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:

[Retired-Wayne]

Hi John.R

I'm sure our specialist team will be able to get this resolved for you. We wouldn't be able to send over a new Dongle as it is quite likely that it may not be an issue with the dongle.

We'll get it sorted John

Thanks

Wayne

eForum Team

[Retired-Jon_V]

Hi John,

We have a few new avenues to explore. Unfortunately with issues like this, it is more of a Windows Issue than anything wrong with the modem itself, so even if we issued a replacement, you'd encounter exactly the same problems.

Firstly, we need to make sure that the USB Mass Storage Device showing in Device Manager is the one from the modem. To do this, right-click on it and go into Properties. Make a note of the Hardware ID and Device instance ID. Post them here for us.

Also, have a look in "My Computer" and see if there's a removeable drive showing up when the modem is plugged in. If it is, then try double-clicking it to launch the software, or if it allows you to view the contents of the drive, try running the .exe file shown with the Vodafone logo on it.

Let me know how you get on.

Jon

eForum Team

[John.R]

Also, have a look in "My Computer" and see if there's a removeable drive showing up when the modem is plugged in. If it is, then try double-clicking it to launch the software, or if it allows you to view the contents of the drive, try running the .exe file shown with the Vodafone logo on it.

None showing other than my standard C: drive

[Retired-Jon_V]

Thanks John,

I'll be back with further updates.

Jon

eForum Team

[John.R]

Any more updates/advice? I need to use this within the next two weeks and i'd like to have it resolved.

Many thanks

[Retired-George]

Hi John.R,

Jon isn't in today and neither are our third line mobile broadband support team, as soon as they are back in I will ensure that an update is provided.

George
eForum Team

[Retired-Jon_V]

Hi John,

I've had no response from our VMC specialist yet - I've emailed over again this morning asking them to take another look.

Jon

eForum Team

[Retired-Jon_V]

Ok, so we now know that it would appear to be the mass storage component of the modem that is not functioning correctly.

To try and resolve this, we're going to use a tool called Port Switch.

Download and Run the PortSwitch Utility from here.

Make sure Vodafone Mobile Connect is fully closed and not running in the background, and that the modem is plugged in.

Extract and run "tool-PortSwitch.exe".

If PortSwitch gives you the option to change from Diag to CDRom, then simply click the available button to enable this, and it should resolve the issue.

If however it's showing the option to go from CDRom to Diag, that would indicate a larger problem within Windows itself - perhaps a problem installing the component, or assigning a drive letter to it. If this is the case, we'll need to try a few more things afterwards.

If this doesn't help, then please install the latest version of Vodafone Mobile Connect. If you're still getting an Error 633 message, try following the "Clean-Boot" instructions attached to this post.

Jon

eForum Team

[John.R]

If this doesn't help, then please install the latest version of Vodafone Mobile Connect. If you're still getting an Error 633 message, try following the "Clean-Boot" instructions attached to this post.

I didn't try the clean boot process as for a brief moment after installing the lastest edition, i actually had a connection to the network. Thinking it was just a one off i disconnected from the network using the button in VMC, then decdied to reboot my machine and try again. My laptop still hangs on shut down which i'm still not pleased about, i had to force it to shutdown holding in the power button (it only ever does this when i've closed down VMC and it doesn't make a difference when after VMC has closed whether i remove the dongle or not).

Anyway my laptop rebooted and inserted the dongle then started VMC in that order and no joy, it won't connect anymore, still getting the 633 error. I've done nothing different from what i did before, apart from run PortSwitch - but i only opened it and then closed it when i didn't have the option available.

any suggestions?

[Retired-Jon_V]

Hi John.R,

That certainly does sound strange. Can you try the clean-boot anyway for me?

Jon

eForum Team