Vodaphone 3G Quad card issiues

[monkspain]

Hi all, I got my first sony pc the tx notebook and transferred my 3 g data card. It would not work. Called the business users vodafone line and was informed it will not work on a vaio, BUT IT IS NOW. Disable blurtooth activation onboard wifi and do normal install. Ignore the dashboard in all respects. Click directly on the new connection set up in your connection list and it works fine...just no dashboard which is ok as long as u are on unlimited contract.[:">]

[gale]

HI there Lewis and thanks for the great post! I reckon that one way or the other, I'll be able to get myself sorted and I will let you know how I get on 🙂

I got the VGN-TX1HP from Laptops Direct and their free 3G vodafone card offer. And mine's the same as yours - should have £20 free and then pay by dd for what I use. I looked into Vodafone's website and their 3G options for monthly payments - unlimited use is £45/m which is a bit steep so I planned to use the free payg one to establish just how much I will actually use the thing!! I plan to use it at home (mostly on my cable connection) and occasionally at work (where there is a free wireless connection that can be picked up intermitently - so not really reliable!).

Anyway - thanks ever so much for you easy to read and detailed post! I'll let you know how it goes 🙂

Luv
Gale XXX

[Sonny_Jim]

Hi, again, Gale,

I got the VGN-TX1HP...

Good choice!:smileyhappy:

...and their free 3G vodafone card offer.  And mine's the same as yours - should have £20 free and then pay by dd for what I use.

Ah, fine...

I looked into Vodafone's website and their 3G options for monthly payments - unlimited use is £45/m which is a bit steep so I planned to use the free payg one to establish just how much I will actually use the thing!!  I plan to use it at home (mostly on my cable connection) and occasionally at work (where there is a free wireless connection...

Yup, agreed fifty odd quid is a bit steep and free is always much better! ...some options to bear in mind, though: Vodafone offer 250MB for about £29 per month and a friend has just taken up a new 3G data tariff with the Three network, offering 56MB for £15/month.

...forgot to mention that you'll also need Microsoft's .Net Framework 1.1 installed in order to run Mobility Manager - this should be available free via Windows Update (.NET Framework 1.1. Service Pack 1 also recommended). Anyway, if you have a TX1HP, I think you'll almost certainly encounter the Bluetooth-COM port issue with that Vodafone datacard, but am pretty sure the fix should work for you.

[gale]

Thanks Sonny_Jim 🙂

Do you know if the 3 3G datacard works in the same way as Vodafone - switching to GPRS when out of 3G range??

Luv
Gale XX

[kee-lo_]

Yes it does have that option

[gale]

HI there! Just thought I'd update you...I got my 3G card today - pretty quick of vodafone so pleased with that. Out of curiosity I thought I'd try just following the instructions out of the box and if it went belly up, uninstall the vodafone software and start again. Well, here I am, messagin you from my new 3G connection through the vodafone software too! I dunno if there's been some update to the Vodafone software that sorts the bluetooth issue - or perhaps one of the Sony Vaio updates sorted it??? But certainly, so far so good!!! Just off to Vodafone now to set up my account online 🙂

Luv
Gale XXX

[gale]

Hi Lewis

As promised - an update! I got my 3g card today and out of curiosity thought I'd try the vodafone software cos I could always uninstall it and start from scratch if it didn't work...but so far so good - I'm messaging you live from the 3g network now!

Just off to vodafone to set up my online account now 🙂

Luv
Gale XX

[kee-lo_]

Gale,

Thats cool

Do you really get broadband speeds from 3G? I remember Orange boasting about this and I couldn't help but laugh.

[gale]

Gale,

Thats cool  

Do you really get broadband speeds from 3G?  I remember Orange boasting about this and I couldn't help but laugh.

Ha ha!!! Most of the time, I'd say I'm pretty lucky if I've got dial up speeds!!! Trouble is, we're spoilt now by our super cool broadband connections at home - so 3G isn't as good as that but it's not as bad as dial up 🙂

Luv
Gale XXX

[kee-lo_]

Yeah I kinda guessed it was all hype

When ADSL2/2+ come into full existance we'll be getting 24mbit (if only I could afford ti)

[gale]

Hiya - I've actually tested out the 3G in more locations now and if you're in a good reception area it is pretty nippy. I am impressed by it actually.

BTW, I spoke too soon about no probs with the 3G card - at first just the Vodafone dashboard wouldn't work - but that didn't really bother me. Then yesterday I started getting the error 619. Spent ages on the phone to Vodafone piddling about in device manager with different ports but nothing worked. So in the end, I bit the bullet and uninstalled the toshiba bluetooth (and the dial up modem while I was at it). Not only did that solve the problem with the error and the ports, but now the dashboard works fine!!!

I won't count my chickens but so far, it seems to be fine 🙂

Luv
Gale X