WSOD - Sony Ericsson W550i

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I bought a Sony Ericsson W550i 2 months back. Its a great phone and gives excellent value for its cost. So all was well and i thought i will live happily ever after.

But no, since yesterday the phone is stuck in WSOD - White Screen of Death. The phone shows a white screen when i try to start and doesn't get anywhere from that. I tried all the common 'engineer' tricks like restart( no use) take out battery and restart( still no effect) remove battery & SIM wait for a couple of hours, put them again and restart( still the same). I got a feeling this is a much serious issue at this point.

Web searches pointed out that this is quite a known problem and quite a number of people have had this. Apparently a 'firmware flash' could bring this back to life. One of the forums suggested to use the update service from Sony ericsson's website to upgrade the firmware. I tried that and it got stuck at 90% updation. So the firmware is really really screwed.

I mailed the product support and they asked me to send it to their UK service center. I am not gonna do this - international shipment & a delay of 3 weeks being the main reasons. Now, i have to take it back to the seller and hope he can do something for me. The seller is in a different town and i cannot go there until Saturday :-( .

If you have had this problem drop in a line to suggest what worked for you. If you havent found out still watch this space for more updates.

Update 1 : Aug 07 : The service center duly accepted the phone after checking the warranty card. I didnt have 'proof of purchase' but that wasn't a big issue. The phone should be ready by Tuesday Aug 08 - however all user data wil be *lost*. Not that i had a lot of files/settings. The loss of address book is the one that i am very upset about.

Update 2 : Aug 13 : I got my phone back. Not all's well. All my files are gone and so is the addressbook :-( But my phone is back with very little fuss.

Lessons Learnt :

1) Don't install themes unless sure about the source( Mohamed's advice was second-ed by servic rep)

2) Dont pull the USB connectivity from the PC without 'stopping' the device.