Has anyone got the T610 firmware upgraded?

quarryman

Very nice phone, some really great features. But I find the menus are a little laggy and the T9 text is slower than the Nokia models.

Will upgrading the firmware improve this? If not I may be returning to Nokia shortly........

wheresmybeaver

Yup the first firmware was fairly slow in T9 and menus, but this was solved with newer firmwares, I had my one upgraded and it had some fairly good improvements too in terms of texting, the camera, number of photos stored etc.

The menu works a little faster if you have tones turned off, funny enough.

quarryman

great.

next question: where did you get it done?

btw: is your sig a quote from the office? a speech by gareth?

wheresmybeaver

Yup thats Gareth on the office. Great show. Christmas special was really good too!

Well I got the firmware upgraded at the same time as my T610 was supposedly "fixed" by www.fonefix.ie (Sigma telecom in Dublin) except when I got it back it was still broken (speaker not working) but I managed to use it for a day to see what the new firmware was like. For more on that story, see this post.

But from what I've heard this seems to be a once off, so fonefix seem to be the best bet for firmware upgrades. I'm not sure if a firmware upgrade is strictly free, even under warranty, as its not a "repair" as such, but you should check with BrianG for that.

flywheel

yup - www.fonefix.ie will do under warranty - they go by the manufactured date on the label in the hadset you's see it as e.g. 03W30 - 30th week in '03

you may have to site a reason for wanting the upgrade

BrianG

Faltermyer

Sigma Telecom/Fonefix - behind Lidl in Finglas.

Will usually do on the spot for you, takes about 20mins, and is free if still in warranty(15months from Manufactured week - as described by DubWireles).

No reason required when I got mine done about 6weeks back.

Big difference in menu speed with new firmware, and also, photo size is much smaller(memorywise I mean)-photos used to be from 30-80kb, now 5-40kb each.

Also a few other changes to camera, photo editing, and little things.

Well worth getting done.

Stephen

Deadly. I must go up there some day. I don't like the idea of posting my phone!

hshortt

I had a T610 which was great and also got Sigma to upgrade the firmware for me. There were new features with the number keys when the camera was turned on, contrast, size, modes etc.

I sold the T610 because it did not ring loud enough for me and no matter how hard I tried, I could not keep it clean!

Cheers

Tony_ire

I have Orange firmware version R1A 081.

If i send it to fonefix, will they put the latest Orange firmware or could they put o2 or the original SonyEricsson firmware on it?

hshortt

They will put the original Sony Ericsson firmware on the phone.

Ste.phen

I have R1A 081
(ASIAN_LATIN_3)

How the hell am i going to get this upgraded, i presume neither sigma nor MPRC are going to touch this with a bargepole?

is there a RELIABLE method to reflash it myself, i dont want a cool loking paperweight

Faltermyer

Originally posted by hshortt
They will put the original Sony Ericsson firmware on the phone.

No, you will be left with the Orange version unfortunately.

I bought mine off Ebay locked to Orange, unlocked it myself and then got Sigma to update the firmware, and asked them to flash it with OEM SE Firmware if they could - they said "Of course, we do a full flash..." ... but it came out with the Orange sh!t still intact, and my phone numbers still on it indicating that they hadnt in fact flashed it, they had simply updated the software, which does not remove the Operator installed stuff.

Magic Monkey

About sending T610 by post to Fonefix (from website):

"Alternatively for a small fee you can send it to us by insured, next day delivery. Simply ask for a fonefix envelop at your nearest participating post office."

Has anyone done this? Getting my T610 this week, would like it flashed if the consensus is that it improves the phone greatly, but I also want it back

Faltermyer

They are right about the envelopes. Its a service mostly used by people living out in the sticks where the nearest decent phone store is too awkward to get to.

I would think its fairly reliable, and it would also be insured(I think, so check).

Magic Monkey

Aside from fonefix, are there any other places in the city centre that could flash the T610, under warranty?

If not, it's a case of bus fare to Finglas, and wait 20mins vs. cost of fonefix envelope and waiting around a week...

Faltermyer

Not that I know of. Fonefix/Sigma seem to have the contract for most warranty work in Ireland.

hshortt

Sigma are very quick about returning the phone.

I sent mine in on a Tuesday (mid-day post) and had it delivered to my house on Thursday morning.

As for the branded firmware - Orange or Vodafone, they can remove this. I had mine done, not sure why others came back with the branding intact.

Cheers

Faltermyer

Originally posted by hshortt
As for the branded firmware - Orange or Vodafone, they can remove this. I had mine done, not sure why others came back with the branding intact.

And yours was done by post? Did you put any special instructions in with it or anything?

When I asked about it after it being done, the receptionist went out back, then came out and said that the "Engineer" said that is what happens with them all...

...There was a discussion on either esato.com or myt610.net , where a guy had a Vodafone handset, and when he brought it to the local SE Service Center, the guy tried to flash it with Unbranded OEM SE Firmware, but the machine kept re-writing Vodafone firmware to it... as if they are marked by IMEI or something?

Must give Sigma a call again and see if I can get to speak to one of the Engineers

What firmware was on your phone hshortt? And do you remember what week/yr manufacture it was(incase maybe that makes a difference)? And did you loose all phone numbers, SMS and stored pictures? I lost only SMS which is why it couldnt have been a full flash as this would have wiped everything.

Magic Monkey

Also hshortt, how much was the special insured fonefix envelope from the Post Office?

Thanks

hshortt

How's it?

I can't remember the firmware version, I've been through three phones since the T610. I remember that it had the initial Ra81 I think. It was just outside the famous hissing noise week production I think it was w22.

When I decided to send it in, I wrote a cover letter explaining that I was having problems with the phone such as the increasing ring tone weather you want it or not, and the slow response. I explained in this letter that SE advised a firmware upgrade may help to solve these.

When I got my phone back it was as if I had just bought it, everything was gone. This is because there are two partitions to be flashed (Not sure I'm remembering this properly!) Anyway, both parts were done and I got the latest available firmware at the time. Although none of the problems I had were solved by the update.

I since sold the phone.

Sorry this is not clearer.
Howard

hshortt

I used a normal padded envelope nothing special, but I did ask for it to be registered at the post office which cost me around 1.50 euro.

Cheers

wheresmybeaver

The main post office in Cork city never has any fonefix envelopes, so each time I had mine repaired I bought a padded envelope and sent it off registered, which cost me at least €4 each time, the last time actually it worked out at about €6. Dunno why. It'd be nice to have a repair shop nearby, but alas...