Compatibility Issues with Huawei E220 USB Modem

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vodacom3g

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Compatibility Issues with Huawei E220 USB Modem

What is the fault / What does the user experience?

CD/DVD burning or copying programs which are creating virtual drives are disturbing the Huawei USB Modem. There can be problems when VMC is trying to initialise the modem.

"QuickPlay" programs, which enable to play CD/DVDs without starting the computer, can cause the same problem. Examples are HP QuickPlay or Dell Media Direct Express.

There are two characteristic problems:

1) VMC Lite cannot be installed, because the autorun does not start and it is not possible to start the installation manually.

There are several workarounds:
- If the drive is shown for a short period of time, it is possible to immediately copy the content to the hard drive and start the installation using the Autorun.exe
- If the drive does not appear, it is recommended to use VMC 9.x
- If the drive does not appear and the customer has no online connection, he has to remove the program which is causing the problems. Afterwards VMC can be installed.

2) It is possible to install VMC, but during runtime the device disappears in Windows. Usually the only workaround for this is to uninstall the program which is causing the issue.

Which software & devices are affected?

We have been able to reproduce the issues with VMC Lite 2.1.6.1 (E220 firmware 11.110.05.00.00) and the following applications:
Daemon Tools (tested: 4.9.1.0) <http://www.daemon-tools.cc/>
Workaround: Unmount all devices and afterwards close the program

Nero Image Drive (tested: 7.9.6.0) <http://www.nero.com/deu/index.html>
Workaround: open Nero Smart Start and deactivate in the options Image Drive

Any DVD (tested: 6.1.6.0) <http://www.slysoft.com/de/anydvd.html>
Workaround: Remove the application, then plug-in the modem and install the Mobile Connect

Clone DVD (tested: 2.9.0.9) <http://www.slysoft.com/de/clonecd.html>
Workaround: Remove the application, then plug-in the modem and install Mobile Connect

Napster (tested: 3.8.1.4) <http://www.napster.de>
During operation of the device occurred problems, caused by the installed software.
Workaround: Remove the application

Also reported are incompatibility issues for the following applications:

Norton Ghost 12

Ulead Filmbrennerei

Pinnacle Instant CD/DVD Suite

Roxio Win on CD / Roxio CD Creator <http://www.roxio.de/deu/products/winoncd/suite/overview.html>
Workaround: Remove the application, then plug-in the modem and install Mobile Connect

DVD Shrink <http://www.dvdshrink.org/what_de.html>
Workaround: Remove the application, then plug-in the modem and install Mobile Connect

Alcohol 120% <http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_120>
Workaround: Remove the application, then plug-in the modem and install Mobile Connect

Clone CD <http://www.slysoft.com/de/clonecd.html>
Workaround: Remove the application, then plug-in the modem and install Mobile Connect

Norton Save and Restore <http://www.symantec.com/de/de/home_homeoffice/products/overview.jsp?pcid=br&pvid=nsr20>
During operation of the device occurred problems, caused by the installed software.
Workaround: Remove the application

Camera Fix (Webcam software)
Workaround: remove the application

HP QuickPlay (often installed on the HP Pavilion)
Workaround: remove the application

Dell Media Direct Express (often installed on Dell Laptops)
Workaround: remove the application

Resolution status

The issue has been escalated to Huawei, and we are awaiting their feedback.
 
Possible workarounds

The problem with the clash between the E220 and various applications seems to be around the fact that Huawei mounts the E220's flash as a CD file system (CDFS).

This happens when the modem is inserted into a USB port and has nothing to do with the dashboard that then loads. It's a function of the firmware in the modem and not the dash, be it from Huawei or Vodafone.

Posts in this forum that claims one dashboard is better than another is incorrect. Typically the statement is made that Huawei's dash does not show this problem. It does. It happend long before the dashboard software is installed or executed.

Try the following and let us know if it solves your problem.

We're going to disable the drive assigned to the E220. Basically, once the software is installed, we don't want the E220 to be seen as a filesystem anymore. These CD/DVD writers or Virus programs try and take control of the filesystem and then gets horribly confused.

Follow these steps (assuming you're using XP):

- Click Start
- Right-click on 'My Computer'
- Click 'Manage'
- Click on 'Disk Management' under 'Computer Management / Storage'
- Right-click on drive letter assigned to E220 (will be a CDFS file system
device)
- Click on 'Change Drive Letter and Paths...'
- Verify that correct drive letter is displayed in dialog
- Click 'Remove' button
- Click 'Yes' button in confirmation dialog
Click to expand...

See if this removes the conflict with your app and let us know.
 
Last edited:
I am using HP Pavilion DV9521ei with Vista Home Premium. I am using, and I quite "HP QuickPlay (often installed on the HP Pavilion)
Workaround: remove the application" and it work fine. Huawei E220 USB Modem. So far I haven't pick up any problems with any of my software or hardware that affect the modem. I am using Mobile Partner and it is 100%.
 
Using Mobile Partner seems to bypass all these compatibilty issues. I've seen it happen when trying to load VMCLite on a machine with a few of the above mentioned applications which didnt work. It even came to the point where Autoplay was impossible, and physically going to the .exe file to run the setup which also didnt work.

When upgrading to Mobile Partner and installing it on that same machine, the setup seems to run smoothly. How i dont know.
 
