[Windows 10 Mobile] vali20:
Okay, so here's how it all went after realizing the mistake I have done. I decided to reset the phone to 8.1 using WDRT and see what it shows, knowing that I still have a few days worth of the 2-year warranty. I went on, and sure thing it displayed a message stating something along the lines "Unable to find a valid bootable option.". After a restart, it would just show that, and would not boot into Windows. I took it to the warranty service, where it took them almost 14 days to repair it. The diagnosis said "phone was dead", and the fix was "motherboard replaced". Unfortunately, as expected, the guys there did not handle the phone with care, and scratched the metal sides in a couple of places, and dropped it as well leaving marks on two places at the bottom. The front camera was also covered with plastic foam from the inside. To be honest, I was expecting them to not be able to do a job properly, especially something like this - a motherboard replace I guess means taking all the components out, replacing the mobo, and putting everything back. So yeah, for Microsoft, it is more logical to replace the most valuable component from the phone, instead of providing the service centres with a software that can restore the UEFI BIOS and the storage to its original state. Or maybe the guys locally were incompetent in this area as well, and deducted the wrong issue, which required a more drastic fix. Sure enough, I left the phone at warranty again, citing the issues mentioned. After all, besides the scratches, which indeed do not affect functionality, but they were not there in the first place, the front camera was not displaying images and that is a defect. Today it came from the service centre, again, and the diagnosis was "phone dead (again?) and microphones not working", and the fix was "internal components soldering", and "replacement for microphones". Weird, I know... Nothing to do with the issues I described in my last report. The shell was still the scratched one. The microphones issue is well known at this model, where the microphones would stop working at a certain time, so people are unable to use the speaker phone or Cortana. I have to mention that my unit already had this issue 10 months ago, when I took it to warranty and they were able to fix it properly. So I think it happens to all Lumia 930s, I haven't seen a single one not developing this kind of problem. Out of place fixes for problems that you do not actually report or have had are common I believe for Microsoft in my country. Last winter, the camera developed a dark spot on the lens. I took off the back cover of the phone and was able to confirm it was not caused by the back cover lens being scratched, but it was because of the camera unit itself. That happens when the phone is dropped, and people on the Internet suggest hitting it hard again after such a drop, as it is because of air forming inside the lens... Whatever, a friend dropped the phone accidentally when I left it on the table unsupervised - the screen glass broke a little in the corner and the side had a few visible scratches. Back then, they fixed it, by replacing the camera. But the repair report mentioned they replaced the side buttons, the shell, and the screen as well, as they were dead - not working. I can tell you that all 3 of them were working just fine when I bought in the phone, despite the aesthetics. Maybe at that time they did the same, and damaged the phone when repairing it, just more badly so that they could not return it faulty back to me. Unlike this time, where a few scratches should have gone unnoticed, they believe. So yeah, the shell they just destroyed was in perfect condition, as it was newly replaced by them in the winter.

So, in the end, things I have learnt: karma is indeed real, and hit me every single time I did something iffy with the phone: left it unsupervised, a friend drops and destroys it, then you seem to have lots of fortune when they make it almost new, just to be stupid enough to install a stupid thing just to see how it works, only to have it damaged, and back to square one again. The thing that frustrates me the most is how I was so stupid to do all of this, and hate to look at it and know it looks the way it does not because of negligence, oh no, but because of raw stupidity - I hate this skill of mine.

Now, about the service guys - I think to due the way the legislation is aligned with what EU enforced, Microsoft's service centres really have to repair these things, even though I had part of guilt that could disqualify me from warranty. Unfortunately the things I did were hard to prove by them, so they had to repair it. And I am not shocked to see they seem to be so-so at what they are doing, since the technicians there are just people that follow a manual and swap components back and forth. And proving subjective things is too hard. Furthermore, they are really covered against disputes with law enforcements agencies. Like, imagine if I would have bought the phone in not booting, and they would not have fixed it - I could go and fill in a complaint with the authorities, and they most certainly are to be hold guilty as there was a clear issue they did not fix. On the other hand, the aesthetic condition of the item is hard to prove changed, unless something big is there, eventually affecting functionality as well. In which case, they would probably change it anyway.

What I have learnt is a) that the life always likes to teach you stupid little lessons that you know anyway - the problem is you're just dumb, that's why you forget applying them sometimes, and b) I had to live with my old Xperia Z3, which Sony refused to fix in warranty when the phone unglued from the case on its own, and live with its awfully tiny earpiece that I could hear no one I was talking to - that's how I discovered how much I appreciate the Lumia. It is just built and planned for obsolescence, as every other phone out there. Even though it seems you have hit the jackpot when they exchanged the product for you, just think that sonner or later, the 'new' one will brake as well, because of stupid reason, that clearly is there just on a few units that are below the average life of the product, and you won't have warranty by then, and will have to buy something else anyway. It happened to me another time as well, when I jammed a USB receiver for a Microsoft keyboard and mouse set I had, when plugging it into the port. It was my fault. I took it to warranty, and sure thing they replaced it, yet in less than a year the mouse wheel broke, so it became unusable and I had to buy something else again. There's a, idk, a balance that is kept somewhere and seems to show off every now and then. I'd say I am dissatisfied with Microsoft's warranty service, but after all, I am just dissatisfied with my dumbness - should I've been smarter, I wouldn't have had to deal with them anyway... And Microsoft is miles better when compared to others (not giving names out ... Sony... )

As a conclusion, I guess I should consider myself lucky that they actually helped me, the best they could after all, even though I did questionable things as well, that were in a gray area other companies do seriously reject as issues in warranty, and revoke it. I would describe their attitude human, as they did small mistakes, yet they also helped me when in need. I remember when I sawped the battery on my Nokia N9, that I made a dent in the plastic shell as well, as it is pretty hard to do these jobs anyway. A moment of negligence will show immediately on the body of the phone. I guess that's why not everyone's a surgeon...

Sorry for the lengthy post, I hope it was a good read at least. My advice would be for the author of the original post to just say this does not work on Lumia 930 and co., so that people do not even bother trying. After all, it really does not work.

TL;DR My phone works now, able to restore using WDRT, as the motherboard was swapped covered by 2-year warranty.