Non functional x10a, (not sure if brick or HW faulty) - XPERIA X10 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hello, this is my first post on this board, and this is sort of my debut question.
Firstly, I would like to say that I have had lots of programming experience, as well as microcontrollers and other hardware, so feel free to throw any jargon or acronyms (relative ofc ))
I bought a Sony Xperia x10a from Kijiji. When I inspected the item (in person), it worked flawlessly, albeit a little slowly.
Taking it home, I turned the phone off, and that's where the problem happened.
I turned it off, and plugged the charger in (from a Samsung Galaxy Gio - 5V 700mA)
The phone said "Sony Ericsson" then the branding "Rogers", after which it turned off. The Charge LED is not functional.
The only way I could start the phone is after a battery pull.
If I just press and hold the power button, the phone vibrates and just does nothing, occasionally it will boot to the "Sony Ericsson" then "Rogers" and then the screen turns off. Again, pressing the power button does nothing.
If I hold both the Menu and Back keys, the phone will boot into the OS, be detected by the OS, but only for a second, as about 3 seconds later a progress wheel comes up - says "Activating Phone" and then just black screen.
I can go into the "flash mode" by turning the phone off, holding the back button, then plugging in the USB cable, the LED turns green.
The problem is that I am unable to find drivers for this mode so I can use flashtool to flash a custom ROM on it (or a generic ROM)
I have installed some Sony Ericsson PC Companion, installed the "Support zone" but it can only detect my phone for that split second it is actually on "with the back + menu button combination", then disconnects.
I looked for SEUS But it tells me that it is not available for the x10
I will try the flash tool, but not sure, since last time I tried it (older ver) it told me to connect the phone in USB debug mode.
Any ideas? am I screwed?
Thanks!
---EDIT---
Never mind, I found the SEUS, however I have a problem.
When I try to flash X10a_1.0_2_1_A_0_435.ftf the X10FlashTool gives me this log:
27/040/2011 20:40:27 - INFO - Searching Xperia....
27/040/2011 20:40:27 - INFO - Found at USB\VID_0FCE&PID_ADDE\5&C0AA250&0&3
27/040/2011 20:40:27 - INFO - Start Flashing
27/040/2011 20:40:27 - INFO - VER="R8A013";DATE="20100119";TIME="17:24:00";
27/040/2011 20:40:27 - INFO - Flashing loader
27/040/2011 20:40:27 - ERROR - Error flashing. Aborted
27/040/2011 20:40:27 - INFO - Now unplug the device and power it on
27/040/2011 20:40:27 - INFO - Then go to application settings
27/040/2011 20:40:27 - INFO - turn on Unknown Sources and Debugging
That would be all nice and all (to turn on unknown sources and debug) but I can't as I can't even boot the OS anymore, just the flash mode (usb and back key)
27/040/2011 20:40:27 - INFO - turn on Unknown Sources and Debugging
That would be all
---------another update-----------
I have used the SEUS, looks like its super screwed. SEUS found an update to my phone, downloaded, installed it, and now I am screwed.
There is nothing I can do that makes the phone turn on at all - well I mean I can press the power button and then the phone vibrates and the LED flashes green for a split second. Then nothing. The screen does not even turn on at all. I have tried every combination I can think of and am out of options.
Any ideas as to what is messed up?

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try the newest flashtool. download the firmware you want. if you can get into flashmode then it should work

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So this is the link for the flashtool?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=920746
Strange however why SEUS didn't work, I mean it did work, but nothing happens. Vibrate upon powerup, no screen image, no combinations can make it work again.
The phone has also started vibrating until I do a battery pull (once in a while)
Also, where would I find the 1.6 roms?
Thanks!

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I've had times when after wiping caches, flashing rom, baseband, and kernel, the phone took 15minutes to boot up. Make sure to wait long enough for the phone to restart, after flashing matching rom, baseband, and kernel.

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tuner520 said:
I've had times when after wiping caches, flashing rom, baseband, and kernel, the phone took 15minutes to boot up. Make sure to wait long enough for the phone to restart, after flashing matching rom, baseband, and kernel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello, thanks for the reply! I will give this a shot!
However I am relatively a noob to this, so any idea how I would flash the baseband and kernel?
I did use another rom to flash, and it worked!
It turned on, I configured it. I turned it off and.................
same issue now. I turn it on, it vibrates, however that' the end of it. The screen is still black, granted I have not waited 15+ minutes.
Still. How the heck did it turn on the first time. It had the icon of the "camera with a blue arrow" and then it paused a while at the Sony Ericsson loading screen. Then it asked me for initial configs.
BTW, I am on Virgin Mobile.

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Did you try the SEUS repair? By this I don't mean the one that comes with PC Companion.. but there is a stand alone application out there.. However also check to see if the ROM your loading is meant for an unlocked boot loader or not, if it's expecting an unlocked boot loader, I would think an error such as that would occur.

