Overheating and poor battery life are often correlated. However, it's rarely a casual link.

These symptoms in conjunction typically stem from a different problem.

Lithium batteries do get warm, especially when faulty or degraded, but never enough to make your phone an effective hand-warmer.

What we have going on here is a short circuit.

This occurs when electrical current finds a way to bypass the circuit on a path that has little or no resistance. The current flows straight to ground, overloading the circuit with more energy than it's designed to withstand.

Excess energy moving through a wire produces a lot of heat, and can blow components on the circuit.

Pictured, we have a shorted chip, which has clearly burnt out. It's nice when the culprit leaves clues.



We inject power, and it literally start smoking.

Smoking is bad for phones too.

Fortunately, these circuits are easier to repair than a set of lungs.

A couple of replacement components and some cleaning up, and the device is alive and well.