[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] billykxda:
**Update** See new note added 2/16/13 at bottom!

Trying to provide a single informational resource on three, typically related issues:

1. My N7 turns off randomly

2. My N7 dies early at ___% battery (you fill in the value)

3. My N7 turned itself off, and won't turn back on

There’s a ton of threads all over the net regarding these issues, some providing unintentionally misleading info, some progress towards actually defining the issue and posing possible solutions. Reports of these issues started back when the N7 was first released and continue to this day. These issues have been reported to Google, but who knows whether or not the Google God will attend to them anytime soon.

What follows is what I’ve learned about these issues, how they affected most users, and how they were resolved for most users. This is not intended to capture every possible exception.

Issue #1:

For some users, their N7 just turns off randomly, regardless of battery level. For them, a loose battery connector is typically the cause. Popping off the back cover, re-seating the connector and possibly putting a tiny piece of tape to keep it secured over time is the fix.

Issue #2:

Many users notice that their N7’s turn off by itself, typically when the battery is at the lower-end of the % scale – anywhere from 40% down to 20% or so. Most users think that their N7 is running out of power "early" – but it seems that the 40% - 20% indication is erroneous - the battery is really at 0%, and is turning off as it should. This appears to be the caused by a software glitch that Google has to address. Doing a Factory Reset and a battery pull appears to remedy this issue for just about everyone. Please note that a corollary to this issue is the observation that once charged, the N7 remains at 100% far longer than it should.

Issue #3:

Taken out of context, having an N7 that won’t start seems like a terrible thing. But in most cases, it’s caused by Issues #1 and #2.

- If Issue #1 caused it: reconnect the loose cable, recharge your battery if needed, and you are good-to-go.

- If #2 caused it, your N7 battery is dead. Plug your N7 into the original power supply, patiently wait a few minutes then patiently hold down the power button up to 30 seconds (actually look at your watch – it’s gotta be “up to 30 seconds”!), for just about everyone reporting, it’ll start up just fine.

- If both of these methods don't work, try powering-down via the bootloader: plug your N7 into the charger, press Volume-Down and Power at the same time, in the bootloader choose "Power-Off Device", unplug your N7 and plug it back in. Do you see the battery meter? If so, you're done.

- While the original power supply should be the best to use in these troubleshooting procedures, if you are not getting a resolution of this issue, some N7 owners have had success with power supplied by USB via PC. Give it a try.

Since these problems are widespread, there are a number of “fixes” offered other than those above, that are somewhat anecdotal – they only “work” in one/couple instances and therefore there’s no real evidence that they are relevant. This group includes:

- Using battery calibration apps to fix the problem

- Dumping battery stats

- Uninstalling a specific " troublesome" app

Some users send their N7’s back to Google, and their new N7’s are deemed "fine". A number of knowledgeable users have speculated that most of these N7’s sent back really only suffered from the fixable issues listed above. To support this notion, some have reported that the replacements have the same “defects” as their first units, and they continue to send them back.

My experience:

My N7 worked perfectly for the first two weeks of ownership. Then it started turning off at 30% and 23%. I also noted that once I charged-up, my N7 would stay at 100% forever, leading me to believe that the battery readings were hosed-up. After these problems started, it would not go below the 30%-20% thresholds. The first time I tried to power it up - it wouldn't - and I thought is had totally borked. I tried eventually figured out that I needed to add power, wait, then hold down the power button. Worked every time.

For me, I wanted to know if I had a loose battery connector - a common problem, even though my N7 was not shutting down randomly, it was always at low battery levels. I figured that I'd just do the two things that research showed would work for sure, and would cover two different issues. I popped the back off, found that the connector as well-seated, but I pulled it off anyway to do the "battery pull". I reconnected and added a bit of electrical tape to keep it secured. I then did a Factory Reset using the option under "Settings/Backup and Reset". My N7 has been absolutely PERFECT since - just as most users report.

There is still the apparent issue of Google fixing the issue that causes the battery indication to be inaccurate.

I hope that this post serves to help others that experience these issues.

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Update 2/16/13

I noticed in the past 2 days that my N7 started staying on 100% for prolonged periods of time. I figured that it once again lost it's ability to provide accurate battery status. Therefore, I projected that when it gets down to 30% or so, it'll turn off. It did.

I did the fixes I outlined in the OP and this time they didn't work. After pulling the battery and doing a factory reset, it still indicated 30% battery left - and I KNOW it's really at/near 0%.

I've been monitoring this issue since I made this thread and I've noticed that a growing number of N7 users were fixing this issue by simply turning off their N7's for a period of time. So I gave that a go.

I plugged my N7 in for about 20 minutes to give it the juice it would need to restart after the period of time being turned off. Then, I unplugged it and turned it off. Waited an hour, and when I restarted it, the battery had been recalibrated to 0%. Awesome!

So where does this leave us? Here are my thoughts:

- Since there are a number of different causes that result in the symptoms listed in the OP, those fixes are still relevant for those specific causes.

- We should add this latest fix to the collection, as it worked perfectly for me today.

- It's possible that our N7's should be periodically turned off - possibly overnight as it charges. I know that I plan to occasionally do this. If you don't have a disconnected/loose battery cable, or some issue with software that is remedied by a Factory Reset, maybe your N7 just needs to be turned off to recalibrate every now and then. Update: As of 5/3013, my N7 has been flawless. It's entirely possible that this is because I shut-down my N7 every week or two to recalibrate.

As always, I hope this keeps N7 users from freaking out, or sending their N7's back - unless it's really necessary.

And as I said in the OP, Google really needs to address this, as there's plenty of evidence that many N7 owners experience these issues. I'll update my report to Google.