Sony Xperia Z hardware / boot issue following volume power button change - General Questions and Answers

I'm hoping someone who knows the behaviour of this phone can help.
I changed the power / volume up/down buttons after taking the phone apart. I followed a rather good guide here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jX4PWIw0f4
After plugging it all together again, I tried to start the phone without the cover on. It started fine, and my stuck volume down button problem (causing safe mode) was fixed.
I then put the phone back together properly. Since doing that, it won't start.
Phone doesn't have SIM or SD card inserted at the moment.
If I unpug the battery and power via the micro USB port, the red LED is faintly on, the phone looks like it's booting with the Sony logo appearing for about a second before all going dark and repeating the process.
Question: is that normal behaviour because battery is missing and phone will refuse to boot without battery?
If I connect the battery, phone will no longer start. Holding down the power button doesn't work. I also tried plugging in the old strip where the volume down wasn't working (but power OK) and no difference.
This would suggest the battery has failed. The outer aluminium foil is broken at the bottom following me taking it out first time - Sony use stupidly sticky stuff to hold it in place and it seems to stick to the aluminium foil far too much causing tears when removed.
But if phone should boot without battery and currently isn't then it isn't (just) the battery.
So can anyone offer and advice on how to proceed? I'd like to avoid spending $500 on a new SIM-free phone if I can!

