X2xx Tablet X220 Tablet US model WWAN-Card in Europe

[garbage]

Hi guys,

first of all sorry for asking the following question but I'm pretty new to this stuff and therefore need some support.

I'm owning a X220 Tablet US model and installed a WWAN-card yesterday. It is a Gobi 3000 which is also sold by Lenovo US for this model. I'm aware of compatibility issues and therefore bought the US card for my notebook instead of a card over here. I've read about some BIOS conflicts installing another card and wanted to avoid all of this.

I'm currently located in Europe specifically in Germany. I tried to get that WWAN-card working with a local provider over here. To name it by name it is a Congstar card, Congstar is a spin-off of T-Mobile Germany. So the card should operate in the T-Mobile network...

As far as I understand the Gobi 3000 fully supports UMTS and HSDPA and ergo should be compatible with the T-Mobile network. Unfortunately I'm in big trouble to get this combination to work...

I insert the SIM-card correctly verifying this three times. After that I booted up the machine and started the access connection software provided by Lenovo. The software allows me to choose the radio button for mobile broadband and after selecting this an antenna appears as well as some meters for the signal strength and so on. It also quotes "T-Mobile D (Germany)" in the location list. So far so good, but now the trouble begins. Selecting the connect button brings up a green progress bar which stops approximately half the way after a felt eternity.

Fortunately it does give us an error message: Unable to connect to network at this time due to out of coverage or Your SIM-card may not be activated. Please see Lenovo Mobile Broadband Connect or contact your mobile operator. Do you want to sign up now? [yes/no]

Choosing no results in a cancellation and choosing yes brings up a mobile broadband activation dialog. There is some advertisement for Sprint and so on. As I'm not in the US this is not an option and I choose not to use Sprint. Instead I select Germany in the region list which gives me a relative short list of providers to be specific the only entry is "others". Clicking next gives me an error message: An error occurred while initializing your WAN hardware.

After clicking next again it gives the message: Please wait. Your mobile broadband hardware is initializing. This may take a few minutes. And I'm trapped as the whole process starts all over again...

Any ideas how to get the stuff working?

Thanks in advance for your support.

 

[JoeG35]

The Gobi 3000 should work on all frequencies used for mobile broadband in Germany, i.e. the 2.1 GHz band used for UMTS. It might be an option to try another SIM card from a different provider.
And check the settings manually: static APN, APN-Name: internet.t-mobile, Dialup *99#, name: tm, password: tm. IP, WINS, DNS dynamic; auth. CHAP

HTH.
Regards, Joe

 

[yatpu]

are you sure the sim card is activated by congstar? in some shops you can by these cards without registration. in this case you have to registrate manually following the instructions inside the "package" you bought. i don't know how long it takes after this procedure until you can actually use your sim card.

 

[garbage]

Thanks for your replies!

I bought the SIM card in combination with a USB device. Using this it seems to work, so the card should be activated, shouldn't it? I also checked the balance and it's quoted 7,51 Euro.

I discovered another mysterious behavior. When launching the Wireless Radio Settings (Fn + F5) it shows the WWAN Radio being switched off. Clicking the ON button doesn't change the status. On the other hand it found the T-Mobile network and has configurated it by itself. It also shows the signal strength and so on. So a physical connection should be established...

I also tried a SIM card from the O2 brand, regrettably leading to the same result.

Do you think I messed something up when installing the driver? Is there a possibility to check the card for a netlock?