After I updated my Nexus4 to 5.1.1 the entire device randomly heats up so hot you can't even hold it. Not worth debugging since I don't want it to explode in my face so I junked it.
Nexus 4 battery bloating
31–40 of 68 posts
Re: Nexus 4 battery bloating
#32Thanks for correcting the title HN. Lithium batteries bloat, explode, etc... No manufacturing process is perfect, so there is always going to be a small percentage that do this. The only hard requirement is that the failure be contained.
In other words, there's nothing particularly newsworthy here. The fact that testmunk found this significant and specifically paint it as a problem with the nexus 4 does more to show their lack of experience in the field than anything else.
Re: Nexus 4 battery bloating
#33Am I the only one who got confused and though for a second that testmunk.com was the engineering blog of hipmunk.com?
Very similar logo/mascot.
Re: Nexus 4 battery bloating
#34Thanks for correcting the title HN. Lithium batteries bloat, explode, etc... No manufacturing process is perfect, so there is always going to be a small percentage that do this. The only hard requirement is that the failure be contained. In other words, there's nothing particularly newsworthy here. The fact that testmunk found this significant and specifically paint it as a problem with the nexus 4 does more to show…
So it was just random luck that all their nexus 4 devices demonstrated the same fault ?
Re: Nexus 4 battery bloating
#35Thanks for correcting the title HN. Lithium batteries bloat, explode, etc... No manufacturing process is perfect, so there is always going to be a small percentage that do this. The only hard requirement is that the failure be contained. In other words, there's nothing particularly newsworthy here. The fact that testmunk found this significant and specifically paint it as a problem with the nexus 4 does more to show…
So it was just random luck that all their nexus 4 devices demonstrated the same fault ?
No, but its a phone from 2012 and its battery has reached or is near EOL by any reasonable metric assuming daily use. Of course you're going to have some battery issues. How many three year old phones work flawlessy? I find by year two they're all fairly roughed up in some way, especially if they're owned by techies who run they harder than most people. Its not surprising considering the age, and perhaps being from the same batch, that they're having issues today.
Re: Nexus 4 battery bloating
#36I stopped placing so much brand premium on "Made By Google", at the end of the day, you are at the mercy of the manufacturer. My google nexus phone was clunky, slow, randomly freeze and restart during phone conversation. When you dropped it the battery and back lid would fall out or not fit properly. I nearly gave up on Android. Then my asus nexus 7 screen shattered when I dropped it with replacement cost that made i…
What's funny is that your Nexus phone & tablet weren't made by Google, but the Moto G actually technically
was (Motorola Mobility was their subsidiary at the time).
Re: Nexus 4 battery bloating
#37"They told us the devices were out of warranty and that replacement (through repair and refurbishing) would cost $153 USD." This is a common trick attempted by the retail business - to focus on the warranty (where they dictate the terms) rather than your contract (where they often cannot). If you bought the device, you still have a contract of sale with the seller. The details depend on your jurisdiction. Perhaps in…
Similar story here, both buttons on my iPhone 5 stopped working most of the time. Apple created two separate replacement programs, one for the lock button and one for home button.
Unfortunately mine didn't qualify for either one! I'm not sure if it was the serial number or the date it was purchased, but when I checked online or called in they said my device wasn't part of either program.
This is the line that got my phone replaced: "I don't care about the programs you are describing - your company created them unilaterally so when you tell me I don't qualify it doesn't mean anything to me. What matters is that my phone is failing, if there's nothing you can do about it that really sucks and I feel really screwed over."
Then they replaced it.
Re: Nexus 4 battery bloating
#38The video of the battery catching fire is a little distressing knowing that I carry one of those in my pocket at all times.
That's actually a cut of a longer video. What's missing is the beginning, where they stab the battery with a knife. Unless you pierce a battery, that kind of combustion is unlikely to happen. If it swells up to the point where the casing fails it could, but you'd probably notice that before it became a dangerous issue.
However, it's particularly dangerous on RC aircraft, which can crash and puncture the battery. The battery on my quadcopter fell out while 20 meters high directly over concrete and it puffed up, but didn't catch fire. I discharged it with a light bulb and buried it with a cup full of sand in my yard.
Re: Nexus 4 battery bloating
#39I just replaced the battery in my Nexus 5 due to earlier stages of the same issue. The battery failure was causing a lot of random device shutdowns that I had initially thought were related to the rollout of Lollipop. There's a long support thread of people with similar issues at: https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/nexus/IJSOuc7... Several of the posters there noticed that their battery had started bulgin…
Ah, the infamous "random shutdown" of the Nexus 4. It has caused me to be 30 minutes late at work a few times that one. It's annoying really because in the end, there is absolutely NO accountability from either LG or Google that the battery won't work as expected after about two years. Thing is, the price range of the Nexus 4 doesn't exist in the Google mobile lineup anymore, with the Nexus 5 being about twice as exp…
Yeah it's so frustrating that what I consider the prime price range for mid-range but well built phones existed for awhile, but has since ceased to. Between that and Google Fi sounding great but only being supported by one of these expensive and unwieldy mini-tablets, I guess I'm just outside Google's target market.
Re: Nexus 4 battery bloating
#40"They told us the devices were out of warranty and that replacement (through repair and refurbishing) would cost $153 USD." This is a common trick attempted by the retail business - to focus on the warranty (where they dictate the terms) rather than your contract (where they often cannot). If you bought the device, you still have a contract of sale with the seller. The details depend on your jurisdiction. Perhaps in…
> tl;dr: "out of warranty" is not necessarily the end of the story, although I don't know about the US. In the US, there is no "statute" for contract of sale like you have in the UK. Its entirely what is written by the seller [which is the warranty], so yes, it is the end of the story :P Generally, if its nearly an immediate loss/failure, you can do something more but that is about the only situation. Months/years la…
>Its[sic] entirely what is written by the seller [which is the warranty], so yes, it is the end of the story :P
It's not entirely about what the seller wrote. It's primarily about the representations the seller made (written or otherwise) about the product and whether the product doesn't meet those representations.