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The Motorola Droid 4 is a smartphone made by Motorola that was released with Android 2.3 and is upgradeable to Android 4.1.

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My Droid 4 isn't turning on?

About two days ago I was kind of curious and trying to check how the battery on my Droid 4 was working and I lifted the left edge a little (but did NOT remove the whole battery), while it was still on (I know, pretty stupid of me) and now it isn't turning on. I've tried to charge it multiple times with different chargers and wall outlets but all that occurs when I do so, is momentarily flash the green LED light (the whole phone remains blank) and then it goes off (the green LED light). Do you think I might have damaged the battery or the ribbons?

And also, would it be easy to replace the battery on my own if I were to use the Droid 4 teardown guide and the tools needed? I'd like to replace it on my own because I wouldn't want to send it off or wait a week or so to get my phone back and spend more money having it done.

Please help :(

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@oldturkey03 thank you! n_n

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Hello Gaetan, I'm really disappointed about the outcome with my new phone that this question is about. Okay, well I went to go buy the torx t5 screwdriver & today I took out the battery.

Another thing I should say is that I have this other Droid 4 phone that's the exact same (I'm supposed to turn it in soon because months ago the usb port broke, but it charges well on one of my charging mats and the broken usb port is the only problem with it) And well I took out the batteries for both and switched them around to see if my new phone would work with the old phone's battery and the green LED light turned on again, but that's it :c

And I charged the old phone with the new phone's battery (the phone that this question is about) to see what would happen, and it turns on just fine (so maybe the battery isn't the problem?) This is really disappointing and I really want my data back and I don't know what to do :c any more suggestions?

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I'm panicking now and I don't know what to do :c

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Do you think it's possible that I fried the motherboard or something? :c I'm really hoping I didn't..

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Hi Karu,

Basically you should not use a teardown as a guide. It is written on the very first line! Ok here it looks to be very easy, the only tools you really need is a T5 Torx Screwdriver screw driver (It is very tiny and it's not something that everybody have in is tool box) and eventually a Spudger.

Anyway, before to think changing your battery, you should find out what goes wrong. Otherwise you may spend money and time in a new battery and tools but the problem can be anywhere else.

A few questions:

  • Pealing the striker over the battery, is it the only thing you've done?
  • What tool did you use for that: plastic or metallic? I'm not very sure but if you used a metallic tool and if the screws are part of the battery contacts, you may have short circuited the battery.
  • Something very important to trouble shoot: does your device suddenly shutdown when trying to look at below this sticker or slowly lost battery power, shutdown because out of power and never recharge?

If you have a multimeter you can try to test the battery voltage. As per the teardown, the battery is marked to deliver 3.8v but this is strange because LiPo cell usualy deliver 3.7v. Anyway, testing it for voltage, if the battery is in good condition and charged, you should have around 3.7 / 3.8v out. It maybe more complicated if the battery is not charged.

You can try between both screw but if you have nothing here it does not mean it is dead. Otherwyse you're gona have to remove the screws and test directly at the contacts.

Spudger Image

Product

Spudger

$3.99

T5 Torx Screwdriver Image

Product

T5 Torx Screwdriver

$5.49

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For information, i've took a few of this awesome tear down and I have written a guide for battery change: Motorola Droid 4 Battery Replacement.

I hope this can help. If finally come to change your battery, it would be great if can validate this guide and eventually make a few arrangement if necessary.

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I seriously cannot thank you enough for replying to me!

And ugh I didn't know whether to add this as a comment or an answer, I'm sort of new here haha

Anyway, what I'm planning to do is perhaps go to Sears or Radioshack or some place where they might have those specific tools in order for me to do the job correctly (and carefully), I really don't want to risk using other things that might worsen the problem :/

Moments before the phone shut off completely:

And as for the battery itself, all I've done is lift the battery up a bit with my fingers from the left side (the left part of the battery, when the battery is facing me). And after I did this, the whole phone shut off, and after that, all it's been doing is remain blank and only a green LED light at the top left part of the phone lights up for like a second when I try to charge it. What I also noticed before this all happened was that the battery, or the back of the phone had become quite hot very quickly, I don't know if this helps :c

I've brought it up to Verizon and the only thing the man said was that if the green light was coming on, then it was probably a good sign and to just leave it on longer to charge and to come back if it still remained unresponsive. But I'm not sure I can trust them, all they do is sell phones and replace them.

And sadly, I don't have a multimeter, but thank you so much for including that information as well!

And as for testing directly at the contacts, is that under both the screws and the flex ribbon?

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@Karu, it's a comment, so I fixed it for you :-)

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Hi Karu.

If the green light turn-on even for a short time it is probably good sign!

You said "the phone had become quite hot very quickly" this is quietly for sure the symptom for a short circuit. The question is to know if your device/battery is still short-circuited or not.

If it is still short-circuited, and if you try to charge for a longueur time, like the man told you, it will probably be worse!

If you have no tool, just check and compare the battery connector from your device and from the picture on the Motorola Droid 4 Teardown (step 6, second picture). Check that your connector is well in place, not broken, ribbon in good condition, no trace of burn... If you see anything suspicious, for sure have the battery changed.

If you see nothing abnormal and if your really want to try to fix your phone, you're gonna have to start thinking initiating deeper investigations with appropriate tools or have a few parts replaced (starting with the battery).

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I have a droid 4 my daughter was playing a game on it and the phone shuts off and wont turn back on i have it charging to the computer and all im getting is a green led light on the phone nothing else the led light stays on and dosnt shut off help what happen to my phone

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My problem. My Droid 4 went dead after I ran down the battery (approximately 2 years old). I plugged it into my car charger but I got a black screen and a green light at the top left corner. I could not even power down so I tried to remove the battery but the connector broke as I removed the decal over the battery.

My solution was to buy a new OEM battery and install it. After I installed the battery I connected it to my home charger. I tried to power up and got the Motorola screen and then all I got was a battery charging screen that went from zero to 5%. The screen went dark and after a few minutes I checked again and it showed 100%. I powered on again without a charger connected and got nothing. I reconnected it to my charger and even tried a soft reboot by holding down the top power on button and the down volume key at the same time for 5 seconds and nothing changed.

Next, I removed the battery again and removed my SIM card from the back. I reinstalled the battery and tried to charge it. The charging screen had a question mark now and was not showing a % of charge. I left it for about 10 minutes and returned to see the same screen.

Next I added my SIM card back and powered it back on WITH my phone connected to the home charger. I tried to power back on normally but I got the Motorola screen only again. I did a soft reboot again by holding down the top power on button and the down volume key at the same time for 5 seconds. This time it booted up like normal and when through the whole start up process. I had to leave the phone on the charger until I got a full charge but it was working again. What a relief to be able to remove all my pictures and data from my phone. The Moto Migrate worked perfect to move my pics an data to my NEW Droid Turbo.

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Karu will be eternally grateful.
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