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Windows Phone 7 Update Jams Some Phones

CWmike writes "Microsoft's first Windows Phone 7 update is apparently causing some users' phones to not work. Microsoft has advised at least one person to take his device into a store for a fix. The company's WindowsPhoneSupport Twitter account shows the responses to a variety of queries from users who have experienced problems over the last half-day. Microsoft released the update on Monday but played it down. The update was designed only 'to improve the software update process itself,' wrote Michael Stroh on the Windows Team Blog. One user, Alex Roebuck, wrote on Twitter that the update had bricked his Samsung Omnia 7. 'We're very sorry for the inconvenience,' Microsoft responded on Twitter. 'For this issue we would suggest taking it to a store.'"

25 of 177 comments (clear)

  1. NOK is in trouble. by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is the user experience with Windows Phone 7?

    Seriously?

    Nokia's in serious serious shit.

    I hope that Nokia can help iron out problems like this before they launch WP7 devices.

    --
    Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
    1. Re:NOK is in trouble. by WrongSizeGlass · · Score: 2

      An extreme minority experiencing a problem...since when is this news? it's happened with android and with the iphone as well.

      True, but with the paltry install base for WP7 it's probably a larger percentage than with other smartphones. If it is just "two particular firmware versions" as mentioned in the other reply than how did MS miss testing this update with this manufacturer?

    2. Re:NOK is in trouble. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      This is the user experience with Windows Phone 7?

      Seriously?

      Nokia's in serious serious shit.

      I hope that Nokia can help iron out problems like this before they launch WP7 devices.

      What did people expect? Microsoft's been promising that WP7 would "bring the Windows experience" to your phone; I can't think of a more quintessentially "Windows experience" than getting completely fucked by a random update.

    3. Re:NOK is in trouble. by symbolset · · Score: 2

      Your team has legions of press-release mills and "analysts". Our team has slashdot, digg, Reddit, twitter. You have legions of astroturfers, we have legions of fanbois and phandroids. That's how it is. Whining isn't going to change it.

      --
      Help stamp out iliturcy.
    4. Re:NOK is in trouble. by darkpixel2k · · Score: 2

      How come nobody shits about their Android phones taking a shit or their iPhone's taking a shit?

      Because I got my Android phone pre-loaded with annoying crap from HTC and I immediately rooted and reflashed to Cyanogen--now I have no issues with my phone.
      Where's the open source but modded-to-be-better version of Windows Phone 7 Phone Experience awesomeness you can toss on your Windows Phone 7 Series. What the hell is the name of their phone platform anyways?

      --
      There's no place like ::1 (I've completed my transition to IPv6)
    5. Re:NOK is in trouble. by RobertM1968 · · Score: 2

      Agreed. Don't let the fact that it's been narrowed down to two particular firmware versions on one phone get in the way of the fun!

      Actually, an extreme minority of users have been pushed this update. And considering that WP7 users are already an extreme minority, that means a hundred people is probably a big deal. Think about it... take "an extreme minority of smartphone users" (WP7 phone owners) and then take an extreme minority of them (the Samsung users in the limited initial staged rollout who are part of the earlier mentioned extreme minority) and perhaps the problem IS bigger than you allude to.

      If people RTFAs, they'd have noted this. This was not a mass rollout. It was a staged rollout to a smaller percentage of people with certain Samsung phones. If this was a mass rollout, (and perhaps if WP7 marketshare wasn't negligible), then I'd agree with you.

    6. Re:NOK is in trouble. by phonewebcam · · Score: 3, Interesting

      And many more times on WM 6.5.
      Since m$ decided that stopping their phones bricking during updates, pointlessly draining bandwidth, multitasking, cut n paste and flash is nowhere near as important as connecting to xboxes what do you expect?

      I foresee much more of this kind of stuff - this is m$, dammit - the first 2 years of any products life is just an extended beta test by its users.

  2. For once, Microsoft support gave good advice ... by tomhudson · · Score: 5, Insightful

    the update had bricked his Samsung Omnia 7. 'We're very sorry for the inconvenience,' Microsoft responded on Twitter. 'For this issue we would suggest taking it to a store.'"

    After all, that's where the Returns counter is, right?

    According to some comments on the mini microsoft blog, between 50% and 80% of what few WP7 phones are being bought end up being returned, so take a number, and get in line ...

  3. Another Microsoft Product success by hsmith · · Score: 4, Funny

    Should have been renamed Windows Mobile Vista

    1. Re:Another Microsoft Product success by Rufty · · Score: 4, Funny

      Naah. Windows Mobile Edition. Or Windows ME to its friend.

      --
      Red to red, black to black. Switch it on, but stand well back.
  4. Re:Jams? by S.O.B. · · Score: 2

    I think this is the quote you were looking for:

    Radar Technician: Sir! The radar, sir! It appears to be... [Jam starts flowing through the computer screen] jammed!
    Dark Helmet: Jammed... [Examines the jam and tastes it] Raspberry. There's only one man... [Sandurz gets out of the way of the approaching camera] ...who would dare give me the raspberry! [Pulls his mask down] Lone Starr! [Walks into the camera and collapses]

    --
    Some of what I say is fact, some is conjecture, the rest I'm just blowing out my ass...you guess.
  5. Re:For once, Microsoft support gave good advice .. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The only thing I found that said the return rate was 80% was from a comment from a Anonymous.

    "The AT&T dude told me that WP7 phones had -- listen closely -- an 80% return rate."

  6. Re:Is it bricked or is it really bricked? by rritterson · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's really bricked. See here:

    "... If this is successful, it should allow the handset to recover its original firmware and resume operation. But not everyone can get this to work, indicating that the devices are truly bricked, with the only option being to return them to the network operator and have them replaced under warranty."