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Tired it. SEUS (Sony Ericsson Update Service) loads, says that a newer version was found, downloads it. Flashes it. And same thing.
The interesting thing is that my x10 DID boot and did turn on. I could use it, however when I restarted it, that was the end.
Now I tried reflashing the same ROM, it just freezes at a black screen after the white "Sony Ericsson"
I am trying SEUS again, maybe that will work... However now it tells me that the software is allready installed. I thought it should be overwritten by the new rom with flashtool?
Very odd......
Still. the Charge LED does not work.

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vlambrecht said:
Tired it. SEUS (Sony Ericsson Update Service) loads, says that a newer version was found, downloads it. Flashes it. And same thing.
The interesting thing is that my x10 DID boot and did turn on. I could use it, however when I restarted it, that was the end.
Now I tried reflashing the same ROM, it just freezes at a black screen after the white "Sony Ericsson"
I am trying SEUS again, maybe that will work... However now it tells me that the software is allready installed. I thought it should be overwritten by the new rom with flashtool?
Very odd......
Still. the Charge LED does not work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First, pop out the SDCard.
Then open the x10 Flash tool and go here -
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=936733
Downloaded this
All Generic 2.3.3 Kits For X10a
X10a_3.0.1.G.0.75_AMERICA-US GENERIC 1233-8200.zip (140.5 MB)
Then in the x10 Flash tool, click Flash, navigate to the folder where you have extracted the file that that x10a.zip file
Then turn off the phone, remove battery. Plug USB into computer and phone, hold the back button on the phone, and while holding down on that back button, slip back in the phone battery.
Hopefully that will initiate flashing the phone to 2.3 and maybe fix some of those problems.

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vlambrecht said:
Hello, thanks for the reply! I will give this a shot!
However I am relatively a noob to this, so any idea how I would flash the baseband and kernel?
I did use another rom to flash, and it worked!
It turned on, I configured it. I turned it off and.................
same issue now. I turn it on, it vibrates, however that' the end of it. The screen is still black, granted I have not waited 15+ minutes.
Still. How the heck did it turn on the first time. It had the icon of the "camera with a blue arrow" and then it paused a while at the Sony Ericsson loading screen. Then it asked me for initial configs.
BTW, I am on Virgin Mobile.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) download 2 things, flashtool 3.0 and go from SE generic firmware,
download firmware from here
Flashtool from here
2) take flashtool and decompress it onto desktop and into a flashtool folder. Then take the .ftf file out of first download, and stick it into the "firmware" lfolder located inside flashtool folder you created above.
3) start flashtool by double clicking flashtool (the application) file, once the program starts, click on "Flash" button, choose ftf file Sony Ericsson Global GGL or whatever the name is and press OK button at bottom.
4) Flashtool program will configure itself, and when ready, another window will show up telling you what to do. Make sure you have a good USB cable.
5) *if it doesn't work, take out the SD card and SIM card and try again.
6) report back after trying or not.... if it works, you will have a global generic 2.3 in your X10 and you will ready to root it, install Xrecovery, and flash a custom rom from the development section.

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Thanks for the great support guys!
I am about to try this out, just a quick question, (well 2 actually)
1) Do I need to have the SIM in the phone
2) after flashing (after flash-tool tells me to remove the USB and turn the phone on), do I insert the SD card back in the phone?
Thanks!
======edit======
Here is an interesting development.
Flashed the firmware with the one suggested,
Success:
28/031/2011 13:31:46 - INFO - Searching Xperia....
28/031/2011 13:31:46 - INFO - Found at USB\VID_0FCE&PID_ADDE\5&C0AA250&0&3
28/031/2011 13:31:46 - INFO - Start Flashing
28/031/2011 13:31:46 - INFO - VER="R8A013";DATE="20100119";TIME="17:24:00";
28/031/2011 13:31:46 - INFO - Flashing loader
28/031/2011 13:31:48 - INFO - PROT_VER="02";DATE="20091222";TIME="15:39:00";VER="R4A024";CXC="1226-2250";TYPE="S1_LOADER";UNIQUE_DEV_ID="84CF72B8EC81D2CE0BE7FB6629C4E032CC27AA6A";SEC_LOCK_STATUS="LOCKED";OTP_DATA="4BBD770047140402094800300801F55BF0C32000";IMEI="35942003109771";AID_VERSION="0004";EROM_AID="0001";LOADER_AID="0001";SW_AID="0001";CUST_AID="0001";SIM_LOCK_AID="0001";HWCONF_AID="0001";PROD_AID="0000";ACTIVE_LOADER_AID="0001";MAN_ID="002C";DEV_ID="00B3";SIN_VER="0001";AID_TAMP="NOT_TAMPERED";MAX_PKT_SZ="00010000";AUTH_LEVEL="NONE";AUTH_MET="0001";CARD_PRESENT="NO";LOADER_ROOT="S1_Loader_Root_f851";EROM_ROOT="S1_EROM_Root_b15e";SW_ROOT="S1_SW_Root_ac12";CUST_ROOT="S1_Cust_Root_5789";SIM_LOCK_ROOT="S1_SL_Root_f20d";HW_CONF_ROOT="S1_HWConf_Root_ee5d";
28/031/2011 13:31:48 - INFO - Flashing kernel.sin
28/031/2011 13:31:50 - INFO - Flashing amss_fs.sin
28/031/2011 13:31:50 - INFO - Flashing dsp1.sin
28/031/2011 13:31:57 - INFO - Flashing fota1.sin
28/031/2011 13:31:58 - INFO - Flashing fota0.sin
28/031/2011 13:31:59 - INFO - Flashing amss.sin
28/032/2011 13:32:11 - INFO - Flashing cache.sin
28/032/2011 13:32:11 - INFO - Flashing system.sin
28/034/2011 13:34:40 - INFO - Flashing userdata.sin
28/034/2011 13:34:42 - INFO - Flashing finished.
28/034/2011 13:34:42 - INFO - Now unplug the device and power it on
28/034/2011 13:34:42 - INFO - Then go to application settings
28/034/2011 13:34:42 - INFO - turn on Unknown Sources and Debugging
Now, I think the phone is stuck in a loop.
When I press the power button, the phone vibrates, and the backlight turns on, then the screen flashes for a second, then repeat.
NOTE: I have not inserted a SIM/SD card at any time before and after the process. Do I need to have an SD in at some point?
Thanks!

