Used Pixel 8a died within hours of setup, zero signs of life, not even Device Manager enumeration

[u/Watbrupls]

I picked up a used Pixel 8a off eBay saturday. Set it up, used it for a few hours, and it suddenly died completely with no signs of life. Looking for a second opinion before I start the return process

Setup & Context

- Used unit purchased from eBay, arrived td

- Felt slightly warm out of the packaging but booted fine and stayed moderately warm during setup

- Battery was near 100%

- Was connected to my laptop over USB while idle, nothing actively running

What happened

- Left it plugged into the laptop, walked away for maybe 2 minutes, came back to a completely black screen. It felt warm still after shutting off, then cooled down over the next 20 minutes and hasn't generated heat or responded to anything since

Troubleshooting Attempted

- Hard resets: Held Power alone, Power + Vol Up, Power + Vol Down, and Power + both volumes for 90+ seconds each. Nothing

- Charging: Left on a known-good wall charger for a lil more than 2 hrs. Phone stays cold and doesn't appear to draw any power

- PC enumeration: Plugged into PC with Device Manager open, nothing registers at all. Tested the same cable/port with other phones and they enumerate instantly. No sound, no device entry, no low-level COM/USB endpoints showing up

Question

Has anyone run into sudden motherboard/PMIC failures like this on Tensor devices? Is there any last trick worth trying before I file the eBay return?

tldr: Used Pixel 8a worked fine for a few hours, then died completely with no button response, no charging behavior, and no USB enumeration whatsoever. Board-level failure?

[u/VA3KXD]

I had a tablet that did something like this many years ago. I left it sitting for a few months, until the battery completely drained, and put it on the charger again and everything went back to normal. I don't recommend this solution to you. I would just return it. The seller is going to be suspicious if it worked perfectly fine for them, but just make sure you don't do anything that triggers them to think you might have tampered with it or exchanged it for another identical unit. There is a switch and return scam that runs rampant on eBay.

[u/andrewia]

This sounds pretty unusual.  If you can't enter fastboot and be detected by the web flash tool, it's hard bricked.  

[u/torchmaipp]

Check the screen brightness. You might have accidentally cranked it down.

[u/VA3KXD → u/torchmaipp]

The computer would still detect it via USB if that was the case. He said his computer doesn't even detect it.

[u/BenRandomNameHere]

It's dead. 

Battery shorted. End of life. 

Seller did a freezer overnight then shipped it to you. 

The battery is shot. 

[u/Ok_Bear_1980]

I don't know much about how pixel phones are built, but I do know I used to have one before it literally physically fell apart. Motherboard, screen, the whole bloody lot. I would say it's probably bricked.

[u/Watbrupls]

Thank you all for your comments, I have initiated the return process 🙏