Merlin S720 Rev A Card Available From Sprint

dagemsmaker · EVDO Heavy User Joined: 17 Jun 2005 Posts: 100

...oh yeah, the other reason I'm down on Verizon (I spend only about 1-2 years at each carrier and move frequently as soon as somebody has something better that I like) is because they do NOT support mobitv.com

Cingular does.

Sprint does.

Verizon doesn't (except for their markets in Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic for some odd reason).

Verizon, anybody teach you Peter Drucker 101? That those systems that offer the most FLEXIBILITY exert the most INFLUENCE (read: sales)? And it's converse, that those systems that offer the LEAST flexibility exert the LEAST influence (read: SALES)?

Exclamation

Wally · EVDO User Joined: 28 Jun 2006 Posts: 36

Oh boy, my S720 card and ext. ant. should be here by Wednesday [now that the order form got fixed]. I'll then be able to test it against my Sprint tower [San Diego] and be on the road to Sun City AZ Monday testing it along the way. Very Happy

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Be Happy

solidgoldsuleyman · EVDO Newbie Joined: 01 Sep 2006 Posts: 2

fastlane,

Regarding EVDO-A or -0, I noticed that on Saturday the ping times went down from 110-150ms to between 79 and 93ms. I can't find anything that says which network you are connecting to.

I think this is Rev A then? I am in the Los Angeles area...

-SGS

wankel7 · Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 1:08 pm Post subject:

cherokee · EVDO User Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 62

recieved my s720 today and had it up and running in about 5 min's. As of right now no difference in this and the 580 but I am thinking they will turn rev.a in detroit soon since they turned on rev.0 early last yr. Might be moving back to vegas and then I can test it out there. AlsoI figure that it should be set to ndis correct?
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Peace

Jeff

jschurawlow · Posted: Wed Sep 06, 2006 2:48 am Post subject:

Just got my S720 in today, seeing a definite difference on connection reliability and on error control. Windows on the connection is showing tons more errors but remarkably (and not unbelievably either) the connection is a ton more stable and faster. This is in comparison also to a Sierra AirCard 580 both on Rev 0. Once Sprint gets rev A out we'll know finally whether or not anything will depict the network difference. (As the PCS Connection Manager software shows 1xEVDO I'm guessing it will show 1.5xEVDO for rev A or something of the like, if we're lucky.)

deparson · EVDO Junkie Joined: 30 Aug 2006 Posts: 249

If your software shows 1XRTT then you are not running in an EVDO area. If it shows EVDO then you are getting EVDO.

At this point no one has seen a difference between EVDO Rev 0 and A in the cards diag. screen. Perhaps a future update will allow for this.

-D

jschurawlow

needless to say, I now am getting random bsod's on windows XP on my dv8210us with this card. There are reports of previous issues similar to this one with the S620 card. Does anyone know if novatel is planning on addressing this error/issue (as previously they released a firmware update which corrected the problem with the S620 from what I have been reading, been digging through websites for the past 3 days trying to find a resolution to this issue, none so far, tried uninstall/reinstall, updated the BIOS on the laptop since some said that helped resolve it).

Overall great card and I hate to get that feeling of needing to dump it (especially since it's brand new). So, again if anyone has any ideas on this one or inside information to a firmware flash that'll resolve these blue screen errors and at the same time not hinder the card useless...

deparson · EVDO Junkie Joined: 30 Aug 2006 Posts: 249

If there is not a known issue with your model of computer you might consider a full reinstall on XP on a cleanly formatted HD.

Install the basic XP with whatever updates are needed from MS and then give the card a go.

-D

jschurawlow · Posted: Wed Sep 06, 2006 7:03 pm Post subject:

In fact I recently did just this as I did have another issue (not remembering what I did to toast the laptop but a full restore ended up having to be done) which was resolved by just wiping everything out. The full OS reload wasn't done even 2 or less weeks ago, as such not alot has been changed since.

I'm quite sure at this point it does look like it is something Novatel related, as the sierra 580 i was using before this never blue screen'd out one time even. Also when I checked the logs on the driver it reports flow control and error correction failures (which explains the gazillion errors I see when viewing the network connection stats in windows directly,vs the connection manager software).

cherokee · EVDO User Joined: 23 Mar 2006 Posts: 62

ok I now have a solid performance increase to share. I am a member of vongo for downloading movies. The fastest I could ever get the download with the 580 was 45 KB/sec sitting in my house. The s720 is downloading at 92 KB/sec That is wuite the improvement sitting in my house with -84 reading. I am taking it with me to work tomorrow to see how it fares with a better signal. Also for reference of computer's it work's with if you are keeping those mine is the compaq r3000 series.
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Peace

Jeff

jschurawlow · Posted: Wed Sep 06, 2006 11:59 pm Post subject:

Thanks to any who have replied to my post about this bsod issue I was having. I got it again after switching to the NDIS driver for the S720 (dv8000 series laptop). Ended up switching the usb driver to a different one now to see if that helps anything (I'm wondering if it was just the NEC driver throwing fits and if the standard/generic one will make any difference on this random bsod problem).

As of now it's working fine, for how long who knows only time will tell with that (if anyone else is having this issue and finds a viable workaround please let me know). Hopefully novatel will release a firmware update to this as it seems almost like it's actually the card doing it cause everything else I've tried has had no effect and the bsod's still keep happening (now less often than before all the updates but it still occurs regardless).

bpmcclure · EVDO User Joined: 11 Jun 2005 Posts: 55

Michael, how does the size compare to the 620? Looks to be about the same overall. Want to be sure I know which KardKase supports it. Bruce

Wally · EVDO User Joined: 28 Jun 2006 Posts: 36

I had a hard time installing the card (over four hours) in my dv8000 and it would do strange things---I put the card in a older Dell and had no problems installing (about six min.) or runing it but I want it to work in my new HP so I'm working on it so far so good but can only use the Sprint Connect about half the time.
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jschurawlow · Posted: Thu Sep 07, 2006 8:04 pm Post subject:

Wally, are you getting the issue I mentioned on:
http://www.evdoforums.com/thread3243.html

or is this something else happening? As we have the same series laptop and another member posted regarding an acer I have the feeling this is an issue with the card itself. It's either that or there was a bad batch of cards shipped out to vendors (I'm on the phone right now with sprint to see about a replacement card being shipped out to me to see if it's just the card that's bad).