x61, Vista & Vodafone - doesn't work very well

[gbernard]

Hi all, has anyone purchased the vodafone enabled x61 in australia using vista ?

I have the following issues,

1 - It only works with Access Connections (you must have it installed to run)
2 - the lenovo firmware update to take the WWAN adapter to version 2.45 so it can be used with the VMC (Vodafone Mobile Connect) Software for vista ver 5.13.0008 doesn't find the card, despite device manager & access connections seeing it and connecting to it.
3 - Lenovo support say as long as the hardware is working, then call vodafone.
4 - Lenovo are sending me out a new wwan mini pci card to swap out the one internally to see if that fixes the issue (I am not hopeful)

Has anyone had these issues and could shed some light or suggestion on this ?

[bill bolton]

shed some light or suggestion on this ?

There are numerous reported problems with the Vodafone connection software on a number of platforms.

Cheers,

Bill B.

[gbernard]

really bill, i am in sydney as well, i am about to trash the vista setup and go back to xp , to see if that will solve it, shame as I have just spent the better part of a grand on vista ultimate and office 2007 pro, is there any alternative to vmc that you know of ?

also i cannot get the firmware update to see the card .

[GomJabbar]

I am not sure if this will work or not, but I would be tempted to give it a try. Download and install '3G Watcher' from Sierra Wireless and see if you can control your connection with it. 3G Watcher works much better than at&t's Connection Manager in the US. I am just not positive if 3G watcher can control an embedded module or not.

http://www.sierrawireless.com/support/sd_ac875.aspx

If you decide to try it, report back with your results.

[rek]

For what it's worth, I can verify it all works fine in XP (though mine is an X60s with the older 8755 WWAN card)

Vodafone software ver. 5.10.0020
Sierra Wireless driver: 1.5.1.5

I don't have Access Connections installed, just the two things above. Fn-F5 also shows the WWAN card toggle (using the Hotkey utility).

It works exactly as it should, with the minor curiosity that while the Vodafone software is running, the WWAN option goes missing from the Fn-F5 menu.

The "automatic update" feature of the Vodafone software doesn't work properly... but going by these reports, it sounds like I should be glad it's staying on a nice, old, stable software version

[gbernard]

does the sierra watcher work with x64 vista ultimate ?

I have it working on x86 vista ultimate . .

[nmiller84]

Know this is an older post, but just letting you know I have the same problem on an x61 US (AT&T) running Vista Business x64. I have hotkey utility installed only. I HAD the AT&T program on, but once that was on fn+f5 no longer showed WWAN card.

On top of that, I have found in vista 64 anyway, that over time the HSDPA card seems to fail. i.e. once I am connected, give it 5-10 minutes and my connection will still say connected, but unable to browse. Attempt to disconnect and it wont ...only way to reconnect is to shut down. (Sounds like bad drivers to me...) tried calling Lenovo for support...they spent 30 minutes figuring out I was talking about my WWAN card (despite me saying my integrated HSDPA WWAN card 10 times).

Bottom line, I need it for my company, so I went back to XP where it works good.

If anyone has tips on getting Vista 64 and the card to play nicely let me know.

Thanks!

[gbernard]

Vista 32, and using the sierra watcher (new version on the siera website) with the sierra drivers fixed the 5-10 mins dropout,

[nmiller84]

Did you use the lenovo packaged drivers or ones from Sierra? I will try 3G watcher to see if that fixes it. Thanks for the tip!

[gbernard]

the sierra drivers only, installed as part of the sierra watcher software