Tried my first flash, phone bricked:(

Xperia SP 5306
Carrier is Rogers Canada
Rooted with towelroot successfully
Have a LOCKED bootloader - am unable to unlock
Recoveries successfully installed
Running Sony's stock 4.3
Did a full nandroid backup using TWRP
Tried flashing this ROM: http://xdaforums.com/xperia-sp/development/rom-207-rdz-stock-rom-t2835579
Cleared caches as directed, then tried to flash rom off of SD card, it just said 'Failed'
I then just rebooted phone, and it got stuck at 'Sony' screen
Rebooted with the reset button at the back, and was able to repair it using SUS for mac (I have a macbook)

I am currently downloading flashtool and stock Rogers .ftf file for 5306 off of this site: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2311964

Since upgrading to .266 my phone has been super laggy and slow. All I would like is to downgrade to any stock based ROM, that is quick and gets decent battery life.

Any advice would be appreciated! Did I try the wrong ROM? Any idea what I did wrong?

Thank you all so much for reading

Tech N You said:

Use Vanir ROM if you want 4.4 superfast and smooth. If you want stock based ROM's go for existenz Ultra

Sent from my C5302 using XDA Free mobile app

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Click to collapse

Thank you for this information. I am currently reading Furrydaus' excellent noob guide here: http://xdaforums.com/xperia-sp/general/root-ultimate-noobs-guide-to-rooting-t2845520

But I still am not sure what I am doing wrong... so here is my question: given the device and the software I have on my phone i.e. 5306, locked BL), is it possible for me to flash a custom ROM, and if so, can someone point me to one that might work?

Thank you everyone. And yes, I have a locked bootloader. The ROM I tried to flash (I linked to it above) says it works for LBLs but it still failed on me, as I described. I will try flashing the latest firmware here as posted by kelumsd and post back my results. I am assuming that I can flash this with no issues, even though I have a locked bootloader?

Many thanks again

Well, I tried to flash the .207 firmware and sure enough, it aborted with the following error log. Note that I definitely have USB debugging ON, and am NOT in MTP mode..
Any ideas? I am thinking the best idea is just to give up..


11/032/2014 22:32:34 - INFO - Start Flashing
11/032/2014 22:32:34 - INFO - Processing loader.sin
11/032/2014 22:32:34 - INFO - Checking header
11/032/2014 22:32:34 - ERROR - Processing of loader.sin finished with errors.
11/032/2014 22:32:34 - INFO - Ending flash session
11/032/2014 22:32:34 - ERROR - Error in processHeader : 87 : The parameter is incorrect.
11/032/2014 22:32:34 - ERROR - Error flashing. Aborted
11/032/2014 22:32:34 - INFO - Device connected with USB debugging off
11/032/2014 22:32:34 - INFO - For 2011 devices line, be sure you are not in MTP mode