Question Google Pixel 7 Pro rapid onset of failure

[saozzy]

I have a 2 year old Pixel 7 Pro, which has not been the best, with a display failure replaced under warranty at 6 months, then a green flashishing display failure at 18 months that was refused under warranty as the bezel had a nick on it, so £260 later last june my phone was repaired, they replaced the bezel, display, battery and other bits, basically a new phone!
In may this year around the 14th the phone showed no battery usage all day, I plugged in at night as usual, with optimisation turned on. In the morning the phone had not taken any charge and on unplugging and turning on, I watched the battery indicator nosedive from 100% to 14% in seconds. I went to work with it like this and a charger, I turned on and it again nosedived to 4%. Plugging in, it stayed charging over 4 hrs, getting to 39%. On returning home, I plugged in and left overnight, this got ot to 60%, so I carried out the latest software update, a security patch it reported.
The phone worked, dropping to 38%, so that night I charged again, turning on the limit to 80% option. By the morning it showed 100%! Taking off charge the phone dropped to 97% after most of the day, knowing this was not right, I re-booted, now we had 100% again. I did some research and eventually found the battery management under apps and system. A force stop, then reboot, the battery dropped to 60%, but seemed stable. A whole day of use passed, battery dropping 2% only, I rebooted, this resulted in the phone failing to start, plugging in showed 0% battery. I left plugged in and it charged normally reaching 100% over the 80% set limit within hours.
This pattern seems to persist, with the phone charging to 100%, then on use nosediving on occasions to 0% within seconds and turning off, this crash only seems to happen when the phone has not reported proportional battery usage on the previous day, so I seem to be getting 2-3 days of allmost usage from it before a complete crash.
No Apps report high usage, I am a low user at < 4 hrs total usage per day, often less than 2hrs. Its primary use is as a safety device for some of my activities as much as anything, using trackers etc, but this is only 1-2 times a week max for 4-6 hr periods, something that has never caused issue before, alongside the convienience of banking and savings Apps and of course Android Auto navigation. I dont watch films, play games, ocassionally watch You tube etc, but not lots!
Additionally I have caught the phone re-booting at night, and since this issue started the EE- voicemail constantely reports a message where none exists, I cant seem to stop this. I have not tried a re-boot, as I do not really want to re-build the phone yet again. I have tried multiple times to gain google support, they say floury stuff, but offer nothing. Take it to your local repair centre they say, its out of warranty so we can charge you for a new phone again is all I hear. Ohh BTW, the nearest walk in is 2hrs away, good luck!
My question is, is it worth me replacing the battery on tis 10 month item, the symptoms seem entirely software based to me, but Google deny there are any known issues. i have repaired products like this before, so hardware wise am happy to break down, but am not convinced I am not solving the issue. A re-boot will rule out a patch update issue, so is probably my next step, but another poster with not disimular symptoms found it did nothing to resolve his issue.

before the issue started I would get 2 days usage before a re-charge was needed, now i cant trust it to even work.

Thoughts please?

Simon

 

[B. Diddy]

That sounds really frustrating! My first suspicion would be a failing battery -- try installing an app like Accubattery and see what kind of battery health it reports.

There could also be an issue with the power connections. On the whole, I would still suspect a hardware issue over a software one, especially since the phone was essentially rebuilt.

 

[saozzy]

O.K, many thanks, I will look at Accubattery, as I dont really want the hassle of breaking the phone down, just to find it solves nothing,

 

[saozzy]

So an update,
I installed Accubattery, the outcome, it has no idea what is going on - it uses the BMS reported metrix to do its analysis, so whatever the BMS reports - accubattery reports with more detail. It does not seem able to detect when the phone is below 15% and then charged to 100%, it reports the percentages, but still advises "no full charge cycle detected"!
I charged my phone 3 days ago and then used it all day, the charge stayed at 80% throughout, so I left it overnight, it started dropping a little by bedtime, now 79%! In the morning I carried on using it, but monitored the reported voltage in Accubattery, it slowely dropped from 4.36v down to 3.58v, then whilst I was using it the battery indicator dropped from 79% to 4% in about 30 seconds, then the phone went into shutdown. I plugged in and charged from 3 % to a reported 100% in around 35 minuates (I dont think so). The phone and charger were warm, but not hot. Accubattery failed to register the charge cycle. I continued using my phone, accubattery now reporting I had used 140% of battery current available, impressive!
As suspected when at full charge (100%) this cycle, the battery voltage was only 3.7%, so clearly nowhere near charged. The phone lasted 2 Hrs plus, then nosedived and turned off. I again plugged in and booted the phone, ensuring I woke Accubattery when the phone was booted. I now left the phone and it stopped charging at 80%, even though I had turned the 80% limit off, but optimisation was on. Accubattery still has not detected a full charge cycle and is as much use as a wet flannel, only reporting the erronious values the BMS reports. It has estimated the phone battery has a capacity of 4774Mah of the 5000 capacity, so it thinks the battery is fine.
For all my thinking this is a BMS issue not a battery issue, but treating the battery like this will soon make it one I am gussing. I have no idea how, but it looks as if there is a hardware BMS issue or a software BMS operation issue, but I cannot determine what. Some screen captures, but on thier own dont tell much of a story. Google uses the most power by far, suprise suprise!

Any ideas as this is reaching bin time soon as its just not reliable?

 

[B. Diddy]

I'd say it's either a faulty battery or some hardware fault related to the power circuits.

Who did the repair -- Google, or a 3rd party shop? I'd bring the phone back to them and show them the problem ASAP, depending on if they gave any kind of warranty on the repair (although I'm guessing it's unlikely that kind of warranty would be up to a year).

 

[saozzy]

It was the Google appointed agent, EE in reading. They would not even honour the warranty it was under as it had a mark on the bezel!

 

[B. Diddy]

It's an unfortunate situation. Devices have to look pretty much pristine for the warranty to be honored, otherwise they can say there's evidence of potential trauma that may invalidate the warranty. That's why I always use a case on my phones.

Even so, my guess is that any warranty for the repair has expired, so any fix would have to be out of pocket again. It might be best to look into trading in the phone for something new. Places like Best Buy may offer some credit, even for a phone that is not working correctly.

 

[Alice- Bennett]

tried safe mode to rule out apps?