Nexus 7 won't turn on no matter what I do

[hiero]

YOU ARE THE MAN! YES I AM SHOUTING with JOY
absolutely fixed mine, which was deader that a doornail.
What did you put in the gap or I guess I should ask what is sugru (will GOOGLE of course)???

Yeah, i used sugru, which is a moldable rubber/silicone type material. You could just fold up a small piece of paper to fill the gap too for FREE =)

 

[katie271]

OK yeah i try that all the time and it dose not work the N7 logo shows up but it takes like hours to come on then after a while it ether dies or gives up cuz it will just stop and then everything turns off as if it where shut down so i'm quite confused and if any one has a way to fix it that would be nice and im going on a plane trip in a few days and id like to have that for the plane ride HELP!!!!!! HELP!!!!HELP!!!!
ANYBUDY PLEASE HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP!!!!!!:''''''''''''-\:-\:-\:-\:-\:!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[karenyj]

You got it right on the nose, Joan........could not get my daughters to work at all, tried this and it worked!!!! Thank you!

 

[Lynfeu]

exactly how do you get the back off?? All I've done is scratch the back?

 

[mingraffia]

@hero This solved my issue on both asus nexus 7 that where "dead"

 

[G111444]

Tried the bootloader fix, but once I get into the bootloader the volume keys don't work. The only option I get is "Start" and even then pressing the power key doesn't do anything. I have to hold the power button down to get it to reboot. Anyone else having this problem? Any thoughts on a fix?

 

[Shawn Pitman]

I solemnly swear the following is true...

I was an early adopter. Had the Nexus 7 as soon as possible. Had the "won't charge" problem within two months. Google was AWESOME and cross shipped a replacement (with return packaging). Then the same thing happened to the second one. Again, Google immediately offered to cross ship a replacement (with return packaging). Now, my third one started doing it after a recent trip. Same problem. Same symptoms: slight black snow effect (sometimes), backlight would come on, but no other discernible reaction.

I had googled this the first time, and the second time it happened... this time I assumed I wouldn't even try Google and I'd buy a Kindle Fire HD or something... so... with nothing to lose I did the following:

I removed the back.
Plugged the device in
Upon inspection of the battery connector (which was firmly in place) I noticed a slight audible hum

I stopped in my tracks. A hum shouldn't exist in a solid state device. As far as I could tell, there was no surface mount transformer inside (nor would there be a reason for one). As an electrical engineer my curiosity was piqued. I became fairly confident that I was hearing a feedback loop (probably from the charger supply) in the microphone (which is possible; supplying intermittent voltage to a microphone can cause the magnetic screen to resonate when the coil becomes charged).

I unplugged the N7 (the sound stopped)
I unplugged the battery
I plugged the N7 back in (no hum present)
I unplugged the N7
I plugged the battery back in
I plugged the N7 back in (NO HUM PRESENT)

Instantly the device began charging. I was able to get to the bootloader and navigate a bit, but choose "Power Off." My N7 (the third one I've had) is back to working normally.

I can't guess what the actual cause is (and don't care to investigate this fragile device), but EVEN IF your battery is firmly plugged in, I recommend unplugging it, plugging in the N7 (battery still disconnected) and waiting a bit before unplugging it, and replacing the battery connection (firmly!).

Happy to have my N7 back!

EDIT: The bootloader doesn't instantly respond to your inputs. It seems that the bootloader becomes visible about 10 seconds before you can control it. Definitely be patient.

 

[charlie64]

i'm having a similar problem. Over the past week or so my nexus 7 has been randomly turning off and on. Just this morning the screen froze so i tried to turn it off and back on. all that happened was the screen went black and it will not turn back on . I've tried holding power and volume down but nothing happens. The battery was at 20 percent so that isn't the issue. I haven't thrown it down or dropped it or anything like that. It will also not charge. Plugged it in for several minutes and just a black screen. What should i do?

