[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] kristovaher:
Alright everybody, I think I know what happens. Though this might not be for all of these problems, this certainly makes sense in the context of what my experiences are.

I never-ever had this problem before, but yesterday it happened twice. At some point I noticed that my phone just didn't turn on, after which removing the battery and turning it on again, it finally worked. The second time it froze while I was using it, with screen becoming slightly distorted. I also noticed heavy battery drops (10-20%) after these restarts.

Now, this has not happened in weeks I've had the phone, so it makes no sense to blame base hardware, unless something happened to it. I had not dropped the device nor has it gotten wet (few light drops of rain a week ago that would not cause the issue). I also thought it might be apps, but that too is unlikely, I checked my background apps and I have nothing fishy installed. I have not installed any battery or performance or what-not system wide apps on my phone, it runs pretty much native Android 4.0 with social media apps, video player and some games on it.

I didn't realize it yesterday, but there was an incident the day before it started happening what might be the culprit.

I was traveling back from Finland to Estonia on a ferry and it has a few of those power outlets that travelers can use. Problem is that these outlets are running on lower power than your home outlet would run on, so they are always very slow when it comes to charging.

I had secured one of those outlets and was charging my phone. But I was also using it at the same time to browse the internet and play games. At some point I was disappointed that the phone had not charged much, in fact the charge had gone down a couple of percentages in the two hours I was using it. When I left the screen off and did not use it, it charged slowly again.

Lithium-ion polymer batteries are a tricky beast, so now that I'm thinking about it, that may be the culprit. I might have damaged the battery or the charge cycle on the battery.

Note that I charged my phone fully in the following night, but the problems did not occur before next day, when battery percentages were around the same point they were on the ferry. In fact the 20% battery drop I encountered dropped the battery to exact same levels I had them on the ferry.

So my guess is that at least my problem is related to the charging issue I encountered on the phone. Battery problem is certainly something that can cause freezes like this, this is also why you have to take the battery out to do anything with the phone and why it does not restart by itself.

I discharged my battery last night (not recommended for Lithium-ion polymer batteries, but they can easily survive a few of those without problems based on my experience) so the phone could not start without shutting down before PIN codes. I then charged it fully (not turning it on at all in the night).

It's not had any problems since morning yet.

So, my recommendations currently are:

Make sure you use a proper charging adapter, especially since people who ordered internationally are not using the original charger.

You can charge from a computer just to be safe, even though the charging is even slower there.

You could try discharging the device and charging it fully before turning it on and seeing if that helps.

You could try a replacement battery and see if that helps, it might be that the battery has gotten damaged.

This may not be the cause of all sleep of death incidents out there, but it certainly matches my symptoms. If my phone starts acting up again, I'll let you know.