Phones 4U install incorrect firmware on Nokia Lumia 920's for EE in UK

[BakIILife]

I have had a Nokia Lumia 920 since 10th November 2012. It's white, it's big, but it doesn't work as a phone. The SIM card that EE (the UK 4G provider) gave me originally was not registered but EE finally got around to registering it around Monday 1800. Shortly after this, I was disconnected, so my phone turned back into a fantastic iPod Touch. The OpSys rocks. Windows Phone 8 is fantastic. Its fast, smooth, looks incredible, sounds fantastic, BUT I bought a phone and I have yet to make or receive a phone call with my phone.

Anyhow, EE sent me another SIM, which the phone just said was invalid. So they sent me another SIM, which caused my phone to enter a reboot cycle. Basically, if my phone had its SIM in, it would boot to the OpSys and then reboot ad infinitum. I decided to then take, the now ridiculous, decision to hard reset my phone. I did this via the Options -> About -> Reset button on the phone. My phone then spent the next hour with cogs on the screen and now just has the Nokia logo on the screen and will not turn off. Its a very sexy brick.

Anyhow, I have phoned EE again and now it gets very interesting. The lady on the phone read me a bit of an email she received internally on Monday morning. Basically, she stated that Phones4U have installed the wrong firmware version of the UK Lumia 920's. This is causing the EE SIM cards to crash and in some cases brick the phones. She has dealt with three such cases and put mine forward for the emergency response unit (or whatever they are called) to handle my case BUT I must go to Phones4U and demand a new handset as THEY are responsible for bricking it as they have supplied the incorrect software. I have tried to phone them as I got mine from their online presence and I hope to get a new one from their shop but there support line seems to be shut at 1900.

Anyhow, I will keep you all posted on how it goes. She intimated that the 4G firmware that Phones4U have installed on some handsets is the US one and not the UK one hence the crashes. :excl:

Why couldn't Microsoft deal with a decent company like O2? Much better reception and I can wait for 4G but not the 920.

 

[Tiago Lopes]

yup i have exactly the same, i'm on my 3rd sim card. and as my old phone has now had the phone number taken off it, i have no way of contacting EE. any word on a fix?

 

[anon(5352752)]

Phones4U don't install and will never install custom firmware onto a phone. Firmware would come from Nokia and them alone for one. Phones4U are just a retailer as is the likes of Carphone Warehouse, etc. Whatever donkey has fed you that should have some serious training done.

Second, from what I saw of an internal brief i'm not supposed to see but somehow can see because they ain't taken me off the mailing list yet (I know stupid right!), there are issues activating EE sims onto the 4G network thing and the "first resolution step" is another microsim so that's not surprising.

 

[JammyGitz]

This happened to me, the phone just kept rebooting with the EE but worked fine with T-Mobile and no sim. I fixed it by putting the EE sim into my iPhone 4 and let it register and whatever for about 10 mins, once it was all up and running I put the sim back in the Lumia and it worked.

Phones4u don't do anything to the phones, it's just buggy firmware probably to do with EE sims alone or 4G

 

[laney182]

i had the same issue with a phone from EE direct (rebooting due to sim being in active)

nothing to do with firmware

you have to learn and most people have by now

EE do not have a clue, have not been trained and kept their jobs via a traffic light system

says a lot about a company

 

[sudakoma]

When I purchased my 920 from P4U they also had problems activating the EE sim and after several attempts with different sims they had to call EE support, who activated the sim from their end. The problem seems to be a bug with the P4U system, nothing to do with firmware so stop spreading FUD. Once mine was activated it has been fine, no problems.

 

[anon(5352752)]

When I purchased my 920 from P4U they also had problems activating the EE sim and after several attempts with different sims they had to call EE support, who activated the sim from their end. The problem seems to be a bug with the P4U system, nothing to do with firmware so stop spreading FUD. Once mine was activated it has been fine, no problems.

