Got Edge to work using SmartWi on Vista

Folks,

I have a SZ - 381 with an Edge card. Thanks to the great folks on this forum I was able to get Vista Ultimate running on this machine. However it took a while to get the WWAN (Edge card) working again. Here's the steps I took:

1) Download Vista Edge driver (Ericcson VDC driver) off the Sony website under the SZ-491NX model
2) Download Vista Cingular software off the Sony website under the SZ-491NX model
3) Download the SmartWi Vista compatible software off the TX model# TXN25N/W (Sony website)
4) Uninstall the Sony Wireless Switching Utility if you have one installed
5) Install #1, #2, and #3 in this order. To do so you will have to edit the
model.txt file in your windows directory to reflect the exact model numbers as where you got the drivers from or the software will not install. You also have to change the security of the model.txt to read only so the installation program can't override th file.

This version of SmartWi was written to support the Sprint Broadband hardware installed on the TX series but it works fine on the SZ.

I now have full control of Bluetooth, Wireless WAN, and Edge.

 

You the man! Thanks so much for this. I don't even use EDGE but SmartWi is much better than the lame Switching Utility.

Will come in handy if I ever activate the EDGE modem.

 

Yeah, thanks for letting us know about the SmartWi update.

 

have everything installed, but can't get the smart wifi to turn on edge. it says it can't activate. please try again later. what do i do? how do i turn on the edge modem and activate cingular?

 

It's not going to activate until you activate the Cingular SIM card in your SZ. Alternatively you can replace it with a TMobile SIM card and use that instead if you want.

 

Hi,

When I try to install this on my SZ450, I make the "model change" in model.txt in windows, I save the file, re-open it to make sure the change is made to:

Model = "VGN-TXN25N/W"

Then I run the file again, and it still says its for the wrong model! I've also tried "VGN-TXN25NW" and "VGN-TXN25N", but everytime it says its for the wrong model. Then I go back and check the model.txt in notepad, its says SZ450 again!

Any help would be appreciated - (I also run notepad as adminstrator, but experience the same problem)

 

To make the change stick on model.txt you will have to lock the file via the security tab (under properties via right click). Under the column Deny, put a check on the Write property.

That should do it.

 

Whenever I try to uninstall the Wireless Switchin Setting Utility, it says "Setup.exe has stopped working" and tries to check for a solution. Any ideas?

 

BTW, the SmartWi for Vista also adds a Sidebar Gadget that's quite nice. It lets you control your WWAN, WLAN and BT from the sidebar! Just hit + Gadget on the sidebar and it's there.

 

Ive installed the sony ericsson driver and the cingular software successfully on my UX280P, could see the GPRS LAN Adapter got recognised and installed but the SMARTWI is abit of a problem...

ive download'd the file SOAOTH-01466800-US.EXE from the VGN-TXN25N/W sony page, when i clicked install it did say welcome to SmartWi Connection Utility bla bla bla and said installation sucessful at the end, but i couldnt find it installed anywhere.....

so i went to check at the programme manager, sorted by installed time i did see the sony ericsson driver and the cingular on the list but not the smartwi... instead "nokia duk cable" got installed when im sure i didnt install that...... could someone pls let me know whether the smartwi file i installed is correct?

many tks!

 

I know, that this drivers exist for 380N model, but when I have tried to change Model.txt, after begining installation, it returns to previouse value - 280P, end install say - wrong model. I haven't receive any assistanca from SONY. please help!

 

I made so... It change for my model again. I can't installl

 

even u've chged the model.txt before installation, it will return to its original model when you start installation. so what you needa do is, click on the .exe for installation, choose the language you wanna install, you will then be on the welcome to XXXX screen, from there you go back to the windows directory, you will see there are 2 Model.txt files there, delete the one with 0kb, then change the model.txt with 1kb to match the model of the file you are installing.

good luck

 

Thank you all for your help on this. I got everything installed but i'm also stuck a the Sprint activation. I have my T-Mobile SIMs card installed, but it still gives me a "Can't Activate, Try Later..." Has anyone solved this issue? If so, would you be kind enough to share your solution? Thank you...

 

Are your T-Mobile SIM cards activated? i.e. Are they provisioned to be able to register on the network, etc.

I haven't tried it yet but that would be the first thing to check.

 

Thanks for the help, I got it to work

However I realized that SwartWi is using almost 110Mb of RAM! Since I'm not using Edge I uninstalled and went back to The original wireless switching utility, taking up a nice 1.6Mb

Don't know what happened to have SmartWi taking up that much RAM, but this was on multiple occasions, after restarts

 

Strange. Even if it's using that much RAM for me, it's just so much better than the Wireless Switching utility. With the wireless switching one, everytime it loads (reboot, resume from standby/hibernate) it turns your wireless off and on...pain in the ass.

Also with the Wireless Switching if you turn BT off and on like I do, it also turns your WLAN off/on.

SmartWi is much smoother and just works better IMO.

 

itworker:

Was there anything else you had to do to get the WWAN working? I followed your instructions to the letter and I can't get connected because the SmartWi wants to "activate" and it won't. I use Cingular EDGE and already have an account, so activation shouldn't be a problem. One weird thing is that as it tries to "initialize activation," I get connected to EDGE for about 11 seconds. When the activation fails, I get kicked off EDGE. Can anybody figure this out? Thanks!