Iam3G said:
Using Mobile Partner seems to bypass all these compatibilty issues. I've seen it happen when trying to load VMCLite on a machine with a few of the above mentioned applications which didnt work. It even came to the point where Autoplay was impossible, and physically going to the .exe file to run the setup which also didnt work.

When upgrading to Mobile Partner and installing it on that same machine, the setup seems to run smoothly. How i dont know.
Click to expand...

If the problem is with VMC-Lite and the Huawei software does not have the same problem, why would it be escalated to Huawei to fix? :confused::confused:

The clashes are rather firmware related (due to the way the modem is presented as a drive) and not the communications application (VLite / HMP). VMC9.x does not install from the autorun, so it won't have this problem.
 
vodacom3g said:
If the problem is with VMC-Lite and the Huawei software does not have the same problem, why would it be escalated to Huawei to fix? :confused::confused:

The clashes are rather firmware related (due to the way the modem is presented as a drive) and not the communications application (VLite / HMP). VMC9.x does not install from the autorun, so it won't have this problem.
Click to expand...

Who mentioned anything about escalating to Huawei? :confused: I merely suggested a possible temporary fix to the Virtual Drives/Compatibilty issues, as when upgrading to HMP does bypass it, until we find a permanent solution to this problem.

I do understand that its firmware related, and that the problem does NOT lie with the Software, but could you then explain to me how its possible that when upgrading the Dashboard to HMP(firmware version as per Vodacom's website(11.110.05.00.00) stays the same) solves the problem?
 
Iam3G said:
When upgrading to Mobile Partner and installing it on that same machine, the setup seems to run smoothly. How i dont know.
Click to expand...
It could be because Mobile Partner comes with newer device drivers.
 
Last edited:
ic said:
Off Topic for this thread and this forum, but out of interest, does MTN have its own dashboard s/w for the Huawei E220?
Click to expand...
Well, not their own, but their cards come with a yellow-skinned version of "HUAWEI 3G Data Card Management" software rebadged as "MTN F@stlink Data Card". This software was also available for other European network operators similarly "skinned" with their colours and logos.
 
Iam3G said:
Who mentioned anything about escalating to Huawei? :confused: I merely suggested a possible temporary fix to the Virtual Drives/Compatibilty issues, as when upgrading to HMP does bypass it, until we find a permanent solution to this problem.
Click to expand...

I did. You did not read Post 1 ;)

The virtual drive problem is ALREADY with Huawei to fix, so the software is not going to make a difference. The problem is long before the software is installed.

Read post 1 again. The vendor must fix this, or I guess Microsoft could....
 
vodacom3g said:
I did. You did not read Post 1 ;)

The virtual drive problem is ALREADY with Huawei to fix, so the software is not going to make a difference. The problem is long before the software is installed.

Read post 1 again. The vendor must fix this, or I guess Microsoft could....
Click to expand...

Understood.
 
Usb E630

Does Mobile Partner apply to the E630? I have done a couple of installations with Mobile Partner on a E630 and none of them was a success. On the E630 I rather load VMC 9.2 for XP or Vista.

I have also found the easiest way of installing a E620 usb modem on a XP Machine is to revert back to the latest VMC 7, if that fails I install Mobile Partner.

Why does VMC 9.x connects without a hitch the first on a Vista machine and then disconnects and start "searching for a network"?
 
Philus said:
Does Mobile Partner apply to the E630? I have done a couple of installations with Mobile Partner on a E630 and none of them was a success. On the E630 I rather load VMC 9.2 for XP or Vista.

I have also found the easiest way of installing a E620 usb modem on a XP Machine is to revert back to the latest VMC 7, if that fails I install Mobile Partner.

Why does VMC 9.x connects without a hitch the first on a Vista machine and then disconnects and start "searching for a network"?
Click to expand...

You can Download Mobile Partner for the E630 her:
http://www.huawei.com/mobileweb/en/doc/list.do?type=-1&id=817

Mobile Partner is the:
E630-UTPSB002D03SP09C03 (Normal) (14076 KB) 10-Jul-2007 file.

Hope it will help.
 
USB webcam. I had to return a new USB webcam to a shop as although the webcam worked it broke the internet connection and I had to do a system restore to restore my connection functionality. The connection to Vodafone would fail after showing 'Authenticating'. I was using VMC-Lite.

I also had a similar problem with HMP after modifying the dialup entry in Network Connections - I was trying to change a few things like re-dial automatically in an attempt to have auto reconnects etc... I was just playing about really after having just installed HMP. This killed the connection in the same way, i.e. I couldn't connect and it would fail after showing 'Authenticating'. Deleting the dial-up profile and allowing HMP to re-create it did not fix the problem so I did system restore again and rolled back windows by 1-day.

Same problem after installing VMWare which installs extra and virtual network adaptors.

I'm wondering whether anyone else's E220 is very sensitive like this? It is working fine now but if I change the slightest thing it'll probably break..

Thanks.
 
Jaco.vdw said:
Huawai has a new 12-09-2007 driver on their website for the E220.
Click to expand...
Thanks.
Filename is E220-UTPSB002D03SP04C03 (Normal)
http://www.huawei.com/mobileweb/en/doc/list.do?type=-1&id=736
Jaco.vdw said:
Q1: Is this the correct firmware upgrade to fix the compatibility issues? Or should it be a UTPS file?
Click to expand...
This is not a firmware upgrade, it will not fix compatibility issues with Vista.
Currently the files named E220-HOSTxxx install Huawei Mobile Connect and the files named E220-UTPS install Huawei Mobile Partner.
 
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