They can only activate the sim for 3G NOT 4G instore. The 4G activation has to be done manually via a system called Excalibur (T-Mobiles old system which EE now use I believe)

 

[JammyGitz]

I didn't say activate, I said register. Even when you put a brand new & activated sim in, for a few seconds it will still say no service. Just let the sim connect to the network for the first time via another phone and put it back in your Lumia

 

[BakIILife]

Ok Guys/Gals,
Thanks for all the responses and I appologise for the FUD but I was passing on the information that I was supplied. I am more of an OpSys type of guy not a phone firmware person so my naivity may show. Either way, I have just popped up to Phones4U who have replaced my handset as it was eventually bricked. I put my EE SIM in a few of their 920's of varying colours and each got stuck in a reboot cycle.

After reading all your posts here, I have put my SIM in my O2 Nokia Lumia 800 and it has registered the 2g bit. I am now waiting for a bit for the 3G to register and then I will transfer the SIM back to my 920 and see if that works. I will keep you guys upto date with my progress.
Thanks,

 

[JammyGitz]

It might help to go into the settings and change the max speed to 3g. You would have to do this with no sim

 

[Tiago Lopes]

i can confirm the above works. so in essence, to purchase a new lumia from ee you need an unlocked phone of any other kind to allow the sim to register to the network. its a bit of a joke, but i must say, even if they have been utterly useless, ee phone support have been all lovely. theyre swimming against the tide of their bosses stupidity

 

[gilesjuk]

No problems here with EE and Phones4U.

Although I did re-flash the phone with some generic GB firmware as I prefer standard firmware.

 

[BakIILife]

OK,
For all you EE customers out there here is what I did and how I got it working on 2G and 3G but not 4G.

1. Get a phone that can take your 3G SIM. I found my Nokia Lumia 800 for carphone warehouse worked.
2. Put your SIM in and let it register 2G.
3. On your 920 with no SIM in, go to Settings -> mobile network and TURN DATA OFF
4. Get your now registered SIM from your old/other phone and put it in your 920 and boot it up.
5. The phone should now boot and not crash.
6. Go to Setings -> Mobile Network and change "Highest Connection Speed" to 3G and then turn the "data connection" back on.
7. Life should be pretty good now (unless you live in a 4G area).

I don't so if someone can take the obvious next step and turn 4G back on and see if it crashes again I would appreciate it.
Thanks,

 

[rockstarzzz]

I have had a Nokia Lumia 920 since 10th November 2012. It's white, it's big, but it doesn't work as a phone. The SIM card that EE (the UK 4G provider) gave me originally was not registered but EE finally got around to registering it around Monday 1800. Shortly after this, I was disconnected, so my phone turned back into a fantastic iPod Touch. The OpSys rocks. Windows Phone 8 is fantastic. Its fast, smooth, looks incredible, sounds fantastic, BUT I bought a phone and I have yet to make or receive a phone call with my phone.

Anyhow, EE sent me another SIM, which the phone just said was invalid. So they sent me another SIM, which caused my phone to enter a reboot cycle. Basically, if my phone had its SIM in, it would boot to the OpSys and then reboot ad infinitum. I decided to then take, the now ridiculous, decision to hard reset my phone. I did this via the Options -> About -> Reset button on the phone. My phone then spent the next hour with cogs on the screen and now just has the Nokia logo on the screen and will not turn off. Its a very sexy brick.

Anyhow, I have phoned EE again and now it gets very interesting. The lady on the phone read me a bit of an email she received internally on Monday morning. Basically, she stated that Phones4U have installed the wrong firmware version of the UK Lumia 920's. This is causing the EE SIM cards to crash and in some cases brick the phones. She has dealt with three such cases and put mine forward for the emergency response unit (or whatever they are called) to handle my case BUT I must go to Phones4U and demand a new handset as THEY are responsible for bricking it as they have supplied the incorrect software. I have tried to phone them as I got mine from their online presence and I hope to get a new one from their shop but there support line seems to be shut at 1900.

