Anyone having problems with Vista and 595 Sierra Aircard

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Anyone having problems with Vista and 595 Sierra Aircard

Thelonious

61 posts

Master Geek

#16658 21-Oct-2007 23:16

I posted with this problem some time back where telecom mobile with Sierra watcher and even direct dial works for a while then seems to go into sleep mode from whence it cannot be recovered. I have tried drivers off the Sierra site, the original telecom drivers, direct dial with and without the Sierra software and any number of such combinations you like to name.

Telecom's most recent offer - and a decent one it was too - was to try a new card. So - rip out all the old software, complete reinstall with new aircard... result? Smae old same old.

Driving me nuts... anyone?

Cheers
Brent

1 | 2

2374 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Spark NZ

#91889 21-Oct-2007 23:30

Have you tried the card in a different laptop? It seems more likely to be a conflict with your machine, seeing that two cards do the same thing.

nzbnw

Thelonious

61 posts

Master Geek

#91902 22-Oct-2007 11:04

Thanks - yea that makes sense doesn't it. I assume, that to the extent that there are people "out there" running the card successfully and with Vista, there is some series of settings which achieves this which my laptop does not. It is a brand new Acer 6292 running 2 of ram and Vista business so certainly old age isn't the problem. Not really too sure where to start under the hood in Vista on this one.

nzbnw

2374 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Spark NZ

#91917 22-Oct-2007 15:10

Usually Sierra cards are extremely reliable. Perhaps you could use the windows restore CD and get your computer back to factory settings (after backing up your files of course), and see how you get on?The first thing I would install after that would be the Sierra 595 Aircard.

nzbnw

Thelonious

61 posts

Master Geek

#91919 22-Oct-2007 15:35

That does indeed seem to be the experience... they are reliable. I fear the cilprit may be Vista. My laptop is a"at factory settings" in that it is only a couple of months old and I have resisted all temptations to "fiddle".

Thanks for your suggestions anyway.

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
79250 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#91923 22-Oct-2007 16:49

I have an Acer Ferrari 5000 running Windows Vista 64 bit - and eve with this version I had no problems with Telecom or Vodafone cards. I have both Telecom cards, plus the USB modem, and the Vodafone XU870 and vodem and all work fine.

I wouldn't blame Vista, but perhaps something like drivers - have you checked if there's an updated driver for the slot (not for the card itself)?

Thelonious

61 posts

Master Geek

#91926 22-Oct-2007 17:04

Certainly sounds like you have the whole thing cracked!!!! I shall check whether there is an update driver - but it is for a USB so seems pretty likely that I have the most up to dat USB driver.

I too am loathe to blame Vista since I have it running on two machines and have had no problems. The other clue is that the card softwar - watcher, rdoes report "dormant" when this problem happens and I have heard the problem is something to do with the software being made dormant then nothing "wakes it up" again.

I am running some more "straight dial through" connections at present to see if I can either replicate the problem there or if in fact bypassing the Sierra software fixes it.

Thanks for the suggestion

Geese

1028 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#93337 1-Nov-2007 20:33

I have a Sierra 595, and it worked fine with my 6 year old toshiba laptop, but I just bought a new Acer laptop with Vista, and I think it may be doing what you describe (plus more).

- It will be downloading webpages, then watcher goes dormant, opening pages give the "internet explorer cannot display this page" message, and no amount of refreshing seems to get the modem to keep going. Data light flashes, but watcher data doesn't change and pages don't load. Only solution is to disconnect and redial.

- Upon restarting, when Vista is up again it says some hardware port error and refuses to connect. Solution to that is to pull modem out, and back in and it goes again.

and some other miscellaneous wierd things. I just persevere, but it doesn't do any of that stuff in my xp laptop.

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

Thelonious

61 posts

Master Geek

#93340 1-Nov-2007 20:42

Unfortunately you are describing the problems I have absolutely to a tee - including the error msgs and the "other stuff" - which generally meanm you end up having to re start. Mine too is a new Acer and Vista - in all other respects its great.

To try to help cut corners, I have:

- tried the driver at the Sierra site
- tried "straight through" dial connection
- tried a different aircard with a completely fresh install
- all variants of these

No cigar - not even close. Currently the plan is to return the "spare" aircard to telecom and have a go with the alternative mobile broadband card. The hope is that the software with the flat card will not suffer whatever conflict is ballsing the 595.

Good luck with your attempts...

Brent

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
79250 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#93341 1-Nov-2007 20:42

Now that you guys refreshed this discussion...

