Re: Solved - Nexus 4 Won't Turn On or Charge
My Nexus 4 wouldn't turn on or charge today, but I was able to figure out the problem after doing a few quick Google searches. I'm posting this information in case someone else has a similar problem.
Apparently my Nexus 4 was running low on power, so it went into a deep hibernation mode. I thought I could simply charge it, but instead of seeing a charging icon, my screen was completely blank and unresponsive. Pressing the power button didn't do anything, and I was worried that I bricked my phone somehow. I then performed the following actions:
1. Remove the case off the Nexus 4.
2. Hold down the power and volume down buttons.
3. Insert the USB charging cable into the Nexus 4 while continuing to hold down the power and volume down buttons.
After a few seconds, the screen displayed a green android and a menu of options. Using the volume up and down buttons, I selected the option to Start, then I pressed the power button to confirm my selection. My Nexus 4 then displayed my home screen. I was then able to charge it normally.
By the way, I originally tried this procedure with the case on my Nexus 4, but somehow the case was preventing the buttons from waking up my phone. Removing the case made it easier to press and hold down the buttons to wake up my Nexus 4.
Thank you for posting this, I think you saved my Nexus 4. I'll write about my experience because my visual cues were a bit different and it might help some others.
I used my phone right up until it shut off (never again!). As usual, I plugged it into a laptop USB port to charge. 2-3 hours later I picked up the phone and tried to turn it on only to see a large white battery icon (2/3 of the screen) on a black background. I unplugged it and plugged it back in again, and got a lightning bolt to show in the middle of the battery icon, but then it went back to a white battery icon with no lightning bolt, which seems to indicate that it was not charging. I got out the wall plug and had exactly the same experience so I came online and found this post (thank you again!)
However, when I held down the volume down and power buttons, I got only a blinking red LED. There was no android start menu, and when I let go it returned to the large white battery with a lightning bolt, and then without the lightning bolt as before. I believe the red blinking LED indicated the battery was charging, so then I repeated the process (unplugging, hold down the volume down and power and plugging it back in, got the red LED) but this time held down the volume down and power buttons while I read all four pages in this post (about 9-10 minutes). My finger then slipped and the dreaded blank battery icon appeared. On my third attempt, I did briefly get an android start screen, but it blinked off almost immediately (before I could read anything) an went back to a blinking red light. I held it for another ~5 minutes and then did the steps a fourth time and got an android start screen with a green arrow pointing at the power button, which I pressed. The phone booted up and now seems to be behaving as normal when I plug it in (my locked screen shows, tiny charging battery icon in the top right corner, blue blinking LED at the bottom).
So, in addition to the excellent advice by Scott7217, I'll add the following:
1) If you don't get the android start screen upon performing the steps, but do get a blinking red LED, don't yet panic.
2) If you get the blinking red LED again, try holding down the buttons as long as you can (presumably to get enough charge into the phone to allow other functions to work). This may mean 20 minutes holding down the buttons.
3) Large white battery icons with no lightning bolt seem to mean the phone has no battery power AND is NOT charging. Further, if you get a large white battery icon WITH a charging lightning bolt in it, check it again in 30 seconds, because it continually reverted (for me) back to a large white battery icon with no lightning bolt.
4) If you can get enough charge into the battery (It took several tries and maybe 15-20 mins of holding the buttons down for me with the red LED blinking), then the phone will eventually have enough power to get to the android booting screen, at which point you can push the Power button again and the phone will likely work as normal again.
Good luck, and thanks for all the advice everyone shared here!
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