Urgent - Bricked Xperia active st17a following update to 4.0.2.A.0.42

[#1]

Hi all,

Bit of a stuff up here - during the update process through PC Companion, update failed at around 50% and now the phone will not switch on.

Phone: unlocked, unbranded, Xperia active st17a

Mobile carrier: Vodafone Australia

OS: Windows 7 Ultimate SP1

Updating to: 4.0.2.A.0.42

Background:

• For a few days both the phone and PC Companion were reporting a system update was available.
• Phone was fully charged at time of update.
• The phone is on my work call group as an extension of my office line and I will be on the road for 3.5 weeks as of Wednesday 2nd Feb and I don't want to buy yet another mobile phone!

Current Issues & Observations:

• Intermittant connectivity/recognition by PC Companion
• Phone will not switch on but will vibrate once without lighting the screen in any way
• Green light will display when plugged into PC
• Will not charge from supplied charger or generic usb charger which meets officially stated requirements

Attepted:

• Holding "volume key" whilst plugging phone into PC with PC Companion open following battery removal - no luck, though blue light displays and remains on
• Have not used any third party apps for ROMs so as not to void waranty held with supplier
• Forumed for solutions and found one suggesting I use the "repair phone" tool, I cannot seem to find that...

Any constructive suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

[gwhispererz · Accepted solution]

Hi, suggest to reflash firmware with SE Update Service. Here's the download link, http://dl-www.sonyericsson.com/cws/download/1/110/61/1317636927/Update_Service_Setup-2.11.10.7.exe.

Download and install to PC/Laptop, launch it and follow on-screen instructions.

[#3]

Thank you for assistance gwhispererz, the Update Service in the link below resolved all issues. It's a great device and I waited ages from when it was first announced until it was available here from an Aussie based supplier.

[gwhispererz]

No problem, glad that it has fixed your phone! Continue to enjoy the great device.

[#5]

Hi, I have had the same problem with my Xperia Active ST17i however even after re-flashing using the link provided and using PC companion the phone still does not power up. My problem is a little different in that the phone will charge (the battery indicator light changes from red to green so I am assuming its charging) but does do the same vibrating without the screen lighting up at all while pushing the power button. Any help would be greatly appreciated so  I can enjoy this great phone again

[skela]

Thanks for the hint! With this, I updated my Active from 4.0.2.A.0.42 to 4.0.2.A.0.62. The PC Companion would not do the trick (it would report some general error at the very first stage).

It would be even better if this were available for other systems than Windows. The software is written in Java after all, isn’t it?

I had to jump through several hoops to get this running. I had an old Windows XP hard disk for a laptop, and I spent a couple of hours installing Windows updates (whatever was made available since my last use of Windows a years ago) before I could start this.

[gwhispererz]

No problem, glad that you have sorted it out.

[gwhispererz]

I think it could be a hardware issue, you should send your phone to the local SE Service Centre for evaluation and repair.

[#9]

nottomany have you gotten your phone fixed?

I have the exact same problem. I live in Australia and they dont have the phone released here so I dont think I can get it fixed.

[#10]

Hey. I understand this thread is over two weeks old. However, my problem is similar to the thread starters.

Yesterday my phone blacked out, everything seemed to work except the display would not turn on.

I rebooted the phone, got the promising startup vibration, but nothing more. At one point it actually booted and I was happy for two hours until it blacked out again. After the second blackout I never got it to boot properly again.

Tried to reinstall the software via Update Service, twice. It completes successfully, but when I remove the usb and try to boot the phone I get three red blinks immidiately. No vibrating, nothing but the three flashes of red.

What does the light code mean? Is there anything I'm doing wrong/can I do anything else? I would love it if I could fix this without handing it in to a service centre..