Botched Antenna Repair.

[PlymouthD]

Hi,

I recently sent my Xperia Z away to have the damaged USB port replaced.  (Not by Sony - by a business operating through Ebay.)  When I got it back, I found I was getting the 'selected network unavailable' message.'  After reinstalling the firmware and lots of other time-consuming nonsense, I eventually took the back cover off to find this:

Hopefully, the picture is fairly self-explanatory.  The black antenna wire should have a gold connector on the end which should clip into that gold/black socket.  Instead, it's just been soldered directly to the motherboard.  When I sent the phone to this company, it had a brand new antenna in it, which I'd just purchased from ebay.

I've just spoken to the company, and they're saying that they had to do this as the socket was damaged so the antenna wouldn't clip to it.  They said they tested it, and found the phone was getting a signal like this.

So my question is this: are there any Sony technicians or electronics experts on here that can confirm whether the phone can work whilst set up this way?

Thanks in advance.

D.

[Uliwooly]

That's terrible, which company did that? either or contact your local Xperia Care

http://support.sonymobile.com/global-en/contactUs/

[Thommo]

You could whilst you have it open do a DIY and purchase a new cable for around 4 Euro see here for an example

[PlymouthD]

Yep Thommo, the antenna that they've soldered to the motherboard is the one which I'd just bought for £4 off ebay and installed myself.  It will be no problem to do it again. 

And Uliwooly - I may name and shame the company, depending on how they handle this one.  To be fair to them, they replaced my broken USB port for £15, and so far, they've sounded like they might take responsibility for the mess they made of the antenna.

However, the reason I posted this is so that I know what I'm talking about when I'm discussing it with them - they are currently claiming that by doing this they got my damaged phone working.  I'm fairly sure it was just their attempt to hide their mistake, but I have no electronics expertise so I can't categorically state that doing what they did is what has caused my phone to lose signal.  I was hoping to hear from someone who is qualified to tell me authoritatively: 'that phone won't work without that antenna plugged in to that socket.'

[Thommo]

What you do is try and track the path of the socket to see if the path leads to where they soldiered or you could get a piece of wire and stick it in the middle of the socket and see if you get a signal which you should or disconnect the other end and use the same piece of wire to connect both sockets - If you get a signal then you know what the issue is and if not then your antenna board or chip is damaged

[PlymouthD]

Thanks Thommo.  I closely inspected the way the antenna had been soldered, and noticed that there were some contacts on the board in that location.  I then found some photos of Xperia Z boards online and realised I'd made a mistake: the antenna isn't supposed to clip to the socket I'd marked in the photo above,  but to another socket which has obviously fallen off my board.  Therefore, by soldering the antenna to the remains of this socket, this shop has attempted a reasonable repair.  I have no idea whether the antenna was actually working after this repair, as I also did lots of software changes, e.g. changing firmware and kernels - so the inability to connect to networks may have been a software fault.  (I've checked with Three and they've confirmed it isn't a blacklisted IMEI.)

I got this Xperia for a fiver at a Sunday market as it was completely broken, and spent around £100 in total replacing screen, digitiser, covers, USB port, battery and antenna.  I've now decided to keep this Xperia Z as a games and software-testing machine and buy myself a Z3 Compact.

[Thommo]

I'd still stick a piece of wire in that other socket to see if you get a signal - That's what it's there for - so if it is your antenna board by sticking a wire in it you will find out if that is the issue, You may not get a strong signal but your should get one if it works

[PlymouthD]

Okay Thommo, here's what I've found.  The Xperia Z motherboard has 4 coax sockets.  You can see three of them in the photo below.  

On my circuit board in this photo, one socket is missing - it would have been just above the bottom right socket in this photo, and is where the wire had been soldered in the first photo I posted.  The three sockets left on my circuit board are of a larger diameter than the one which has fallen off, and therefore will not accept the standard antenna.

Without anything connected, the phone shows no bars.  I have experimented with sticking wires in the sockets.  The top two make no difference.  When I stick the wire in the bottom right socket, I immediately get full bars and data.  However, if I try to make a call like this, I get a 'mobile network not available' message.  The phone has been SIM Unlocked.  My SIM is Giff Gaff, and I register the phone on the O2 network in 'settings.'  I can still use packet data though.  I have checked on Swappa.co.uk and phoned Three to confirm that the IMEI is not blacklisted.

So....

1.  Any idea why this phone might not be able to make calls whilst still being able to use packet data?  (I have messed around flashing firmware etc.)

2.  Any idea where I could get a coax cable with larger sockets to clip two of those motherboard sockets together?

Cheers,

D.

[Thommo]

The link above I mentioned should be the correct cable as it's came straight off an Xperia Z however now we know you can get a signal then next thing to check is sticking the other end of the wire into the the antenna board where the coax cable should also be connected - I'm thinking that yes you can now get a signal but the antenna board maybe the reason why you can't make calls as it may have some extra properties for decrypting calls - If that does work then you could make what I call a bodge job and somehow fix the wire in place with blue tack or a little glue from a glue gun for example