Microsoft says phone update failed 1 in 10 users Published duration 24 February 2011

image caption Samsung user Alex Roebuck took this picture of his 'bricked' phone

Microsoft has revealed that 1 in 10 users who tried to install a software update on their Windows mobile experienced problems.

The company had previously said that only a "small number" of handsets were affected.

Owners have reported a range of issues following the download, from phones crashing, to becoming completely unusable.

Microsoft pulled the update soon after the problem came to light.

On Microsoft's website, company blogger Michael Stroh wrote : "Has the update process gone perfectly? No—but few large-scale software updates ever do, and the engineering team here was prepared.

"Of course, when it's your phone that's having a problem—or you're the one waiting—it's still aggravating."

The problem appears to have affected only Samsung handsets, in particular the Omnia 7 model.

Bad connection

Microsoft said that most of those affected had either a bad internet connection or too little storage on the computer that the update was being installed from.

The company's blog posting directs users to an online troubleshooting guide, as well as suggesting they visit its Windows Phone forum.

Many of the postings on that site detailed users' attempts to restore their phones.

Lphilly79 wrote: "I disconnected the phone, removed the battery, and the phone booted up again into the original ROM (v7004).

"No obvious changes were made and everything is seems ok, exactly the way is was before the upgrade attempt."

One member, called Eliuzhi, appeared to have had less luck: "Now my phone is bricked I can not do anything!"

Microsoft has said that it will issue a new update as soon as it has identified how to fix the problem.

The company is currently trying to grow its share of the lucrative smartphone market, having lost ground to Apple, Google and Blackberry.

It recently announced a tie-up with Nokia that would see the handset manufacturer running Windows Phone on its smartphone devices.