Huawei B970/B970b HSPA Router

[kingrob]

It's supposed to fix (amongst other things) the issue where the router loses all its settings, which I have experienced before.

On the company's Netgear ADSL router you can save all your confg settings to a file and then just restore it if something goes wrong.

Haven't seen anything like that on the B970.

[morkhans]

Hi All,

I did the upgrade for the B970 router.
At first it would not upgrade.
Problem was connected to Vodacom. After disconnecting all went straight forward.
I did a total reset to the B970 router. Installed all settings via ethernet connectivity. Works better.
Changed all my settings which is applicable to me.

Up and running all ok.

That was something that occurred to me afterwards to check. One would would expect however that the flashing software would put the device in the most passive state possible before loading updates or at least it would be mentioned in the update instructions.

[morkhans]

I flashed by replacement B970 router successfully last night. The key things are:
1) Reset router to factory defaults
2) Remove SIM
3) Attach via LAN cable
4) Set a static IP on the machine attached via the LAN (probably optional, but I was not taking chances)
5) Follow the rest of the instructions included in the download

[ginggs]

I flashed my replacement B970 router successfully last night.

Did you use the same updater as previously, or is it a new download?

[morkhans]

Did you use the same updater as previously, or is it a new download?

Same updater. Files in the original download and the new one were the same sans (inadequate) instructions.

[HowTo]

Hi All,

I used the new download file.
Could run FmcUpdate.exe file, click on “check” button would not reveal any files to update.

Used new down loaded file.
I upgraded via WLAN. Had problem because I was connected to Vodacom. Disconnected then I could update. Did not remove simcard.
Reset router after completion of upgrade via Web interface. Connection via Ethernet cable.
Then updated settings:
1) Configuring the PPP settings
2) WLAN basic settings.
3) WLAN advance settings.
That is how I did my upgrade.
Up and running.

[kingrob]

I managed to update the boot loader and then the rest failed.

So now I have a sp4 bootloader, with sp3 softare.

It still works, but any attempt to detect the router again just fail.

[HowTo]

@kingrob

Sorry to hear about your experience. Your installation 10 to 1 got interrupted somehow.
Don’t know if there is another way that you could try to upgrade via Ethernet.
The sequence of the upgrade was:
......Boot.
------App
------Resources
.......Firmware
........Dashboard This dashboard was the same as the default installed one.

Last resort is to return the Router.

[morkhans]

I managed to update the boot loader and then the rest failed.

So now I have a sp4 bootloader, with sp3 softare.

It still works, but any attempt to detect the router again just fail.

Even on LAN?

@kingrob

Sorry to hear about your experience. Your installation 10 to 1 got interrupted somehow.
Don’t know if there is another way that you could try to upgrade via Ethernet.
The sequence of the upgrade was:
......Boot.
------App
------Resources
.......Firmware
........Dashboard This dashboard was the same as the default installed one.

Last resort is to return the Router.

We all know how that's been working out...

[kingrob]

Even on LAN?

Even on LAN.

[morkhans]

Even on LAN.

Bugger. I'll let you know when I finally get a working B970 router back from Vodacare, by which time they hopefully know the procedure back to front, and more importantly what NOT to do.

[kingrob]

Bugger. I'll let you know when I finally get a working B970 router back from Vodacare, by which time they hopefully know the procedure back to front, and more importantly what NOT to do.

Thanks morkhans, would appreciate it.

Thank goodness the router still works!

[nuyork]

On the company's Netgear ADSL router you can save all your confg settings to a file and then just restore it if something goes wrong.

Haven't seen anything like that on the B970.

Yes, this is something that is missing from the B970. Something that I see on the NetGear and Linksys routers. I wonder if it will be added at a later date? Another item that should be added to the B970 is SMS functionality.

[nuyork]

I managed to update the boot loader and then the rest failed.

So now I have a sp4 bootloader, with sp3 softare.

It still works, but any attempt to detect the router again just fail.

As HowTo states, it does the update in order, Boot, App, Resources, Firmware and Dashboard.

I believe in the FmcUpdate update folder there are the following:-

WLAGAPK11006_APP
WLAGAPK11006_BOOT
WLAGAPK11006_RES
WLATCPK11007_UPDATE_ALL
UTPSVMCLITE_9.3.3.10523_RC3_UPDATE_B970

If it stopped after App and doesn't want to go further, then just remove the WLAGAPK11006_APP, and try again.

I've also removed the UTPSVMCLITE_9.3.3.10523_RC3_UPDATE_B970 file, as is it the same version that is already installed on the router.

I was helping a friend with updating his router and it stopped after is did the Resources, and then it didn't even want to start updating the firmware. I got worried that I bricked his router. So what I did was remove the files that were already updated:-

WLAGAPK11006_APP
WLAGAPK11006_BOOT
WLAGAPK11006_RES

So the only 2 files in the folder were:-

FmcUpdate.exe
WLATCPK11007_UPDATE_ALL

And ran the update again, and it worked. It just updated the firmware part.

[kingrob]

Thanks nuyork, will give it a go when I get home tonight.