ZTE MF627 and Window7

Further to my last post on this I’ve had still had mixed results getting my Three modem to connect to my Windows 7 systems.

Now that Windows 7 is on general release I had a quick look on the Three support website and find a support article specific to my problem

A quick firmware upgrade is all that is needed

From http://www.three.co.uk/Help_Support/Mobile_Broadband_Help

If you have a ZTE MF627 and have already upgraded to Windows 7 or Snow Leopard, your modem will not work until you download the firmware updates. You will be able to install the dashboard software (and you should do this!) but you will not be able to connect. Once you have installed the dashboard, using an alternative connection, or on another computer, go to www.three.co.uk/Help_Support/About_my_mobile/Downloads and select ZTE and then MF627. You will then have the option to download the correct firmware for your modem – either Driver Setup – For Windows 7 Only or Driver Setup – For Mac 10.6 Only. Click the correct link to download the .exe/.zip file, and if you are using an alternative computer, transfer the .exe/.zip file to the computer that has Windows 7 or Snow Leopard already installed.

Plug in your modem, double click on the .exe/.zip file and follow the on screen instructions to install the firmware. It is very important that you do not remove the modem during this process, and that you do not switch your computer off before it is finished. If you have a laptop, make sure it is plugged into the wall, or you have at least an hour of battery charge left.

Once installed, remove your modem and restart your computer. Your modem will now work.

The firmware update is was straight forward to install and only takes a few minutes. It does mean you lose the whole “plug and play” aspect of Three’s mobile broadband offering but I imagine new subscribers will get devices with the latest firmware

ZTE MF627 and Windows 7

Just a quick one!

I recently acquired a 3 Mobile broadband dongle

The specific model of the dongle is ZTE MF627

When i ran the installer program on my laptop (which is running Windows 7 Professional) everything seemed to install ok but it refused to pick up the modem

I tried it on my netbook which is also running Windows 7 and had exactly the same problem

I then tested it on XP SP3 and Vista SP2 systems and they worked fine

Having decided it must be something to do with Windows 7 I tried running the connection program as administrator (as helpfully suggested by Vijay via Twitter) but this didn’t seem to make any difference for me either

So I went back to the beginning, removed the software and when i re-installed and I changed the compatibility settings to run as XP SP3 and to run as administrator (which it would have done anyway, since it was installing a program)

I did try Vista SP2 initially but this didn’t want to run at all

On my device the installer program is called “VersionControl.exe”

It then re-installed and it worked!

Now that it is installed the connection program doesn’t appear to need any compatibility settings and I’m able to connect ok

I had about three hours sleep last night though so your milage may vary

Minor Update:
When you connect to the Internet the software will automatically update.
Since the software is an auto-updater there is no way to force compatibility settings. I did an update and promptly couldn’t connect again

Uninstalled and followed my original method and i reconnected ok

Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor

In case you have been living under a rock Windows 7 RTM was made available to Technet and MSDN subscribers yesterday

I grabbed my ISO’s this morning and was thinking about how best to approach the upgrade on my netbook.

I then remembered that when Vista was first released there was a tool for letting you know if your system would be up to the task and thankfully there is also a Windows 7 version.

Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor (Beta)

Here a grab of the final report,

No major problems.

It’s suggesting I do a backup as I’ll need to do “custom install” (i.e a clean install). Since the netbook is running XP this is to be expected.

It also says that ActiveSync isn’t compatible with Windows 7. This isn’t a surprise either as it was replaced with Windows Mobile Device Manager in Vista.

At the top of the report it says that the system meets all four of the system requirements. Drilling into it you see this,

I haven’t installed any extra RAM in the netbook yet, so was pleased it didn’t kick up too much of fuss about that. I was also glad to see that it’s Aero capable!

Guess what I’ll be doing this weekend?