[Xperia Arc Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Canned30:
Right - I haven't posted much but having been pretty much under the same level of noob frustration before I'll try to help....

First - Often, during updates you can be driven mad with reboots and reboot cycles..... hopefully, what is outlined below can be a guide to sorting out any problems you might have.

1. Backup everything.

- go to play store and search for "backup" and you'll find what you need. I use Astro File Manager for application backup and sms backup for messages. I'm not bothered about backing up anything else.

2. Unlock the Bootloader.

- download sdk starter package

://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html

- so far as I can figure this will facilitate communications between your pc and phone. CyanogenMod Wiki guides you through this process:

://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/wiki/Howto:_Install_the_Android_SDK

- download latest version of fastboot. Now, you'll never double click on this program to run it. Instead you'll run commands from your command tool which will use the program to do the work.

- record your IMEI - in dialer type in *#06# for your IMEI & write it down.

- get your phone attached in fastboot mode. to do this you turn off your phone and hold the menu button while you attach it via USB to your computer.

- see if you're connected properly. Look for command prompt (Windows Key - All Programs - Accessories). Right click on this and run as administrator. Type in the following: fastboot -i 0x0fce getvar version . It will give an obviously positive message if you are correctly connected - if not, ensure you've attached in properly.

- get code to unlock bootloader - go here:

://unlockbootloader.sonymobile.com/

and go through the process to get an unlock key. Once you have this, go back to your command prompt and type fastboot -i 0x0fce oem unlock 0xUNLOCKKEY (where UNLOCKKEY is the number you have gotten from Sony website. You should get a confirming message.

Now that you've unlocked the bootloader you need to decide what kind of kernel and ROM you want. You can regard the ROM as software whereas the kernel links the software to the hardware. This is my limited understanding anyway.

3. Now, sometimes people make standalone kernels and sometimes they are kept with the ROM.

This leaves a couple of options

- you can flash a stand-alone kernel using flashtool (

://androxyde.github.com/

). The process is pretty simple.

- Now, if you download a ROM which advises that you need to extract and flash a file called "boot.img" there is a different method. In this case your ROM zip file can be extracted to find the boot.img file.

When you get the boot.img file you can place it in C:\. Now, all advice will be to place it in the platform-tools folder which is created in step 1. It doesn't matter really so long as you point at the right place when flashing.

(I also think that you can use flashtool in flashmode to do this job....)

4. Now you have a kernel on your Xperia and seeing as you've got the bootloader unlocked you can now unplug the phone and turn it on. While the phone is booting up, keep toggling the volume button and it should go into bootloader. This is a text-based interface that allows you several functions.

Somewhere in there is an option to mount the SD card (for which you need to plug into your comp again)

5. You'll see the phone's SD card in Windows explorer and will be able to put your ROM onto it (NOT the extracted stuff from earlier but the original zip file).

6. You can now install this ROM but first clear all data and the dalvik cache. I also always to the battery stats here too. It might take a little bit of exploring to find these.

7. Now you can go to "install zip from SD Card". Step through and you will find where you put the ROM zip file. Select it and install the ROM.

At this point, you may get a bit frustrated - because it's here that you find things like:

The ROM sucks

Bits don't work or

You can't get it to work

For any of the above try again....

Currently I'm on Paranoid Android ICS ROM which I like but if I can't get the Wi-Fi working there's no way I'll be sticking to it. Another that I really liked and will return to is Boost HD RC4

I hope it works out for you.....

Tony