We recently started to move our mobile workforce to a number of smaller footprint
Lenovo laptops. A number of laptops are the Thinkpad x131e on the AMD chipset. The
issue is that they were configured without WWAN Card. The configuration
would have included the Sierra Wireless MC8355 - Gobi 3000 ™ HS-USB Modem 9013
as an option. So, we placed an order through IBM for the Broadband Card and the
available match was the Sierra Wireless MC8355 - Gobi 3000 ™ HS-USB Modem 9013.
Sounds easy so far. We received the modems today, and attempted to install the driver
set available from the Lenovo site. The install is intended to be installed
to the Factory Load of Windows 7 Professional x64.
My question for the forum, is there a driver set for this modem available
for Windows 7-64bit rather than depending on a repackaged set from Lenovo which
fails to complete the installation (the installer completes, however there are several
USB composite devices that are not installed, and Windows Updates is then pointed to
for the necessary driver kit). I am left unsure what is missing from the driver
set they packed, and even more unsure what is being downloaded from Microsoft.
What a mess this driver set creates…
Perhaps is there some sort of special driver set for use on the AMD Chipset that affords
better support for USB devices available from the developer site. I spoke with one of the
support folks from Sierra Wireless this afternoon who confirmed that the driver Lenovo has is
different from the one available internally, though he was not able to place it to externally available
site. Rather he asked that I seek the assistance of the forum for a compatible set.
Oh, and I should mention, the carrier is Verizon, and VZAccess Manager has an issue when
I attempt to search for devices, that detects the device intermittently, though returns
and error that a device could not be detected.
Thanks in advance.