 

[ohmslaw]

i'm having a similar problem. Over the past week or so my nexus 7 has been randomly turning off and on. Just this morning the screen froze so i tried to turn it off and back on. all that happened was the screen went black and it will not turn back on . I've tried holding power and volume down but nothing happens. The battery was at 20 percent so that isn't the issue. I haven't thrown it down or dropped it or anything like that. It will also not charge. Plugged it in for several minutes and just a black screen. What should i do?

Have you tried any of the suggestions listed in this thread?

 

[charlie64]

Have you tried any of the suggestions listed in this thread?

yes basically everyone save for unplugging and plugging the battery back in. Could u please tell me where the battery is located? I have my nexus open and i can't find it. Holding the power no good. Holding power+vol no good. Doing all that with it plugged in no good. So i'm hoping it's a lose battery. If u can tell me how to find it and what it looks like i would be grateful

 

[ohmslaw]

Video here HOWTO: Remove and Replace Nexus 7 Battery - YouTube

 

[charlie64]

Video here HOWTO: Remove and Replace Nexus 7 Battery - YouTube

Ty sir.

 

[Longjohn119]

I solemnly swear the following is true...

I was an early adopter. Had the Nexus 7 as soon as possible. Had the "won't charge" problem within two months. Google was AWESOME and cross shipped a replacement (with return packaging). Then the same thing happened to the second one. Again, Google immediately offered to cross ship a replacement (with return packaging). Now, my third one started doing it after a recent trip. Same problem. Same symptoms: slight black snow effect (sometimes), backlight would come on, but no other discernible reaction.

I had googled this the first time, and the second time it happened... this time I assumed I wouldn't even try Google and I'd buy a Kindle Fire HD or something... so... with nothing to lose I did the following:

I removed the back.
Plugged the device in
Upon inspection of the battery connector (which was firmly in place) I noticed a slight audible hum

I stopped in my tracks. A hum shouldn't exist in a solid state device. As far as I could tell, there was no surface mount transformer inside (nor would there be a reason for one). As an electrical engineer my curiosity was piqued. I became fairly confident that I was hearing a feedback loop (probably from the charger supply) in the microphone (which is possible; supplying intermittent voltage to a microphone can cause the magnetic screen to resonate when the coil becomes charged).

I unplugged the N7 (the sound stopped)
I unplugged the battery
I plugged the N7 back in (no hum present)
I unplugged the N7
I plugged the battery back in
I plugged the N7 back in (NO HUM PRESENT)

Instantly the device began charging. I was able to get to the bootloader and navigate a bit, but choose "Power Off." My N7 (the third one I've had) is back to working normally.

I can't guess what the actual cause is (and don't care to investigate this fragile device), but EVEN IF your battery is firmly plugged in, I recommend unplugging it, plugging in the N7 (battery still disconnected) and waiting a bit before unplugging it, and replacing the battery connection (firmly!).

Happy to have my N7 back!

EDIT: The bootloader doesn't instantly respond to your inputs. It seems that the bootloader becomes visible about 10 seconds before you can control it. Definitely be patient.

I'm an EE too and used to work for a manufacturer of touchscreen process controllers for industrial applications back in the late 90's and built my own touch screen chartplotter from a netbook with a Gobi 1000 WWAN modem built in (Acer made AT&T branded) and this sounds like a problem I've been having ever since trying to turn on the Bluetooth for the first time after 2 months of trouble free ownership. I put it to sleep and sometimes it won't wake up and the only way I can get it back is unplug and replug the battery. I noticed that the Bluetooth seemed to be caught in a loop trying to start up(I noticed a faint pulsing in the Settings screen Bluetooth 'switch'), even after a reboot and even after the unplug/replug process. I confirmed it on the Chartplotter which runs Win 7 and was seeing the Nexus 7 but of course couldn't connect and then reconfirmed it on 2.2 Ghz BT/WiFi receiver I have for troubleshooting. I did get the Bluetooth to quit after a reset, charged it 100% and it still read 97% after all night on standby ,,,, Problem is it just did it again, it had 91% charge when I put it to sleep and when I come back a couple hours later it won't turn on again so it's off with the back cover for the 6th, count'em 6 times in less than 36 hours (Not a real big deal but I have mine in a Otterbox Defender case which is harder to get apart and together than the Nexus back cover) unplug/replug the battery start it up and it says 45% left .... cripes I don't use that much juice watching a HiDef movie for 2 hours but something is active still in sleep and I am showing high screen usage (58%) especially considering it's been in sleep more than not by at least a 10 to 1 ratio.

