Help Cracked screen, battery dying, random shutdowns, coincidence?

[PhoenixofMT]

A couple of weeks ago I dropped my Nexus and cracked the screen (first one in 3 smart phones!) It was still useable so I didn't worry about it. However, not long afterward, I started having battery issues. I used to be able to go at least a few hours while listening to internet radio on wifi with bluetooth headphones before the low power mode would kick in (at 15%) and cause the audio to stutter. Now I'm lucky to get through a lunch break without putting it in airplane mode (where it will last longer than I've kept it off a charger.) I noticed that the battery use was being reported oddly. Only a couple of processes show up, and never using more than a few percent. It will also shut itself off randomly. The battery will claim to be at 70-60%, and the phone dies. When I reboot it has jumped down to 4%! It hasn't gone into low power mode in a long time, apparently because it isn't tracking the charge correctly. Lately it will die after a few minutes away from the charger.
Screenshots (each of these was taken as soon as it could reboot after putting it on the charger):
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43732687/Pictures/Android/Screenshot_2015-03-16-11-39-25.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43732687/Pictures/Android/Screenshot_2015-03-16-12-41-35.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43732687/Pictures/Android/Screenshot_2015-03-16-18-25-40.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43732687/Pictures/Android/Screenshot_2015-03-17-12-14-59.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43732687/Pictures/Android/Screenshot_2015-03-19-12-20-23.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43732687/Pictures/Android/Screenshot_2015-03-20-12-25-53.png
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43732687/Pictures/Android/Screenshot_2015-03-24-08-24-32.png

The phone has also forgotten WiFi credentials twice and paired bluetooth devices once, but I hope that's only because of the hard shutdowns. NFC stopped working too at some point (can't remember if it was just before or just after the accident) but that's not terribly important to me.

So I was planning on replacing the screen soon. Then I thought I would need a battery too. Now, with the quickly diminishing performance and setting hiccoughs, I'm wondering if it will be worth it, or if I need a new phone altogether.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[PhoenixofMT]

Forgot to mention...

Purchased last year in January, so I don't think Google will help me.
Runing Lollypop 5.0.1

 

[GuitarG20]

I'm wondering if the drop knocked things around enough inside the device to cause problems. It's unlikely frankly but I suppose it's possible that happened.

 

[PhoenixofMT]

Today it seems happy to discharge normally. The process percentages are still in the low single digits, but it's discharged to almost 50% without restarting. I'm thinking it may be related to TuneIn Radio and unreliable WiFi at work. I'll try keeping it off the charger tomorrow and see how long it lasts.

 

[PhoenixofMT]

Whoa! And just sitting here for the past 30-45 minutes doing nothing, it's pumped itself up from about 53% to 60%.

 

[lunatic59]

When you charge it the next time, make sure you keep it on the charger until it reaches 100% and then leave it there an extra hour just to make sure it registers as fully charged. That should clear out the old stats and give you something fresh to start from.

 

[PhoenixofMT]

Had another shutdown this morning just after I got to work, but it doesn't look like it's battery related.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43732687/Pictures/Android/Screenshot_2015-03-26-08-27-03.png
It never happens when the phone is plugged in, and seems to be related to audio streaming. I use RadioPup and TuneIn Radio, and listen over bluetooth.

@lunatic59 I'll see what happens after lunch when I take it off the charger. The stats never seem to accumulate in any meaningful way. Even when there's more than 3 or 4 apps listed, they never account for more than 10-15% even though the battery is at 60%.

 

[PhoenixofMT]

Ok, it lasted about 20 minutes over lunch from fully charged. I tried to restart it in case it wasn't battery related and it shut itself off as the colored dots were morphing into "android". I got back to my bench and this is what it looks like:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/43732687/Pictures/Android/Screenshot_2015-03-26-12-08-40.png

This is the sort of thing that leads me to think there is a deeper problem. A factory reset is probably next, but backing up data is a pain, so I might put it off a while longer.

 

[lunatic59]

Are you saying that the phone went from full to dead in 20 minutes? Definitely not good.