 

For all those having issues with Sprint activation:

- Open regedit
- Navigate to :HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Sony Corporation\SmartWi Connection Utility\Plug-in\WAN
- Change Value of following keys from 0 to 1:
-ActivationHardwareInfoCaptured
-FullyActivated

- Change Value of following key from1 to 0
-CheckWwanDeviceActivated

When you launch Smartwi, and turn on WWAN, it will either sit on Initializing or Reseting. Don't worry the Edge module is now on!!! Just launch Cingular Connection Manager and enjoy your Edge card

 

Thank you so much, jcastera!

 

jcastera:

Thanks again for the tip. Do you have to restart after changing the values? The editing didn't seem to work.

 

Yes, you always need to restart to use registry changes.

 

I also can't find the smartwi after install. I think it actually didn't installed. Where is the dictionary of the smartwi?

 

Whenever I turn on my WWAN card, it says "Failed to initialize..." Anyone have any ideas? It's a Cingular EDGE card.

 

polojag

see page 2 of this thread

 

I would like to thank you all for your contributions to this issue. I have a VGN-SZ270P and i'm up and running thanks to your postings. Oh, and one more thing, stay away from HP printers. I have a Laserjet 3150 and 3200 that I have to get rid of because HP won't produce Vista drivers. Brother, however had its drivers ready for RC1... Sorry, I just needed to vent my frustration with HP as well...

Again, thank you all for your help.

 

I've got a similar problem, there are no Sony posted SmartWi drivers for a SZ220 yet. I went and downloaded the Edge driver like you indicated and changed the model.txt... now I get an error telling me "This update can only run on Windows Vista". I'm running Vista Ultimate!

 

Thanks for this tut! Got my UX280P working with the Sprint SmartWi and Vista SE Modem Drivers and using my Globe postpaid SIM here in Manila Philippines too bad calls can't be made via the Cingular Connection Manager and that SMS has no sender ID [I tried saving some names to the phonebook but only the number of the sender comes out] I also would like to get an audible alert [i.e WAV or MP3 alert] when I get an SMS is this possible with the Cingular Connection Manager?

You can also choose not to run SmartWi on Startup/toggling on the hw Wireless switch. To switch on/off radios I use the Fn + F key [the one with the W/L] this is on my UX dunno if other VAIO's have the same or a similar key.

 

Thanks for the help. I have SmartWi working on my sz330p. I had trouble under XP-SP2 with my wireless hanging up; Sony replaced the WWAN module, but it still happened, needed reboot to fix each time. Under Vista, the connection still disappears at times, but turning the SmartWi radio off then on fixes it, which is a big gain over rebooting, but still annoying. Does anyone have any ideas? I hate to send it back to Sony, now with Vista loaded besides.

 

A new SmartWi firmware update has been released for some models; I got it from SZ460N cnfoth-01516100-US.exe which is not model-specific, and applied it to my sz330p which has been having frequent drops of signal. It seemed to install properly, though there were complaints that the expected Smart-wi programs weren't found. So far I am getting good results: 5 bars signal where I usually get 3-4 (maybe it is weather related, though), and no dropped signals so far after 17' testing. At least it did no harm here. I am using the VGN-TXN25N/W Sprint Smartwi program since Sony hasn't released a proper Cingular one for my machine.

 

I installed the new firmware update (R1K1) for the cingular module on my SZ330P, it was supposed to fix issue where module dropped signal after 10 min, I had expierenced signal trouble in the past so I thought this would help, Now my WWAN drops or hangs at 10min 30 sec consistiently reqiureing the wireless switch to be turned off and back on to go another 10 min. I have removed and installed the VDC EGPRS modem drivers, the cingular connection manager without any fix, has anyone any ideas?

 

That hasn't been my experience on my sz330p; I used to have irregular drops, but now it is rare (I had it connected all day yesterday without problems), and mine never dropped at a fixed time. Could there be some other setting issue, such as automatic standby, to explain the regularity? Just guessing.

 

Installed the smartwi sony just released. It is working, but when restart, it will display "disconnected", but actually the internet already connected.

 

i belive by now sony has released Vista Versions of SmartWi for models that have the EDGE modem.

ocbeachsand- You might want to uninstall the SmartWi Utility and then reinstall and then update and see if that helps out.

 

I upgraded my Sony UX180P to the R1K1 firmware for the EDGE modem and it has made a nice improvement.

Prior to upgrading, my wireless connection would freeze constantly, usually after about 10 minutes of use and would require rebooting Windows XP to get it working again.

Since upgrading, it runs non-stop for most of the time. I have had a couple of occasions where the same problem has occurred but now its happens much less frequently.

I have, however, begun to experience BSDs (blue screens of death) occasionally since upgrading the firmware. The BSD report varies, but often reports the source of the crash in GCXXNet.sys (or something like that) - basically the EDGE modem driver. Hopefully they'll fix this new problem soon.

 

Hello people, how can i get the SmartWi for Vista added in Sidebar Gadget?
I tried a clean instalation, but the gadget didn't returned when i installed the smartwi connection utility.

Thanks.