Nokia has recently released firmware updates for Nokia N95 family; but unfortunately not the North American variant yet. Since I have the classic Nokia N95 (a free gift for my participation at Forum Nokia Wiki), I tried to update my firmware as well. What happened? It won’t update on Windows Vista. There is an error message related to Nokia Service Layer Host Process (see screenshots below).

Nokia Service Layer Host Process  Nokia Service Layer Host Process

You won’t see this problem on Windows XP. It happens on Windows Vista only. Is there a solution to this problem? Should you just find an old computer with Windows XP? I found an interesting discussion at Nokia Support Discussions. Basically, what you need to do is retrying the update; but do not remove the USB cable or turn off the phone.

Here is the detail:

  • Once you see dialogs like screenshots above; close Nokia Software Updater from Task Manager. You can display Task Manager by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del or right click the task bar and select Task Manager menu.
  • Do NOT remove USB cable from the phone or turn off the phone!
  • Restart Nokia Software Updater. It will ask you to reinstall the software on the phone. Press Reinstall button and then press Retry button on the next dialog. If there in an instruction to remove battery and turn on the phone, do NOT do it. I tried it and it didn’t work.

nsu_reinstall  nsu_retry

PS: If the instruction above does not work; you may have to find an old computer with Windows XP.