The screenshot shows it's charging. Most phones will let it drop below 90% if plugged in before actively recharging. A reboot could have certainly caused that.

 

[PhoenixofMT]

It went from full to off in 20 minutes. I only tried once to turn it back on and it acted like a hardware battery monitor (?) interrupted the boot. Some of the previous screenshots show where the battery was reevaluated on reboot and had so little charge it would shut down shortly after. I assumed this was the case again. I set it on the charger another 20 minutes later (after lunch) and either the battery wasn't drained or in the minute or so it took to boot the battery was able to charge almost 80%. I have a couple of theories.
1) Something is wrong in some program or the OS causing it to shutdown.
2) The battery capacity is severely diminished and the monitoring software hasn't adapted or won't.
3) 1 and 2.

It always starts charging right away when I plug it in.

 

[lunatic59]

Go with the obvious. Bad battery.

 

[PhoenixofMT]

I'm not so sure now. I just had it die on me again. I tried to restart it 4 or 5 times and each time it stopped just before or after the "android" splash before the lock screen could appear. When I got it back on a charger, the charge display showed the battery at least 75% full. It feels like the battery monitoring software is hosed. It looks like a similar problem to this thread: http://forums.androidcentral.com/google-nexus-5/464043-strange-battery-usage-stats-lollipop.html
I'm going to see if I can narrow it to bluetooth or media apps, and then probably try a factory reset over the weekend.

 

[PhoenixofMT]

It just died again this morning at about 68%, just after starting RadioPup with wired headphones. It forgot my saved WiFi networks again too. I was re-entering my work credentials when it shut off. It looks like it is definitely related to audio somehow. I'll try a factory reset

 

[lunatic59]

Hmmm. I'm still thinking battery here. Or maybe failing memory? I'm not sure how a drop translates into audio making the phone reboot, unless some circuitry has been shorted from the drop and using audio send some voltage where it shouldn't be going.

 

[PhoenixofMT]

That's why I'm wondering if this is just a coincidence and these problems have been seen elsewhere. I'm not really able to spend money on a shotgun approach to troubleshooting. Though if a new battery will definitely fix it I'm all-in. Aside from the battery, the mainboard (i.e. the memory) might have been damaged somehow... maybe a capacitor broken off introducing random, cumulative errors? But only while unplugged... sorry, thinking out loud.
Economics may necessitate replacing the phone outright with a cheap intermediary.

 

[lunatic59]

The only reason i'm harping on the battery is that I've seen it before where a defective battery will seem to discharge normally and then go from 80% to 15% and then to off in a matter of minutes. It could be that using the audio (or GPS, etc) causes a power drain to reach that level of discharge that makes the battery choke.

It's all guessing on my part, BTW.

 

[PhoenixofMT]

Ok, I think I agree with you. I just had it die again with no audio apps running. And you're right, it does look like the battery is crashing faster than the software can adapt to the diminished capacity. Crazy that it would degrade so fast. It wasn't that bad of a drop; I thought it just happened to land just wrong... Li-po's are delicate things I guess.

Thanks for your help! New screen and battery on order.

 

[lunatic59]

Good luck ... would it be insensitive of me to suggest you add a bumpered case to that order?

 

[PhoenixofMT]

Lol, no
Do you mean the original dealy that was basically a candy shell, or something more substantial?

 

[lunatic59]

These look like they might withstand a drop or two.

 

[PhoenixofMT]

The thing is, the Nexus 5 is already pushing the limits of my carpenter jeans "tech" pocket. I might have to come up with a new place to stash it on my person.

 

[PhoenixofMT]

I ordered the wrong part for the screen (got one without a housing attached) but the battery appears to be working great. I've gotten several hours combined use and standby without a hiccough. I haven't yet drained the battery past 50% before plugging it back in (driving the car, sitting down to work, going to bed, etc.) but I'm confident I'll get a proper low battery warning if I forget to plug it back in after setting the screen to stay on for my paper route. The app stats are still pretty meaningless, but at least I know it's not the software losing track of the charge.

Thanks @lunatic59