Dell Latitude E6410, Mobile Broadband Manager, Dell Wireless HSPA 5540 and Telstra
I've had my Dell Latitude E6410 laptop now a few weeks and am loving it! Especially the extra speed of the solid state drive, the 8GB of RAM and Windows 7 64 bit.
Previously I'd been getting internet access away from home by tethering via USB with my HTC Desire (on Telstra) which has worked great, but given my Latitude E6410 had an inbuilt Dell Wireless HSPA 5540 Modem I thought I'd give it a whirl.
So I took my sim out of my phone and took the battery off the laptop to insert it. Little did I know but Dell are in 'kahootz' with Vodafone and the laptop came with a 'deactivated' Vodafone sim with the laptop... guessing Dell get a commission if it gets activated. (sorry, Dell but Telstra's coverage is just too good to move).
I then removed the Vodafone SIM (which appears to have a wider reader/gold area that the Telstra one?) and put my Telstra sim in and at first was getting 'No network service available'. This was the same error I was seeing when the deactivated Vodafone Sim was in (but in the case of Vodafone, expected).
So I had a look around the forums, and did some light reading hoping the answer wouldn't be that the laptop is locked to Vodafone.. and thankfully it wasnt the laptop (well not the hardware anyway).
It just so happened that the new driver of the Dell 5540 HSPA Modem fixes a known issue with Telstra :-
MBMTR00003657 Win7 WWAN driver unable to read IMSI from Telstra SIM
(Not knowing, but hardly caring) what IMSI is I googled it.. and it wasn't anything too exciting "An International Mobile Subscriber Identity or IMSI is a unique number associated with all GSM and UMTS network mobile phone users. It is stored in the SIM inside the phone and is sent by the phone to the network. ...")
So I installed the latest Dell Driver from http://supportapj.dell.com/ which happened to be released yesterday.. R2Y04, A26
Thinking this would resolve the issue, I then opened the Dell Mobile Broadband Manager and to my dismay was now presented with the error 'The SIM card is not responding' .. shit... did I fry it ?
To be sure both sims and modem were still operational I then put back in the Vodafone sim and rebooted the laptop... I logged into windows and had the same error 'The SIM card is not responding'.
It started to sound like I may have messed up the pins on the modem or killed 2 sims (what are the chances?) but quickly confirmed my Telstra sim was still working in my HTC Desire..pheww! :)
Next I called Dell Pro Support and spoke to a tech. He asked all the usual questions, "Are the drivers installed?", "Is the Broadband Manager software installed?".. and after answering yes to both then said it sounds like the modem has failed, "I'll book someone in to come and replace it". Now given my current availability with a Conference/Summit (Dell funnily enough) I'm going to next week this wouldn't happen til Thursday.. (its Saturday)... argh! Its not critical but would be nice to know its all good and working!
Anxious, I did some more reading and googling, and eventually found a forum that suggested to put the laptop to sleep, and wake it back up. Bingo! This worked... It then recognized the Vodafone sim card again that was in the laptop.
But I was back at square 1.. reading Vodafone sim, and (not yet Telstra), so I removed the Vodafone sim and put my Telstra one in (from the Desire), put the laptop to sleep and woke it back up.
Bingo! I was able to connect to the Telstra NextG network using the AP details telstra.internet
Moral of the story ... update firmware and drivers.. and put the laptop to sleep and wake it up (Who would have thought?!?)... a reboot should do the same?! Apparently not
Previously I'd been getting internet access away from home by tethering via USB with my HTC Desire (on Telstra) which has worked great, but given my Latitude E6410 had an inbuilt Dell Wireless HSPA 5540 Modem I thought I'd give it a whirl.
So I took my sim out of my phone and took the battery off the laptop to insert it. Little did I know but Dell are in 'kahootz' with Vodafone and the laptop came with a 'deactivated' Vodafone sim with the laptop... guessing Dell get a commission if it gets activated. (sorry, Dell but Telstra's coverage is just too good to move).
I then removed the Vodafone SIM (which appears to have a wider reader/gold area that the Telstra one?) and put my Telstra sim in and at first was getting 'No network service available'. This was the same error I was seeing when the deactivated Vodafone Sim was in (but in the case of Vodafone, expected).
So I had a look around the forums, and did some light reading hoping the answer wouldn't be that the laptop is locked to Vodafone.. and thankfully it wasnt the laptop (well not the hardware anyway).
It just so happened that the new driver of the Dell 5540 HSPA Modem fixes a known issue with Telstra :-
MBMTR00003657 Win7 WWAN driver unable to read IMSI from Telstra SIM
(Not knowing, but hardly caring) what IMSI is I googled it.. and it wasn't anything too exciting "An International Mobile Subscriber Identity or IMSI is a unique number associated with all GSM and UMTS network mobile phone users. It is stored in the SIM inside the phone and is sent by the phone to the network. ...")
So I installed the latest Dell Driver from http://supportapj.dell.com/ which happened to be released yesterday.. R2Y04, A26
Thinking this would resolve the issue, I then opened the Dell Mobile Broadband Manager and to my dismay was now presented with the error 'The SIM card is not responding' .. shit... did I fry it ?
To be sure both sims and modem were still operational I then put back in the Vodafone sim and rebooted the laptop... I logged into windows and had the same error 'The SIM card is not responding'.
It started to sound like I may have messed up the pins on the modem or killed 2 sims (what are the chances?) but quickly confirmed my Telstra sim was still working in my HTC Desire..pheww! :)
Next I called Dell Pro Support and spoke to a tech. He asked all the usual questions, "Are the drivers installed?", "Is the Broadband Manager software installed?".. and after answering yes to both then said it sounds like the modem has failed, "I'll book someone in to come and replace it". Now given my current availability with a Conference/Summit (Dell funnily enough) I'm going to next week this wouldn't happen til Thursday.. (its Saturday)... argh! Its not critical but would be nice to know its all good and working!
Anxious, I did some more reading and googling, and eventually found a forum that suggested to put the laptop to sleep, and wake it back up. Bingo! This worked... It then recognized the Vodafone sim card again that was in the laptop.
But I was back at square 1.. reading Vodafone sim, and (not yet Telstra), so I removed the Vodafone sim and put my Telstra one in (from the Desire), put the laptop to sleep and woke it back up.
Bingo! I was able to connect to the Telstra NextG network using the AP details telstra.internet
Moral of the story ... update firmware and drivers.. and put the laptop to sleep and wake it up (Who would have thought?!?)... a reboot should do the same?! Apparently not
so the next thing to do is decide if I want to fork out for a second sim (on Telstra).. so I'm always connected and don't continuously need to move back and forth my sim from my Desire..
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