[Sony Xperia ZR] manilenio:
Hi All,

I desperately need help with my C5503. I've been trying to update from 4.3 to 4.4 (?) via OTA (.230 firmware) but have been unsuccessful. No problems though, my unit was fine and working without issues anyway. Before I begin, let me enumerate some points for clarity and completeness:

- phone has stock 4.3

- phone is rooted via towelroot with SuperSU installed

- phone has stock recovery

- phone has locked bootloader

- phone is out of warranty

- phone's USB debugging is OFF

- when plugged into a power outlet with the charger, the phone would charge normally (red led would light up, and if you clicked on the power button it would show the charging indicator)

- holding volume down and power does not do anything (phone continues to power on then freezes then reboots)

- holding volume up and power does not do anything (phone continues to power on then freezes then reboots)

- holding volume up then plugging in the usb cable while flashtool is on makes the phone connect in fastboot mode (blue LED light turns on)

- holding volume down then plugging in the usb cable while flashtool is on makes the phone connect in flash mode (no LED light)

Okay, let's continue to what happened. I have widgetsoid installed, and I chose a widget for reboot. Last night, when I pressed on the widget to reboot, as usual choices came up for normal, recovery, hotboot, bootloader, etc. For some reason, and maybe because I was getting frustrated at my phone not updating via OTA, I chose the "bootloader" option when I should have chosen "normal." My phone turned off, then after a few seconds the "SONY" logo came up followed by "XPERIA." After that, the colorful ribbons, then BAM it just froze. Then after a few seconds or so, it looped back to the "SONY" logo again and repeated the cycle until I pulled out the battery.

It's worth noting that I never got past the colorful ribbons until it would freeze and would reboot, but it doesn't freeze at the same place every time. Sometimes the colorful ribbons would just start to come out when it would freeze, or it would freeze in the middle, or it would freeze towards the end. But I never got past the first animation of the colorful ribbons before it would freeze and reboot.

Next steps: I researched like crazy about what to do and the advice was to flash the firmware. So...

- I downloaded and installed the latest flashtool by androxyde. Got it working as it should.

- I also downloaded the kernel only ftf files for .230, .283, and .292 for flashing in case I had to do it that way.

- I even downloaded the stock firmware (via xperifirm with flashtool) and created the ftf for my region (custom PH), carefully excluding TA files.

- I carefully followed the instructions to flash the phone but encountered an error:

[IMG="flash error xperia zr"]http://s21.postimg.org/ehwealmev/flasherror.jpg[/IMG]

- I also tried fastboot but it kept asking for a kernel (.sin) file that I don't have and I have no idea where to find. I don't have any idea what to use either.

I'm seriously out of options at this point, as nothing I do seems to work. Maybe it's because USB Debugging is OFF that's why I'm unable to make any headway? But maybe somebody out there has found a way? Is it time to bring this to the service center?

Please help, I'm willing to lose all my contacts and apps and start over if I have to, as long as my phone works again. I'm desperate! :crying:

TIA!