[GUIDE] Recover 2012 and newer XPERIAs from SOFT-brick

[Toledo_JAB]

Re: {RECOVER SOFT-brick}[2012 XPERIA's]Recover ALL 2012 XPERIAs from SOFT-brick

Well it's morning and still no joy

@Ganesh I guess since I cannot unlock bootloader and I am still less then a year, I should be able to go through Sony. But I will best the beast.

From my Xperia X10. Because my Ion is a soft brick

EDIT: 24 hours and still nothing has happened at all since fatal event.

EDIT: 47 hours and still nothing. have been trying both PC & wall. battery still not dead. researching into ardalaan's method of battery unplug. I think this correlates with what Ganesh posted about his service visit.

I would also like to report that my Xperia X10, running CMX10's CM10 Jelly Bean ROM, is filling in nicely for my ION. However it is making me long for a bootloader unlocked ION
Its OK I still got faith, that my Ion will come back

 

[ardalaan]

Well it's morning and still no joy

@Ganesh I guess since I cannot unlock bootloader and I am still less then a year, I should be able to go through Sony. But I will best the beast.

From my Xperia X10. Because my Ion is a soft brick

EDIT: 24 hours and still nothing has happened at all since fatal event.

Its OK I still got faith, that my Ion will come back

please keep us posted
i broke my ion today and did hard reset
now i get no response from the phone
nothing !! i put my phone to wall charger for now its been a 4 hours and still no response from phone !

 

[ardalaan]

ok i after about 9 hours of charging i didn't get any response from my Phone (ion)
so i decided to open my phone and disconnect the battery cable !
after i disconnect my battery cable and plug it again i connect my phone to wall charger and get a red light LED.. after about 20 minutes red led become orange then i connect my phone to pc and start flashtool and flashed new TFT file

all i am saying is that if u don't get red light after couple of hour you have 2 options !
let the battery drain then start charging or unplug battery cable then plug it back

here is the picture of my ion's battery flat

 

[Toledo_JAB]

RED led

After 51 hours finally have red led while on wall charger
attempting to flash now...
EDIT: plugged into PC, with flashtool ready, holding volume down still just solid red led, no charging icon yet. put rubber band on volume down and left plugged into PC with Flashtool waiting.
back to the MICHIGAN vs ohio basketball game. GO BLUE
EDIT: no joy with the first flash attempt. I think barttery was to low. Back on the wall charger with red led still on.

 

[m1trand1r]

Re: {RECOVER SOFT-brick}[2012 XPERIA's]Recover ALL 2012 XPERIAs from SOFT-brick

After 51 hours finally have red led while on wall charger
attempting to flash now...
EDIT: plugged into PC, with flashtool ready, holding volume down still just solid red led, no charging icon yet. put rubber band on volume down and left plugged into PC with Flashtool waiting.
back to the MICHIGAN vs ohio basketball game. GO BLUE

:victory:

Sent fom my S-II running Vanilla Rootbox nightly (2013/02/05) powered with DorimanX kernel 7.46

 

[Toledo_JAB]

Charging icon

Alright guys and girls here we go.
After more charging I successfully flashed just the kernel. I turned phone on and it froze at SONY screen. Then the battery died and went back to just red led. HOWEVER ten minutes after the flash the phone booted into offline charging mode. Currently plugged into wall with red led. When I press the power button I get the offline charging icon of a red battery. I will wait till battery charges over 50% to attempt another stock.ftf flash.
I think by flashing just the kernel it was faster for flashtool to complete with minimum battery life available. As the kernel controls the offline-charging, the balance of the rom can come later. I think this could help others that have flashtool freeze before done.

After a hard fought 54+ hours, I execute a devastating attack/flash upon my enemy. The soft-brick monster, lay writhing in pain in a pool of blood on the floor, still clenching my Ion in it's claws. I now sit back exhausted, to regain my strength/battery and prepare to deliver the death blow/flash to the beast.

 

[m1trand1r]

Re: {RECOVER SOFT-brick}[2012 XPERIA's]Recover ALL 2012 XPERIAs from SOFT-brick

Alright guys and girls here we go.
After my successful flash of just the kernel, I froze at SONY screen (see my last post). Then the battery died and went back to just red led. HOWEVER ten minutes after the flash the phone booted into offline charging mode. Currently plugged into wall with red led. When I press the power button I get the offline charging icon of a red battery. I will wait till battery charges over 50% to attempt another stock.ftf flash.
I think by flashing just the kernel it was faster for flashtool to complete with minimum battery life available. As the kernel controls the offline-charging, the balance of the rom can come later. I think this could help others that have flashtool freeze before done.

