[Galaxy Note GT-N7000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] yentlequible:
First off, an introduction. I seem to have bad luck with Android devices. Oh well, I love them anyway! Had a Galaxy S Captivate, Then a Tmobile Galaxy S 4G, and finally my N7000.

Problems have come with every device. The Captivate couldn't connect with Odin back in the day, so every flash was a dirty flash since I couldn't go stock. The Galaxy S 4G would constantly have problems. It was fine for awhile, but the ROMS never lasted. Always started to restart and glitch out. Random reboots, etc...

Now for my Note. It has been a great phone, despite a few drawbacks. It's over 2 years old; I purchased it right after they first came out. It worked great for about a year, even on custom roms. The last year, I've fallen way behind in the development area, but I've always ran custom. This whole year, I've been battling a couple huge issues. It started out as bad battery life. No big deal, I thought. Check stats, find the source, fix it. Then I try to flash a new rom. Still doesn't work. I end up living with the issue. That problem escalated into restarts, and even worse battery life. A flash or two later, and nothing worked better. Eventually, about half a year ago, I noticed my battery was started to swell. Thought that was the source of everything. I was wrong. New battery, and my phone is running just as bad, while getting steadily worse daily.

Presently, my phone is a mess. It's running ParanoidAndroid 4.3, BUT I am downloading the Team Asylum Kit Kat ROM right now as I type this. On PA, I have left the phone nearly completely stock since the flash. I followed the installation perfectly, even completely formatting both my internal and external SD cards to ensure a 100% new flash. Of course, it didn't help. Currently, my phone's battery won't last a day on light usage. 9 hours of life, and it will be to 5%. The last 30% of life drops EXTREMELY fast. When the phone was new, I would go 2 days on a charge easily. The source of this battery loss appears to be the infamous ANDROID OS, but I could never find the source, despite multiple apps trying to monitor my CPU and Batterystats. The phone runs Ok enough for daily use to the point where I have dealt with it. The phone will freeze completely every now and then, and a lot of the times it is on the lockscreen. On a complete freeze, it always results in a fast reboot after a minute or so. The last problem I can think of is my inability to read the external SD. A few weeks ago, my phone froze up completely, like normal, so I yanked the battery and rebooted. It started up as normal, but my external SD was nowhere to be found after that incident. No idea what happened, and I haven't had the time to try and get it working again.

Thank you to whoever took the time to read this. I'm sure some of my issues have already been covered in other threads, but I've tried things before and nothing seems to help. Maybe I just have a defective unit. It is getting old after all. I'd really appreciate anyone who might be able to help me resolve these issues. Getting this thing running smooth again would be like Christmas morning all over again.

QUICK SUMMARY FOR THOSE THAT DON'T WANT TO READ EVERYTHING

The phone is over two years old. Used to work good, now it doesn't.

-Replaced battery earlier this year since I noticed swelling in the original.

-Battery life is terrible. Dies after 9ish hours on LIGHT usage. ANDROID OS is the culprit. Used to last 2 days or more.

-Random restarts and lots of freezing.

-Freezing caused my external SD to completely disappear. Haven't been able to get access since.

-Running ParanoidAndroid 3.4. Flashing a new rom after I type this, but it probably won't change anything.

There's your short summary, although I may have already answered some of your suggestions up in my original post. If you can, at least read the second to last paragraph.

Again, thanks to anyone who can offer assistance! It would mean a lot to me since I feel like I still haven't gotten my money's worth out of this thing. Unlocked phones are spendy...