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Samsung Windows Phone 7 owners "bricked" after update

It looks like all is not going too well at all with the Windows Phone update, which started rolling out yesterday. Users have claimed that the Samsung Omnia 7 is having some stability issues when applying the new OS update.

The reports vary from the operation getting stuck on the backup to fully locked-out handsets, with one user saying "...(the) backup gets stuck at 100% (Step 7 of 10) and the update doesn't carry on". In this instance the phone is at least still usable, but over at Winrumors users are reporting a different scenario.

One Winrumors reader named Tom Granville wrote in to the site to share his frustrations, saying:

Basically, after plugging in my phone to receive the update, the process gets as far as stage 6 of 10 where the phone goes through the reboot process but the phone hangs on the ‘connect your phone to your PC.

The Windows Zune client displays the following error:

RESTORATION ERROR

An error prevented the restoration of your phone to its previous version.

Your phone can’t be used in its present condition and there are no restore points for it on this computer. The phone might restart and return to normal if you disconnect it. For further assistance, contact your mobile operator.

Unfortunately, if you receive this error there isn't a great deal that the can be done. So far a total of five people have reported unusable devices, while another three said the update failed a step earlier, meaning the phone was still useable.

One user, Alex Roebuck, who claims his device is “bricked”, was simply asked to return his device to the store by the Microsoft support team. Some people think that it may have to do with different Samsung firmware versions. JI9 and JJ4 both experience issues whereas JK1 appears to be fine.

Yesterday's update was the first to hit the device since its launch late last year, and while it wasn't the 'NoDo' update, which will bring among other things, copy and paste functionality to the platform, overall speed improvements, and other tweaks to help improve the end user experience, Microsoft will be hoping that future updates go much more smoothly.

Microsoft is pushing the WP7 platform with nearly everything it has with a $500 million advertising campaign in the hope they can close the gap between their fledgling phone OS and that of Apple's iOS and Google's Android.

But in this instance, if you own a Samsung WP7 device, specifically the Omnia, you might want to wait before attempting an update.

Update: According to a posting by Diego T (Microsoft Support) on the Microsoft Answers support forum, the following steps can be tried as well:

OK guys

Please follow this

  1. If backup process is in apparently prolonged state (exceeding the general 30-40 min) with no movement of progress (including stuck at 99/100%)
  2. Disconnect the device from the PC
  3. Pull the battery
  4. Replace battery and power on
  5. Device should reboot into the OSKernal
  6. We would recommend at this time, not to retry the update, as subsequent attempts will fail similarly. While we continue to investigate the issue, we would ask that you not attempt the update until your device alerts you of another update opportunity, in approximately 3 days’ time.
  7. Last resort option if battery pull reset does not work, please consult your product documentation on Hard Resetting the device to factory default.

Image credit: Winrumors

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