After a hard fought 54+ hours, I execute a devastating attack/flash upon my enemy. The soft-brick monster, lay writhing in pain in a pool of blood on the floor, still clenching my Ion in it's claws. I now sit back exhausted, to regain my strength/battery and prepare to deliver the death blow/flash to the beast.

Good luck ma8...beat the brick monster

Sent fom my S-II running Vanilla Rootbox nightly (2013/02/05) powered with DorimanX kernel 7.46

 

[Levopron]

Yess!! I Repair.. Thank Youu!!

 

[Toledo_JAB]

My first soft-brick archive

post #1

Well I am no longer a soft-brick VIRGIN.
Never do a hard-reset when booting up and on the Sony screen, for stock kernel.
I was having some issues receiving both texts & calls. I was in the process of flashing just the baseband from .68i firmware when I thought I was holding the volume down button and plugged in USB. Well I must not have had the button pressed and it started to boot. Being the impatient person I am I attempted a hard-reset while it was starting to boot. Well the hard reset worked but now I have NO response from my phone at all.
The phone had over half the battery left. I am currently plugged in and waiting for something to happen. About every hour or so I switch from PC to wall charger.
The soft-brick demon attacked about 6:00 EST FEB-3. After 5 hours the soft-brick monster still has a choke hold on my ION. I am currently doing weapons upgrade for the next round of battle. I will slay this soft-brick beast.
I will update as I progress.

p.s. Luckily I got the micro-sim card to sit properly in my X10 without an adapter, as I don't have one and need the phone tomorrow for work

EDIT: I am going to try something new. I am going to place a rubber band around the phone to hold the volume down button in. Then I will leave flashtool asking for phone in flashmode. I will leave it like this till morning. I am hoping once the battery dies I will catch a loop and already have the button and flashtool ready. I might just get lucky and wake up with a restored phone

Well it's morning and still no joy

@Ganesh I guess since I cannot unlock bootloader and I am still less then a year, I should be able to go through Sony. But I will best the beast.

From my Xperia X10. Because my Ion is a soft brick

EDIT: 24 hours and still nothing has happened at all since fatal event.

EDIT: 47 hours and still nothing. have been trying both PC & wall. battery still not dead. researching into ardalaan's method of battery unplug. I think this correlates with what Ganesh posted about his service visit.

I would also like to report that my Xperia X10, running CMX10's CM10 Jelly Bean ROM, is filling in nicely for my ION. However it is making me long for a bootloader unlocked ION
Its OK I still got faith, that my Ion will come back​

post #2

After 51 hours finally have red led while on wall charger
attempting to flash now...
EDIT: plugged into PC, with flashtool ready, holding volume down still just solid red led, no charging icon yet. put rubber band on volume down and left plugged into PC with Flashtool waiting.
back to the MICHIGAN vs ohio basketball game. GO BLUE
EDIT: no joy with the first flash attempt. I think barttery was to low. Back on the wall charger with red led still on.
​

post #3

Alright guys and girls here we go.
After more charging I successfully flashed just the kernel. I turned phone on and it froze at SONY screen. Then the battery died and went back to just red led. HOWEVER ten minutes after the flash the phone booted into offline charging mode. Currently plugged into wall with red led. When I press the power button I get the offline charging icon of a red battery. I will wait till battery charges over 50% to attempt another stock.ftf flash.
I think by flashing just the kernel it was faster for flashtool to complete with minimum battery life available. As the kernel controls the offline-charging, the balance of the rom can come later. I think this could help others that have flashtool freeze before done.

After a hard fought 54+ hours, I execute a devastating attack/flash upon my enemy. The soft-brick monster, lay writhing in pain in a pool of blood on the floor, still clenching my Ion in it's claws. I now sit back exhausted, to regain my strength/battery and prepare to deliver the death blow/flash to the beast.
​

post #4

Well I recovered my Ion.
Now for some reason I cannot flash any baseband when using win xp. I can flash basebands from ubuntu though. It took me a few hours to figure this out. Tried reboot, older version and every stock ftf I have, ics & gb. I can flash all other parts of the stock ftf. Baseband freezes flashtool up at processing the data and I have to close flashtool.
Not sure why win xp wont work, but since linux worked I dont care
I got some good tips to add to OP.
Flashing just the kernel requires less battery charge to flash and fixes offline charging.
Also unplugging the battery after back pieces are removed should eliminate the waiting for battery to die, if you can handle taking phone apart. Battery unplug should save a lot of time in both discharge and charging. If battery is full if will take days to discharge. But if you unplug it should reset and keep the charge for flashing.
Well now on to my wifes captivate glide. It keeps shutting down when data is turned on. Time to learn about odin and Samsung

Sent from my X10a​

EDIT

My soft-brick summary

My phone was acting up in calls so I started flashing the baseband. when plugging in USB I missed holding the volume down button and it started to boot. I STUPIDLY did a HARD-RESET during boot. The hard reset worked but now I have NO response from my phone at all.
The phone had over 50% battery left.
I then plugged into a wall charger. Then I read through this recovery thread, while waiting for something to happen.

