Help S4 Randomly powering down

[Adara]

A co-worker just inherited an S4 from her daughter. The phone keeps randomly powering off -- she'll leave it to charge overnight and the phone will shut itself down. She can't get it to go back on without doing a battery pull (at which time the battery is at 100%). Also, it sometimes happens when the phone isn't charging -- just when it isn't being used for a while, it'll shut itself off and won't come back to life without a battery pull.

She tried a FDR; it was still doing the shutdown thing (even without her putting her apps back on). VZW rep had no clue (beyond the FDR).

I'm stumped. Any ideas?

 

[Rukbat]

Loads, but any of them would have to be checked on the actual phone. Something intermittently open or shorted? Bad cell in RAM or ROM causing a problem? Dendritic short in the battery (it clears itself in miliseconds, but not fast enough to keep the phone running).

 

[Petrah]

She tried a FDR; it was still doing the shutdown thing (even without her putting her apps back on).

Id try another battery. If it happens after trying a new battery then it's an internal hardware issue and the phone would need to be sent in to be fixed.

 

[Adara]

Thanks. (I'll loan her my spare battery to try it out -- unless you think whatever may be wrong could damage it.)

 

[Petrah]

You're an awesome friend to loan her your extra battery for testing.

I cannot say with absolute certainty that nothing would damage the battery... I can only say probably not.