Z1 Compact ear speaker and mic not working

[fairlyoffnow]

My SONY XPERIA Z1 Compact stopped providing me with a telephone service three weeks ago.

No ear speaker, no microphone.

Sent off to Telstra service centre and three weeks later I get it back. Same deal. No phone call possible. Reset the phone in the store. WORKING! Strange but cool!

Home, download all the apps again and restore from PC Companion. NO! Not working again. No calls.

Do it all again. Working now!

2 days later, not working again. No external speaker output with music player, but yet can hear a call on the loudspeaker. Did another reset.

No ear speaker, no microphone. No phone call. Phone suddenly starts saying 'earphones connected'. But they are not...

Earphones in, now I can make and receive calls on the earphones. So the phone thinks I have the headphones in... Sounds very much like the issue from Kit Kat upgrade in April 2014. No? Phone sending the sound to the wrong output.

Check out on Sony support site if I'm running latest firmware, 157. No. Despite phone being sent to Telstra and being reset (and reflashed I assume)!

Latest verion is 157, my phone is running 133.

PC Companion however says I'm all up to date! No software updates required. **bleep**?

Leave aside the fact that PC Companion needs 5GB free to do a firmware reload and I don't have that available on C (only on D a partition drive on the same physical drive). If PC Companion was any good, I'd be able to install it on D, but after uninstalling and reinstalling, it does not give me that option and won't let me advise it that there is acres of space just over the fence on D drive. FFS.

So, had a couple of beers, a wine and now I'm pretty unhappy with Sony, Telstra and Android. Between them, they make you wonder if Apple is worth the feeling of conforming like sheep and a single system solution. At least their **bleep** works as far as I can tell.

So, my questions;

1) Anyone else had the lack of sound issue running Kit Kat 4.4.4 and firmware 133?

2) If you fixed it, what was the fix?

3) Anyone know how to get around the 5GB requirement of PC Companion or 'point' it at another drive?

Thanks, Stu

[Thommo]

Try performing a system repair using PC Companion as this will often fix issues - This will factory reset your phone and erase all data so best to backup before you begin

Switch off your phone and unplug from Pc (Hold volume up and power for around 10 seconds)
Start PC Companion and select Support zone then Update my phone/tablet then in Blue Repair my phone/tablet and follow the on screen instructions - When prompted connect your phone still switched off holding volume down or back button - This should start the repair or reformat process

If you are using Windows 8/8.1 or a 64bit operating system then adjust the settings for PC Companion and run in compatibility mode and chose Windows 7 or XP

[Rickard]

Sorry to hear about your phone.

It's not a known issue with the firmware you have. If you haven't tested it already, try starting the phone in safe mode to make sure it's not caused by one of your apps as apps can change the audio path.

PC Companion will use the default install path in Windows and i would not recommend that you try to change that as it may perhaps cause issues with your PC. If you still want to try it, check my suggestions in this thread: http://talk.sonymobile.com/t5/PC-Mac-Software/Install-directory-install-location-for-PC-Companion-2-...

[fairlyoffnow]

Thanks Rickard. I will try that.

Could you investigate why a phone running 133 firmware is being advised as up to date by pc companion when the Sony support sites says 157 is the latest version? (I assume the updates are in chronological order)

[Rickard]

157 is a later version than the one you have but we don't release an update for all phones at the same time as we may need local and operator approvals first so depending on where you bought the phone, .133 may be the latest version for your unit. If you send me a private message with your IMEI i can check.