Side wok...

Over the two week Semester break, I barely had good rest. Wantoks and tutoks were bringing laptops and phones for me to fix. Whether it was a hardware or software problem, they had one thing in mind - that I was the "Fix-it-Felix" of Madang town.

Well, I tried my best and did whatever I could to solve their hardware and software problems and one way or another luck was on my side. I could say I do have skills but when my skills felt they couldn't handle the challenge it was just sheer luck and taking a big risk.



Someone brought me a phone like the one shown below. (I forgot to take an actual image of the phone I worked on so I decided to download this from google)

Image source: http://img4.connect.de/Sony-Ericsson-Xperia-mini-pro-C-ca93ec39-48643880.jpg

It's a Sony Xperia Z Smartphone with Windows Mobile OS.

Problem: Password locked. Well the owner was messing about with the phone and password locked it and had surprisingly forgotten the password. How in the world could a phone owner forget their own password?? Well it did happen to this particular person. I know they did not steal the phone because...well I know this people.

Anyway I went on a week-long research spree. I only know how to and have mastered unlocking Android Phones so I tried every trick in the book but to no avail. Where else could I go to but Google! Yep! that's right Google!.. there are tons of forums, videos, how-tos and all that stuff on Google that could easily give you the answer. This particular problem I thought was an easy one but my "fat fingers" kept me from unlocking it.

Here is how I was able to hard-reset the phone;


Step 1: Power off the phone. Remove the battery. Remove SIM card and memory card (if any).
Step  2: Replace the battery back in. Press the power on button and wait for the Sony welcome screen (shouldn't take long to appear). As soon as the Sony logo appears, Press Windows key and letter W at the same time for a short period and then release. You shouldn't hold them for long or it wont work.

 Pressing these combinations will bring up a reset screen.

Step 3: If you are able to see a reset screen, press the letter O to do a hard reset.

Step 4: Phone will restart and you should see the default configurations. You can now set the time and date and other necessary settings.

All should be fine.

Done!