Fixing Nexus "Red light of death"

Encountered the LG Nexus "Red light of death" problem this morning. The battery had completely discharged itself, trying to charge with power adapter didn't work. Instead of familiar charging animation, the phone had a tiny red light. Web searches suggested to remove the battery and charging it, the process similar to charging a dead car battery using jumper cables. The LG Nexus mobile phone has an internal battery and removing it takes bit of work.

Fortunately I found this forum post that provided a simple solution.

Guys this is complete overkill. There is a documented process for fixing the red light of death. Basically you need to do a battery pull and then let it charge for awhile. HOWEVER, there is a way of simulating a battery pull without actually doing it:

1. Unplug phone from charger
2. Press and hold the volume UP button plus power button for 60 seconds.
3. Release buttons.
4. Plug into charger.
5. Wait about an hour for it to charge.

That's it. This is a documented and published fix from LG and Google. The pressing of the buttons does something to simulate a battery pull - probably some sort of flushing of any remaining current out of the phone or tripping some sort of e-fuse like feature.

That fixed the 'Red light of death' problem for me. Hope this helps for you too!