Howto: Unbrick Semi-Bricked X10 (red flashing led)

[dawn2k]

It was just a matter of time for me to brick me new phone. It took me 8 days this time but it can be fixed fairly easy.

If you've got a red flashing led (flashing ca. once per second) while charging and flashing three times after pressing the power button, you can try the following.
I had an error like that and fixed it.
After leaving the phone at the charger for about half an hour it turned on at random but was stuck at the Sony Ericsson bootscreen. I think it has something to do with wiping battery stats, so be careful with this option in XRecovery.

This is how I got it working again:

First of all ensure your battery is not damaged. Try it in a different phone or try a different battery.
If it works, ensure your usb-port is working.
Afterwards do the following:
1. Boot up a windows computer
2. Download and install Sony Ericsson Update Service (SEUS) - you will find it easily with the search machine of your choice
3. Get some adhesive tape, press the back button and tape it down (be sure it is pressed all the time)
4. Connect the phone to your Computer, you should see the flashing LED again, don't panic
5. Start SEUS and chose the X10
6. Wait(!)
7. Get a cup of coffee and wait again
8. The LED will turn green at some time, windows will recognize the device. Complete the update of system software (even if it says your phone is up to date)
9. You will have to reboot the phone. Your LED will be flashing red again. Don't panic, your almost done. Leave the phone charging for another hour or two. It should be booting by itself.

After this steps my phone was working fine again. No dead battery, no dead usb-port as mentioned in other forums or other threads.
Just try it, if you flashed a custom rom you have got nothing to lose.

 

[MrHassell]

USB port disabled - factory wipe

First of all ensure your battery is not damaged. Try it in a different phone or try
After this steps my phone was working fine again. No dead battery, no dead usb-port as mentioned in other forums or other threads.

Thank you for this thread. I've seen many similar issues and was just hit with this RED LED of death - 3 blinks then nothing...

Messing with chargemon and charger in /system/bin/ - has certainly not been good, but I'm not convinced it was the entire problem, at least in my case I was running a version of Wolfbreak CM 6.5 v5 and let the battery get below 5% charge.

I should have turned it off, waited until I could charge again but I didn't! When I tried to recharge, the phone initially was giving green led's so it might have been possible to salvage easily.. I made a terrible mistake of going to xRecovery and waiting until the battery was so dead, there was really no way of recovering from this state and totally drained out the battery.

So I purchased a new BST-41 battery for AU $25. Maybe that was expensive for a clone, others are available for $4 on ebay but hey, have a look at this thread regarding Original VS. Fake BST-41 Battery - quite interesting!

This got my X10 working again... BUT I am unable to get into SEUS, Flashtool or make the charger work. The USB port appears to have been disabled and am unsure about the best way to reset to an operational state.

Will update this thread when I have found more

EDIT 1: It's all in the above post...

5. Start SEUS and chose the X10
6. Wait(!)
7. Get a cup of coffee and wait again
8. The LED will turn green at some time, windows will recognize the device.

With the exception of maybe having to mess around with this a bit, it will eventually work. I didn't tape the button down because you need to release it but I've just seen green flashes.. I'm very close to getting this phone working again with SEUS and the back key..

EDIT 2: xRecovery > Factory Reset > Full wipe - you will be warned of loosing all user data - The moment you wipe the user data, the phone will recognise the charger and turn to a green LED. From this point let it reboot, it will go silly and you may even get a WLOD - White LED of death.

If you have got USB to connect, follow the standard method of using SEUS to restore a factory ROM and take it from there. TRY to remember not to let the battery go below 5% without a charger and invest in some spare battery's from eBay - cheap after all

Connect via WiFi is only possible with LT15 (Arc) - SO-01c (Arc) - Neo (MT15) - Play (R800) - USB must be enabled for a connection to happen to the PC and this is where I'm still stuck..

EDIT 3: Turns out the problem is - USB Port needs to be re-soldered, it is broken contact and is intermittently connecting to the USB port.

 

[blade828]

This is what happened to my phone too. I ended up sending it away for repair because the USB port was broken. The phone would say it was charging but it actually wasnt. Im still waiting to get my phone back.

 

[shakeyabooti]

I thought it wasn't possible to brick an xperia x10, forgive me if I'm ring?

Sent from my X10 TripNMiUI using XDA App

 

[CMoney87]

I thought it wasn't possible to brick an xperia x10, forgive me if I'm ring?

Sent from my X10 TripNMiUI using XDA App

It wasn't bricked, it was faulty connection in the USB port not allowing their phone accept a charge. The red LED is from an uncharged battery.



Sent from my X10i using XDA Premium App

 

[eghoti1]

Thanks OP, this worked perfectly. I'm glad I risked it with an amazing deal on craigslist. Kudos.

 

[OmegaRED^]

I thought it wasn't possible to brick an xperia x10, forgive me if I'm ring?

Sent from my X10 TripNMiUI using XDA App

Only if you have access to the bootloader.

 

[vu2ikl]

Ok.. i think i bricked my x10.
My x10 always gave me problem at startup. I had to remove battery wait 5sec. Then again try booting. After few attempts it would boot. So i decided to reinstall 2.1. Downloaded seus. Installation till 90%. And unknown error window.
Service Center won't take it as its from different country.

When i try to boot it. It blinks green led and that's it.

Any suggestions?

