Firmware upgrade for Novatel [also fixes error 692]

Please see below for a general firmware update for the Novatel U630 UMTS card.

This release is mandatory to fix the 692 error some new cards show but all cards can be upgraded.

Most Novatel cards is currently on version 9 of the firmware. This release will take it up to version 14.

thanks v3g for keeping everyone informed .

Firmware upgrade for Novatel

A new firmware version is available for the Novaltel cards. Please upgrade your card as per instructions below.

You will need to download software which needs to be copied to the 3G data card.

DOWNLOADING THE SOFTWARE

Customers can obtain the software in the following ways:

A. Visit their closest Vodacom Walk-in Customer Care, Vodacare, Vodashop or 4U shop.

OR

B. Download the file from the following Internet site.

http://www.vodacom4me.co.za/vodacom4me-personal-resources/downloads/3GDataCard/

Select the file called NVTL_UMTS_FUU_14.0.exe
Select “save” and choose a location to save the file


DOWNLOADING THE FILE TO THE 3G CARD

1) The 3G card needs to be inserted into a laptop (preferably without the SIM card)
2) Go to the location on the laptop where the file was saved.
3) Double click on the NVTL_UMTS_FUU_14.0.exe file
4) Select “Next” to continue
5) Select the “Agree” option to continue
6) The upgrade procedure will now start and take approximately 15 minutes
7) Click on “Finish” to complete the upgrade procedure
8) Remove the card and insert your SIM card
9) The card is now ready for use

Please let us know your experiences after the upgrade.

Hi v3g

Just wondering, [post=214479]the new Novatel firmware[/post], does it resolve this issue as well?

Yes, it's the same fix. The new firmware V14 resolves this issue and is also a general update for all Novatel cards.

Most Novatel cards are currently on V9, so this is a major update. Hopefully it will also resolve a lot of the current Novatel issues.

DON'T DO IT YOURSELF !!!!!!!!
DON'T DO IT YOURSELF !!!!!!!!
DON'T DO IT YOURSELF !!!!!!!!
DON'T DO IT YOURSELF !!!!!!!!


1) Followed the process to the letter
2) Got to 75% and hung
3) Dead Novatel card !!!!!!
4) Called 082155. Panic. They did not know how to help me
5) Went to Vodaworld
6) Was told because I did my own upgrade that the warranty was now null and void!!!!!
7) They did print a fault report for me.
8) Rushed back to customer service with the attitude of a thousand bastards. Told them I will make it my life's purpose to slander the product.
9) They calmed me down and organized a swap. Waited for an hour though.
10) Went back to the data guys and got them to do the upgrade themselves.
11) Also got version 5 of the dashboard. 3 1/2 hours later I am back on internet again.


Thus, I do not recommend you to do it by yourself. Let them screw up the card and be the guilty party.

Also, the techy told me that they have so many problems with the Novatel card that they are probably going to get a Novatel guy out here to sort it.

VMS

Ok, there could be a lot of reaons why it hung, but perhaps some don'ts are required if forumites are going to do it themselves [obviously if you can get to Vodaworld then get the experts to do it for you].

I assume that you should not be using the card at the same time as trying to flash update the card's firmware, i.e. disconnect from 3G/GPRS, correct?

Should the dashboard be stopped - presumably it would be using the data card & interfere with the update, correct?

Maybe temporarily disable antivirus s/w as well in case that interferes, correct?

Another one, make sure that your notebook/laptop/PC doesn't suspend or power save during the update, correct?

What other precautions can be recommended when doing the upgrade?

VMS, how long did you wait? It takes a long time for the upgrade to complete, around 15 minutes.

ic's other assumptions obviously apply, plus the points above, like removing the sim before you start.

We've not had other reports of failed upgrade (yet), but if you do not feel comfortable doing the upgrade yourself, rather take it to a walk-in centre.

Did the right stuff. Rebooted. Made sure VMConnect was not active. Sim card out and followed the steps to the letter.

It went perfect upto about 75% of the update sequence and stopped. Did not panic at that stage. But then a message box came up saying that it could not erase the memory. After I clicked OK on that the "Unable to update..." message came up.

So as an electronic engineer and software programmer I knew this thing was stuffed. They also did it the wrong way. You need the firmware inside to access the memory. So if the firmware is stuffed you cannot try it again.

After I rebooted, card in/out, it came back immediately with the same message when retrying the sequence. Could not even detect the card. Windows picked up some generic device in the slot. Also all 3 LEDs in the tri-colored LED were on.

The techy at Vodaworld said he has seen this before. A few of the cards they updated in bulk did this. He wasn't really surprised about this. Looks like my card was one of those. Hopefully this card works better than the last.

