Hi all,

I love my Lumia 920, it is still mint and does everything I need it to (admittedly I also have an iPad to run most apps).

Yesterday I decided to give it a firmware reset as I'm starting a new job and thought it was a good idea to give it a 'spring clean'. I backed it up, removed all my photos, and then did the reset.

It went fine, until I got the to the part in the "out of box experience" where it asked me to sign in with my Microsoft Account. No problem, I thought, but then I got a message of "Can't connect. We can't connect at the moment. Wait for a little while and try again." This message appeared even before the screen asking for my credentials. Both 4G and Wifi are active. The date/time are correct (though apparently that's really only relevant if a login fails after entering one's credentials). I've tried skipping this step and then trying to add a Microsoft Account later from Settings, but the same error happens. I've done the reset 4 times now, I've used the Windows Device Recovery Tool and dwngraded to a lower OS version, then also checked for updates and updated the phone again. Nothing has helped and I can't of course access the Microsoft Store to get apps either.

Model: Nokia Lumia 920

Firmware: 3051.50009.1451.1014

OS: 8.10.14234.375

ISP: Spark NZ

Does anyone have any ideas on what's broken or how to get help for this? Is there a way to contact Spark or Microsoft for this sort of thing? I know the 920 is out of warranty and they probably want me to upgrade my phone to a Windows 10 device, but this seems like a very basic issue that should work fine, especially since it was all working before the reset. It's almost like the phone's firmware is trying to talk to a setup server that no longer exists (or Microsoft renamed it and forgot to put an alias onto it for older devices...).

Heeeelp? Pretty pleeeease?