Database Develop

[Q] Xperia Z does not turn on.

Hello everyone,
In the past week, I have decided to sell off my Nexus 4, and I went on to buy a new cheap unlocked 40$ android phone and a used water damaged Xperia Z.
I had just got the Xperia Z a few hours ago, and the guy who I bought the Z from, said a bit of water leaked into the phone about 2 weeks ago, and ever since then the phone does not turn on.
So far I have pretty much disassembled the whole thing, and noticed that all three water indicator stickers at the ports have turned red.
But I seriously cant find any water, damage or corrosion on the phone's connectors, internal frame, battery connectors, anywhere.
I guess only a few drops has entered the phone and over time the water evaporated.
Now after drying the internal components in the sun, and using 70% isopropyl wipes (I looked everywhere for 99% isopeopyl Alcohol liquid, I cant find them everywhere) I wiped it over the phone's motherboard and then used a toothbrush to remove any dirt or corrosion building up in the board.
Now the thing is that the phone does not do anything when I plug in the charger.
But when I remove the battery, and plug in the charger, and press the power button, the phone's LED blinks red for about half a second, then vibrates once and then a blue LED light comes and stays on. However nothing comes up on the screen.
I tried the Power button and Vol.Up button, but it does not do anything.
The Z's battery seems fine, as I tried it out on my Xperia C and it works perfectly there.
And I tried the Xperia C's battery on the Z. Same thing no response from the phone
What should I do?
I guess look around or a 99% alcohol solution and properly wash the Z's motherboard?
Or is this some sort of a software issue?
Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks!

Akash434 said:
Hello everyone,
In the past week, I have decided to sell off my Nexus 4, and I went on to buy a new cheap unlocked 40$ android phone and a used water damaged Xperia Z.
I had just got the Xperia Z a few hours ago, and the guy who I bought the Z from, said a bit of water leaked into the phone about 2 weeks ago, and ever since then the phone does not turn on.
So far I have pretty much disassembled the whole thing, and noticed that all three water indicator stickers at the ports have turned red.
But I seriously cant find any water, damage or corrosion on the phone's connectors, internal frame, battery connectors, anywhere.
I guess only a few drops has entered the phone and over time the water evaporated.
Now after drying the internal components in the sun, and using 70% isopropyl wipes (I looked everywhere for 99% isopeopyl Alcohol liquid, I cant find them everywhere) I wiped it over the phone's motherboard and then used a toothbrush to remove any dirt or corrosion building up in the board.
Now the thing is that the phone does not do anything when I plug in the charger.
But when I remove the battery, and plug in the charger, and press the power button, the phone's LED blinks red for about half a second, then vibrates once and then a blue LED light comes and stays on. However nothing comes up on the screen.
I tried the Power button and Vol.Up button, but it does not do anything.
The Z's battery seems fine, as I tried it out on my Xperia C and it works perfectly there.
And I tried the Xperia C's battery on the Z. Same thing no response from the phone
What should I do?
I guess look around or a 99% alcohol solution and properly wash the Z's motherboard?
Or is this some sort of a software issue?
Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To me it rather looks like the seller modified the software and hard bricked the device... My Xperia T had the same sympoms when it was hard bricked....

I would have thought the battery had shorted out
Bang a replacement in

Oadbylad said:
I would have thought the battery had shorted out
Bang a replacement in
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Every fault is not caused by a faulty battery. I know you fixed your phone with a replacement battery, but that is not the solution to everything.
If you had read his post properly, you would see the battery powers another device just fine. A shorted battery would surely not function at all.
Akash434 said:
The Z's battery seems fine, as I tried it out on my Xperia C and it works perfectly there.
And I tried the Xperia C's battery on the Z. Same thing no response from the phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my C6603 using Tapatalk

