[Xperia Play Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] d31b0y:
Hi all

FIrst off, let me give the obligatory sorry if this has been posted before and i am just being noobish. I did search but couldn't find anything.

I have tried to flash ICS Beta a couple of times, but everytime it gets stuck in a bootloop at the SONY splash screen.

Gets to the splash screen, vibrates and then reboots.

Here is what I did so far...

I flashed R800i_4.0.2.A.0.62_(1253-4437).ftf with flashtool which works fine. Boots up, data etc.

For completeness here is the flashtool output

11/053/2012 19:53:44 - INFO - Device connected in flash mode
11/053/2012 19:53:51 - INFO - Selected R800i_4.0.2.A.0.62_(1253-4437).ftf
11/053/2012 19:53:51 - INFO - Preparing files for flashing
11/053/2012 19:53:53 - INFO - Please connect your device into flashmode.
11/053/2012 19:53:53 - INFO - Opening device for R/W
11/053/2012 19:53:53 - INFO - Reading device information
11/053/2012 19:53:53 - INFO - Phone ready for flashmode operations.
11/053/2012 19:53:54 - INFO - Start Flashing
11/053/2012 19:53:54 - INFO - Flashing loader
11/053/2012 19:53:56 - INFO - Loader version : R4A066 / Bootloader status : ROOTABLE
11/053/2012 19:53:56 - INFO - Flashing adsp.sin
11/053/2012 19:53:59 - INFO - Flashing kernel.sin
11/054/2012 19:54:01 - INFO - Flashing amss_fs.sin
11/054/2012 19:54:01 - INFO - Flashing fota1.sin
11/054/2012 19:54:02 - INFO - Flashing fota0.sin
11/054/2012 19:54:03 - INFO - Flashing amss.sin
11/054/2012 19:54:14 - INFO - Flashing cache.sin
11/054/2012 19:54:15 - INFO - Flashing system.sin
11/056/2012 19:56:24 - INFO - Flashing userdata.sin
11/056/2012 19:56:26 - INFO - Flashing finished.
11/056/2012 19:56:26 - INFO - Please wait. Phone will reboot
11/056/2012 19:56:26 - INFO - For flashtool, Unknown Sources and Debugging must be checked in phone settings
11/056/2012 19:56:27 - INFO - Device connected in flash mode
11/056/2012 19:56:28 - INFO - Device disconnected

Then I booted into fastboot and ran the commands from the ICS Beta install page.

Again for completeness, here is the output.

D:\Flashtool\x10flasher_lib>fastboot flash boot D:\Users\d31b0y\Desktop\R800i\Xperia_PLAY_ICS_beta\boot.img
sending 'boot' (4534 KB)...
(bootloader) USB download speed was 16700kB/s
OKAY [ 0.543s]
writing 'boot'...
(bootloader) Download buffer format: boot IMG
(bootloader) Flash of partition 'boot' requested
(bootloader) S1 partID 0x00000003, block 0x00000280-0x000002e3
(bootloader) Erase operation complete, 0 bad blocks encountered
(bootloader) Flashing...
(bootloader) Flash operation complete
OKAY [ 0.943s]
finished. total time: 1.486s

D:\Flashtool\x10flasher_lib>fastboot flash userdata D:\Users\d31b0y\Desktop\R800i\Xperia_PLAY_ICS_beta\userdata.img
sending 'userdata' (198 KB)...
(bootloader) USB download speed was 9654kB/s
OKAY [ 0.025s]
writing 'userdata'...
(bootloader) Flash of partition 'userdata' requested
(bootloader) S1 partID 0x00000009, block 0x00000ca8-0x00001887
(bootloader) Erasing block 0x00000d00
(bootloader) Erasing block 0x00000e00
(bootloader) Erasing block 0x00000f00
(bootloader) Erasing block 0x00001000
(bootloader) Erasing block 0x00001100
(bootloader) Erasing block 0x00001200
(bootloader) Erasing block 0x00001300
(bootloader) Erasing block 0x00001400
(bootloader) Erasing block 0x00001500
(bootloader) Erasing block 0x00001600
(bootloader) Erasing block 0x00001700
(bootloader) Erasing block 0x00001800
(bootloader) Erase operation complete, 0 bad blocks encountered
(bootloader) Flashing...
(bootloader) Flash operation complete
OKAY [ 3.936s]
finished. total time: 3.962s

D:\Flashtool\x10flasher_lib>fastboot flash system D:\Users\d31b0y\Desktop\R800i\Xperia_PLAY_ICS_beta\system.img
sending 'system' (213558 KB)...
(bootloader) USB download speed was 90552kB/s
OKAY [ 24.141s]
writing 'system'...
(bootloader) Flash of partition 'system' requested
(bootloader) S1 partID 0x00000004, block 0x000002e4-0x00000ca7
(bootloader) Erasing block 0x00000300
(bootloader) Erasing block 0x00000400
(bootloader) Erasing block 0x00000500
(bootloader) Erasing block 0x00000600
(bootloader) Erasing block 0x00000700
(bootloader) Erasing block 0x00000800
(bootloader) Erasing block 0x00000900
(bootloader) Erasing block 0x00000a00
(bootloader) Erasing block 0x00000b00
(bootloader) Erasing block 0x00000c00
(bootloader) Erase operation complete, 2 bad blocks encountered
(bootloader) Flashing...
(bootloader) Flash operation complete
OKAY [ 41.218s]
finished. total time: 65.361s

Once this is complete it goes into the bootloop and does nothing else. So I thought to myself, maybe it flashed badly. I went through the whole process again, but the same thing happened.

I even tried flashing KieranFTW ICS Beta kernel to see if that would help, but nada. Still the same splash screen.

I was running CM9 before that so there is nothing wrong with my phone, as far as I can tell.

I am going to try flash R800i_4.0.2.A.0.42_Generic_UK.ftf next since that's what is called for on the ICS instructions page, but I have not heard any complaints about the 62 ftf not flashing.

Any ideas of other stuff that I might be able to try?