I'm going to try a reset again but if it Tweaks Out again I'll have to give it a listen ....

Still it worked perfect until I tried to enable the Bluetooth and it's been pretty much F-ed ever since .... Which really pisses me off because I have a 3 year old homemade chartplotter from a netbook that rides on the console of my 16 ft boat and takes a pounding on the Mississippi River and it's never had a single failure (Thankfully because no Apple or Android device has enough balls to make plot and make the 3D depth maps I make, RISC processors like the ARM architecture don't do complex math very well which is why 1080 HD video needs a hardware decoder of some sort) I really wanted to use the Nexus to watch fishing videos in the boat and send the sound via Bluetooth to the stereo so you could actually hear what they are saying in a noisy outdoor environment. I was hoping to use the Nexus to take some of the weight off the Netbook2Chartplotter's back which currently does 2 GPS's, the NMEA output from my fishfinder (Lowrance Elite 7x HDI) 3 mapping programs (one maps position and depth) a fishing database, internet access, WiFi hotspot, sends Bluetooth audio to the boat stereo or plays back video usually all at the same time ... poor little thing is working it's heart out 2-3 days a week during the season (In the off season it;'s hooked to a computer controlled scanner and downloads polar orbiting APT satellite pictures on 137 Mhz)

Seems like if I don't make it myself or heavily modify it myself it's junk in less than 2 years .... Communist Quality Control sucks to the point of near non-existence .... The Bar has been drastically Lowered in the past 15-20 years and everyone just passively accepts it like it's always been that way

It hasn't ..... Cripes I have a couple of Commodore 64's around here and they both still work ... I have guitar "stomp boxes' made in Japan in the mid-80's and they still work even after 15 years of hard road use in the 80's and 90's ... and I have two Android tablets neither of which made it 3 months before becoming a headache .... Hopefully Google moving Motorola Mobility's production (At least partially) back to the US will turn things around. At the very least Google should demand these tablets be made in either Taiwan (Asus) or South Korea (Samsung) and not farmed out to Communist China just to save a couple of bucks

Well at least you don't need a heatgun and an afternoon's worth of labor just to change the battery like an iPad ..... which BTW is made in the exact same Communist Chinese plant as the Nexus 7

 

[Fangurl359]

You're absolutely right! It IS buzzing!

I got N7 a few months ago... went on holiday for a month and when I came back it wouldn't charge, or boot up. Periodically flashing screen when placed on to charge. When trying to get into the bootloader by pressing power+volume down the instant it was plugged in, I found I could get the screen to turn on to a steady backlit, but still see no bootloader, even after leaving like that for several minutes.

Trawled through these posts for someone who had the same problem but still couldn't access the bootloader - came across your post. Took the back off the tablet as directed, and it is ******* buzzing! It IS buzzing! The buzz continued for a little while after I unplugged it, and has now faded.

I'm disconnecting the battery now as directed, before reconnection. I hope this works.

Regardless, what the **** IS that?!? Is it the mic feedbacking? Why on earth would it be doing that?!

I solemnly swear the following is true...

I was an early adopter. Had the Nexus 7 as soon as possible. Had the "won't charge" problem within two months. Google was AWESOME and cross shipped a replacement (with return packaging). Then the same thing happened to the second one. Again, Google immediately offered to cross ship a replacement (with return packaging). Now, my third one started doing it after a recent trip. Same problem. Same symptoms: slight black snow effect (sometimes), backlight would come on, but no other discernible reaction.