Well today, I bought some distilled water and washed the phones motherboard with a toothbrush to displace any particles left on the board.
Now When I plug in the charger (with out the battery, as the phone does nothing with the battery plugged in) the phones LED blinks red and the phone vibrates once. It then goes on to repeat this process over and over again.
But my computer kinda detects my phone, as it tries to install the phones drivers. If I remember correctly the devices name on my computer is 'S1 FlashBoot'
But for the computer and Sony PC Companion to detect my phone, I have to remove the battery ribbon to let the phone start up on USB power, and then reinsert the battery ribbon when the phone vibrates and flashes its LED once, and then I have to remove the Button ribbon since, for some reason if the button ribbon and the battery ribbon is connected at the same time the phone shuts off.
Sony's PC software detects my phone, but since I cant press the power button due to the removal of the button ribbon from the motherboard, I cant repair my phone using the software.
Maybe theres something wrong with the power button/ribbon is having a few issues?
I also found some corrosion bottom right hand corner under the network antenna, and a severely corroded 3 segment ribbon, where 2 out of 3 segments were non functional due to corrosion,. As I tried to open the connector, I sneezed and accidentally ripped it.
Dammit.
It didn't work before I ripped it, so I wonder if I somehow fix this ribbon would it help solve a few of the above issues with my phone?
What does this small dinky ribbon do, anyways?
You can read about it here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-z/help/break-t2748834

Akash434 said:
Well today, I bought some distilled water and washed the phones motherboard with a toothbrush to displace any particles left on the board.
Now When I plug in the charger (with out the battery, as the phone does nothing with the battery plugged in) the phones LED blinks red and the phone vibrates once. It then goes on to repeat this process over and over again.
But my computer kinda detects my phone, as it tries to install the phones drivers. If I remember correctly the devices name on my computer is 'S1 FlashBoot'
But for the computer and Sony PC Companion to detect my phone, I have to remove the battery ribbon to let the phone start up on USB power, and then reinsert the battery ribbon when the phone vibrates and flashes its LED once, and then I have to remove the Button ribbon since, for some reason if the button ribbon and the battery ribbon is connected at the same time the phone shuts off.
Sony's PC software detects my phone, but since I cant press the power button due to the removal of the button ribbon from the motherboard, I cant repair my phone using the software.
Maybe theres something wrong with the power button/ribbon is having a few issues?
I also found some corrosion bottom right hand corner under the network antenna, and a severely corroded 3 segment ribbon, where 2 out of 3 segments were non functional due to corrosion,. As I tried to open the connector, I sneezed and accidentally ripped it.
Dammit.
It didn't work before I ripped it, so I wonder if I somehow fix this ribbon would it help solve a few of the above issues with my phone?
What does this small dinky ribbon do, anyways?
You can read about it here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-z/help/break-t2748834
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Found this post through google while looking for a solution for my Xperia Z.
My first experia also had the same problem, sort of. The battery would jump from 90% to 60%, then 73%, then 20%, then 71% and so forth.
I decided to update the system software, to which it turned off during the process. The OS became faulty, and it rebooted all the time, showing a weak red light, then a strong red light, turn on, turn off and so on. The authorized service replaced my battery, but I guess that's not your problem in this case, and I doubt it that it's a faulty OS. Because even with a faulty OS, it would atleast show the Sony or Xperia logo.
Now I have the same starting issues and I blame the ribbons I guess, since when I press it the right way, it suddenly accepts charge and boots up. Replace the ribbons, and you might be fine. Guess there's some short circuit.

Hard bricked Motorola Atrix HD

Hi, as the title of this thread says, my mobile just died i dont know how but i cant do anything, i cant enter in recovery mode, i cant enter into fastboot mode, it wont recognize any command i put. The only thing it does, its that when i plug in the usb cable it turns on the green led and wants to start but when it gets to the "Warning: Bootloader unlocked" advice, it turns off again and starts again. I dont know if this can be fixed, i hope so. Thanks
PS: Sorry about my english XD

matiamb said:
Hi, as the title of this thread says, my mobile just died i dont know how but i cant do anything, i cant enter in recovery mode, i cant enter into fastboot mode, it wont recognize any command i put. The only thing it does, its that when i plug in the usb cable it turns on the green led and wants to start but when it gets to the "Warning: Bootloader unlocked" advice, it turns off again and starts again. I dont know if this can be fixed, i hope so. Thanks
PS: Sorry about my english XD
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just a guess, but you might have a bad battery. To test that, you can either buy or make a Motorola Factory Cable (google it) or get a new battery. Factory Cables power the phone directly from USB, bypassing the battery -- meaning if it works with the Factory Cable, the problem is with the battery. If it doesn't work with the Factory Cable, you might be screwed and need an actual repair from Motorola.
Also, try powering on the phone holding down all the buttons. That's how you access the boot menu, if you can get to that menu, you should be able to access fastboot and recovery.
And don't charge it with a PC, use the wall plug charger or a car charger. The phone treats a PC connection differently than the rest, even if the phone is off and only being plugged in to be charged -- it'll force boot/power on with a PC USB connection when it's turned off (it does for me). See if it'll take a charge with the wall/car.
My Bravo acts like this when that battery is really, really low and I plug it into a PC to charge when it's low....it also did exactly what your post said a year ago and I had to replace the battery....don't by a cheapo generic battery, I did and I regret it very badly (it has already gone out and doesn't work...the generic battery).

