the next GPhone, it's been announced for next year. So you're going to be waiting a hell of a long time. This phone I hope will suffice while you do so however.