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I tried resetting a friend’s Nokia Lumia 920 over the weekend and something unexpected happened: The stupid phone was stuck for hours with some running gears on the screen. Thinking it would soon reboot and start working properly, the thing lasted for over two hours after which I tried to do a soft reset with the regular button combination. The phone vibrated and showed Nokia logo. I sighed, not knowing the show was just getting started.
This too lasted for hours during which I kept trying every button combination I could find online. Nothing worked and the battery even drained out while trying all sorts of things. Finally, I thought the best thing I could do was to flash the phone. I used to do that on my old Nokia phones with Phoenix way back before I became an iOS user.
It’s crazy how resetting a device could brick the firmware and this is very common with Lumia 920. Lots of people even had to return theirs to the store to get a replacement. Anyway, this procedure works pretty well with other Nokia Lumia Phones apart from Nokia Lumia 920 but before getting started, there are certain things to note:
1. I won’t be held responsible if you further brick your phone through this tutorial though this is very unlikely to happen.
2. You must download Navifirm Plus. This is used to download the needed firmware files.
3. Download Nokia Care Suite. This is the main flashing tool
4. Even if your phone is stuck in a boot loop, be sure the phone is charged before doing this. Plug it in and let it charge and if it wont charge, use a different charger. Just make sure it’s charged.
I personally did this and while on it, I made sure I took screenshots since I knew right then it would be a useful blog post.
Procedure to Flash Nokia Lumia 920 & Others
The procedure is divided into three parts:
A. Downloading the required firmware files with Navifirm
B. Setting things up and preparing for flashing
C. Flashing with Nokia Care Suite
1. Run Navifirm, select your phone from the list on the left under Products. You have to be careful at this point because the same model of a phone may be of different types. For example, there are basically two types of Nokia Lumia 920 model: type RM-820 and type RM-821. You must select the right one.
You can know your phone type by checking the SIM tray or under the battery. It’s always written somewhere, you just gotta find it.
2. After clicking on the right product, Releases should be shown. These are like versions of the firmware available. It’s always advisable to go for the latest but then, it may not be available for your particular operator. You should see different operator’s names attached to the listed Variants and if yours isn’t listed, go back to previous Releases till you see the right variant
The phone in question is the global variant so I had to look for a firmware labelled IMEA (Middle East and Africa, I guess) or GLOBAL. Sometimes, the phone color is also attached to the variant name. You just have to know the right one to go for or else, your phone would be locked to a foreign network operator or you finish flashing the phone only to be greeted in Chinese on the welcome screen. :p
3. After selecting the right Variant, download all the files. These should be in one FW folder where Navifirm+ is located. Don’t bother dowing with with IDM. The firmware got corrupted when I did, just do it through Navifirm though it’s gonna take a while. The FFU file is like 1.3GB.
That’s that. We’re done with Navifirm for now.
B. Setting things up and preparing for flashing
I believe you’ve already installed Nokia Care Suite, right? Great!
1. Navigate to C:Program FilesNokiaNokia Care SuiteDrivers
2. Install the right WinUSB Drivers for your OS (x86 or x64)
3. Be sure you’ve enabled showing hidden files and folders from Folder Options in Control Panel
4. Navigate to C:ProgramDataNokiaPackages.
If you’re using Windows XP, this should be C:Documents and SettingsAll UsersApplication DataNokiaPackages
5. Create a folder and name it Products
6. Inside Products, create another folder named as your phone type (we talked about this earlier). Something like RM-821.
For my Lumia 920 type, the final path looks like this:
C:ProgramDataNokiaPackagesProductsRM-821
7. Copy the downloaded firmware files to this folder.
C. Flashing with Nokia Care Suite
1. Disconnect your phone from the computer if it’s connected and run Nokia Care Suite
2. Run Product Support Tool for Store 5.0 by double-clicking on it
3. Go to File > Open Product
4. Select your phone type from the list and click Open
5. Click on Programming, then Recovery.
6. If you’ve been following the steps carefully and your firmware is already in the right folder, you should see it listed on this page after selecting Recovery.
Hit the start button to begin the process but like I warned, don’t plug in your phone yet. At this poinf, NCS should verify your firmware files.
7. After this, you should be told your phone isn’t detected. It is only now you can plug in your phone via USB.
– Plug it in
– Hold down the Vloume down and Power button till you feel a soft vibration
– Release this buttons and hit the Retry button on Nokia Care Suite. Then hold the Volum Up key till Nokia Care Suite says Rebooting.
8. Flashing should start and you should see the progress as shown below
9. Also, you should see a Nokia logo on your phone at the upper part of the screen with a red background like this:
10. It took less than 10 minutes for the process to be complete and Nokia Care Suite should notify you when it’s done.
Your phone should reboot and you can now setup your phone as new.
This went smoothly for me and I guess it should work for you too. If there’s any issue you encountered during the process, you can let me know through comments.