skeevydude said:
Just a guess, but you might have a bad battery. To test that, you can either buy or make a Motorola Factory Cable (google it) or get a new battery. Factory Cables power the phone directly from USB, bypassing the battery -- meaning if it works with the Factory Cable, the problem is with the battery. If it doesn't work with the Factory Cable, you might be screwed and need an actual repair from Motorola.
Also, try powering on the phone holding down all the buttons. That's how you access the boot menu, if you can get to that menu, you should be able to access fastboot and recovery.
And don't charge it with a PC, use the wall plug charger or a car charger. The phone treats a PC connection differently than the rest, even if the phone is off and only being plugged in to be charged -- it'll force boot/power on with a PC USB connection when it's turned off (it does for me). See if it'll take a charge with the wall/car.
My Bravo acts like this when that battery is really, really low and I plug it into a PC to charge when it's low....it also did exactly what your post said a year ago and I had to replace the battery....don't by a cheapo generic battery, I did and I regret it very badly (it has already gone out and doesn't work...the generic battery).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It might be the battery, because my mom dropped it into the water some weeks ago. I'll try factory cable now and see what happens. I tried holding down all the buttons but nothing happens. Just minutes ago I made it into fast boot mode, and now I'm scared of turn it off haha. I'll see what happens and let you know. Thank you for the reply!

matiamb said:
It might be the battery, because my mom dropped it into the water some weeks ago. I'll try factory cable now and see what happens. I tried holding down all the buttons but nothing happens. Just minutes ago I made it into fast boot mode, and now I'm scared of turn it off haha. I'll see what happens and let you know. Thank you for the reply!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just leave it in a wall charger for a few hours then. Sounds like you might get lucky.
My Dad has dropped his in the toilet twice now (seriously, twice...figured he'd learn the first time) and on the second time, it had to be powered off, wrapped in a paper towel, and left in rice for 24 hours before it worked again (6 hours on his bed the first time). Rice draws out the moisture and is a cheap easy way to dry the internals of a phone if its soaked....just telling ya for future reference.
Mines been wet, but never soaked. These phones aren't hard at all to take apart and put back together (I repaired my Dad's cracked digitizer a few days ago in under a half hour...never taken one apart before then...the 22 #5 torx that are removed are damn annoying), so you could take it apart, blow dry it (warning: don't say on any one area for more than 5 seconds, you'll risk both unsticking the glue that holds the screen on as well as warping the motherboard), and use some PC cleaner or isopropyl alcohol (99% alcohol) and clean the board up being careful to not get alcohol on the screens -- (warning: alcohol can weaken certain plastics, but it's perfectly fine as a cleaning agent for a silicon based motherboard...alcohol also dries and removes trace amounts of moisture and can clean oxidation spots.
I can see oxidation on the battery terminals making the phone act like this. IRL, I install custom, solar powered, automatic iron gates, and the #1 repair I have to do is cleaning battery terminals. 30 seconds, a terminal post cleaner tool (glorified wire brush), and some WD-40 (acts as a sealant/water repellent) can make a non-functional gate into a working gate. Bad power flow is hell on electronics.
Just look at the EB40 mod guide. It has the exact same steps you'll need to do if you want to attempt cleaning the terminals, well, except for that step where you put in a better battery.

