a couple of week before heading on vacation, i started having problems with my nexus 5. it had been trouble-free up until this point. then one fateful tuesday, all that changed.
my n5 started randomly rebooting. since i had manually flashed the latest version of lollipop (5.1.1), i considered it might have been something a little glitchy with how that had been done. i was doubtful, but as the frequency of the restarts increased i did a quick google search for cause and fix.
one suggestion was to clear the cache partition. i booted into recovery and wiped my cache out. it didn’t seem to have an effect. by the time i was driving home, it was consistently rebooting…and it just failed to start.
i got home and plugged the phone in for a standard power feed. it would boot for about one second then recycle. it wasn’t even long enough to get into the bootloader. without power, it wouldn’t boot.
i did quick surgery on it, taking the back off, unplugging the battery, and reattaching it. it acted like it had plugged it in (one second start up) and then nothing.
i had ordered a new battery for it from amazon, but it was set to arrive (from china) later in the month. i quick ordered another in case the battery was the issue somehow.
then i started to wonder if the battery was not the problem, would i have a working mobile device with me on vacation. i asked google support about things. they only cover it for a year, and this nexus 5 was a 18 months old. they suggested i contact lg, who manufactures the phone. i checked their support agreement, and i wasn’t sure they were going to cover the reason this was a problem.
i went to ebay to search for a used replacement. after poking around, i discovered a few in good condition which could hold me over until later this year when the next generation of the nexus 5 would be released.
after about five days of back and forth with a few sellers, i bagged a good black nexus 5 with 32gb storage (just like my original).
i did the transfer of all my stuff after, of course, unlocking the phone and dropping a new recovery image on it including root access. i have the device which i hope will last me until october (maybe october…or november).