I am just back from Auckland. I tried using the 595 card and the 595U USB modem. Every 30 - 45 minutes the connection would just freeze. Clicking DISCONNECT and CONNECT again would fix but it just got to the point where I unplugged and connected the Vodafone XU870 Express Card.

I have to say the Vodafone service surprised me this time. Usually they are not as good as the CDMA option, but this time I had solid connection for hours and much faster.

I was on the 7th floor at the Rydges Hotel, which is on Federal St, just behind the Gen-i house (oh irony).

Thelonious

61 posts

Master Geek

#93347 1-Nov-2007 21:13

Hey !!!! That's great for you but I don't know that we wanted to hear it!!!!! I have always found the telecom network fine.... good strength etc so I have no complaints about the signal strength etc--- in fact that's one of the things that is so frustrating - having a robust mobile network along with a swish laptop, piles of memory, the latest op system and then - duh!

brent

chakkaradeep

799 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#93348 1-Nov-2007 21:18

freitasm:
I have to say the Vodafone service surprised me this time. Usually they are not as good as the CDMA option, but this time I had solid connection for hours and much faster.

I second that. I dont know about Telecom cards, but I am a Vodem user and after upgrading their VMC Lite recently (Thanks to Mauricio for sharing that link :D ), the Vodem is really stable in Vista and also I could see some connection differences, in which they are reliable and I also checked leaving it on for few hours, everything seemed to be working fine unlike earlier, where you would be disconnected several times.

Even in a fresh installation of Vista, this vodem with updated VMC Lite just worked out of the box !

Regards,
Chaks

Desktop : Intel Quad Core Q9400 2.66GHz - 8GB RAM - 500 GB + 500 GB HDD - NVidia GeForce 9800GT - LG246WH Flatron Display - Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise with Hyper-V
Virtual Machine : Powered by Hyper-V and VMWare Workstation
Laptop: HP dv7-3004TX Entertainment Notebook PC | HP Touchsmart tx2 1119au - Windows 7 Ultimate x64
Mac: iMac 21.5" Snow Leopard
Mobile : iPhone 3GS

Geese

1028 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#93349 1-Nov-2007 21:20

yeah exactly. I get 3 or 4 from 5 signal, and in Timaru speed is 115K, not the high speed here but it is suprisingly quick compared to dial up. Actually I dont mind the idiosynchrasies as dial up used to hang up constantly.

Other "problems" I refered to include clicking connect, it says connecting, then immediatedly it says disconnecting. This repeats a few times. I've noticed that one only happens if you open IE, then click connect after.

I got some other random error, can't think what it was though, but its done it a few times, *may* have said PPP error or something after trying to authenticate.

freitasm

BDFL - Memuneh
79250 posts

Uber Geek

Administrator

ID Verified

Trusted

Geekzone

Lifetime subscriber

#93350 1-Nov-2007 21:21

Thelonious: Hey !!!! That's great for you but I don't know that we wanted to hear it!!!!! I have always found the telecom network fine.... good strength etc so I have no complaints about the signal strength etc--- in fact that's one of the things that is so frustrating - having a robust mobile network along with a swish laptop, piles of memory, the latest op system and then - duh!
brent

I don't understand. I am just confirming that I found a problem with the 595 Sierra Aircard and you throw this back at me?

cokemaster

Exited
4927 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#93352 1-Nov-2007 21:30

Comradehunt: yeah exactly. I get 3 or 4 from 5 signal, and in Timaru speed is 115K

Where are you getting the 115K figure? When it first connects (its not accurate, just the initial port speed) it displays 115 or something similar.

A speed test can quickly confirm whether you are getting EVDO connectivity or not.

webhosting

Loose lips may sink ships - Be smart - Don't post internal/commercially sensitive or confidential information!

Geese

1028 posts

Uber Geek
Inactive user

#93353 1-Nov-2007 21:32

Actually I got my first "blue screen" ever in my life (!!) within an hour of getting the new laptop home. It was while downloading updates the computer locked up, and had blue screen with large hard to read letters, I could make out "memory dump, saving to disk xx%). No idea what that was about, but not a good feeling after just buying a new laptop, and especially when I've NEVER had a blue screen before (although I've seen them before on other's computers).

Hi freitasm - can you please tell me, why do the 595U's have an internal battery? Is it in case (someone is not following the instruction manual) someone uses it with a USB hub and thus at times may not be able to supply the required power to operate?

1 | 2