Microsoft says that it has identified the problem with a recent small OS upgrade to Windows Phone 7 smartphones that resulted in the phones turning into overpriced paperweights as they ceased to work. The company said that less than 10% of handsets running the OS were affected by the problem – and it is understood that the bulk of the problems were limited to Samsung phones.
Of those customers experiencing issues, half of the reported problems originate from two issues that are related to internet connectivity and inadequate back-up storage space on their PC. For customers receiving these error messages, their phone will function normally and in most cases they can install the update by freeing disk space on their PC and ensuring they have an internet connection before re-starting the update process.
The others encountering issues may not be able to install the update properly, but will be able to return their phone to its pre-update state and it will continue to function normally. So far, the investigation shows that 99.5% of customers reporting errors are not experiencing a scenario where their device is unrecoverable, cellular-new reports.
The company stopped sending out the OS upgrades last week, but says that it has resumed them for Samsung phones. The upgrade is itself quite a small patch which is designed to prepare the phone for a much larger upgrade which is expected later this month.
