CF-30 WWAN question " Rogers Canada "

Hello All!

I recently purchased a CF-30 Mk3 in MINT condition. It has a Serria Wireless card in it for the network TELUS (CDMA) up here. I line the connection and wanted to use it even though I need one that works with the ROGERS network (GSM) and LTE bought a Serria Wireless card from 4gsource.com. It was all working fine, full 4G until I installed the Fingerprint Reader and GPS recover. There was some conflict so I reinstalled Windows, at the point the modem would only connect for 2g. I troubleshooted it with ROGERS tech guys and they had no luck. The hail Mary pass was buying a new SIM card. I did, and instantly it connected to 4G. I took the Toughbook out to my truck and it had dropped to 2G.

I think thats because of a small voltage on the chip, causing it to loose settings. Does anyone have any ideas? I'm looking to fix the problem and not have 20 SIM Cards ready to go.

Ian Burgess, VA6EMS
Emergency Coordinator
Amateur Radio Emergency Service
Calgary Region

 

Welcome to the Panasonic Toughbook forum

I can't really help you with Rogers because there service is really BAD where I live but we have a few members out west that might be able to help with it.

 

I should also mention that the Card was bought from 4gsource.net. I bought the MC7710 ( Sierra Wireless MC7710 4G LTE Module | YMOZ US) I asked them for the drivers and for the software, they could provide neither, I got the drivers and software from another manufacture and installed them. (Same way it was connecting 4g before)

I am also wondering on the GOBI card that the Toughbooks come with. Can I get one still, and would it work on the GSM backed LTE network.

 

From my limited WWAN knowledge...
Find out what brand of notebook the card was from or built for.. Get the driver / software package from that manufacturer.

Mixing and matching the WWAN software / hardware is like mixing eggs and watermelon...you can do it but why would you want to?

 

I have tried Serria Wireless, Because they are an OEM product they support the cards through either the ISP (Cell Provider) who sells the USB sticks, or support via Manufacturer. In this case 4gsource.net (The company who sold the card) SHOULD be providing me with support and drivers. When asked, they provided me with software and drivers that does not cover this model.

 

Two things...at least.

1. Are you doing a power pull reset after install? Pull all power except cmos battery and cycle the switch until your finger gets tired. Set bios to defaults. (I think Rob said this must be done on any card change.)

2. Find your card in device manager (5 places I think) On the network adapter one open properties and do a search about the driver using the number found in last tab. I will edit when I get a M$ machine running.

More information here: TEST site:forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic - Google Search Replace Test with your key word.

 

1) Yes,

2) There are no unknown devices left in Device Manager after the MC7710 Drivers from Fujitsu ( Fujitsu Technical Support pages from Fujitsu Fujitsu Continental Europe, Middle East, Africa & India) The driver package installs if you don't use the top level install, instead using the one in the Drivers folder.

The odd part of this whole thing is after only picking up 2G I activated a new SIM and it connected to 4G until I restarted the computer then it would only connect 2G as if the sim isn't talking to the card properly.

Any other ideas?

 

Hehe... another victim of the absolute useless support of these devices from the manufacturer and carrier. If you ever get the right SW Watcher for the 7700/7710 PLEASE let me know... it's hard enough to find a Rogers CSR who even knows what a MC7700/7710 is! Right now I'm using the Watcher from the 330U aircard. It usually doesn't "dial" right as in it freezes at "connecting..." and displays the wrong connectivity (usually stuck at HSPA) but in actuality I AM connected on LTE (speedtest proves.)

I still don't understand why there are carrier-specific watchers and why they're so damn secretive. Just to get the updated firmware installer I had to sign an NDA.

 

OK! I finally got access to the latest Bell/Rogers/Telus approved firmware (3.5.20.5) drivers (b3830) generic watchers (b3795) for the MC7700/MC7710. I'm going to try to update my MC7700 and hopefully not brick it. FWIW, seems the most updated fw is 3.5.24.0 released Sept 11, 2013.

va6ems, can you tell me the PID of your MC7710? It'll be in Device Manager>Network Adapters>Sierra Wireless HSPA Network Adapter>Details>Property (Hardware Ids). For example, mine is 68a3 meaning an MC7700 in DirectIP mode. 68a2 is QMI. I still don't know the end-user difference on DIP vs QMI. There's technical differences but yeah.

 

This is what shows up under Hardware ID's



Where did you find the generic watcher?

 

It was from a link on SW.

Seems like watchers are programmed separately for QMI and DirectIP (DIP) cards. All of the aircards I've gotten directly from Rogers and Telus have all been in DirectIP mode. Your aircard is in QMI mode and therefore do not have any Canadian carrier certification.

You CAN switch between DIP and QMI modes but it was a very convoluted process that required an OEM password that, since I bought mine off eBay, wasn't the default and so I'm stuck in DIP.