Related

Raphael not charging/booting anymore

Hey there,
I have seen quite a few threads on similar cases, but I am not sure whether this is not a specific one that you know what to do on. My Touch Pro is not charging/booting anymore.
I have successfully run my Touch Pro with a custom WM6.5 ROM (and others before) from bauner located here for weeks now. Never had any anomalities or problems with my battery or its lifetime.
I plugged my phone into my AC charger yesterday since it had low battery, and it produced a loop of charging/not charging cycles... it was charging some seconds, then it stopped so that I got the warning (very low battery I think), then charging some seconds, stopping a while... I kept it on, thinking it was because it was almost down to zero, but it had not charged at all over night. Plugging it in again in the morning brought it up to 7%, but still no luck to get further.
I took it to another place and tried to charge without the SIM, and this time it started charging and didn't stop as yesterday. I had it up to 89%, turned it off, put in my SIM and was welcomed with the message that my Touch Pro has too low battery and will shut down. When plugging in the cable, either PC or AC adapter, the LED indicates charging twice and dies on the third flashing, always at the exact same time (half of the third flashing of the LED).
I have neither installed nor changed anything on the system for weeks without problems with it (apart from a crashing Tmail/Outlook every now and then). Especially that it always dies on the third flashing of the LED AND that it seemed to have charged 89% while returning a the low battery message keeps bugging me.
Would you think this is a dead battery (have the phone (new) since early June!) or more related to either a faulty ROM or simply the cable? Any advice is welcome!
Maybe you have a bad battery or bad contacts. I bet that pulling the sim card (and removing/replacing the battery) may have temporarily fixed the issue, but when you put the sim back in, it came back. It's just a guess, but that's what I would suggest looking into. Maybe the contacts in the phone need to be pulled out a bit. If you can't fix it, then flash back to stock and take it in for service or exchange.
Hey there,
I checked the pins for the battery and adjusted them slightly. The funny thing is that I sometimes get the case that I unplug the cable & the LED signalises that the battery is charging. Plugging the device in again gives the 2 1/2 LED flashes, then nothing.
I'd really love to take the route of putting on the stock ROM and send it in if it helps. Unfortunately with a device that is not charging I cannot flash a new ROM... if you know something that I don't know, please let me know .
Froschfinger said:
Hey there,
I checked the pins for the battery and adjusted them slightly. The funny thing is that I sometimes get the case that I unplug the cable & the LED signalises that the battery is charging. Plugging the device in again gives the 2 1/2 LED flashes, then nothing.
I'd really love to take the route of putting on the stock ROM and send it in if it helps. Unfortunately with a device that is not charging I cannot flash a new ROM... if you know something that I don't know, please let me know .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you pull plug the phone in through the usb and have enough charge on the battery to get into bootloader, it doesn't matter if the battery is in or not (seriously, you can remove the battery pre-flash, and as long as it's plugged in, you're good to go). So, the thing to do would be put it in bootloader, then hook it up to your pc through the usb and run the flashes. It should work fine.
Farmer Ted said:
If you pull plug the phone in through the usb and have enough charge on the battery to get into bootloader, it doesn't matter if the battery is in or not (seriously, you can remove the battery pre-flash, and as long as it's plugged in, you're good to go). So, the thing to do would be put it in bootloader, then hook it up to your pc through the usb and run the flashes. It should work fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean exactly? When I download a ROM I have a wrapper which needs a switched-on device for flashing. How can I get into 'bootloader' and flash a ROM? Sorry for my noobishness . And thanks for your previous help.
Well, what you do is press and hold volume down and then press soft reset. Keep holding the vol down until the tri-color screen appears. Then hook up the usb cable to the phone. It should say 'usb serial' or something like that on the bottom of the screen. Then you should be able to run the flash. Once you're in bootloader and plugged in, you can actually remove the battery without having the phone shut off, so your battery issues won't matter. You should be able to flash that way with no problems, but read the flashing threads to make sure you do the rom/radio flash and the stock spl flash properly. I've never done those, so I couldn't tell you the exact procedure. I always flash off of my sd card, too. You can flash the stock rom/radio off your sd card if you rename the image RAPHIMG.nbh, but I'm not sure you if you can flash the spl off of your sd card. You have to get the info from the hard spl thread.
Farmer Ted said:
Well, what you do is press and hold volume down and then press soft reset. Keep holding the vol down until the tri-color screen appears. Then hook up the usb cable to the phone. It should say 'usb serial' or something like that on the bottom of the screen. Then you should be able to run the flash. Once you're in bootloader and plugged in, you can actually remove the battery without having the phone shut off, so your battery issues won't matter. You should be able to flash that way with no problems, but read the flashing threads to make sure you do the rom/radio flash and the stock spl flash properly. I've never done those, so I couldn't tell you the exact procedure. I always flash off of my sd card, too. You can flash the stock rom/radio off your sd card if you rename the image RAPHIMG.nbh, but I'm not sure you if you can flash the spl off of your sd card. You have to get the info from the hard spl thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, thanks for your kind tips. But this is what I get: I push the vol. down button on the left side of the device and press the soft reset button on top of the device. Be it only the vol. button which I hold afterwards or both (vol/soft reset), my Raph doesn't go further than the boot screen (touch pro) and exits with the message that the phone won't load because of too low battery. So I can't get into tri-color boot screen at all. I could read in how I can revert back to stock spl, but I cannot even get far enough with my device... damnit.
Nobody having an idea? Changing the charging cable doesn't help, so it must be either the battery or, even worse, the device that got broken somehow, from one day to another...
Know anyone else with the same phone? borrow their battery / use their phone to try & charge yours.
Try to get atleast a partial charge from a dekstop charger (try your local phone store - say your phone wont charge properly & you want to check the battery before buying a replacement).
Also (i just tried it) i can enter the bootloader without the battery in at all. Plugged into the mains charger (USB didnt work). Put the battery in (dont try to turn the phone on), take the battery out (i waited for the charge indicator to have done 1 "breath"). Then (no battery & still plugged in to the mains) press & hold vol-down, and press & release the soft reset. Voila - bootloader!
I then removed the power so the phone died as it still had no battery in, replugged power, and again could enter the bootloader. I guess when it tried to / started to charge the battery it charges a capacitor on the phone giving it enough power to start, then as soon as its alive, it can draw power from the charger.
Hope this helps!