    The article has more details; the problems appear to be restricted to a few samsung firmware versions. Given how religious MS is about testing every combination of everything come patch time (how many times have we bitched about the slowness of a patch), I'm going to speculate the source of the cock-up is a miscommunication regarding which firmware versions are out there (MS didn't know they existed) or what the differences between them are (MS thought the differences were irrelevant come patch time) and at least half the blame lies with Samsung.

    --
    -Ryan
    AUWYHSTOT (Acronyms are Useless When You Have to Spell Them Out Too)
  7. Re:Version 1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What part of windows phone 7 is confusing? The 7? MS has been doing shitty phones for a long time. This is not a version 1 product.

  8. Re:Holy Anti-Microsoft Hysteria, Batman! by breenmachine · · Score: 2
  9. Re:Holy Anti-Microsoft Hysteria, Batman! by LWATCDR · · Score: 2

    Actually only the Nexus S has 2.3 and almost no software is written for 2.3. The current majority of Android devices have 2.1 But yes Samsung is a pain when it comes to updates plus they Skin it which sucks.
    Of course WP7 still can not multitask yet and is this update finally adding in cut and paste and Custom ring tones? Kind of hard to brag about an update that brings WP7 up to the standards of 2008.

    --
    See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
  10. Re:Version 1 by LWATCDR · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yea it isn't like Microsoft has been producing Phone OSs for the last ten plus years! I mean they are new to this market... Oh..... Wait Windows phone 7... Humm....

    --
    See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
  11. Re:It never ceases to amaze me by clang_jangle · · Score: 3, Funny

    I administer around 50 Windows computers and never have updates break anything.

    Congrats on the new job! After you've been doing it for a few years you too will have windows update horror stories to tell.

    --
    Caveat Utilitor
  12. Re:Holy Anti-Microsoft Hysteria, Batman! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    This is because carriers aren't sending out Android updates.

  13. Re:For once, Microsoft support gave good advice .. by tomhudson · · Score: 4, Informative
    First, a lot of the comments on the minimsft blog are posted anonymously because both mini and the commenters work at Microsoft.

    Second, Microsoft has been trying to puff up the disappointing numbers by quoting units shipped to stores, and not units activated.

    So, since Microsoft won't release hard numbers, we have to go with what we can find elsewhere; the fact that Microsoft doesn't want to talk about activations and return numbers is a good indicator that the anecdotal evidence is, if not 100% accurate, at least in the ballpark.

    Of course, if your product only had lost 50% market share in the last year, and was down to 3%, and Android in the same time went from 2% to #1, you wouldn't want to give out the real numbers either.

  14. A possible fix by atomicbutterfly · · Score: 2

    http://www.neowin.net/news/bricked-wp7-this-is-how-to-fix-it

    On a side note, I hate the term "bricked" given this is a recoverable problem, although someone did point out that "bricked" is a perfectly acceptable term to describe a non-functional device during the period of time in which there is no known fix.

  15. Re:For once, Microsoft support gave good advice .. by tomhudson · · Score: 3, Informative
    The poor sales were verified by one of Microsoft's WP7 partners - LG Electronics. Since Microsoft won't release the actual figures (because they really ARE that bad), we have to use what's out there.

    Ballmer has said that the mobile phone industry needs WP7 because it needs a 3rd option. WP7 isn't 3rd, or even 4th, in terms of sales. 3% is 5th place, and a drop from the previous year's market share of almost 7%.

    Why do you think that Microsoft had to pay Nokia so much to get on board?

  16. Re:For once, Microsoft support gave good advice .. by miffo.swe · · Score: 3, Informative

    His numbers are just as good as the ones Microsoft pulls out of their behind. LG have told us that sales are abysmal and every other hint says that sales are very dissapointing. When everything leans towards bad sales and Microsoft wont release any numbers, its a safe bet that sales are really that bad.

    --
    HTTP/1.1 400
  17. Re:Version 1 by LWATCDR · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yes Microsoft has come out with some good products like the XBox and the flight sim series. I will even give Office it's due except that it has created a virtual monopoly but Excel is actually really good Access is just Evil. Powerpoint is tool of unlimited evil and boredom and Word is well Word.. That and the document formats are terrible.
    IE, Outlook, Visual Basic, and MFC all should be considered crimes IMHO.

    WP7 the first real phone OS? Really? What about Windows Mobile? What about WIndows Mobile 6.5 that Microsoft is still selling? I am not going to give Microsoft any slack for WP7. It right now is a non-completive product in my opinion. First of all let me say one thing. announced features are not real. If it isn't shipping it doesn't count.
    WP7 does not have multitasking or even task switching like WebOS, IOS, and Android.
    WP7 does not have free turn by turn navigation like Android.
    The mobile browser on it is not as good as IOS, Android, or even WebOS and Symbian's.
    It lacks the Enterpise management features of BlackBerry OS and even IOS.
    I do not know what is in the new update so I will say that at launch it also didn't have even cut and paste and custom ring tones.
    Microsoft has had four years to answer the iPhone and three to answer Android and this is what they came up with? Really the largest software company in the world and this is all they came up with. Let us not forget that they bought and destroyed Danger as well. Microsoft entered the smartphone market back when it was only Palm and Symbian. They sat and didn't innovate and now they have not even caught up. Throw in the disaster that was the Kin as well and I must ask why give them any slack? I don't get it. If say Sony or Nokia had come up with this OS at this time people would be laughing in their face.
    If I was a on the Microsoft Board I would outraged at the current state of affairs.
    Considering the time and resources that they had to work with they should have come up with a phone OS that would be an world beater and frankly it is an also ran with a pretty face. I will say the UI isn't bad and was very fast when I used it. But the OS is feature incomplete.

    --
    See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.