Microsoft issues pre patch for Windows Phone 7 to fix update functionality

It’s said that Microsoft is about to release their very first patch for Windows Phone 7 today.

Be happy, but not too happy, as it’s not the slated “NoDo”-patch that’s destined to finally bring us copy & paste.

Instead it’s a pre patch, it’s function is to upgrade the software update functionality itself, in turn preparing the phone for the actual NoDo update.

According to Steve Ballmer, NoDo is being released in early march, so it’s hopefully not that far off now.

For all the developers – the Windows Phone Developer Tools are already updated in case you missed it. And don’t forget to check out the last version of the Silverlight Toolkit in case you missed that.

UPDATE: Reports of bricked devices!

Reports are coming in of users having gotten their devices bricked by this update!

Some users say their devices have stopped working, while some just report the update process failing but that they are able to reboot the device afterwards. The problems seem to be affecting the Samsung devices mostly so far.

Microsoft officials have commented on the issue, saying: -“We’re aware of this issue and are looking into these reports.”

There is a thread at Microsoft support forums regarding this issue.

UPDATE 2: Firmware related issues suspected on Samsung devices

The problems seems to be affecting Samsung users and are suspected to be based on what version of firmware that’s on the phone.

If you got a Samsung device you check firmware in the Diagnosis app. To get access to this you can type ##634# and press call in the dialer. You’ll get access to the Diagnosis app in the app list after doing this.
Type *#1234# in the diagnosis app and you’ll get up the firmware info.

If the top three rows end with JJx, then you got the old firmware and are likely to have issues installing this new patch. If it says JKx then it should work.

Update3: How to fix a stuck Samsung Omnia 7 device

There is allegedly a fix available if you can reboot a problematic Samsung device. It requires installing software on your PC and then on your phone.

I’d personally be quite careful of using this but I feel I need to publish the information if it can help any one.

WinRumors have a lengthy description here of what can be done.