I have 2 Windows Mobile Phones - Microsoft Lumia 640 and BLU Win Jr. Recently Microsoft released Windows 10 Anniversary Update. While I was very excited to update my Lumia 640, the excitement became short lived since my BLU phone gave serious Touch screen issues post the update. The Phone sensed touch at incorrect places and was almost bricked.
I followed the Factory Reset process as mentioned on http://windowsphone.stackexchange.com/questions/1939/how-can-i-hard-reset-my-windows-8-phone-which-keys-do-i-press , but that did not work. Post the reboot the Phone continued to have the same Touch Screen issues. Later on I realized that the Windows 10 Mobile (10.0.14393.67) update for few non-Microsoft devices had failed. There was a similar problem when I update the BLU phone from Windows 8.1 to 10.
The only option which I now had was to go back to Factory Default Firmware which was Windows 8.1 (one version lower, since I had earlier updated the Phone OS to Windows 10). Though I have done rooting and firmware upgrades for Symbian, iOS and Android devices, I had never done an Firmware fix for Windows Mobile devices. But after researching quite a bit I found a Microsoft Tool which just makes it very easy to restore your Phone's Factory Default Firmware and that too it supports non-Microsoft Phones.
Welcome to Microsoft Device Recovery Tool. You may either have an unusable Phone like mine with Touch Screen issues or a semi-bricked Phone which shows a frowning icon :-( after a failed upgrade, and does not boot. In both the cases, first install the Tool, Launch it and Connect your Phone once prompted.
After you connect your Phone the Tool first detects and displays your Mobile Phone's details and then might ask you to select the specific Model Number for your Phone. While I have a BLU Win Jr Phone, it has 2 x variants X130E and X130Q whose information can be found in the sticker printed over the Phone's Battery (after removing the back cover).
Once the specific model number is selected the Tool then queries and downloads the Phone's Factory Default Firmware available on Microsoft's repository. The download size is approx. 1.7 GB. Once the download is completed the Tool prompts you to restart your Phone in Flash Mode. This is achieved by first Powering Off your Phone using the Power Key, then pressing the Power Key again to Power On and within seconds pressing the Volume Up button as soon as you feel the vibration post Power Up. You will be sure that the Phone has entered the Flash Mode when you see the pic on right.
Do ensure that you enter the Flash Mode with USB cable connected. As soon as the Tool senses the Flash Mode, it transfers the Firmware to Phone which was just downloaded and commences the flashing process. Post completion of flashing, your Phone is back to its original Firmware and you can restore most of your settings (including WhatsApp messages, SMS, etc.) if you had configured Backup in Windows and also in the specific Apps with your Microsoft Account configured.
Another thing which I also discovered is that the downloaded Firmware is not store in the Tools temporary cache, but available permanently on the PC where Windows Device Recovery Tool is installed. So in future if you have a device problem again and need to restore Firmware, don't worry, the Tool wont download the Firmware once again.
Though this process may sound very geeky, this Tool makes the task of Firmware restoration pretty easy and prevents your visit to the Service Centre.
Give it a try and share your experience!
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