[Xperia SP Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] blackassassinuk:
Hey everyone,

Have a bit of a major problem with my Xperia SP right now and I am hoping someone can help. I originally was on Windows 8.1 and had some major issues with the system, among one of these when I tried to install Flashtool drivers from the included file, I had to go through all the resetting and reinstalling to get driver enforcement off however when the drivers installed I connected my device and it was fine.

Then I tried to put the phone in Flash Mode and everything was going downhill, basically I connected my phone as I had done a thousand times previously on windows 7 and the phone would go green for about 3 seconds then red light and go into charging mode. If this was done when requested from flashtool it would detect it was connected but I get an error with loader.sin as below....

02/049/2014 03:49:17 - INFO - Flashtool Version 0.9.18.3 built on 10-20-2014 08:00:00
02/049/2014 03:49:17 - INFO - Executing search strategies to find proxy selector
02/049/2014 03:49:17 - INFO - No proxy found for IE. Trying next one
02/049/2014 03:49:17 - INFO - Strategy firefox failed trying next one : No Firefox installation found
02/049/2014 03:49:17 - INFO - No proxy found for java. Trying next one
02/049/2014 03:49:17 - INFO - Syncing devices from github
02/049/2014 03:49:18 - INFO - Scanning devices folder for changes.
02/049/2014 03:49:25 - INFO - Pulling changes from github.
02/049/2014 03:49:26 - INFO - Devices sync finished.
02/049/2014 03:49:31 - INFO - Device connected in flash mode
02/049/2014 03:49:37 - INFO - Please connect your device into flashmode.
02/049/2014 03:49:37 - INFO - Opening device for R/W
02/049/2014 03:49:50 - INFO - Processing loader.sin
02/049/2014 03:49:50 - INFO - Checking header
02/049/2014 03:49:50 - ERROR - Processing of loader.sin finished with errors.
02/049/2014 03:49:50 - ERROR -
02/049/2014 03:49:50 - INFO - Your phone bootloader cannot be officially unlocked
02/049/2014 03:49:50 - INFO - You can now unplug and restart your phone

Now in normal circumstances this means your bootloader cannot be unlocked right? However my bootloader is unlocked.... and confirmed by service menu and also I have been using unlocked bootloader ROM's....

So anyway I eventually had enough of Windows 8 and went back to Windows 7 (separate partitions are a beautiful thing ;) ) and tried again.... same process same result. The best bit is on both systems I cannot forcefully uninstall any phone drivers because i just get an endless loop of failures unless I do it before connecting the phone once to the computer. The way the phone reacts in flashtool is as if the phone is permentantly in Flash Mode however its not and still stays the same way until I reboot my computer.

I have tried factory resetting the phone, I have tried uninstalling drivers and reinstalling but nothing is working. I even tried a different cable just in case and nothing. This only affects flash mode or the entire phone once flash mode has been activated once and then it affects the entire system and wont allow me to restart normally without pressing the reset button on my case even if the phone isn't connected and I also cannot do anything with the drivers anymore at this point.

I am actually trying to relock my bootloader and go back to stock as I will be selling the phone later this week. I flashed a cut down stock ROM from XDA using recovery but now its flashed I no longer have recovery either since it was stock and I have no root privileges now xD

Ideally what I am aiming for is to relock bootloader through flashmode, then use sony tool to reinstall full official firmware. This issue also happens with Sony tool by the way.

Any Suggestions greatly appreciated!!!!