Sony Z1 Compact shuts down when still well charged

[edfiygegeh]

My phone shuts down after 3-4 hours when the battery level is at 70%. If I recharge it for five minutes it starts up again. This is pretty useless, I'm sure I was promised a longer battery life when I bought the product. It's 2 1/2 years old. 

I tried downloading xperia companion and this just gave me the message:

"

Software repair error

An error occurred while repairing your device.
Please try again. If the problem persists, please contact Sony support."

How exactly do I contact Sony support? When I look online I just get directed to this forum. I need to speak to someone at Sony.

Or can I replace the battery? It seems to be inbuilt though. Or do I have to take it that 2 1/2 years is the lifetime of a sony smart phone?

[Jonas]

Hi @RobU, welcome to our forum!

I am sorry to hear about your phone.

Based on the great information that you have provided it does sound like it's related to hardware rather than software, since you have to charge the phone again to be able to power it on again once it has shut down.

When you receive the error message in Xperia Companion, can you see any error code, such as UE_2005 or similar? If you do, could you get back to me with the error code or a screen shot of the error code?

Before you perform the software repair, I would recommend that you reboot your phone in safe mode. That way we can make sure that this isn't caused by a downloaded application.

There is a few different ways to contact our support. Our global forum (the one you have posted on).  Chat / email and phone support which is provided by your Local support team (do note that all forms of contact may not be available in all markets).

If you want to speak to someone at the Sony Mobile support, I would recommend that you call your local suppor team and they will gladly assist!

The battery can be replaced by a technician at an authorized service centre, for more information on how to have your device sent to one of these service centre, get in touch with your local support.

Let me know how it goes!

[edfiygegeh]

Thanks Jonas. After some playing around I tried running the repair tool on a different computer and this worked.I did a backup beforehand and restored this. That worked OK, but it didn't restore my apps so I had to go through all of them and reinstall them. My phone is now working more or less OK, the problem with the battery has not recurred today, but for some reason I'm not receiving text messages. Any idea why this should be and what to do about it?

Thanks.

[Jonas]

Hi again!

I'm glad to hear that your phone is not shutting down anymore!

Is it normal text messages or MMS messages that you don't receive?

To be able to receive MMS messages you will need to download the internet settings in your phone. You can do so in Settings > More > Internet settings, accept and wait for them to be downloaded and installed > restart your phone.

If it is normal text messages there aren't really any settings in the phone for this. What you can try and do is send a text message to yourself (just write your own number as the receiver) and see if that goes through.

Let me know how that goes and I hope that the shut downs won't continue to happen!

[Arbu]

Hi Jonas

Unfortunately the shutting down started again after a few days. Anthony in your support centre has said that I need to send it back in and they will tell me how much it will cost to repair. But I asked him what level of warranty there was for the repair and all he said was that the phone came with a two year warranty, i.e. when I bought it. So I could send it back, pay, and the problems recur in a few days and there would be nothing I could do.

So that looks like the end of the phone. Not very happy about it.

Rob

[Jonas]

Hi again!

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that.

I'm afraid I can't give you that much advice on to proceed with this since local service routines work vary between markets and how it works in the market I'm located in may differ from how it works in your market.

What you can try and do is recalibrating the battery in your phone and see if that solves the behavior with the phone shutting down. Start with using the phone as normal until it has 0% battery left.

1. Detach the cover for the micro SIM card holder.
2. Using the tip of a pen or a similar object, press and hold down the OFF button.
3. After your device emits a series of quick vibrations, release the OFF button. The device turns off automatically.

Charge your device to 100% when it's powered off and start the device and normal and see if you still experience the same behaviour. If you do, I'm afraid that there anything left to try apart from having it examined by a trained technician.

Keep me posted!

[Kryptonite]

Hi! I have the same problem. I bought an used Sony z1 compact (2 years of use by the previous owner and then the phone was staying useless for a month before I got it) because I drowned my own phone and now it has gone crazy. The phone dies at random point. Mostly when the battery is at 50% but even with 78%. Today I received a new original Sony battery and the problem remains. I did some research and found out that lolipop version of android can cause this. I have kitkat as software. I'm not sure what it was before because the first thing I did when I got it I did the factory reset. Just did the calibration. Tried to install PC companion but it needs refreshing and my laptop won't allow refreshing it for some reason. Is there any other way? 

Have done many "tests" on the hardware and software and nothing has been found.

[Jonas]

Hi @Kryptonite, sorry to hear about your phone.

PC Companion is no longer supported, therefor I would recommend that you download and install Xperia Companion instead and try to perform a software repair using Xperia Companion.

Do note that the software repair will delete all data stored on the internal storage, so creating a backup using Xperia Companion before starting with the repair is advised.

Let me know how it works after the software repair has been completed!

[Kryptonite]

Hi!

Yeah I did use xperia companion a couple of days ago now. Did a repair, did a refresh for the software and still nothing. Does the same thing even it has the new battery. Yesterday it dropped from 90 to 1 percent and then began to calibrate applications.

[Chris_1]

I have this problem as well. 
Mine started just after the phone was 2 years old. Battery seems to discharge normally until a certain point - usually when i try and do something like open an app or use the camera - then instant shut down. I tried a software repair via Xperia Companion and seemed OK for a few days, then back to the same.  Seems more like a software issue than hardware to me - and conveniently after the warrenty expires....