[Xperia Z1 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] osum101:
Hi guys,

its been over 2 weeks now since i have been searching to a solution for my hardbricked Xperia Z1 C6903, but so far i'm unable to find any post that deals with the exact problem i have here.

so i'm hoping to fins some help here.

Phone was untouched, on stock rom, un-rooted and bootloader locked before this happened

and now i can't get into fastboot mode and there is no kind of response from my Z1.

PS. this is a long message as i want to explain everything i have already tried so far :)

History of what led to this problem (infamous Sony battery drain of death)

about roughly 2 weeks ago, the battery died, only red LED when connected to charger and 3 times blinking red LED when trying to power on. no fastboot either

after trying to charge through different chargers (ranging from 5V 500mA to 5V 2.1A) and failing to revive the battery , i finally disassembled the device and used a multi-meter to check the battery which showed it at 2.2V, so i hooked up its +ve and -Ve pins to a 5V 2A usb charger and let it charge to a full 3.8V and then plugged in the battery and tried powering on again.

but again multiple attempts to get my phone power up/charge the Z1 failed.

then i tried this one method that said plug in battery, hold power button and it will show 3 times red LED blink, and without releasing the power button plug in the charger and leave it to charge and it will power on.

that failed too.

and after charging it for a while, when i tried to power it on by holding power button, i felt a small duration vibrations and then no response from the phone, the LED, screen everything was blank.

tried connecting it to charger again same thing happened and upon my 4th attempt my phone totally stoped responding, even the small vibration was gone and there is no LED when i connect to charger

after leaving it for a day like that, i connected it to my laptop and it appeared as a Qualcomm HS-USB Qdloader 9008 device under PORTS in device manager. after some googling i found out i have a bricked Z1 with most probably a damaged bootloader.

so i looked for a couple guides and followed them for a fix

so following is the summary of what i have tried so far

my phone is NOT ROOTED, LOCKED BOOTLOADER and STOCK ANDROID 5.1.1

SOFTWARE ENVIRONMENT (Phone and PC)

PHONE

Stock Android 5.1.1 (German Firmware C6903_14.6.A.1.236_DE.ftf)

NO OTA updates after flashing firmware

NOT rooted

LOCKED BOOTLOADER

only apps that were installed at the time of battery darin and then all that followed were MX Player, UC Browser and ES File Explorer; so overall an untouched stock android phone.

LAPTOP

win 10 64 bit build 1511

all required drivers installed and removed any conflicting software like xperia companion, used disable driver sign enforcement to ensure proper install of drivers.

tried using multiple USB ports and USB cables

and for reference i am following these two guides along with XDA to fix

http://sony.yt/topic/7295-english-tutorial-how-to-unbrick-and-update-boot-in-sony-xperia-z1-c6903/

http://saki-sss.blogspot.com/2015/09/s1toolhard-brickxperia-z.html(use google translate please)

the required drivers, software were obtained from above links.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I TRY IT

1) if i connect my phone normally into the USB port, it shows as Qualcomm HS-USB Qdloader 9008 under ports in device manager.

2) after i enable emergency mode using the test point (open back cover >> remove plastic frame screwed to the main body >> unplug battery >> connect test point >> plug in battery >> hold power button and release test point)

it now shows as a ZUES FLASH DEVICE under USB controllers in device manager; which i believe is what's supposed to happen.

3) i fire up S1 tools and use S1 emergency mode, click flash choose SIN file and then it asks me to "remove usb cable, remove battery and connect test point, click test point ready and then connect usb cable"

i follow and then phone shows us as SOMC FLASH DEVICE under USB controller (not SEMC flash device as i read somewhere)

then process fails.

tried different versions of S1 tool too, one of them shows LOADER AID: DEAD and other one shows LOADER AID: FFFF, rest is same.

NOTE: there is a frame around the battery which needs to be removed in order to take the battery out, and it's got two small connecting pincs on lower right corner, and i understand that frame needs to be put back on in order to power up a normally functioning Z1 and those two pins need to connect.

but for above process, in order to access the test point i have to remove that frame.

am i doing this right?? or the frame needs to be on in order to perform above mentioned steps??

i do not have any form of backup for my phone as i never tried to root it or unlock the bootloader, my main phone is a Droid Razr m and i was getting around to doing a Titanium backup from there and migrate to my Z1 but this happened before i could do that :(

Following is the log from S1 tool.

Welcome S1 Tool [06.02.2015].

That is small and crippled subset of SETOOL2 service tool.

SELECT FIRMWARE PACKAGES

YOU CAN SELECT SEVERAL PACKAGES WITH CTRL BUTTON

CHECKING PACKAGES ...

TO CONNECT NEXT PHONES

X10 Xperia,E10 Mini,E15 Xperia X8,U20 Mini Pro

LT15 Xperia ARC,MT15 Xperia NEO,R800 Xperia PLAY

PRESS AND HOLD "BACK" BUTTON...

ST18 Xperia RAY,ST15 Xperia Mini,SK17 Xperia Mini Pro

and Sony Xperia phone

PRESS AND HOLD "Volume Down" BUTTON...

PLEASE ATTACH TURNED OFF PHONE NOW

Waiting for phone ...

PROCEDURE STOPPED BY USER

Elapsed:4 secs.

SELECT FIRMWARE PACKAGES

YOU CAN SELECT SEVERAL PACKAGES WITH CTRL BUTTON

CHECKING PACKAGES ...

DETACH USB CABLE FROM PHONE

REMOVE BATTERY FROM PHONE

ATTACH TESTPOINT

PRESS "READY", THEN ATTACH USB CABLE TO PHONE

will use Sahara protocol ...

REMOVE TESTPOINT NOW, THEN PRESS "READY"

PROCESSING ...

SERIAL NUMBER : 346FA206

HARDWARE ID : 00000000E1007B00

PRODUCT DETECTED: "MSM8974 Unfused"

HASH :CC3153A80293939B90D02D3BF8B23E0292E452FEF662C74998421ADAD42A380F

Emergency loader uploaded ...

RUNNING S1_PRELOADER VER "MSM8974_23_4"

LOADER AID: DEAD

can't get S1 command header

LOADER NOT RESPONDING

Elapsed:54 secs.

PS: i tried this on another laptop with Win 7 64 bit, but it only detects the phone as HS USB QDLoader under PORTS all the time, even after installing Gordon's Gate Drivers.

thank you for being patient and reading through my long post :)

if anybody can point me in the right direction, or tell me what i might be doing wrong here or help me fix my phone i would be very grateful

Thank You :)