Repairing water damaged phone

Hi,
i send my phone down the river and probably killed it. backplate was broken and charging lid as well, there is no warranty any more.
i dried it for a week in a box covered with rice and tried to turn it on afterwards. No reactions on buttons, but after i plugged in the charger, the LED got red and Display turned on showing the "Sony" Screen. after a second or two LED and screen went black and the procedure started again. and again. after a few repetitions i put the plug away. so i didn't charge the phone any longer than ~5min and have not plugged it to the PC.
first question is if someone has encountered the same symptomes and can give a statement of chance to revive the phone. Second one is: Where to start? there are lots of guides to disassemble the phone, thats not a problem i think, i have all the tools i need and a little bit technical knowhow. I want to start checking the battery, pretty shure its dead. afterwards i want to check the board for signs of corrosion. but then?
grateful for any tipps, especialy want to know whats the real death sentence for a water damaged phone. after i have seen the screen working i thought main functionality is there and only the battery died.

xant05 said:
Hi,
i send my phone down the river and probably killed it. backplate was broken and charging lid as well, there is no warranty any more.
i dried it for a week in a box covered with rice and tried to turn it on afterwards. No reactions on buttons, but after i plugged in the charger, the LED got red and Display turned on showing the "Sony" Screen. after a second or two LED and screen went black and the procedure started again. and again. after a few repetitions i put the plug away. so i didn't charge the phone any longer than ~5min and have not plugged it to the PC.
first question is if someone has encountered the same symptomes and can give a statement of chance to rivive the phone. Second one is: Where to start? there are lots of guides to disassemble the phone, thats not a problem i think, i have all the tools i need and a little bit technical knowhow. I want to start checking the battery, pretty shure its dead. afterwards i want to check the board for signs of corrosion. but then?
grateful for any tipps, especialy want to know whats the real death sentence for a water damaged phone. after i have seen the screen working i thought main functionality is there and only the battery died.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would leave it plugged in and see if you can build up any sort of charge in the battery. It seems that changing the battery would be an obvious first step, if you can get enough charge in the phone to fire up the mainboard, then you will see what else needs to be changed. leave it plugged into a charger for 24 hours.
Do you want to repair it to salvage what data is on the phone or is it financial reasons? tbh the cost of new mainboard and battery, plus replacement back screen is going to be more than a second hand phone off ebay. If it's a science project then bravo, not enough people try to rescue thier old kit from the bin, but I'm saying there are easier options than pulling it apart.
Having never pulled a phone apart myself I can't really offer any more advice, but you might want to drop @Chamelleon a PM, as he regularly contributes with hardware fixes and knows his stuff.

its more about financial reasons, data is all backed up. Buying a new phone should be the last option. i want to repair it cause i like repairing things and i want to make clear that the phone is absolutely dead or not. i dont think i would buy a new mainboard/display/battery if i am not completely shure that this will fix all problems. in this case id rather buy a new phone.
i am a bit afraid that if i charge the battery for 24h and still have a circuit on the motherboard i will completely destroy it.

xant05 said:
its more about financial reasons, data is all backed up. Buying a new phone should be the last option. i want to repair it cause i like repairing things and i want to make clear that the phone is absolutely dead or not. i dont think i would buy a new mainboard/display/battery if i am not completely shure that this will fix all problems. in this case id rather buy a new phone.
i am a bit afraid that if i charge the battery for 24h and still have a circuit on the motherboard i will completely destroy it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A week in rice in a warm place means there's no moisture in the phone.
The phone won't be damaged by trying to charge the battery and you need to find out if there's anything working from a full charge.

I recently had a waterdamage too. I took it apart and i saw that there was some corrosion on the board by the display connector. I put the mainboard in isopropyl alcohol (you can get that in the pharmacy). I carefully cleaned the affected part with a soft toothbrush and let it dry for a while. And now my phone is back a life and everything works as it should
Good Luck!

Didgesteve said:
A week in rice in a warm place means there's no moisture in the phone.
The phone won't be damaged by trying to charge the battery and you need to find out if there's anything working from a full charge.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, turns out this guy is right. Phone is working after charging. Vibration is dead and there are some residues of the wather in or behind the display, but nothing else i can find now. i think i will still disassemble the phone, and clean all parts. Maybe i will replace the vibration motor, but i think i can live without one...

Wrong USB charger Polarity, is phone buggered?

So i was soldering up a extra long micro usb cable to the other day to power a cheap ip cam i had. Being the lazy git i am i didnt bother to check the polarity with my meter when finished but just blindly trusted the embossed + and - symbols that were on the micro usb plug i used. Tested it on my ipcam and it didnt work (didnt break it either considering its cheap nasty chinese trash) so lazily got a second opinion from the closest thing to hand (my z3 compact) and now its acting kind of broken. The cable did indeed have reverse polarity
Ive had the phone 2 years and its always been very reliable. The phone instantly went off and would only come back on again with power/volume up. When its on it works perfectly, no glitches or anything and seems to charge/discharge fine but will randomly reboot quite often now and battery charge will suddenly disappear. was just looking for an opinion on how buggered it is from someone in the know. Could it just be the battery buggered, is it worth trying to fix?
For the sake of £5 ive ordered a replacment battery and will hope for some luck.
Many thanks.