I then tried something new. I placed a rubber band around the phone to hold the volume down button in. Then I made flashtool ask for the phone in flashmode and plugged in the phone. I left it like that overnight.

After 18 hours I gave up on the rubber band trick and just plugged into a wall charger.

After 51 hours I finally have the red led while using a wall charger.
I quickly setup flashtool for flashmode. I connected phone in flashmode (green led) and flashtool started but failed as the battery died.
I tried the rubber band trick a few times but same fail as battery dies.
So 2 hours after the first red led, I went back on the wall charger and the red led is still on.
After 1 hour on the charger I tried to flash again.
I read in the OP that the kernel controls the charging. Knowing the battery dies fast, I flashed only the kernel. It only takes seconds to flash a kernel.
The flash was successful.
I unplugged USB and pressed the power button until 1 vibration, to end flashmode and boot the phone. If you don't end flashmode the phone will still give a green led when plugged in, but it will not charge until the battery dies and the phone resets.
During the first boot after flash the phone froze up at the SONY boot screen. As the battery was very still very low, I went back to on the charger with the SONY screen still showing.
The battery died and went to red led.
HOWEVER after ten minutes, the phone booted into offline charging mode (the battery icon screen with the red led)
I left it plugged into charger untill battery over 50%. A quick press of the power button brings back the icon battery.
Finally I was able to flash the full stock.ftf and recover my phone.

 

[josephnero]

My Xperia Ion suddenly froze and screen turned gray.after several hours in that state it shutdown.now when i connect to to charger red led turns on but nothing.it doesnt boot nor power up.no vibration,nothing.tried PC companion and update service but they dont recognize the phone.any help is appericiated.
Also its on stock rom with locked bootloader.stock everything.also i bought it second hand and have no recipt so i cant take it to service.
ps:im not stranger to android or flashing and etc etc,so throw me anything you suspect that may work

 

[Toledo_JAB]

ATTENTION: If your phone is not working but you see led or have bootloops DO NOT USE HARD-RESET. This will make phone lock up until battery dies.(took 51 hours for me to get red led). However if you get stuck on a boot screen a SOFT-RESET may work to reboot.

My Xperia Ion suddenly froze and screen turned gray.after several hours in that state it shutdown.now when i connect to to charger red led turns on but nothing.it doesnt boot nor power up.no vibration,nothing.tried PC companion and update service but they dont recognize the phone.any help is appericiated.
Also its on stock rom with locked bootloader.stock everything.also i bought it second hand and have no recipt so i cant take it to service.
ps:im not stranger to android or flashing and etc etc,so throw me anything you suspect that may work

If you read back a few post you will see I have just come from the same issue you have.

• Once you get a red led keep charging with wall charger(it has a higher charge rate).
• Make flashtool ready to flash just the Kernel from your stock ftf (I had flashtool waiting for hours). To flash just the kernel, check off all in the exclude box except kernel. I also will say that for just this time only uncheck ALL items in wipe box. At this point your battery is very low and doing this will make the flash process much faster than trying to flash the entire ROM.
• Now with flashtool waiting you need to get into flash-mode, green led. For flash-mode unplug from PC, hold volume DOWN button and plug back in. If your phone has enough battery you will get green led.
• If you don't get it on the first try, just put it back on the charger and wait about 10-30 minutes and repeat. It may take a while to charge enough to flash.
• You may see the red led go out, try for flash mode then.
• If you get bootloops, try to flash between loops (that is what worked for me). This part takes quick hands and good timing. You must unplug, hold vol down and plug back when the screen is off. Once the first loop starts you have very limited time to flash before loops drain battery and you need to charge again.

Once you flash just the kernel, unplug and turn on phone then plug into wall charger. After 10-30 minutes you should get the battery icon for off-line charging. Charge until over 50%. when the charge is good then prepare flashtool to flash full stock.ftf and full wipe. (see my first post for help)

hopefully now you will be able to flash the complete stock rom, if not just post what happened. reading the last 2 pages of posts may help.

Good luck
~Jaramie

@ALL: I will be updating the OP soon, just not sure when.

 

[josephnero]

Re: {RECOVER SOFT-brick}[2012 XPERIA's]Recover ALL 2012 XPERIAs from SOFT-brick

Got it working.thanks alot

Sent from my LT30p using xda premium

 

[Jaminpro]

help plz

updated my Sony Xperia T to 4.1.2 a few hours ago via PC Companion 2.1. Everything was good until I restarted my phone and it got stuck in the screen with white triangle and blue bar (after the Sony logo). I waited but nothing happens.