I can say that although Vodacom tried to remove themselves from my problem they did eventually gave in and swapped the card. Lucky for me there was excess stock otherwise I would have been completely stuffed.

What I can say about the Novatel card is that if this update process does not complete the card is utterly stuffed. Be careful.

I am using F-Secure anti-virus but most of the functionality is disabled. I have very long sleep mode times and I was at the laptop the entire time and did not do anything with it or saw any pop up or something like that. The card just stopped taking in any data.... and as the dashboard not really trying to reconnect the update process behaved in a similar way.

So it might be something on my laptop, it might be something on the old card or a combination of the two. My suggestion is that you let the professionals do it for you. The nice thing is that their laptops are sorted. It would be interesting to know how many of you out there got this right without any problems.

VMS

busy downloading lastest dashboard software with the updated firmware. I did the firmware update this morning after downloading V14. I was already running V12 of the firmware which I updated last week Thursday from V9 which the card was supplied with.

I had no hassles with the upgrade, but already had V12 loaded. VMSid you go from V9 to V14?

With firmware V12 and up the card indicates a fast flashing red/blue led combination when the dashboard crashes, where with V9 the led just reamined green (on GPRS) and the card did not seem to recognise the fast that the dash crashed.

so I guess my firmware upgrade was succesfull.

Heh, i was already updating when i read the "don't do this yourself" post, not a very good time to read that.

Either way, update went fine, no problems. Everything seems to still working.

I upgraded my own card this morning from v9 to v14, and although the update bars went quite slow (does it really need to take 15 minutes to write a piece of memory?), it went through without a hitch.

Good for you guys. I got my card late Feb. Don't know which version it was on. When my dash crashed many things would happen like a solid green, blue LED or a flashing red.


VMS

You can check the hardware & firmware versions from the Dash -> Tools -> Diagnostics.

It'll be interesting to see any potential correlation between HW and Firmware.

Another thing... I have been using 3G in the same spot where I could not get it at all. Been on 3G since about 17h00. It is now 21h30. Connection is still active. So either the new card is more sensitive or the upgrades (firmware and dash 5) has done the trick.

VMS

This is good news!

I'm trying to get all the release notes from V9 to V14 to see what was changed and fixed.

I'll be great to get Novatel V14 feedback from all the relevant forumites.

Reporting back from same (usually) bad 3G location. Been going strong since yesterday. Busy listening streaming "new age" music on 2 bar. Definitely a huge improvement. The only time I lose a connection is when I mess around with my antenna. Apart from that no funny stuff. Infact if I don't do anything funny the link stays stable.

VMS

Most good equipment that allows re-flashing will at least have a basic bootstrap mode it reverts to if the upgrade fails. Clearly the Novatel is a budget device. Does the Option do the same thing?

Also why can't the upgrade software perform all the checks to ensure sim is out and dash is not loaded etc? At very least it should put up a WARNING screen with a list of things to check. Alternatively put them in a README file inside the zip file.

The logical thing is to get everything inactive before balsting away. I have a few systems out there that I have designed with low risk firmware upgrade methology. Each circuit has a independent bootstap code section that never changes. In the event of a screwup you just try again. I have one product out there that is an exception. With this one all the code is written to RAM, checksum calculated and flashed within about 3 seconds. Then the code is verified against the RAM one. If not, reflash, if OK reboot. Why the Novatel has adopted this russian rollette methology or why it takes so long to do makes one wonder.

It almost appears that they are streaming the data in on a RS232 principle. Erasing a 64k flash block (on standard AMD type flash) takes about 1 second. To actually write the block takes less. I can understand it if the card contains 32 MB of Flash and it takes 2 seconds for each block, but I think it is highly unlikely. Most combo GSM/GPS units (with full GPRS and TCP/IP stack) uses 8MB of flash of which a lot is still available for user applications.

The one comment I made about the update procedure still stands and that is that it follows the logic of the Dashboard. Once it gets a problem it just gives up. If this was an old EPROM you could take out and reprogram I would understand, but this is a PCMCIA card that probably won't be resellable once it is taken apart and reflashed.

Well, lucky for me I have a new card, new Dash and on 3G without crashing. I am happy.

VMS

I joined the 3G network on Friday for the first time with a Novatel card. I struggled all weekend (DNS errors, page not found, 5kbps) and called the help desk. I was very impressed with the professional level of help and courtesy of the staff. But they never mentioned the firmware upgrade and suggested I get an external antenna. So I popped into my Vodashop to see whether I could try an antenna. They suggested the firmware upgrade which I've just done. Everything is lightning fast now. Am currently sititng in a 'dead spot' in the Vodashop where they hardly get signal and am surfing at lightning speed. Very happy with the service! Going to see if the card will now work with Fedora Core 3 which I couldn't get right on Friday - maybe the firmware will fix those problems I had.
Aisne