 

[arkedk]

Ok.. i think i bricked my x10.
My x10 always gave me problem at startup. I had to remove battery wait 5sec. Then again try booting. After few attempts it would boot. So i decided to reinstall 2.1. Downloaded seus. Installation till 90%. And unknown error window.
Service Center won't take it as its from different country.

When i try to boot it. It blinks green led and that's it.

Any suggestions?

Can you get in flashmode?
If so then try and flash with FlashTool

 

[vu2ikl]

@arkedk thanks for the quick reply.
I m total noob. Can u please point me to the "how to" flash x10?

EDIT: i found this thread which discuss the flash at length.. will try and get back.

 

[vu2ikl]

red led flashing three times

Can you get in flashmode?
If so then try and flash with FlashTool

yes. i could successfully flash the phone with 2.1.B.0.1 version just now. without error. but now i when i try to start the phone, it doesn't. instead, i get the red led flashing three times.
i put it for charging. the green led lights up showing it has started charging. but after roughly 15-20 seconds the green led fades off.

1. flashing was successful which means usb is not broken right?
2. have i bricked my phone?
3. How can i get my lovely x10 back to life?

 

[acmbc]

Have you flashed with SEUS or flashtool?

Try reflashing the rom as a first step.

If flashing with flashtool, does the sw detect your phone? Could you post the output to the screen as flashtool tries to flash? That would help!

Sent from my X10 TripNMiUI-IRIS using XDA App

 

[vu2ikl]

Have you flashed with SEUS or flashtool?
Try reflashing the rom as a first step.
If flashing with flashtool, does the sw detect your phone? Could you post the output to the screen as flashtool tries to flash? That would help!
Sent from my X10 TripNMiUI-IRIS using XDA App

I used the flashtool, as SEUS was the only culprit who made my x10 to hibernate (i am still trying to wake it up )
sorry, i donno how to attach photo.. here is the link where i have uploaded that.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/5771350239/

 

[arkedk]

I used the flashtool, as SEUS was the only culprit who made my x10 to hibernate (i am still trying to wake it up )
sorry, i donno how to attach photo.. here is the link where i have uploaded that.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/5771350239/

Looks like you had a successful flash. How much battery did you have when you flashed?

 

[acmbc]

If the battery had drained dry flashtool wouldn't have finished flashing, would it though?

Can you have you tried to reflash?

Sent from my X10 TripNMiUI-IRIS using XDA App

 

[vu2ikl]

Looks like you had a successful flash. How much battery did you have when you flashed?

battery was very very low. but the phone is connected to laptop while flashing..wouldn't that be enough?

@acmbc: should i reflash?

when i kept x10 for charging, the green charging led lights up for 10-15 seconds and then goes off.. still kept it charging for couple of hours. and then tried rebooting. this time green led flashed. phone vibrated but nothing.

ok..i gotta confess. i tried the crazy solution mentioned on talk.sonyericsson which asked to keep battery in freezer for an hour and then try charging it. i did that. and when i put x10 for charging. for 20 seconds the green light was on.. but then it went berserk.. vibrating continuously. at once i took out the battery. and now i am scared as it is repeating this cycle when i charge it. green light->off->vibrate continuously.

 

[arkedk]

battery was very very low. but the phone is connected to laptop while flashing..wouldn't that be enough?

@acmbc: should i reflash?

when i kept x10 for charging, the green charging led lights up for 10-15 seconds and then goes off.. still kept it charging for couple of hours. and then tried rebooting. this time green led flashed. phone vibrated but nothing.

ok..i gotta confess. i tried the crazy solution mentioned on talk.sonyericsson which asked to keep battery in freezer for an hour and then try charging it. i did that. and when i put x10 for charging. for 20 seconds the green light was on.. but then it went berserk.. vibrating continuously. at once i took out the battery. and now i am scared as it is repeating this cycle when i charge it. green light->off->vibrate continuously.

There's your problem. You must never flash with low battery. always flash with at least 50% or more. And no you're not getting power from the computer in flashmode only the battery is supplying that power.

If the flash was successful you could try and hook the phone up to the charger (wall charger) and let it sit there for a while. This might get it back to life.

 

[vu2ikl]

how do i charge my half bricked phone

There's your problem. You must never flash with low battery. always flash with at least 50% or more. And no you're not getting power from the computer in flashmode only the battery is supplying that power.

If the flash was successful you could try and hook the phone up to the charger (wall charger) and let it sit there for a while. This might get it back to life.

ok.. thanks. i thought phone would get the power from computer.
but now i have one more question in front of me.
How do i charge my phone.
coz. when i connect x10 to wall charger it shows green light for some time and then starts vibrating untill i get the battery out.
if i connect x10 to the computer which i am doing now, it is flashing red light every 5 seconds.

 

[arkedk]

ok.. thanks. i thought phone would get the power from computer.
but now i have one more question in front of me.
How do i charge my phone.
coz. when i connect x10 to wall charger it shows green light for some time and then starts vibrating untill i get the battery out.
if i connect x10 to the computer which i am doing now, it is flashing red light every 5 seconds.

Looks like you had an unsuccessful flash then. If you got any other means of getting the battery charged then try that and see if you can flash it again.
If not, I'm afraid you'll have to take it to the service center.

 

[OmegaRED^]

I read the post from the op..
If the battery gets severely drained it may look like the phone is dead.
Just plug it in and sometime up to a hour later it will power up.