I've tried to force restart using power button + volume up (switching off using the power button alone doesn't respond) several times but it still get stuck in the same screen. I was able to repair it using PC companion and SEUS (both were successful) but when I turned on the phone the problem still persists. Restarted several times but to no avail. I cannot use my phone right now.

What seems to be the problem?

 

[ccrowe3]

ATTENTION: If your phone is not working but you see led or have bootloops DO NOT USE HARD-RESET. This will make phone lock up until battery dies.(took 51 hours for me to get red led). However if you get stuck on a boot screen a SOFT-RESET may work to reboot.



If you read back a few post you will see I have just come from the same issue you have.

• Once you get a red led keep charging with wall charger(it has a higher charge rate).
• Make flashtool ready to flash just the Kernel from your stock ftf (I had flashtool waiting for hours). To flash just the kernel, check off all in the exclude box except kernel. I also will say that for just this time only uncheck ALL items in wipe box. At this point your battery is very low and doing this will make the flash process much faster than trying to flash the entire ROM.
• Now with flashtool waiting you need to get into flash-mode, green led. For flash-mode unplug from PC, hold volume DOWN button and plug back in. If your phone has enough battery you will get green led.
• If you don't get it on the first try, just put it back on the charger and wait about 10-30 minutes and repeat. It may take a while to charge enough to flash.
• You may see the red led go out, try for flash mode then.
• If you get bootloops, try to flash between loops (that is what worked for me). This part takes quick hands and good timing. You must unplug, hold vol down and plug back when the screen is off. Once the first loop starts you have very limited time to flash before loops drain battery and you need to charge again.

Once you flash just the kernel, unplug and turn on phone then plug into wall charger. After 10-30 minutes you should get the battery icon for off-line charging. Charge until over 50%. when the charge is good then prepare flashtool to flash full stock.ftf and full wipe. (see my first post for help)

hopefully now you will be able to flash the complete stock rom, if not just post what happened. reading the last 2 pages of posts may help.

Good luck
~Jaramie

@ALL: I will be updating the OP soon, just not sure when.

Awesome advice! This helped me a lot. My Ion was softbricked from about midnight Eastern Time (US) until just now. It takes a little bit of faith to believe that the charge LED light is ever going to come back on. But it did! My Ion lives!

 

[ganeshbiyer]

The Rubber Band trick worked

The Rubber Band trick worked:good:

I started the flash tool and set it to flash mode with .68 firmware ready to flash.
Then I put the Rubber band on the phone in such a way that the Vol down button was pressed.
Then I connected the Phone to PC and then went to sleep.
In the morning, the firmware was flashed.
The phone still won't start. So I put it on Wall charger and withing 10 mins the phone was on and booted properly.

Thanks to Jaramie for his tip.:good:

 

[Toledo_JAB]

Re: {RECOVER SOFT-brick}[2012 XPERIA's]Recover ALL 2012 XPERIAs from SOFT-brick

The Rubber Band trick worked:good:

I started the flash tool and set it to flash mode with .68 firmware ready to flash.
Then I put the Rubber band on the phone in such a way that the Vol down button was pressed.
Then I connected the Phone to PC and then went to sleep.
In the morning, the firmware was flashed.
The phone still won't start. So I put it on Wall charger and withing 10 mins the phone was on and booted properly.

Thanks to Jaramie for his tip.:good:

Ganesh,
glad it helped. Did you flash just the kernel? Or the whole Rom?

From Jaramie's LT28at
2012Xperia SOFT-BRICK Recovery Thread

 

[ganeshbiyer]

Ganesh,
glad it helped. Did you flash just the kernel? Or the whole Rom?

From Jaramie's LT28at
2012Xperia SOFT-BRICK Recovery Thread

The whole Rom.

 

[bukansiapasiapa]

my XIon not turn on..it happen after i fully charge when the HH is off..
when i hold the power button, no vibrate, no LED, no response after all..
when i connect to the charger, no red/orange/green LED is on..
my pc cannot detect the HH, so my ion cannot enter flash mode or fastboot mode too..
any solution for my problem?
please help me..

sorry for my english..

 

[sleizi]

thanks

thanks. You saved my phone.

 

[bb_ed68]

Hey there. My question is as what should the phone be detected in windows7x64 ? it detects qhsusb_dload but won't install proper driver... and all are installed but as i choose manually, it always says not proper driver for this device.
next question : phone don't enter in flash mode, no green led, never. would it be fixed if i select proper driver ?
Thx in advance, any help will be appreciated...