Yeah, just plug it into the wall charger and go into bootloader. Then flash your stock rom/radio of an sd card. That should work fine, and who knows, maybe the battery will charge. If it does, keep the stock rom or try a different custom rom. If not, try to flash the spl off the card, but like I said, you should very carefully read the instructions for flashing spl's, because I'm not sure if you can flash them off an sd card (you can't flash hard spl that way, but maybe you can flash the stock spl in the hard spl thread that way).
Farmer Ted said:
If not, try to flash the spl off the card, but like I said, you should very carefully read the instructions for flashing spl's, because I'm not sure if you can flash them off an sd card (you can't flash hard spl that way, but maybe you can flash the stock spl in the hard spl thread that way).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
NOOOOOO
Well, when i did i bricked it! Managing to flash the spl back to the phone - unfortuantly it then spat its dummy out & gave me a SPL/ROM upgrade error - which i couldnt get past, as i no long had hard spl.... Ended up sending it back with a blantent error on the screen, but the good ppl at t-mobile service decided it was the main board (there was a seperate fault with the usb port) causing the problems so fixed it FOC for me!
My advice is NEVER flash Hard SPL off (i mean remove hard - back to stock) using the SD card unless you are starting with a fully servicable phone & are prepared to have a good play in MTTY to recover any problems!
But seriously, if the phone is mostly stock - and wont boot (you really might wanna check a known good battery first!) then the techs arent likely to notice as they will be in the same boat as you!
Well, thanks for your tips, I will try to follow them accordingly (and I am happy it should work, mates!). In the meanwhile I ordered a brand new battery for like 20$ (which seems cheap here in Europe) to see whether it is the battery that is ****ed. I will still look and see how I can get a new ROM installed from my SD card in the hard spl thread (or somewhere else).
Thanks for discussing, one question remaining: I am thus bound to my hard SPL since I shouldn't apply it from an SD card as long as the phone won't boot? (My new battery will tell me if it will ever boot or not).... once I figured that a new ROM A-N-D a new battery are not helping, I'll send it in and along some prayers that they won't find out.
Froschfinger said:
Well, thanks for your kind tips. But this is what I get: I push the vol. down button on the left side of the device and press the soft reset button on top of the device. Be it only the vol. button which I hold afterwards or both (vol/soft reset), my Raph doesn't go further than the boot screen (touch pro) and exits with the message that the phone won't load because of too low battery. So I can't get into tri-color boot screen at all. I could read in how I can revert back to stock spl, but I cannot even get far enough with my device... damnit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to hold the volume down button, and poke the reset button (thats the little hole to the right of the usb port) with your stylus. When the tri colour screen comes on let go of the volume down button.
Well, I tried getting into bootloader the way you described it.
1.) When having the phone plugged in and putting in the battery afterwards, no "breath" (as you called it) is coming. I need to plug in the cable again to have the LED flashing.
2.) I then remove the battery after the first breath.
3.) I press and hold the vol. down button on the left side and press the soft reset button on top once and wait. Start screen with Touch Pro line comes.
4.) The device turns off again, no warning (anymore) or anything. When I keep holding the vol. down button the phone repeatedly restarts with TP line appearing, short vibra, restarting....
Is this common behaviour in a known scenario (e.g. when the device is bricked or something)? Can I put it into trash ?
Froschfinger said:
Well, I tried getting into bootloader the way you described it.
1.) When having the phone plugged in and putting in the battery afterwards, no "breath" (as you called it) is coming. I need to plug in the cable again to have the LED flashing.
2.) I then remove the battery after the first breath.
3.) I press and hold the vol. down button on the left side and press the soft reset button on top once and wait. Start screen with Touch Pro line comes.
4.) The device turns off again, no warning (anymore) or anything. When I keep holding the vol. down button the phone repeatedly restarts with TP line appearing, short vibra, restarting....
Is this common behaviour in a known scenario (e.g. when the device is bricked or something)? Can I put it into trash ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wait: isn't that the hard reset button you are talking about?! Still the same behaviour though, no matter which button I press, be it the one on top or the little hole right to the USB connector....
To hard reset you hold hold down the power button on the top, the volme down button on the side and then poke the reset button
Froschfinger said:
Wait: isn't that the hard reset button you are talking about?! Still the same behaviour though, no matter which button I press, be it the one on top or the little hole right to the USB connector....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To sum it up:
1.) Plugging in the cable with battery in, removing it, holding vol.down and pressing either of the buttons (top/bottom of device) will get me into the TP screen loop.
2.) Plugging in the cable and leaving in the battery and pushing & holding vol.dwn and using stylus for bottom button gives no reaction at all.
3.) Same as above, but pressing button on top of the devices gives TP screen and 'low battery' message before shutting down.
4.) An observation: plugging in the cable and removing the battery after the first "breath" lets the LED make its 2 1/2 cycles EVEN though the battery is off. It stops at the same point. How can this be? A sign that my TP is the fault and no battery at all ?
Thanks for your help anyway!!
I'd say its the battery, but only because you cant get it to boot up. Im no expert though. Ive never bricked a phone so I dont know how it reacts when its screwed.
Beeble said:
NOOOOOO
Well, when i did i bricked it! Managing to flash the spl back to the phone - unfortuantly it then spat its dummy out & gave me a SPL/ROM upgrade error - which i couldnt get past, as i no long had hard spl.... Ended up sending it back with a blantent error on the screen, but the good ppl at t-mobile service decided it was the main board (there was a seperate fault with the usb port) causing the problems so fixed it FOC for me!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I wasn't sure on the spl flash, but I'm not surprised it has to go off the pc. Hopefully, I'll never have to go there.
It sounds to me like a problem in the charging circuit, once the phone has woken, it should be able to draw power from the mains charger without the battery in. You said that it simply dies without warning - ie its not drawing power to run from the mains charger, and without a battery (no matter how low on charge) there isnt any power available to produce a warning message.
Assuming i'm right (and it should be faily easy to prove at least in part) when you get your new battery, it will probably come with a partial charge. That should let you boot your phone & flash a new rom & restore the spl - then you can return it in a stock condition.
Please be very careful with flashing on a low (below 50%) battery, you wont be able to do it from the pc, but you can from the SD card (instructions in the rom fourm). I'm not sure if the 50% minimum applies to the hard spl restore or not, but you would be wise to get everything you need ready / read it all so you can flash before the battery drains too much (ie dont play with the phone once you get the new battery, boot it once to see the charge status, then power off. Copy the nbh file to the sd card via the pc & card reader, load phone into bootloader & go. Dont bother setting up windows, flash the spl back to stock.)
Good luck!

