Phone boot / startup problem

[Archanos]

I have a problem here with Z1, ofcourse I didn't root it or something. Clean, stock phone, bought without any branding.

Every time I turn the phone off, I cannot make it to start again until several attempts.

It turns on, shows the Sony logo, flashes to show the next XPERIA logo but it never happens. I see backlight is on at 100% brightness, but there is no boot animation for about 8-10 min. After that it shows the animation, starts to the home screen, but backlight stays at 100% brightness - I cannot manipulate it anymore, even If I use power buttn, screen contents goes away but light stays on at full swing (black screeen but with backlight).
I tried to toggle then the "Optimized backlight" option in the settings, but then screen goes completely dark (SOD issue known from Z Ultra).

On the other hand, if I restart the phone successfully (after several hard resets with the red button next to SIM card), everything works OK. It takes around 5-15 attempts to make it start fast and without this problem.

What should I do to make sure when I turn the phone off, I can turn it on without this silly fight?

[Archanos]

If it does matter, I didn't turn off any apps, only Facebook (I disabled it since I don't use it and it was all over the RAM), but I can't believe this had *any* impact on phone startup process..

Please, help, this is REALLY annoying 😕 What guarantee do I have that it will turn on at all another time...? 😕

[Uliwooly]

Try the basic, re-install the software

Update Service (SUS)

http://www.sonymobile.com/gb/tools/update-service/

http://www-support-downloads.sonymobile.com/Software%20Downloads/Update_Service_Setup-2.11.12.5.exe

PC Companion (PCC)

Bridge (for Mac)

Alternatives on How to backup Xperias

http://talk.sonymobile.com/thread/36355

Don't forget to give Kudos (Click on the half star + )

[Archanos]

Yeah, right.. the basics...

Anyway, thank you for your answer.

However, the problem is much deeper than that, and I am happy I didn't waste a whole day making and restoring backups, come on. The phone is 4 days old, I won't rape it with SUS just like that without trying anything less invasive.

I figured the problem out. It is a bug really, you should report it. It is very easy to reproduce, not that annoying now when I know the cause of the problem, but still a bug.

This happens only when some other Bluetooth enabled device is in range, and this device would try to connect with Z1 once it is visible. Lets say you have Bluetooth Handsfee set - you pair it with Z1, so once one finds the other, it will try to reconnect.

So once you have any device around that would try to catch up, you restart the Z1. It will start with the Sony logo, and then hang before XPERIA and the color boot animation. After that everything goes as I described before. So after 5-10 attempts of boot, the Z1 eventually won't make it to be visible in this critical moment and boot as it suppose to.

Turning off BT devices around solves the problem.

I figured it out because I tried many things and I accidentally heard "beep" in the earphone of the SBH-20 between the Sony and the Xperia logos while booting. I did a reset several times, and the headset beeped me exactly the same time as before in the very moment Z1 hangs.

I tried it with a USB BT dongle connected to PC, Motorola BT handsfree, and mentioned SBH-20. Same problem, different devices.

Turning off BT on the Z1 before reboot solves the issue too.

So this is the problem source - Z1 becomes BT visible too fast or the wrong way at all. If any BT enabled device sees the Z1 and would attempt to connect, it will hang (extremely delay) the boot process and make the Z1 permanently backighted till the next reboot or forcing the light off by toggling the "Optimized backlight" option in Display settings, what will cause SOD effect immediately.

Sorry, no kudos this time.

[Uliwooly]

Sus its not invasibe and there's an update rolling out. 

[Archanos]

It is enough to destroy (wipe) everything I took so much care to transfer from my Xperia S, but it is not the point.

The point is, it wouldn't help, it would give me another wasted day instead. But you couldn't know, I get it. Me neither. You just did your best to help, I appreciate it.

May I know what this update is about? Just curious

[Uliwooly]

http://www.xperiablog.net/2013/09/20/xperia-z1s-first-firmware-update-rolls-out-14-1-g-1-531/

[GeoffH]

look at my reply on the thread above titled Black Screen

I do not believe any of the recent updates fix this problem

[dynax73]

My fresh Z1 take long time to startup... after the Sony a blank screen will remain for about 30 secs or more... then the Xperia logo. On the internal memory I have about 7 Gb of audio files, 600 photos are con the 16 GB capable miniSD card.

Maybe this will impact in startup times? Please fix the problem.

[Mawk]

Archanos,

Found this thread because I have the exact same problem, down to the letter, and was about to return my device.

Thanks for your very good description of both problem and solution!

I am wondering: Are you still without startup problems or have they since reoccurred?

Strange thing is I leave Bluetooth disabled by default since I only use it in rare occasions, and the problem still seems to be there. However I had one device (BT speaker) in my list of paired devices and just unpaired this for now.

Will be following this thread. Seems to be a very frequent problem which is already mentioned in quite a few forums.