I had googled this the first time, and the second time it happened... this time I assumed I wouldn't even try Google and I'd buy a Kindle Fire HD or something... so... with nothing to lose I did the following:

I removed the back.
Plugged the device in
Upon inspection of the battery connector (which was firmly in place) I noticed a slight audible hum

I stopped in my tracks. A hum shouldn't exist in a solid state device. As far as I could tell, there was no surface mount transformer inside (nor would there be a reason for one). As an electrical engineer my curiosity was piqued. I became fairly confident that I was hearing a feedback loop (probably from the charger supply) in the microphone (which is possible; supplying intermittent voltage to a microphone can cause the magnetic screen to resonate when the coil becomes charged).

I unplugged the N7 (the sound stopped)
I unplugged the battery
I plugged the N7 back in (no hum present)
I unplugged the N7
I plugged the battery back in
I plugged the N7 back in (NO HUM PRESENT)

Instantly the device began charging. I was able to get to the bootloader and navigate a bit, but choose "Power Off." My N7 (the third one I've had) is back to working normally.

I can't guess what the actual cause is (and don't care to investigate this fragile device), but EVEN IF your battery is firmly plugged in, I recommend unplugging it, plugging in the N7 (battery still disconnected) and waiting a bit before unplugging it, and replacing the battery connection (firmly!).

Happy to have my N7 back!

EDIT: The bootloader doesn't instantly respond to your inputs. It seems that the bootloader becomes visible about 10 seconds before you can control it. Definitely be patient.

Hey Shawn, tried all this. As I said, bootloader access failed with the basic fixed suggested by others. The hum was present when I got the back off. Unplugged it for ages. Plugged in again and tried the fix but no joy. Exactly the same problem as before; intermittent flashing, can't access bootloader.

My device is rooted, so I can't return it to Google. Have you got any other ideas??

tl;dr: Didn't work! HALP! :[

 

[jmkubiak]

i called the numbers given in our warrenty paper and it is no longer in service what number did you get? my tablet wont turn on either

 

[stevebarrett86]

Glad I found this response about taking the back off. Just brought a refurb version and was very disappointed that it seemed DOA. Tried all the other techniques (and various others that I have used on other devices in the past ) with no luck and thought I was going to have the hassle of sending it back etc. Anyway as the back seems to pop off quite easily I thought I have a look and hey presto the ZIF connector for the battery was out. Popped back and away we go. Thanks a million. Now I can play at the weekend lol.

 

[Jay Weinberg]

Same problem with my 2012 Nexus 7 tablet 32g. I had it since 3/13. Happened twice. Both times Nexus 7 was bumped or dropped with case.
Followed the same drill. Charged it 1 hr. Had dark screen with light threads running vertically up and down. Depressed both buttons same time to reset 30+ seconds. Then depressed power button for 30+ seconds.
First time I let rest 5 hours and by chance depressed the power button and it came back up but I had to reset time and date.
2nd time I took it to the gym and bumped it by accident. Same drill but I didn't let it rest and nothing happened so I opened the back looked around made sure everything was snug and closed the case. Depressed power button and it turned on. I also had to reset time and date.
Am I satisfied no! I feel like a Hospice worker. I will probably end up buying a different case.

 

[BigPaul V]

It was the battery connection. Thank you so much

 

[Hayden Heun1]

you have a point

 

[Griff88]

My Nexus 7 wouldn't turn on tonight. Nothing I tried would get it to work. Tried different chargers, different cables and all the usual reset tricks. Still nothing.

If anyone else has the same symptoms I implore you not to panic and simply remove the back and check the battery connector. Even the slightest movement of it, less than 1mm, renders the device useless. Simply lift out the battery carefully and replace it (to allow the battery wires more slack) and plug in the connector again. It should then imediately turn on again or show the charging symbol.

It's that simple!