(FIX) Can't boot into rom, recovery, or download/constant restarts

Hey guys,
This is a possible fix for anyone who is experiencing all of the following issues. If you are NOT experiencing all of these issues then my fix is most likely not the cause of your problem.
1) Can't boot into ROM (phone will get no farther than GALAXY S III logo)
2) Can't boot into RECOVERY (phone will try to boot into recovery but will never make it)
3) Can't boot into DOWNLOAD (you may get as far as the caution screen but phone will turn off)
4) Phone starts, then turns off after about 3 seconds.
The solution that worked for me involves the power switch. It turns out that the reason you are unable to boot is because your power button is constantly being pressed due to a "sticky" button. This is a hardware flaw with only a temporary solution.
Steps to FIX issue.
1. Use fingernail to gently remove POWER BUTTON from phone. Notice that the bumps in the middle of the button are a little off-center.
2. Use a pair of fine tip tweezers to gently PULL on the yellowish/white POWER SWITCH inside the phone.
3. Test the fix by reinserting the battery. If the phone doesn't auto boot then press the POWER SWITCH with the end of your tweezers.
4A. If phone continues to power cycle then return to step 2.
4B. If phone properly boots then reinsert the POWER BUTTON with bumps in the middle aligned with the POWER SWITCH. If you don't align the bumps then the button will not function properly.
Once again, if this fix did not work for you then your problem is most likely in software (bootloader) and not hardware.
Hope this helps someone. Cheers! :highfive:
Think this post might help
This is the problem I'm having from the sound of it. I haven't had any problems for the last three weeks I've been using LiquidSmooth and it doesn't act like a ROM problem. I noticed the power button wouldn't shut my screen off today out of the blue. I thought it was strange so maybe wipe cache and dalvik just in case... No Dice.
Stuck in a vibrating boot loop from there even after each attempted battery pull. However somehow I was able to finally get the phone to boot by holding the right button combo to get download mode... Waiting for it to restart right away then doing another battery pull... This let's it boot and has worked half a dozen times tonight...
Soooo... pull the power button off with fingernails? Serious? I've had the phone a month and a half maybe so would like to know this happens without breaking any additional connections or whatever if that makes sense... Thanks for the post.

[Q] Kolina K100+ dead - help needed

Hello,
[admin; if this post is more appropriately placed somewhere else in the forum, then please move it]
Before giving up on my cellphone and resort to ordering a new one I'll ask for help here too.
Phone is a Kolina K100+ (chinese phone) running android 4.2. It is rooted but it is still running stock ROM (to my knowledge, I bought it new and have not tinkered with the ROM).
Current situation is that the phone is completely dead.
Dead as in turned off, does not light the LED when inserting the charger cable, does not react to any button presses, or combination of button presses.
I have actually no idea what have caused this situation. Granted, the phone has accidentially been dropped twice the last week but it did not turn itself off at any of the occasions. Yesterday, I noticed that the phone had turned off and I tried to turn it on. After a while I got it to go at least to the boot screen but after having to put it away (was actually standing in a line and it was my turn...) it was dead when I was able to reach for it again and after that the phone has been completely dead.
When connecting the USB cable to the computer the computer detects an unknown USB device but cannot seem to install any drivers.
Button combinations I have tried;
- power on button
- long press (~1minute) on power button
- volume down + power button
- volume up + power button
- volume up + volume down + power button
- home button (touchscreen button that is) + power button
...no luck with either combination, no reaction at all from the phone.
I have also managed to pull off the back cover from the phone and was able to disconnect the battery connector and let it lay completely powerless for a few hours before reconnect the battery to the phone and reassemble the back cover.
Any suggestions on if there are any other measures I can do or if there is something I have overlooked in trying to resurrect it?
same problem here phone just stop work i dont know why .
malamas said:
same problem here phone just stop work i dont know why .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you still have the phone? I would buy it! I need the LCD but I could not find any...
Oltcit said:
Do you still have the phone? I would buy it! I need the LCD but I could not find any...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sorry im late. i have the phone like a new contition . if you like to buy i give you but im live in greece

