Okay. So, I've always been on the stock GB rom it shipped with and had no issues. I decide to update to ICS but since the update doesn't show up in PC companion or Update Service or OTA, I get flashtool and the stock .431 ftf and flash my mini pro (SI 1249-0751) to ICS (and also plug in a fresh new 32GB microSDHC card to celebrate). A bit laggy, crashes of the contact viewer when searching throught the dialpad, but that's okay, I can use a different launcher (Zeam) and dialer app (Dialer One).
But when I open the camera app and try to take a picture with the front camera ...
... there's no option. It's gone.
Another camera app, no front camera.
Skype recognises only the rear camera. No front camera.
I open the service menu (*#*#SERVICE#*#* i.e *#*#7378423#*#*) and test the secondary camera, and it says "This device does not support the function". The primary works fine. All other supported features work fine. Light sensor (next to the front cam) responds too. (But the Proximity switch doesn't. Not sure if it should. Perhaps that could hint at a hardware problem with the connections from the bottom half to the top slider part.)
I scout the forums and find that there's some some strange relationship between the SD card and the front camera for the Ray (or some other device) . With the old SD card, still no luck.
I downgrade to GB. Still not working. Front cam missing.
I unlock the bootloader and install a custom rom (CyanogenMod 9.0.0 Stable mango). Still not working. Front cam missing.
I reinstall GB, relock the bootloader in the hope of an OTA update and do finally get one (to ICS). I update it. Still not working. Front cam missing.
I don't think it's (gulp) hardware. There hasn't been any drop onto a hard surface. And Seychelles doesn't have any Sony service centers.
So, now, I'm here.
Anybody with similar issues ? Ideas ? Suggestions ?
Anyone with a ... fix ?
Anyone ?
Please.
Help..
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I have (only now in Decembre 2013) the same exact problem: front camera disappeared and proximity sensor not working, after upgrading to 4.0.4.
I bought my Sk17i on Sept 2011 (so I think it's out of warranty now....), I have always been pretty happy with it, except some occasional black screen freezing (once/two every month) with backlight and physical keys working but scrren not turning on to unlock it, which forced me to shut down phone by battery removing.... I never went to a repair center.... no time 😞
I never rooted nor romed my phone, only upgraded to 2.3.6 in 2011 via OTA and kept 2.3.6 until some days ago.
Some days ago when my mobile went crazy. It turned off by itself even if >50% battery. After turning it on battery status was unknown or zero/red (tried many times)
I thought I damaged the hardware since the last exact time I charged it I used an electric socket in a office I never used and after less than 20 minutes the AC adapter was very hot, I plugged it off and kept using phone before it switched off by itself at >50% battery.
Phone was working (not good) but working, except that I did not know when battery was going to die.
Sometimes I did not turn on and the status led was flashing in different colors (error codes?): red / white.....
Phone was not charging anymore when plugged, or only sometimes, or only via USB/Laptop.
In the last days before the 'hot' charge I noticed that the proximity sensor was not working, well it was working only 10% of the times: after ending a call and getting phone off my ear the screen did not light up with all its stuff but it kept being black, I had to use the physical home key to get the screen on and then press the red dialer icon to finish the call.
After getting many switch offs due to crazy battery I tried updating the software.
The first thing I tried was restore to factory settings with option in the mobile, so it wiped out all apps and all also personal data (had backups anyway) and went to a clean 2.3.6.
All seemed fine, battery too, but after a day it had the same problems: crazy battery switchoffs, charge with ac/adapter not working (or only some times).....
So I took a step forward: I downloaded SUS and updated to ICS 4.0.4. Same story: worked for a bit with the new ICS then died again with unknown battery status: see left screenshot down here, it says 'plugged' (in carica) even if it was not plugged 
Then I took away my SIM card and tried other tests: another reset but this time with PCCompanion: worked for some hours then first night I left it in airplane-mode: see screen shot
50% of battery used during night (7 hours when normally it used 2/3%)
Then I reseted again with SUS, again with PCCompanion, removed SD card, now it seems working (like other times, I think it will die this night) but I did a search in the internet and I found this (and other threads) with people with similar problems.
I calibrated the battery in the meanwhile and did the tests you can access with the *#*#73 etc code
I found that my Phone camera is not detected: test says "this device does not support the function" and the same thing for proximity switch. Ambient light sensor is OK and also speakers. I say this since I know the speakers are on the same hardware piece of the front camera and proximity sensor (from what I saw on online markets).
Test moreover does not count the flip keyboard flips, but it works on the phone: goes from portrait to landscape and back.
When phone was crazy I saw also the main menu going to landscape with flip closed ...!!
So I don't really know what is my mobile problem, if battery, if phone hardware, if software, or all of these.
I know for sure that front camera has gone with 4.0.4., in the last screenshot there are my camera options, the front switch is missing.
Now I'm trying to keep the phone clean from apps, but I did have very few, now I deleted all removable from stock and I added only Whatsapp.
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