This article is more than 1 year old

Windows Phone update wallops Omnia 7

Samsung handset hurt

Microsoft's latest mobile OS update has locked up some Samsung Omnia 7 handsets and reportedly bricked others.

The problem seems to be with specific firmware versions of the Omnia 7, but there's speculation that developer builds or the 64-bit version of the Zune software is to blame. So some users are installing the upgrade without difficulty, but others are finding the process locking up, requiring a handset reset at best and a visit to a service centre at worst.

The unofficial advice is to hard-reset before installing, or just refrain from installing the update which is delivered over the Zune desktop software (or Windows Phone 7 Connector).

The update doesn't add anything very sexy as it's supposed to be an improvement to the update mechanism itself, which even Microsoft admits "might not sound exciting". Microsoft is working to fix the problem, so the best advice is probably to hold off for a week until the problems are fixed.

This is Microsoft's first software drop for Windows Phone 7, so some teething problems are to be expected. The majority of users are able to recover their handsets with a reset - and even a hard reset isn't as bad as it used to be now that handsets are so cloud-based - but there have been reports of bricked handsets too.

One may speculate that Microsoft pushed out such an unexciting update deliberately to test the update mechanism, but that's a bit Machiavellian even for Redmond. If it stalls, refuses to backtrack and even bricks the occasional handset, then that's quite enough excitement for us. ®

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