[Q] Phone Not Loading After Screen Replacement - Updated: Now Power Button

Hello,
Recently, my phone and I took a splash in a pool. I've never replaced a digitizer before, but since everything was still functioning perfectly fine except the screen, I ordered a Digitizer/LCD. Just finished installing and pieced everything together except the outer shell. Went to boot up, but nothing. I had a full battery before I disassembled it, but figured maybe I didn't connect the battery correctly. I hooked it to the charger and immediately got the "Alcatel One Touch 3 - Powered by Android" splash screen. Then it went to the battery charge icon, (the same that appears when the phone is charging by not on). Tried holding the power button again, but no response. Unplugged/plugged several times and even pulled the plug at the splash screen. Nothing.
I'm pretty certain everything is seated correctly, but does this point to one specific thing I didn't do correctly? Any help is very much appreciated. I've come this far and see the light but so disheartened.
Hello,
Just wanted to update: It's the Power Button. I was able to connect to the charger via a power strip, flipped the switch and jerry-rigged so I could toggle the volume buttons. Currently, the phone is in Android Recovery mode. I can scroll with the volume buttons, but I cannot select (the default language right now), because the Power Button isn't responding.
Anything I can do?
Edit: Looks like I may have snapped the power button ribbon

Power,Volume and camera buttons have all stopped working... and now the phone is off

The title is pretty self explanatory. Noticed when i woke up that neither the power, volume or the camera buttons work. They still clicked when pushed but no function beyond that. The phone its self still worked before i pressed the yellow reset button next to the sim card slot. when i pressed the yellow reset button the phone vibrated and turned off, never to come back on. When i plug it into a charger it still has the LED light except its off so i cant just press the power button to turn it back on. When plugged into the computer, then computer recognises that a device has been plugged in (makes the dun-duh! sound) but the phone is not recognised by either the PC companion or Sony EMMA. Same deal with pulling it into a mac. The Sony mac companion program pops up automatically , it says it does not have any device connected, despite it popping up when i plug my phone in...Ive put adb on my computer and tried adb reboot but again it does not recognise the phone while its off. Is there anything i can do to fix this phone or at least turn it back on? I've spent enough on getting this phone prepared as it is so a DIY fix would be great.any help at all would be much appreciated, thanks
I too am having issues while restarting my z3 after switching power key does not works.
It boots only when I connect it too my pc (still dead) and then press the yellow button(try the yellow button before connecting the pc too),but all the hardware keys works perfectly except the power which is just functinal.
khanjunaid said:
I too am having issues while restarting my z3 after switching power key does not works.
It boots only when I connect it too my pc (still dead) and then press the yellow button(try the yellow button before connecting the pc too),but all the hardware keys works perfectly except the power which is just functinal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No luck unfortunately. When i plug it into the computer the Sony logo pops up and goes to the charging screen. When i press the yellow button just after plugging it in it just restarts and does the same thing. Thanks anyway
That's exactly what happened to my phone last time,managed to get it started after some random trials ( it started using the normal power key after removing it from pc & letting it rest for some time)
Keep me posted if u manage to solve it.
khanjunaid said:
That's exactly what happened to my phone last time,managed to get it started after some random trials ( it started using the normal power key after removing it from pc & letting it rest for some time)
Keep me posted if u manage to solve it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will do, I've gotten in contact with the sellers and they are happy to inspect the phone for warranty claims to see if I've done anything to it to trigger the breakage, so ill be sending it off tomorrow . You may not be able to answer this but i might as well ask, I got a whole screen replacement for the phone a few months ago as i had dropped it and the screen had smashed etc. The screen replacement all went well. Do you think the re sellers will know/care that the screen has been replaced? Will it impact upon my warranty claim? I don't plan on telling them I've gotten the screen replaced but I'm just worried they'll find out and say my warranty has been voided.
I replaced my phone's speaker from 3rd party,right after that I am having problem to restart the device.
I think Your warranty is probably gone.
Try to flash Ftf file,i didn't cause I don't wanna loose my root.(changing between roms help a bit)
when you open the phone and remove the battery, you can see like some flat wires. those connect all your buttons, screen, loudspeaker and other things to the motherboard. I'd say that the problem is in this flat wires if the buttons do not work. It can be changed but don't try it if you do not have some practical skill since the z3 is not really an easy phone to repair, it's all glued >.<
ps.
this is what i'm talking about, to be clear: http://www.ebay.it/itm/FLAT-FLEX-TA...008493?hash=item2c9efe04ad:g:4QkAAOSwyQtVt5MY

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