Problem with excessive battery drain, tried to fix, THINK I have, but media still at 56% of battery

[CommanderVimes]

I had a SEVERE problem ALL DAY yesterday, where charging the tablet just wasn't enough to keep it afloat, even on leaving it alone.  It was so low in battery, that the screen kept failing and going like an old untuned tv, prior to the whole tablet switching itself off!

BEFORE this problem, I uninstalled at least 30 apps that I either no longer used, or had never used! My storage still claimed to only have 2gig free, even though the little colourful bar above it showed that I had half the tablet of space. (The tablet was crawling at snail pace and moaning there was not sufficient space to play Draw Something!)

One thing the tablet keeps doing is getting so hot in the bottom left corner that it is very uncomfortable to touch/hold, it makes my finger feel really hot and very itchy, almost like a "prickly heat" rash!  This must be REALLY hot, because I cannot always differentiate between hot and cold items, I have been able to hold things straight out of a 200°C oven, obviously burning myself quite badly. (Hence my Fiancé banning me from using kitchen appliances)

I made the mistake of trying to download a font file that was 465MB from Dropbox, after this everything went belly up...

When looking at what was draining the battery, MEDIA was at 67%.  On clicking on media, the items it listed were:

* DRM protected content storage,
* Media storage,
* Downloads,
* Download Manager.

I have Cleared Data and Force Stopped each of these, I even disabled DRM Protected Content Storage, but it just went down to 56% I have done enough to allow the tablet to get up to 73% battery last night, and it seems to be keeping it's charge and trickle charging on top of that. (reached 84% after just under three hours constant usage)

I am now at a loss as to how on Earth I properly fix this.

I hooked up to my laptop and removed as much media as I could bear last night, this freed up another gig, I also found where the "fonts zip files" had downloaded and removed them, thinking that my problem lay there, nothing.

My tablet now claims I have just under 6Gig of space, but the picture bar thingy looks like there is over half the tablet of now empty space.

My Fiancé spent at least an hour faffing around with trying to fix it last night, based on other users' experience of this exact same battery draining media problem.  (Xda developers forum)  No news on the severe heat in the bottom left corner though.

Any input/suggestions?

(I can feel it REALLY HOT on my leg, AND there's little to no feeling in my legs most of the time!)

[mwbritt]

you have a hardware problem and need to get the unit serviced.  Your battery is not able to handle the current requirements of basically running you n7 as a space heater.  (Not trying to be a smart ass in case it came out that way)

[birdastrompgman]

I've had similar experiences with with battery hogging applications. Facebook once drained my Nexus 7's battery down to 6% overnight while it was sleeping.. I kept force closing the app, and it kept restarting itself. I discovered the problem was a Facebook subprocess, Facebook.katana. I removed the FB app, and didn't reinstall it for a couple of days. FB has run fine since I reinstalled it.

So, I disagree it's a hardware issue. I wish there was a quick fix, but I haven't found it, either. I just check which apps are running, and force close the ones I don't use. Google media services shows up far too often on that list.

[S.Prime]

Why not try a factory reset and see if the problem goes away?

[bjs229]

Why not try a factory reset and see if the problem goes away?

I would take this advice. It sounds like you are missing or somehow manipulated files which are making the machine run erratically.

[CommanderVimes]

I left the tablet running overnight for a couple of nights, and hardly used it at all yesterday and now I'm getting Screen 99% when nothing in the foreground is running and I have left no apps running so the media problem is fixed, my Fiance said it could have been trying to index files that no longer existed, or that were corrupt, either way that part is no resolved....

Now need to resolve the heat issue.  It is still running STUPIDLY hot, BUT I like to run the screen at 100% brightness when I am using it, so it COULD be that? (Main major heat is bottom left corner from edge of tablet up to about 1/3 way and 2/3 across to right.

I am going to ask a REALLY stupid question now, so humour me...

Those gold dot thingies on the left hand side towards the bottom?  Would touching them with constantly clammy hands (giving a conductive surface)  have any adverse effect? (Hits herself for even suggesting it!)

[birdastrompgman]

I'm curious how hot your battery is getting.  I'm using Battery Widget by elvison.  When it's running, you can swipe the notification bar down or click the widget to see battery temperature.  I don't remember seeing a temperature >30 C (86 F).

Yes, I'd be suspicious about wet hands on the pins.  Try holding your N7 in a towel for a day or two, and see if it helps.

[S.Prime]

Call Google support and explain the situation and they will suggest a factory reset, if that solves the problem you are good, if not you have a hardware issue and it will be replaced. One way the other the problem is solved.

[bjs229]

First off why touch the pins? If humanly possible, I dont touch any electronic devices connective ports with wet hands or dry hands ever. It is electronic right? :-\Hot is hot. We as humans have a temp in the 98.6 more or less range. If an electronic device feels hot and not warm something is working hard or overtime. I am a chef and can grab things with my bare hands as well but  that also gives me a pretty good feel as to what temperature something is. If your device is burning your skin like you describe its well done. There is a problem somewhere. I would take the advice and factory reset or take the easy way out and get rid of the hot potato. I hate to say it but if you removed 30 apps some of which you never have used, you most likely have caused some issues. I personally would RESET like Prime has suggested.
Bird? Carry it in a towel? I'm really trying to understand what good that will do.
How Do you get battery temp? I remember seeing it before but swiping my notification bar doesn't show it.
Ah.. Add another app.

[birdastrompgman]

I suggest carrying it in a towel to eliminate the variable of wet hands shorting the docking pins.

I agree that "hot" is probably in the 160+ F range, but it's subjective.  Another person's "hot" may be 130 F (~55 C)

[bjs229]

I suggest carrying it in a towel to eliminate the variable of wet hands shorting the docking pins.

I agree that "hot" is probably in the 160+ F range, but it's subjective.  Another person's "hot" may be 130 F (~55 C)

I'm playing with you brother. It was the couple days thing that made me smile.
I tell you what I use my Nexus so much I wish my grandma was still around to knit me some holders.

[CommanderVimes]

Just wanted to update you all on this, there was obviously a serious software issue because I removed damn near everything and the little bar thingy at the top of the storage breakdown in settings/storage claimed my tablet was now half empty, the individually, manually calculated apps at the bottom confirmed this, yet the total free space claimed to be 2Gig...

After lots of swearing, getting burned, getting really annoyed with it, the battery constantly draining, never going above 30% during charging AND usage, never being at "charged" status after an overnight bout of being totally idle, or even being switched off! I admitted defeat, moved all the files I wanted to keep to my laptop, and performed a factory reset.

I then moved SOME of the files I wanted to keep and that were on the device prior to all the problems, and hey presto, my battery sits at "charged" on idle, and 99-100% on usage, how it should and used to! :-) I also don't get the "burning hot to touch" situation at the bottom left corner. (I wasn't exaggerating, I showed the other half and he nearly dropped it because his brain told him to withdraw immediately)... I only registered part of the heat because of my disability, so when I said it was flipping hot, I was being as genuine as one who cannot always distinguish between heat and cold could possibly be.  It wasn't "scarring tissue" hot, but it was hot enough for Simon's brain to recoil (?) his hand...

All fixed now though, thanks for all your help. :-)

Just to point out, my hands were never "wet" I NEVER touch electrical items with wet hands, never mind ports and sockets and plugs etc, I learned this from my Dad, a qualified Sparky.  Clammy does not mean WET, (to me anyway) it means bordering on moist..  at either warm or cold temps...

[bjs229]

Glad u are all set.