I've been fighting this issue for the past few months, this is what worked for me.
I've used chat support (horrible) and I've used phone support (Also horrible, even talked to a manager) in every situation if the power + up doesn't work, they advise taking it in for service whereby they will have my phone for X number of weeks/months and then I get it back, and judging from the number of posts, the root cause is never addressed, therefore IMO sending it to service is a waste of time until Sony acknowleges the problem and has a proper solution. (Not Likely, but I would be thrilled.)
I've tried all of the following with no success:
- Holding down the power for a few min, then plugging in the phone
- Plugging in the charger while the holding down the power button
- Trying to hold down the power and up button
Things that have worked in the past:
- Leaving the phone on the charger for 24+ hours (This didn't work this time)
- Leaving the phone unplugged for 72 hours (Didn't have that kind of time)
I'm not sure why, but I have to use my iPad charger (2A) to charge my phone. If I plug it into the stock sony charger (I think it puts out 1.5A) the phone tells me it's discharging faster than it can charge, and no apps are running other than the stock apps.
Process:
1) Connect the charger to the phone.
2) Get a double A battery, and hook up some leads to it (You can secure them using tape)
3) Connect the positive lead to the docking terminal port nearest the USB charger port
4) Connect the negative lead to the docking terminal port fartest from the USB charger port
WARNING: I'm not 100% sure on the positive and negative connections here, when the light came on I was so happy I threw down the battery, so it's possible I got them mixed up from memory-- Verification from another brave soul would be helpful!
The red charging light should almost immediatly illiminate, if it does not you may elect to increase the power voltage (by using a 9V) but I didn't need to do this, and I'm not sure the results.
Actual milage may vary and this could very well blow up your device. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. In my particular situation based on the above arguments I didn't see a point to service (And likely the time it takes to get to service would have discharged the battery sufficiently). I actually need my phone to be on call, and thankfully this happened on Sunday and not Saturday WHILE I was on call.
Based on my experience with this charging issue and the kitkat upgrade that forces the most restricive security policy on some versions of Exchange, I would not recommend Sony mobile devices, but now that I have one, I'm stuck.
Keep your batteries charged kids. If this solution helped, please consider giving Kudos!
