[Xperia Play Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] UnkleMunkey:
Noob here.:confused:

I have tinkered with my Play many times over the years and think I may have finally killed it. I signed up on here to see if anyone has any ideas as to if it is savable.

Here are the facts so far... (at least what I can remember that I've done?)

I have a US Verizon Xperia Play. (I think r800x maybe?... I don't know for sure?)

It's a little over a year old. (Bought around February 2011 or so.)

I found a way to root it just after I got it. (Don't remember if I ever unlocked bootloader or not?)

Enjoyed the phone up until about a month or two ago and then it started to really lag. (Too many apps, etc.)

A found a method somewhere on the Web about using Link2SD and partitioning my SD card with a 1 GB partition for apps, etc.

I performed the partitioning and used Link2SD and the phone seemed to perform quite a bit better.

After a week or two, my phone really started to lag again.

This time it appeared that GO Launcher or one of the GO apps/widgets that I like to use might be causing it. (Possibly due to Link2SD, or not?)

I downloaded ADW Launcher to test and it seemed to perform better. (Though I do like the GO Launcher and related apps/features)

This is where the problems really started... (I know... I'm an idiot in advance!) :silly:

I decided that I WANTED the GO "stuff" so...

I backed up all of my apps using Titanium Backup

I backed up both partitions (1GB partition for Link2SD apps and 7GB partition for data) of the SD card to my Mac HD.

I then went to the privacy settings on the phone and chose to wipe the phone back to factory (or whatever the terminology was)

The phone went through a process (don't remember what exactly) and then started up asking for activation, etc.

The phone activated and then force quit because of the setup wizard. (I think I remember de-bloating the setup wizard with TB in the past)

I then had a black screen with a status bar showing I had 3G access. (I think because there was no Launcher installed after wiping the phone?)

I even got a couple of notifications from my Google calendar during this time and could dismiss them but could not access any other part of the phone aside from the notification bar.

I think I was able to get only part of the Google features working before the setup wizard force closed because I could get the calendar notifications but could not send a Launcher to my phone from the Google Play store (it said my account needed to be accessed from the phone in order to push apps from the Web).

From here I started to freak out a little, and began researching threads here on the forum and elsewhere on the Internet. :mad:

I've tried EVERYTHING I could find and have only made the matter worse. :(

I tried using the Sony PC Companion. Since I have a Mac, I installed it on a Windows 7 virtual machine and set the VM to accept all devices plugged into the USB ports. I clicked the repair phone option in PC Companion and went through the steps. All seemed to be working fine until I plugged my phone in holding the back button and the program ran for a second trying to do something and then stopped and popped up a message saying that “There is no software available for your phone” and “Sony Update Engine doesn’t have software available for your phone.”

I then tried using WotanClient/Server. I registered with the Web site and purchased a 1.99 EUR credit so that I could use the software to flash my phone to stock. Unfortunately, the Client software continues to show 0 credits when I in fact DID purchase the credit online. I sent an email to the WotanServer support email.

I then tried using flashtool and downloaded several diffierent stock/generic .ftf files and none of them would finish flashing the phone. They would all hang up at “ERR_SEVERITY="MAJOR";ERR_CLASS="SECURITY_CLASS";ERR_STATIC="SIN_HEAD_VER";ERR_DYNAMIC="Failed to verify sin header";” and then the flash would abort.

About this time, give or take a few more tries at fixing the phone, the splash screens would no longer show up when the phone was on, and I could no longer access the "launcher-less" phone. However, I could still hold either the back or search buttons and plug in the phone to access the different modes (green light/blue light).

Reading that it might be the OS I’m using (Windows 7 in a VM), I switched to my wife’s Windows 7 laptop and had ALL the same issues described above. Thinking maybe it was Windows 7, I installed Windows XP in a virtual machine on my Mac and still had ALL the same issues.

In addition to trying multiple versions of Windows and multiple computers, I downloaded, re-downloaded, installed, and re-installed drivers on all of these machines thinking drivers might be the cause.

After all was said and done and tried on my slightly inexperienced noob part, now the phone will only flash a red light about every 3 seconds when I try to connect it in either of the flashing modes. If I try to normal power up the phone, I get three red flashes every few seconds. The only way I can get the phone back into flash mode (green light) is by running repair on the PC Companion (and this only works sometimes). When PC companion asks me to plug the phone in with the back button, it recognizes the Xperia Play, goes into download mode for a brief second, and then pops up the same message of “no software available for your phone.” And the phone still does not work. If I unplug the phone and then try to plug it back in, it goes back to the blinking red light.

I did get a response back from WotanServer saying that "everything should be fine" and "there was a connection problem" and to "try again." Unfortunately, PC Companion is the only thing that can access my phone (kinda) right now, so I cannot try the WotanClient again. Although, I have a feeling that since the email basically said that “they don’t know why” and “it should be working now “ and to “try again,” that it likely will still not work.

So finally to my Q?…

Is this a completely dead phone now? Is there a chance of resurrecting it? Is there a place that someone could direct me that could help in resolving this issue? I have been everywhere on the Internet, so I would appreciate help that would guide me in a solution that actually works! Lol!

I have seen LOTS of similar situations all over this forum as well as others, but for some reason, I don’t seem to be having the success that others have had.

HHHEEELLLPPP!!! :crying:

And once again, I know I'm a noob and probably did something horribly wrong, so please... take it easy on me! Lol!

EDIT: If I try to connect in flash mode and leave the phone plugged in, the phone will randomly connect in flash mode (green light) after a few minutes and then after a few more minutes, it will disconnect and go back to flashing the red light avery few seconds.

Also, during this time (while in flash mode), I DID manage to get the WotanClient to see the phone again and started the process, but the Client still says that I have 0 credits even though the email from support says that it might have been a connection problem. Does anyone have a WotanServer credit I could log into with and try?

COLLECTION OF EDITS (from replies I've made to this post while working on the issue):

[results from these flashes/attempts are posted in replies in this thread]