Verizon WWAN not working after Vista clean install

[82vet]

I performed a clean install of Vista business and then installed the various Lenovo drivers including the current Sierra Wireless driver and Hotkey manager, all of which went fine.

The Sierra modem shows up fine in device manager, the GPS application (using GPS from the Sierra chip) works. However the WWAN Radio does not show up in Hotkey manager (it did under XP) and when I try and make a connection using the WWAN its a instant no go like the connection manager cannot see the modem, or there may be a com port conflict.

I am confident i installed the Vista versions of all drivers.

The WWAN is activated on Verizon. I activated and used it from the factory supplied XP load before installing Vista so i know it works.

I know you dont have to use Verizons VZAccess program as on both this X300 (from XP before Vista), and my older X60 (which has Vista) I can just use the built in dial up connection to dial #777 and connect to Verizon EVDO.

Another piece of info is the WWAN indicator was on until i used the GPS app which told it would be shutting it down before connectiong to GPS. Now i cant figure out how to turn it back on. especially with the radio not showing up in the Hotkey manager. I tried a master radio switch on and off and nothing.

The X300 is Great and everything else is just fine the only bug i am having is with this WWAN. I seem to remember having a similar experience with my X60 and cannot remember how i worked it out.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

[Weez]

I had a problem with my wwan that was my screwup but i couldnt get it fixed so called lenovo they wanted $99 just to talk to me, i said screw it, installed vzmanager from verizon and that fixed my problem.

So yes you can install it and it does work in Vista.

BTW: I would uninstall Mobile Broadband Connect first.

[82vet]

Well installing VZAccess manager fixed the issue. I was hoping to avoid the overhead of installing another program but it did fix the configuration issue I was having.

Good new was once I made an initial connection via VZAccess manager, subsequent connections could be done directly (without using VZAccess manager)

[Weez]

Yea I neglected to tell you, right after i fixed my problem with VZManager i uninstalled it and used Mobile Broadband Connect and all has been working well.

[rkuo]

If you want to avoid Verizon's software (I would recommend ditching it, I can't count the number of times it crashed, hung, or otherwise didn't work), using the card as a modem works. The thing is, you need to disable the LAN connection that's also created for the WWAN connection, as it keeps the device active and prevents the modem from dialing out.