You'll need to register to get at the Firmware here:
http://developer.sierrawireless.com/

You'll need to register to get at the Firmware here:
http://developer.sierrawireless.com/

IIRC, since you're in QMI mode you can't use the AT commands.
http://bc.whirlpool.net.au/bc/hardware/?action=h_view&model_id=1210

 

Actually.. I just realized as I re-read the thread. The MC7710 is the wrong card for Canada. You need the MC7700. (I have both cards.)

You need Band 4 AWS for LTE on Rogers/Bell/Telus. Only the MC7710 (correction: MC7700) has that. The MC7710 has 2600Mhz connectivity which is the right frequency for Rogers and Bell's very-limited frequency band for their old Inukshuk wireless that they've turned off and reused the spectrum for LTE. The Inukshuk spectrum was only in larg(er) cities. Both the MC7700 and MC7710 has Quad-Band GPRS/EDGE connectivity which is why you're seeing 2G.

And of course, herein lies the problem.
The 2600MHz (at least in Toronto) is underutilized and gets great throughput. But the ONLY card that does 2600 is the 330u USB 'rocket stick.' So I'm stuck with either the slower LTE spectrum (B4) with my built-in MC7700 or have a USB aircard sticking out.

 

It seems like you contradicted yourself here?

 

Ah yes. I meant the MC7700. Thanks for the eagle eyes!!!

 

Always happy to point out the mistakes of others.

 

Thanks for the clarification!

I was playing around and downloaded the MC7700 drivers and watcher from the Panasonic website and It's now says its working on 4G, It even is not connecting using just Windows 7 and not with the watcher. However there are constant DNS issues.

I have ordered a MC7700 from eBay and we will see what happens next week when it arrives.

Thanks for all of the help so far!

 

Ok, Now I'm confused and have no idea where to go next...

I somehow got the MC7710 working in QMI mode and with the exception of a weak signal and not getting anywhere close to the 100mbps advertised but its working just enough to get text to come through. I bought a MC7700 on E-Bay from a US seller and after installing the drivers from Panasonic with no luck, I noticed on the card (that was brand new) it had a Lenovo part number. I downloaded the MC7700 Drivers from Lenovo and I was able to install the drivers, however the device would not initiate. I tried to update the firmware from SW however the computer would say "No Device Detected".

I also tried buying a EU860D with sled, downloaded the driver from Panasonic with no success at all. It showed 2 unknown devices. I tired putting it into the sled that came with my Toughbook, still after installing the drivers it still shows and 2 unknown devices.

My last hope was using the modem that came with the computer a SW MC5727 from Panasonic thinking if nothing else, this should install, and if needed I can change providers. I went to the Panasonic website and there is no drivers for it, tried the CSA for the GOBI 1000 and 2000 and no joy. I tried looking on SW website and no drivers on there either.

I would love a 4G device, but at this point a reliable WWAN connection would make me ecstatic. Does anyone have any ideas?

 

I'm thinking I might need to take the sled apart and maybe flip the switches, but I don't know what they should be set as. Can someone post a link to the instruction manual?

 

Ok, So I found this image on a related thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/att...p-switches-dip-switches-guide-cf-19-cf-30.jpg

The sled I bought with the EU860D has DIP switches 2 and 3 on. and the original sled that came with my computer with the MC5727 had only DIP 3 on. I have set both to have DIP 2 and 3 on and will try the MC7700 again, but I'm still looking for help!

 

Maybe the Lenovo device has some OEM locking on it? Because on my MC7700, IIRC I can't even install the Lenovo drivers - it won't let me, saying the computer is not compatible or something like that.

But as you've discovered, all this stuff is trial and error. It's very frustrating because there are so many versions and revisions of a model both hardware, firmware and software. And if you break that combination, nothing works or it's really wonky. I really don't understand why it's so convoluted.

You will never get close to the 100mbps. Rogers only has 5 and 10MHz swaths of spectrum at best and up to 15MHz in urban areas I believe - that'll get you ~30-40mbps if you're lucky. Now that's not taking into account the backhaul to the tower. Many are still 100mbps so you're sharing that bandwidth with ALL the carrier's users on that tower. Normal upload throughput for me in the Toronto area is around 15mbps during the day and 20-25mbps at night. Download is usually around 30mbps.

 

I had to go into the Lenovo folder called Drivers and there was a secondary installer there that let me. I'm getting a Code 10 error in Device Manager

 

For the last week, I've been completely skipping the Sierra Wireless watcher altogether and simply using Windows 8's built-in interface. Seems to be working fine! The 30MB upload is on Rogers Wireless LTE only however.

CF-19 mk3, Windows 8.1 Pro

Broadband 1: Rogers Wireless on Sierra Wireless 330U
Broadband 2: Bell Mobility on internal MC7700