Anyhow, I will keep you all posted on how it goes. She intimated that the 4G firmware that Phones4U have installed on some handsets is the US one and not the UK one hence the crashes. :excl:

Why couldn't Microsoft deal with a decent company like O2? Much better reception and I can wait for 4G but not the 920.

Are you someone who purchased it from Warren Street Phones4U? I know the store manager and he told me the EXACT same story yesterday about someone he tried to help and he blatantly blamed it on Microsoft saying how crap Windows Phone is and then guided a couple who wanted HTC Radar to SGS3.

 

[timetex]

I had exactly the same issues - phone direct from EE. I'm actually on my 4th SIM (tale of woe is told elsewhere) but the very first time I put the 1st SIM into the phone, it power cycled repeatedly til I pulled the SIM out. I put a TMUK SIM in and it was fine, so I setup the phone like that.

Turns out the SIM itself was faulty (kept giving SIM ERROR even when activated) and it has taken 11 days to get a proper working replacement - however, as soon as I put this SIM in last night, back to power-cycle again. I didn't try the TMUK SIM this time, I just tried to reset the phone - and now have a brick.

So I can confirm this is nothing whatsoever to do with P4U - it is an issue with the handset in conjunction with a brand new 4G SIM. I did manage to get another EE SIM working (one of the replacements) for 4 hours (including some 4G coverage) but it was a replacement I picked up in store, so was already assigned to a number, so presumably the phone didn't need to go through that stage. After 24 hours of having this SIM in, it was eventually corrected assigned my mobile number, but then was deactivated about 4 hours later, as CS had already ordered me a new SIM thinking this one was faulty too...

 

[JammyGitz]

I'm still annoyed that there is NO way of checking data usage on EE. There's no app in the app store, you can't do it on their website and this Data Sense thing isn't included.

 

[anon(5352752)]

I didn't say activate, I said register. Even when you put a brand new & activated sim in, for a few seconds it will still say no service. Just let the sim connect to the network for the first time via another phone and put it back in your Lumia

Means same thing lol!.
I've been messing with other sims in and most that are a MVNO appear to work ok with the exception of some.

I'm still annoyed that there is NO way of checking data usage on EE. There's no app in the app store, you can't do it on their website and this Data Sense thing isn't included.

Data Sense would be useful I must admit.
EE's website feels rushed :/

 

[sudakoma]

They can only activate the sim for 3G NOT 4G instore. The 4G activation has to be done manually via a system called Excalibur (T-Mobiles old system which EE now use I believe)

The lady trying to get mine activated was the store manager so this doesn't say much for their staff training does it? Not surprising really considering all the misinformation I was given when trying to purchase a 'sim-free' handset when the 920's were first released. I was told by several stores that my O2 sim would work.

 

[sudakoma]

I'm still annoyed that there is NO way of checking data usage on EE. There's no app in the app store, you can't do it on their website and this Data Sense thing isn't included.

The EE website is useless, despite having my phone now for over 10 days, no data usage is available on their system. (There is no mobile data usage for this mobile at the present time.) No call or message data is available either.

 

[john gardner]

I had trouble with my 920 on EE.

First they sent me a duff sim card which couldn't be read.

At first EE wouldn't send a replacement claiming it was old firmware..

had to go to EE shop to prove it was faulty.

The second SIM card caused the looping re-boot problem.

I spent hours looking for a solution

EE again claimed a faulty handset. (Phones4U had a bad batch..) Since it had worked fine with an Orange 3g card I didn't believe it.



Went back to Phones4U where the (very helpful) guy

1. put my SIM card in a new 920

2. put an EE SIM card he knew worked into mine.

Both Worked!

Then we put my SIM card back into my phone and it booted no problem.



there is something to do with the initialisation of the EE SIM cards.



The phones are fine. The issue is with EE and their poor service is just compounding the situation