[Samsung Galaxy Nexus] Mike7143:
Okay, gonna try and explain this as best I can, bear with me.

2.5 years ago or something I got a Gnex from Verizon, brand new. The phone would act like a ghost was using it, like someone was interacting with the touchscreen. It'd randomly call contacts, send texts (random letters/numbers), all kinds of weird stuff. Video of it on day 1 HERE doing this. Took it into Verizon, got a new replacement. Never had the problem again. 2 or so years go by, not a single problem, unlocked, flash, all that, never had the problem again.

About a month ago, I upgraded to a Moto X and passed this phone on to a family member. At the time was running the latest stable Cyanogenmod ROM, the last for JB. 10.2 maybe? Anyway, that's what ROM was on it, again, no problems. Factory reset the phone to wipe my stuff, left it rooted and unlocked. I gave them the phone, battery, extended battery, and a few cases as well, no charger cause I know they'd twist up and destroy the factory cable. Setting the phone up for them battery starts going low, used their charger. Cable had shorts and crap, scavenged around looking for good charger. Get phone set up for them, and I'm done, handed off.

A day later, they're complaining that the phone is going crazy, like a ghost is using it, and it's randomly calling people, sending texts, opening menus, not charging, etc. Sounds like EXACT same issue I had with my very first Gnex that I exchanged. Figured that was really strange, maybe it was the software. Factory reset to latest factory image 4.2.2, lock BL back up, completely bone stock. Re-setup phone and all that jazz. Phone's acting fine. Decided this time that'd I'd let them have the original stock charger, thinking maybe that'd help with the charging issues too. All seems well....

However, during the reset and all, and after re-setting up the phone, battery is low.... plug it in with a known good charger of mine, but not stock original, and all the sudden the phone's freaking out again. Turn screen off, turns itself back on. Dialing people, opening apps on its own, etc. Figure maybe this Gnex just won't take any charger except it's original. Pull battery, reboot, phone's fine, fine for 10+ minutes. Plug in OEM charger this time, wait a few seconds, unplug, phone goes crazy.

Also interesting, they brought another charger of theirs with a little red LED on, plug it into wall, red LED comes on. Interestingly, if the charger is unplugged from wall with red LED off and I plug it into the phone.... the red LED on the wall charger turns on... that's not right. So.... here's where I'm at now. If I pull battery, reboot, and never attach a charger, the phone acts perfectly fine. The instant I plug in ANY charger, it'll start going wacko and continue to until I pull battery and reboot. At first I thought this was a charger issue, but now... I'm thinking it's battery related. This little experiment of getting the phone to go crazy after plugging in a charger applies to both the OEM and extended battery, regardless of what charger I use.

When I owned the phone, I almost exclusively used the OEM charger, occasionally another charger I had that I know works fine. Gave Gnex to family member WITHOUT a charger, so they were forced to use who know what condition phone charger. I'm wondering if maybe some rogue jacked up phone charger with shorts in it and crap somehow killed the extended battery. Then, they switched to the OEM battery, and again, unknowingly killed that battery too with the same crap charger. So maybe buying a new battery would fix the issue and only using the OEM charger from now on or the other one that was mine that I know works? Or maybe the phone is just broken now? It just doesn't seem right that plugging a phone into the micro-USB should turn ON the red LED on the charger when it's not plugged into the wall, like the power is coming out of phone and going into the LED...

I just refuse to believe that on the exact same day and within hours of me upgrading to a Moto X and passing on my Gnex that had worked perfectly for 2 years in my possession somehow just happens to "break" or "go bad" on its own. Thought it was software glitch/bug in CM, no. Thought it was incompatible charger, no. Maybe the batteries are bad? Maybe the phone's circuitry got jacked up too? Just seems weird that, as far as I can tell, pulling the battery and rebooting fixes it for good until the battery dies. Within 30 seconds of connecting a charger, the phone goes bonkers.

Any ideas? Feel bad, family member probably thinks I dumped a bad phone on them!

Thanks!