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Stick in SIM and SDCard.
Make sure the phone is not plugged into the computer. Make sure the phone does have power. (battery power can go from full to under 10 percent just through the flash process)
Just to confirm....you flashed to X10a_3.0.1.G.0.75_AMERICA-US GENERIC 1233-8200.zip ??

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X10a_3.0.1.G.0.75_AMERICA-US GENERIC 1233-8200.zip indeed, extracted it, flashed the ftf using the tool. Pretty sure the battery was in good condition.
So I would flash it with both the SIM and SD card in the phone?
After the flashing is successful, I would unplug the USB, and turn the phone on, that's when it would vibe once (and blink the green LED), the backlight would come on, and then nothing.
Is there nothing I need to do before flashing? Flash a new bootloader or kernel on it?
Also, isn't it strange that when I plug a charger into the phone, the LED that is supposed to glow orange doesn't glow at all?
I want to blame the HW, but it did work -_-'
====EDIT====
I think I am going to give up soon. I've flashed like 4 different roms on it, upgraded the software with SEUS, It worked once (booted in once, asked me for inital configs), tried the same rom, wouldn't work a second time... Should I just give up?

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vlambrecht said:
X10a_3.0.1.G.0.75_AMERICA-US GENERIC 1233-8200.zip indeed, extracted it, flashed the ftf using the tool. Pretty sure the battery was in good condition.
So I would flash it with both the SIM and SD card in the phone?
After the flashing is successful, I would unplug the USB, and turn the phone on, that's when it would vibe once (and blink the green LED), the backlight would come on, and then nothing.
Is there nothing I need to do before flashing? Flash a new bootloader or kernel on it?
Also, isn't it strange that when I plug a charger into the phone, the LED that is supposed to glow orange doesn't glow at all?
I want to blame the HW, but it did work -_-'
====EDIT====
I think I am going to give up soon. I've flashed like 4 different roms on it, upgraded the software with SEUS, It worked once (booted in once, asked me for inital configs), tried the mins same rom, wouldn't work a second time... Should I just give up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am assuming you waited the 10 - 15mins after flashing the gingerbread global... that ftf file had kernel baseband and rom in it. Anyways , didnt you buy it from an xda member? why dont you ask for help or relevant info?

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Yes, I did. (both to buying it from a member, and to waiting 15 min - waited overnight).
I met the seller in person, and had a working phone at the time of purchase. The phone broke after the first shutdown.
When I called the person, he brushed me off, said "Did the phone work when I sold it to you, yes? Then why are you calling. Goodbye" :S
Oh well, You win some you lose some.

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Sorry for doublepost.
I have reached a new checkpoint.
Flashed the rom, booted the x10, left it overnight, now I have a strange thing.
I try to power the phone on, and the LED flashes red 3 times and nothing happens.
I read that that is the sign of an empty battery, is that the case?
Thanks!
PS: When flashed, the battery had 100% (charged in another x10)

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vlambrecht said:
Sorry for doublepost.
I have reached a new checkpoint.
Flashed the rom, booted the x10, left it overnight, now I have a strange thing.
I try to power the phone on, and the LED flashes red 3 times and nothing happens.
I read that that is the sign of an empty battery, is that the case?
Thanks!
PS: When flashed, the battery had 100% (charged in another x10)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Led flashing red 3 times is just a dead battery. I have same problem as you, not booting up, vibes when u press power button, green light flashes then nothing..... seems like i tried everything. SEUS fails to restore my phone, tried 3 diffrerent flashtools with this firmware:X10a_3.0.1.G.0.75_AMERICA-US GENERIC 1233-8200.ftf and sometimes it succeeds, sometimes it fails at "flashing userdata.sin". No matter what i try it just wont boot... NO SE logo just black screen....