Xperia PLAY Not Booting After Update

[#1]

Just a short time ago while watching TV, my Xperia PLAY notifies me that there was a new update available. From memory I think some of the new features included were louder speakers, landscape on home screen etc.  I didn't want to update, but seeing as I was most likely going to get this update notification often, I decided to update the phone and get it out of the way. BIG MISTAKE!

After the download of the update finished, the Xperia PLAY's screen went to a screen which had four circles which in my opinion think was a progress bar for the update installation?

Anyway, while one of the four cirlces were filled, the phone then turned off. At first I thought it may have just been part of the update process... But it had completely turned off! Since then I have now been unable to turn my Xperia PLAY back on.

I have:

- Pulled out the battery and put it back in. No luck there.

- Tried to charge the battery via power supply. No luck there.

- I've tried connecting the phone to the PC via USB. No luck there.

- Pulled out SIM and Mini SD. No luck there.

When attempting to turn on the Xperia PLAY, the phone briefly vibrates like it would normally when trying to turn on the Xperia PLAY, but it doesn't actually ever turn on.

I'm extremely frustrated at the moment as this phone is used not only for gaming, but also work. I spent good money on it and for my phone to stop working on me during an official update by Sony Ericsson is pretty poor form. Please, I really need help with this. As mentioned I wasn't even using my Xperia PLAY when it notified me of an update.

Kind Regards,

Raymond.

[#2]

You may need to perform the update again using your PC and the SE Update Service

SE Update Service

http://dl-www.sonyericsson.com/cws/download/1/110/61/1309763183/Update_Service_Setup-2.11.7.13.exe

[#3]

Thanks for the extremely quick reply. Got some good news, and some ultimately bad news.

The Good News:

Your suggestion worked and my PC was able to see my Xperia PLAY. I followed the steps and everything looked to have been working, until I got the message: "The phone contains modified software that cannot be updated".

After a bit of research on the error, I found out ultimately bad news even worse than I feared.

The Bad News:

It looks like my Xperia PLAY is "bricked". Turns out updating the phone if Unlocked (Which I have only now just found out even means) will completely brick the phone. I bought the phone a few months ago off eBay at quite a high price, and I vividly remember the seller mentioning something about the phone being unlocked or something like that. What sucks most is I didn't even use whatever features it may have given me. All I ever do is play Crash Bandicoot and use it for sending and recieving calls.

I'm very sad at the moment because I seriously don't know what to do now. I can't contact the eBay seller, I can't return to the phone claiming warranty, I can't do anything...

Please, if I've missed something please help. I love my phone and haven't had any problems at all with the Xperia PLAY until now. I'm very saddened at the moment, as I'm strapped for cash and was hoping the Xperia PLAY would last me a very long time.

[#4]

I am sorry to hear that. I was not aware that your phone had an unlocked boot loader.

There may still be hope. I need to do some research or may be Uliwooly or someone else knows how to recover from this.

Hang in there. Don't throw the phone away just yet. There must be a way around this. If somehow we can get the bootloader locked and then perform the update again.

To get the phone in a state where the bootloader is locked that's where the challenge is. I am not exactly sure at the moment how to do it.

[#5]

Trust me for the 99% of owning the phone I didn't even know it was unlocked! LOL

Thanks again for the extremely quick reply. It's good to know at least one person has taken notice of my problem.

I'll hang in there and hopefully either you or someone else can help me out. I'll try anything you tell me to do, as mentioned I'm out of ideas on my side.

Thanks heaps,

Raymond.

[#6]

Hmmm. Just thought of something else.

I wonder if you perform a manual firmware update on the PLAY, it may work. The manual firmware update is an unofficial method.

Check put this post

http://talk.sonyericsson.com/thread/21475

Basically you need to :

1. Download the latest Xperia Play firmware to your PC

2. Download the flash tool to update your phone's firmware

3. The USB cable, PC and of course your phone

[#7]

Thanks again for the help. I'll try it out right now.

Of all nights my download speed is terribly slow (Can things get worse? LOL), so the firmware looks like it's going to take over and hour to download.

I'll post back to let you know how everything goes.

[#8]

Good luck.

The firmware file is a rar file so you have to unrar it after downloading the file [ R800i_4.0.A.2.368_World.rar (174.95 MB) ] and copy/move it to the firmwares directory of the flashtool program.

[#9]

Sorry to tell you this, I just read that even with the manual firmware update, it needs the bootloader to be locked.

So back to square one.

Nevertheless you can still download the files for the manual update but no point in proceeding.

[#10]

Bugger! Thanks for everything though mate. Appreciate it a lot.

If you do come across anything at all, let me know.