Vodafone Mobile Broadband - Unable To Find / Connect To Network For Over A Week

[tamsinlucie]

Please help, I've had a Vodafone dongle since 27th august and was able to use for just 2 days before it suddenly loosing connection and not being able to find any network at all. Before I was able to connect to both GPRS and 3G, now nothing at all!! I've tried calling customer services and have been left on hold for so long that its getting to be costing a me a small fortune calling from my mobile phone (i don't have a land line). I was told to reboot by removing the sim while the device was still plugged in but nothing changed. I went into a Vodafone store and they said that the network may be down as others were complaining that same day, I've waited for over a week and I'm not happy having a device which is completely unusable and being stuck in a contract with it!!!! I use the internet for my home business at its causing me no end of problems. Can someone please contact me and help. :excl: :excl:

[John.R]

Hi John.R,

I have a few more steps to try for you.

Firstly, I want to make sure that we're starting from a clean slate, so perform the following:


Unplug the modem.
Go into the Control Panel. Open "Phone and Modem Options" and click on the Modems tab.
Remove all listed modems.
Next, from Control Panel, go into Manage Network Connections. Delete all VMC-related dial-up connections.
Uninstall Vodafone Mobile Connect.
Delete the VMC user data directory (C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Application Data\Vodafone\Vodafone Mobile Connect\UserData)
Reboot the PC.

Once rebooted, plug the modem in, and allow the software to automatically re-install from the modem itself.

Jon,

Thanks for your reply. I've been working through your steps and got as far as removing all the evidence of my VMC installation, however when reconnecting the dongle it doesn't automatically start the software installation. When i plug it into my USB slot, it recognises the modem then falls over and says there is a problem with my new hardware.

So I've stopped the steps you've listed and I've not gone any further, could this be the issue?

[John.R]

Jon,

Thanks for the help so far. I've removed all tracs of th VMC softare and the modems as suggested. Starting fm fresh, when i insert the donlge t sees it as a modembut after a mnute or so i'm getig a error mesage back saying the hardware wasn't installed properly. Then that's it, the software doesn't automatically install, or prompt me to anyway.

i haven't proceeded to action any of your further suggestions so far. Could this be what the problem is?

[Retired-Jon_V]

Jon,

Thanks for the help so far. I've removed all tracs of th VMC softare and the modems as suggested. Starting fm fresh, when i insert the donlge t sees it as a modembut after a mnute or so i'm getig a error mesage back saying the hardware wasn't installed properly. Then that's it, the software doesn't automatically install, or prompt me to anyway.

i haven't proceeded to action any of your further suggestions so far. Could this be what the problem is?

Yes, it seems quite likely.

If the modem is not able to initialise itself as a removable drive first to install the software, then it will not proceed to the next stage which is to switch into modem mode. This is likely to be the cause of the issue.

Can you load up Device Manager for me, expand the Modems, Ports and USB Host Controllers sections, take a screenshot and upload it to the forum for me? We need to see exactly how far into the installation the modem has been able to get

Jon

eForum Team

[John.R]

as requested, a screen shot of my device manager after i've inserted the dongle

[Retired-Wayne]

Hi John.R

Thanks for providing this information.

Well, everything looks completely normal there!

What I would try would be to right click on 'Composite' device within your device manager and click update drivers.

If this doesn't work repeat the process but this time click unistall and then hit refresh.

Give this a go and let us know how you get on and we'll be more than happy to help you further

Thanks

Wayne

eForum Team

[tigereyes88]

wayne please read my post agian

[Retired-Matt_Vo]

Hi Tigers

We work as you know on a first come first served basis so Wayne is aware of your post and will be around to you shortly.

Thanks
Matthew
eForum Team

[John.R]

Hi John.R

Thanks for providing this information.

Well, everything looks completely normal there!

What I would try would be to right click on 'Composite' device within your device manager and click update drivers.

If this doesn't work repeat the process but this time click unistall and then hit refresh.

Give this a go and let us know how you get on and we'll be more than happy to help you further

Thanks

Wayne

eForum Team

Wayne,

I did both steps, it didn't update the driver, but then i didn't let it connect to the internet in the hope it would pull the drivers from the dongle but it didn't.

When i tried to uninstall the USB Composite device (with the dongle still plugged in) my laptop just hung for about 15 miniutes then didn't complete the task.

[Retired-Jon_V]

Hmm...

I'm afraid we're fresh out of ideas with this issue and need to bring in a new pair of eyes.

I will email this problem across to our Mobile Broadband third-line specialist and see if they can think of anything else.

Jon

eForum Team

[John.R]

Hmm...

I'm afraid we're fresh out of ideas with this issue and need to bring in a new pair of eyes.

I will email this problem across to our Mobile Broadband third-line specialist and see if they can think of anything else.

Jon

eForum Team

Jon,

Could i not arrange to have a replacement dongle sent out to me, and just move my SIM over?