I talked with my husband about this and he said puffed batteries can still work, if they're not puffed too badly. (Although they could still crack the screen.) But he thought it would be interesting to see if this happens more frequently to people who have run their battery down more often as that's hard on the battery. He has pretty extensive experience with this due to his RC helicopter hobby and owns heaven only knows how many batteries and chargers.
You know me and my position regarding the misuse/abuse of these batteries by some who seem to want to sound like they know what they're talking about. There are so many threads, not just here but on other forums as welll and I cringe every time I read one that tells the owners to drain their batteries to 0% and then fully charge, or worse - to cycle charge for "at least 3 times". I also cringe when I see the suggestion that people let their batteries fully charge and once the phone says it is completed charging, to unplug, wait a few minutes and then plug back in to "fool the charger into topping off the battery".
Why don't people just use the thing the way it was intended and stop trying to re-engineer the highly engineered devices they have in their hands. Makes you think they believe these were put together out of scrap parts and in somebody's basement or garage, for God's sake! This isn't a Science Project, people...this is perhaps one of the most highly engineered devices you have ever had the pleasure of touching let alone holding in the palm of your hand, not to mention communicating globally at lightning speed no less.
I suppose theres always going to be someone who thinks they can make a better paper clip, but the truth is...that person comes maybe once every 100 years or so (Paper Clip - eNotes.com ).
Back to the thread...for those who haven't seen this video, it's pretty revealing just how little room there is inside these phones for any kind of expansion of a battery. Also, you get to see just how the battery sits fused onto the front of the motherboard with double-sided tape, then which the back is then fused the same way right up against the back of the SAMOLED Display. It's all too easy to believe that the expansion of a battery could put pressure on the front of the motherboard, and flex it upwards toward the screen where the back presses up against the back of the screen glass. Fiberglass with a metal laminate (the copper) against glass...need I say more?
[video=youtube;7ridjtcza7E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ridjtcza7E&feature=player_embedded[/video]
. I had this with OG Droid, Droid 2 Global, and also Droid Razr Maxx just cause my brother watches videos too long. Droid 2 Global had unresponsive screen and had to do battery pull. For the maxx tho, the device just rebooted itself so maybe there is a fail safe made by Motorola to prevent breaking the phone too fast 