E61 Firmware Update Failure

I recently downloaded from Nokia’s E61 support site the latest PC Suite and software update application.  I have tried twice to install the update (my current firmware is 1.0610.04.04) and it failed each time (after downloading 41 MB of stuff and working on it fro 10 minutes).  I then tried resetting the phone to factory defaults and repeated the process twice more, both time it failed.  The good news is the phone still works but I’d love to get the f/w current.  Any suggestions?

14 Responses to E61 Firmware Update Failure

  1. Same problem with no support from anyone. I need blackberry connect in 2.0 too :(

    Nick | 5:26 pm on the 4th of December, 2006

  2. Hi

    You are downloading PC Suite

    This is not the firmware for the phone. You need to download Nokia Software Updater for that

    Tom | 10:15 pm on the 4th of December, 2006

  3. There are some E61’s that simply won’t update with the existing firmware update. My understanding is that this is a known problem which can only be overcome by Nokia creating a new firmware update which addresses the problem. There is a way of forcing the E61 to update to the new firmware but it tends to corrupt the keyboard layout giving QWERTY keyboard phones an AZERTY layout.

    thesik | 3:09 am on the 4th of December, 2006

  4. Well, it is too late. The Nokia software update program said “update failed” on the last try, and the phone is now a brick! So now my question is how to get Nokia support for the E61 in the USA. I called Nokia USA and they will not help; I called the UK and they too will not help unless the phone is brought to them by a UK “owner”. Sounds like a US$400 brick. Too bad, too, since otherwise it was a terrific product.

    plima | 10:02 am on the 4th of December, 2006

  5. Had the same problem my Phone stopped working ( Dead)
    Company below re insatled the new Firmwar

    Asiatic Treasures Trading
    http://www.GSMPhone-Unlocking.com
    1118 St-Catherine West, Suite 305
    Montreal, Quebec
    H3B 1H5 Canada
    Tel: (514) 875-6074

    Ekkeland | 2:05 pm on the 4th of December, 2006

  6. Best tip i could give is: NEVER EVER update your phone via FOTA! At least not unless all bugs are fixed that are still there. Don´t make yourself a beta-tester for it and carry a stoopid-@ss piece of technology around after trying it.

    Normally, all Nokia Care Centres are obligated to “repair” your phone if something went wrong. It can be that they need to send the phone to Nokia, depending on their service level and the possibilities they have according to their level. But anyway, repair should be granted within the period of the guarantee. At least that´s what is the case in germany.

    Hint: Becoming a Club Nokia Member normally helps pretty much and may even ensure you another phone that you may use during the time of “repair” (which is just a firmware update in fact) ;)

    hope it helps!

    phanthomas | 2:31 pm on the 4th of December, 2006

  7. I recently updated my firmware with the nokia software updater and everything went fine and dandy. Now im just trying to repair my device with my mac and its not working on either end. Meaning if i search for a new paored devied on the phone everything seems to be working but when it comes time to enter my passcode for my mac which is sosposed to pop up a screen and tell u the passcode it dosent do that now. Also when i try to do it from my mac everything goes smooth untill it gets to the pairing screen where it gives u the passcode to enter then now my e61 wont connect to enter it. Im mad and now have sore thumbs. Is there anyway to downgrade firmware or do a restore……help

    Todd W | 12:31 am on the 4th of December, 2006

  8. Well ive gotten past the paring part but it only seems to stay connected via bluetooth for only about 5 min then disconnects and then will not reconnect again until power cycle the phone. The gprs connection through bluetooth works again but once again only for 5 min and then the same thing happens when browsing the file system it disconnects only after 5 minutes……..help

    TODD | 2:29 pm on the 4th of December, 2006

  9. Hi ppl!

    I’d like to share my experiance of the same kind of update faliure on nokia n70.
    First of all, i find Nokia’s attitute a bit upsetting.
    Not only they can not seem to be able to write a stabile SW updater, they also don’t share some useful info on update failiures! (at least not on the net…)
    So, as you might have guessed, my software update failed miserably. My first response was, of course “WTF!!! this is supposed to be a high-end phone from the world’s largest cellphone manufacturer, how the hell can this happen???”
    Of course i removed the battery, than tryed to turn on again… nothing. phone is dead.
    BUT!!! this is never the case. After plugging the phone into USB, Windows did recognise it, as it made an usb device inserted sound. That sounded really confortable, it meant that there was hope after all. Why? Becoulse updating the software with usb means programming a flash chip directly. This leads to a conclusion that you can NEVER kill a phone this way, just render it inoperable. But you can also correct the problem, it would seem the hw designers of nokia knew what they were doing :) The bottom line is, don’t panic, yust retry. Plugging in the charger may also help. after 4 faliours, the update finally succeeded, the phone want into testmode for a few moments, than everything got back to normal. (Imho the whole issue here is that the updater cannot always switch the phone into testmode, and the final step of the update can not complete as a result.)

    I hope i helped to those all who almost head a heart-attack (just like me)!

    atom | 2:48 pm on the 4th of December, 2006

  10. I ran the upgrade to the latest version but now the blackberry connect has dissapeared. Others have repoerted the same problem. Does anyone know how to downgrade to version 2

    carl | 7:11 pm on the 4th of December, 2006

  11. i run the upgrade for nokia n70 but now my phone is dead… can any one help me? please…

    pkermit | 9:38 am on the 4th of December, 2006

  12. I have a brandized Vodafone e61 that is very bad with some bugs. So I wanted to update to the last unbranded version.
    I know that the procedure lets go away the warranty but the phone was impossible to use.
    So I used Nemesis to change the product code and upgraded to the last firmware.
    BUT
    Before it ends the procedure, the phone entered in test mode and the video show “upgrading failure”. I tryed everything for over 2 hours but nothing happened.
    At least I looked on eshops to buy a new one, not branded now.

    So I disconnected the phone that seemed DEAD, and just to see what happened I formatted it using 3+*+green+turn on button.

    WOWWWWWWWWWWWW

    IT FUNCTIONS CORRECTLY!!!
    MAYBE THE PHONE NEEDS A FORMATTING BEFORE UPGRADING, BECAUSE MAYBE SOME FILES STOP THE PROCEDURE. BUT ALSO AFTER ALL THINGS WENT OK!!!

    Now I have an excellent phone, with the last firmware and also if I have no more the warranty I can upgrade it whenever I want.

    Netnemo | 4:58 am on the 4th of December, 2006

  13. I just ran the firmware update and it converted everything to chinese. Nokia help says go to tools->phone settings->general to change the language. Its easy for them to say, I have no idea how to get there given I dont read chinese!

    cp | 11:06 pm on the 4th of December, 2006

  14. […] be that Nokia just does a really bad job of supporting their products.  There are many many many many examples of their phones dying in software upgrades or just by […]

    Bad Penny » Betrayed by Nokia | 12:27 pm on the 4th of December, 2006

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