Looks like i overreacted. Did a fresh install/repair from PC and seems back to its old self so must have been a simple corrupt file/s caused my instant shutdown protecting itself from the cable :/

[Q] Dead phone, with a twist

This One M7 had been my spare for close to a year. I replaced the screen, camera, and back cover to make it whole again, and everything worked great for a couple months. Unfortunately, it completely died one day while I was using it and the device has shown no signs of life since... until now.
Actually, it still doesn't really show any signs of life. No amount of button holding has been able to elicit any response whatsoever. No charging indicator light either. I've tried leaving it sitting for several months, but this too has not changed anything. I finally opened it up today to check on the battery connection and reseated it. Still nothing.
The one and only response that I do get is recognition on my computer when plugging it in, where it shows up as an "MTP USB Device." Nothing shows up in Windows Explorer though except an empty CD drive.
Any ideas?

Bill720 said:
This One M7 had been my spare for close to a year. I replaced the screen, camera, and back cover to make it whole again, and everything worked great for a couple months. Unfortunately, it completely died one day while I was using it and the device has shown no signs of life since... until now.
Actually, it still doesn't really show any signs of life. No amount of button holding has been able to elicit any response whatsoever. No charging indicator light either. I've tried leaving it sitting for several months, but this too has not changed anything. I finally opened it up today to check on the battery connection and reseated it. Still nothing.
The one and only response that I do get is recognition on my computer when plugging it in, where it shows up as an "MTP USB Device." Nothing shows up in Windows Explorer though except an empty CD drive.
Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you bricked it, maybe flashing RUU can help. if it will not help you can then use JTAG, it can help to flash firmware on dead boards. you can find JTAG on eBay.

Request for clarification
itwasmistake said:
you bricked it, maybe flashing RUU can help. if it will not help you can then use JTAG, it can help to flash firmware on dead boards. you can find JTAG on eBay.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How could I have "bricked" it without flashing anything? The device literally died while I was using it.

Bill720 said:
How could I have "bricked" it without flashing anything? The device literally died while I was using it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have multimeter to check voltage on battery? it could be battery problem, or maybe connector on motherboard is damaged? check for scratches on board (on traces).

It shall be tried
itwasmistake said:
Do you have multimeter to check voltage on battery? it could be battery problem, or maybe connector on motherboard is damaged? check for scratches on board (on traces).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll try to measure the battery voltage this weekend. Aren't the pins a little small to test with standard multimeter leads though?

0volt multimeter test
I finally got around to trying to measure the voltage of the current battery with a standard multimeter. I got absolutely nothing, which means that I'm either measuring it wrong, the leads are not sharp enough, or the battery is dead. Has anyone else ever had any luck testing this battery with a multimeter?

Going for it!
I tested another, similar, battery by multimeter successfully, so I suspect that it might just be a case of bad battery (at least). With that and the fact that I had a Galaxy Note 2 battery fail earlier in the year, I'm going to jump in and buy new batteries.
Rather than just trying to go cold turkey and install the replacement, I'll test it with the multimeter and then hook it up pre-install. If the phone powers up, then (and only then) will I go through the massive hassle of replacing it. We'll know one way or another next week when it comes in.

Humongous Tinfoil Catamaran!
Just to follow up, I did end up buying that battery. Definitely not "new," but as long as it's in decent shape, it should do the job. While the multimeter test revealed practically nothing, (same as before) the phone did spring to life with the charging indicator as soon as I plugged it in to power. With that, I've charged it up and will be fully testing the phone next weekend. If everything checks out, I'll start the long & annoying process of replacing the battery and hopefully have a fully-working One once again.
Here's to Change!

FIXED!
Just to provide some closure, I can say that the battery replacement was a success! The vibration motor is totally dead (despite being plugged in adequately and not seized) and the casing took a beating from the repeated re-entry attempts, but the phone is now working once again. I suppose I could buy another replacement back cover to really finish the job, but will probably just leave it as-is for right now.