Thinkpads Forum

Hello,
I recently bought a second hand X61T and all seems nice.
Unfortunately The PCI-e HSDPA modem, a Sierra MC MC8775, is bricked. It looks to me as the previous owner attempted to put a new firmware on but the operation hung, so the modem seems stuck now.
The modem itself seems to get on and off every 30 seconds, with Windows attempting to install it, the modem then appearing in the list of hardware devices for a few seconds, then disappearing and going on.
The program binupdater.exe tells me it cannot see any device, so it seems impossible to reflash it.

Any idea or suggestion on how to reset it?
I have read on the technical manual that this 30 seconds on / 30 seconds off is a security measure, as the X61T is waiting for a new firmware for the initial 30 seconds, but I cannot figure out how it would be possible to send it...
(the manual also mentions that pin 33 is a reset, even if it does not tell how to activate it).

Is there anything that can be done to restore or reset it?

In our Market forum, this guy in the UK is selling new ones cheap: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=97511
He also has a link to drivers there.

Just to clarify: I am talking about the PCI Express (minicard) version of the MC 8775.
The one on sale is not the same!

gianni76 wrote:The modem itself seems to get on and off every 30 seconds

See..... http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 1d#p583673

Cheers,

Bill B.

Bill,
thank you!

The trick of taping pin20 worked! The card stayed on and I was able to reflash it.
So it is now working again (altough I still have reception/stability issues).

So, this is a cell phone modem?