Dell 1558 - will SIM slot work with mobile Broadband SIM?

[wrolla]

Much to my complete surprise, my new Dell Studio has a sim slot hidden under the battery compartment. Me, being a complete numpty, was wondering if I could use it with my vodafone mobile broadband sim?

Obviously I'd need to load the vodafone connect software to have any chance of it actually working.

Will this idea fly?

[Retired-Martin]

Hi wrolla

The good news it will work. The SIM is the same as if we sent out one of the computers that we do.

The website to download the software is www.business.vodafone.com all you need is Vodafone mobile connect and you will be up and running.

If you have any other questions please let us know

Martin
eForum Team

[wrolla]

Hi wrolla

The good news it will work. The SIM is the same as if we sent out one of the computers that we do.

The website to download the software is www.business.vodafone.com all you need is Vodafone mobile connect and you will be up and running.

If you have any other questions please let us know

Martin
eForum Team

That's really great news. I'll give it a whirl later on.

[wrolla]

Well I didn't get very far.


I installed my sim into the Dell and then installed the vodafone mobile connect software but its not detecting any device.

The bios mentions that the WWAN card is enabled but I can't find any reference in device manager to it - but I'm not sure what it would appear as.

I found the DellMobileUtility but after doing a scan it reports the following:

There are no supported Dell Mobile Utilities currently installed on this system.

I don't know what that means. Does it mean there is no mobile device or is it expecting some kind of additional dell software? It may be a red herring.

Anyone got any ideas or pointers? I didn't specifically ask for the sim/mobile broadband option so I'm not sure if the sim card is just a dummy thing. The fact that the bios shows an enabled WWAN card  indicates that something is present.

[wrolla]

Right, it looks like if you didn't actually order a mobile WWAN card, there won't be a card installed. The sim slot will only work with the WWAN card.


Saying that, not sure why the bios says WWAN is enabled. Who knows.

So, back to the dongle for me! 

[Anonymous]

Check the likes of ebay or laptop surplus suppliers, they may have the required WWAN card available. It would be a lot neater and simpler not to keep plugging in a dongle for mobile internet!

The laptop would be pre-wired for a SIM card and the BIOS would have the necessary options available to save Dell money when building similar units on the same production line. It's just missing the necessary circuit board to make use of it all.

[wrolla]

Check the likes of ebay or laptop surplus suppliers, they may have the required WWAN card available. It would be a lot neater and simpler not to keep plugging in a dongle for mobile internet!

The laptop would be pre-wired for a SIM card and the BIOS would have the necessary options available to save Dell money when building similar units on the same production line. It's just missing the necessary circuit board to make use of it all.

beavis99, cheers for the heads up. Didn't even consider getting one separately. The dongle is such a chore to have to keep shoving in and out. I'd like to take the wires out of the wireless element of the experience!

I'll have a look around although it's not any area that I have any experience in. I'm not even sure which type I need, etc.

[Retired-Wayne]

Hi wrolla

Thanks for coming back to us here. At least you managed to figure out what was going wrong there!

As beavis has said there are options available to you in order for you to get this working. I'll leave this to our eForum members who I'm sure will be able to supply you with some helpful information

Please let me know if you have any further questions and we'll be more than happy to help you further

Thanks

Wayne

eForum Team