Nexus 4 suddenly dead, no lights (solved)

[Rimbaud]

Hello all, hope someone can help.

So if have an undamaged Nexus 4 that has been really reliable, especially after upgrade to 4.3. Yesterday I was running out of battery (1%) and plugged it into my Nexus 7 charger as normal (definitely working) but the battery icon did not change to charging and then the phone shut down.

I have not been able to get anything out of the phone at all, no lights or anything, even after charging for hours with several different chargers. I have tried all variations of holding power and volume buttons and even cleaning the usb contacts with alcohol.

Does anyone have any suggestion? If you think it is the usb port that is broken I could buy a wireless charger...

Thanks in advance

 

[RumoredNow]

Re: Nexus 4 suddenly dead, no lights

Battery out of power is the most likely suspect...

Do you have ADB (Android debug bridge) on your computer?

If yes, try plugging the phone into USB and send the

adb reboot

command to the phone and see if that wakes it to allow charging...

 

[RumoredNow]

Re: Nexus 4 suddenly dead, no lights

Here's a useful blog post about ADB... How To Set Up Android ADB & Fastboot On Windows [Tutorial] | Redmond Pie

 

[Rimbaud]

Re: Nexus 4 suddenly dead, no lights

Battery out of power is the most likely suspect...

Do you have ADB (Android debug bridge) on your computer?

If yes, try plugging the phone into USB and send the

adb reboot

command to the phone and see if that wakes it to allow charging...

Thanks for the reply, I installed adb (on Ubuntu) and it doesn't recognise the Nexus 4, but does recognise my Nexus 7, so I can't issue adb commands sadly... It looks like the device has to be on to recognise it as Nexus 7 wasnt recognised when off.

 

[Rimbaud]

Re: Nexus 4 suddenly dead, no lights

Interesting link here says that dead battery will not charge from a charger for another device...Nexus 4 doesn't charge after battery dies | Mobot.net

 

[Rizy7]

Re: Nexus 4 suddenly dead, no lights

I think you have to have usb debugging enabled for adb to work. Are you sure the charger is not broken.. does it work with your nexus 7?

 

[RumoredNow]

Re: Nexus 4 suddenly dead, no lights

Thanks for the reply, I installed adb (on Ubuntu) and it doesn't recognise the Nexus 4, but does recognise my Nexus 7, so I can't issue adb commands sadly... It looks like the device has to be on to recognise it as Nexus 7 wasnt recognised when off.

Interesting link here says that dead battery will not charge from a charger for another device...Nexus 4 doesn't charge after battery dies | Mobot.net

I think you have to have usb debugging enabled for adb to work. Are you sure the charger is not broken.. does it work with your nexus 7?

It is quite common for a device to not charge from 0% without the factory approved AC charger...

As for ADB over USB... On my GNex, some of the recent builds of Ubuntu Touch have left the phone in a state where it will not wake from powered off (despite having charge) and an "adb reboot" command always wakes the phone. It's not even an Android at this point - just Android bits running under UT. So that was worth a shot. I did sort of forget about Debugging on the OP's phone maybe not being enabled. I guess I'm just used to mine being on.

A powered down phone still registers on my computer when plugged into USB. It signals a device recognized and then the recognition goes off again immediately as the device is powered down, but an acknowledgement is there. The device can then be rebooted via ADB even though it's turned off. The command wakes the phone as if the power button is held down. I just did that with my GNex running Ubuntu Touch 20130816... USB Debugging is enabled by default and can't be disabled.

Next, I disabled USB Debugging on my Nexus 4 and plugged it into the USB. Device did not register with the computer and ADB does not see it... Rizy7's point is thus proved. If debug was not turned on prior, ADB is a dead end. Sorry.

So the problem is the drained battery and the chip inside that battery not having power enough to "see the charge."

The Nexus 4 power adapter has the following output: 5Vdc/1.2A
The Nexus 7 power adapter has the following output: 5Vdc/2A

The amperage is too high on the N7 charger. If you don't have the N4 charger, look around your house for a charger that lists the same output as the N4's factory charger or go purchase one. Since the battery drained and the computer won't see the device due to USB debug being turned off, you will absolutely need to supply the correct charger output to the device to have any hope of reviving it.

Plug the phone into the charger and wait. If it doesn't appear to do anything (like the battery Icon appearing when the power button is tapped) after an hour then unplug the charger. Hold Power + Volume Down and plug the charger back in... Hold those buttons down and hope it goes into bootloader mode. If it does, use bootloader to restart the phone. The bootloader should come on with an arrow pointing at the power button and the word START written inside the arrow... If that isn't what you see, tap the Volume Up button to cycle through the options until you get to START. Tap the Power button to give the phone the START command.

 

[Rimbaud]

Re: Nexus 4 suddenly dead, no lights

So the problem is the drained battery and the chip inside that battery not having power enough to "see the charge."

The Nexus 4 power adapter has the following output: 5Vdc/1.2A
The Nexus 7 power adapter has the following output: 5Vdc/2A

The amperage is too high on the N7 charger. If you don't have the N4 charger, look around your house for a charger that lists the same output as the N4's factory charger or go purchase one. Since the battery drained and the computer won't see the device due to USB debug being turned off, you will absolutely need to supply the correct charger output to the device to have any hope of reviving it.

Plug the phone into the charger and wait. If it doesn't appear to do anything (like the battery Icon appearing when the power button is tapped) after an hour then unplug the charger. Hold Power + Volume Down and plug the charger back in... Hold those buttons down and hope it goes into bootloader mode. If it does, use bootloader to restart the phone. The bootloader should come on with an arrow pointing at the power button and the word START written inside the arrow... If that isn't what you see, tap the Volume Up button to cycle through the options until you get to START. Tap the Power button to give the phone the START command.

That is really interesting, thank you. No luck so far but crossing fingers. I am using N4 charger and (I think) the original USB cable.

I also bought a QI wireless charger for 20 quid, arriving tomorrow, as I thought that might work (long shot).

 

[Rimbaud]

Re: Nexus 4 suddenly dead, no lights

Oh dear the N4 charger didn't work. Just the Qi charger then I will have to give up...

 

[RumoredNow]

Re: Nexus 4 suddenly dead, no lights

Have you tried holding the Power + Volume Down buttons for one full minute or more???

 

[Rimbaud]

Re: Nexus 4 suddenly dead, no lights

Yes I did, but finally found a solution!!!

The Qi wireless charger was able to restore the phone to life! 25 quid of happiness after a week of dead phone.

It looks like my usb port is totally broken...

 

[Tangen Ong]

Thank you
Your experience did really help me.
I met the same problem with you.
USB connector is broken. Using wireless charger is another solution.

 

[N4Newbie]

Re: Nexus 4 suddenly dead, no lights

Yes I did, but finally found a solution!!!

The Qi wireless charger was able to restore the phone to life! 25 quid of happiness after a week of dead phone.

It looks like my usb port is totally broken...

Let this be a lesson: in the future, never permit your device to get below 10-15% battery level. You are risking all sorts of trouble if you do.