CF-51 freezes up with wireless broadband card)

Hello all, my name is Doug and thanks in advance for viewing.

I have a CF-51 and I am having an annoying issue regarding my laptop. I have a Sprint broadband card and a Verizon one before (the ones for the Type II PC Card slots).

My issue is that when I go from an area "with coverage", then to an area with "no coverage", while driving mind you, the computer will lock up. If I'm in an area with spotty coverage, I'm OK.

This is a super annoying problem that everyone with these laptops at my company are having a problem with and no one seems to have an answer for.

My laptop:

Panasonic CF-51
Intel Centrino Duo T2500 (2GB)
1.5 gb of memory
80 GB hard drive


Cheers!

Fresh ( Doug )

 

Did you all have the same issues with the older card before this one? Or is it just the folks with both the CF-51 and the newer card having this issue?

mnem
*Narrowing-down-the-possibilities-ily*

 

I use a Sprint S720 in three different laptops (Toshiba Portege, Fujitsu tablet, and my CF-29. I have traveled all over the US and coastal regions.

Botton line; I've never had that problem with freezing up. MNEM may be on to something by sleuthing the combinations.

 

The company switched broadband cards because of the coverage only. Much better coverage and broadband with the Sprint service over the Verizon service.

There only seems to be a freezing problem with this particular laptop, the other models of toughbooks, earlier and later than the 51, are fine with both cards.

It's just this bloody CF-51 for some reason..........

Cheers!

Fresh

 

It almost sounds as if the card is not "resetting" itself in the 51; like there is a driver issue. It is strange that it only happens when you are "in signal" going out, and not the reverse. Ive seen old analog modems do that where they don't "hang up" when they're supposed to making us power them off/on, but have never heard of a wireless card doing that. Is there an updated firmware for the device? Have you contacted the manufacturer on it yet?

 

Well I googled "cf-51 freezes with sprint broadband card" and got this thread... hmmmmph...

I regoogled with "pc freezes with sprint broadband card" and got ALOT of hits. I spent some time going through them, and there are alot of people having freezing problems with sprint and it's broadband but nothing that appears to be your problem. Just seems to be normal software glitches or compatability issues they were having. This is going to be a tough one I think. Back to the board....

 

I couple of things to add:

-I'm always playing some MP3 music on WMP through a SD card.
-When it freezes, lights are still going in the card and the DVD door can be opened.
-Always plugged into a Monster power converter for my truck
-My power settings are set to "always on".
-No screen saver, screen shut off in 15 minutes.

Cheers!

Fresh

 

*****bump*****

 

This is an issue in the CF-29s as well. I have a customer that uses a Sprint Broadband card. It locks up on him all the time. I recently fixed his WWAN so hopefully that will be a thing of the past!

 

What did you do to fix his WWAN? Can you describe how the problem manifested itself before you "fixed" it?

 

Pappy... The problem was that it wasn't seen by the software! It turned out that I had the wrong software. Even after installing the correct software (SB555 Watcher) it still didn't see it. I PMed A LOT with TBTech29 who helped me GREATLY! I had the modem on the wrong COM ports. It turns out that the MK2 CF-29s should have the WWAN modem set to COMs 7/8 and not 3/4. After doing that and rebooting... It worked fine. It showed the ESN and all the other info that the customer will need to get set up with Sprint. I REALLY hope that it works for the guy. I was pulling my hair out for a week to get this thing running for him. Thanks again TBTech29... You da Bomb!

Rick

 

I've had the exact same problem with the lock-ups. I have a Dell D630 laptop and my Sprint card (S720) locks it up after an undefined time. This has been happening for about a year. I tried to work with Dell and Sprint to resolve the issue. They were unable to figure it out.

I did figure out a potential workaround and the cause of the problem..... I noticed that the lockups occure when I have my wireless connection enabled and I'm using the Sprint card. Try disabling the wireless connection before you even place the card in the slot. I've never had a lockup when I've had the wireless connection disabled. Seems like some sort of conflict between the wireless card and the Sprint S720 broadband card.

 

Probably because they fight over who gets the Internet. Good idea to try...