A small number of UK Windows Phone 7 users have been held back from using their new mobile phones due to an activation problem relating to their Live accounts showing up within the operating system.
The problem comes about when a user tries to associate their Windows Live account with the Windows Phone. It displays a message stating that "Product Activation Failed" and that you are required to enter a manual activation code from Microsoft support. While this doesn"t seem to be too much of a problem, those who have bought their new phones on Saturday or Sunday will find out that the UK support team does not work on weekends and thus you have to wait until at least Monday until the problem can be resolved.
The reason behind the error can be found online from Microsoft, although many users are flummoxed because no details are ever given to the user about why it comes up in the first place:
In Windows Phone 7, during your first Windows Live ID sign in, a background validation is performed prior to completing the sign-in process and connecting to Windows Phone 7 services such as Xbox LIVE, Marketplace, and Hotmail. In rare cases where this validation fails, you may be prompted to enter an activation code before Windows Live ID sign in can be successfully completed.
This isn"t the first problem that has shown itself on the newly released Windows Phone 7 devices. HTC has been having a number of problems with Xbox Live Extras and some GPS issues.
Thanks to Neowin reader SLYSY on the forums for letting us know about this problem.