Random KPC680 Shutoff/Dormancy

tjfluharty · EVDO Newbie Joined: 08 Mar 2008 Posts: 6

Good afternoon folks! After browsing these forums for months I've finally decided to make an account to see if I could get some help with a very irritating problem. I'm almost positive this is going to turn out to be a "you got a bad card" response but hopefully there is something I haven't tried. I have an Alltel KPC680 plugged into a SIIG USB Expresscard adapter in my desktop (I've also tried the card in my laptop with the same result). Randomly, whether downloading a large file, playing an online game, or reading the news my card seems to either go permanently dormant or just shuts off. Sometimes the light on the card will go completely out or turn a solid blue (dormancy), but it will still say connected until I take out, and put the card back in. I've tired using Kyocera's drivers from their website with windows DUN. I've tried Alltel's QuickLink software and the drivers from the CD. I've tried various connection keep alive programs, settings and just about everything. If anyone has a suggestion I'd really appreciate it. Thank you for reading.

karlyn · Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2008 4:52 pm Post subject:

Since you've been browsing you may have tried this already, but....

Did you try setting the card to Simple IP [see edit in next post]? I think the default is Mobile IP Preferred and that someone else had a problem similar to yours that was fixed by changing this setting.

With the card disconnected and QLM open and in focus, type Ctrl-D then use diagsmsi for the password. Click on settings and you should see these options.

karlyn · Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2008 9:33 am Post subject:

Now that I have my card in a laptop I see that my settings panel does not directly reference Simple IP -- select "Mobile IP Off".

tjfluharty · EVDO Newbie Joined: 08 Mar 2008 Posts: 6

I appreciate the response karlyn but unfortunately after a hopeful hour of web browsing my card shut off Crying or Very sad

any other suggestions?

karlyn · Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 7:04 am Post subject:

Just out of curiosity -- what's your RSSI?

My impression is that the card/adapter combinations have a harder time with weaker signals than just the card alone.

tjfluharty · EVDO Newbie Joined: 08 Mar 2008 Posts: 6

I'm actually very fortunate with signal strength as I live in the boonies and the tower is practically in my backyard, only a couple football fields away. Last time I checked my RSSI was -58 dBm. Thanks again for the responses.

karlyn · Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:29 pm Post subject:

Okay, I'll say it -- I think you have a bad card. You have a great signal and you've eliminated the adapter as the cause (you're using it in your laptop without the adapter, right?). What did Alltel say when you called them?

tjfluharty · EVDO Newbie Joined: 08 Mar 2008 Posts: 6

Well, I hoped for the best and expected the worst, and I got it, heh. I appreciate the responses, karlyn, and yes I have tried both with the adapter and without in my laptop. What really makes me wonder is the randomness though because sometimes I can hold a download all night, 8+ hours yet sometimes I'm booted in less than a half hour. I have yet to contact Alltel though as I haven't had a chance although I did email kyocera with the ever popular response of 'try it in another laptop'. Once again, thank you for the support. I wonder if anyone else has an idea?

stratman4300 · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 24 Mar 2008 Posts: 14

Was this issue ever resolved???

I'm having the same issue. My KPC680 Just randomly drops the connection.... even though quicklink mobile says it's still live.

Anyone else run into this???

Jeff33UK · EVDO User Joined: 07 Jan 2007 Posts: 29

stratman4300 & tjfluharty. I'm having the exact same issue too!!! (KPC680 connected via ExpressCard->USB dongle). Windows XP.

Silly thing ran for 10 hours today straight, working just fine constantly (I work from home). I walked away, came back and it was dead. KPC680 Light either off or on all the time (not blinking).

Happens about once per day for me.

We can't all have bad cards can we?

d27025 · EVDO Newbie Joined: 26 Mar 2008 Posts: 5

I've had a KPC680 card for a month. I'm using it in a fixed location in a rural area with a Yagi antenna pointed at the Alltel tower 3.04 miles away. I believe I've seen two types of disconnects. Before the Yagi's azimuth was correctly set using a compass, a marginal signal seemed to cause random disconnects. The more serious problem, though, is that the KPC680 card seems to go dormant after a very short period of inactivity, and it never wakes up. I've been able to solve this problem with a little looping script that pings the default gateway every few seconds. When I'm using my Mac, this is a shell script. When I'm using the PC, it's a batch script. This is the only effective solution I've found.

stratman4300 · EVDO Fledgling Joined: 24 Mar 2008 Posts: 14

No, I can't see us all having bad cards. I just get the feeling that this is just the way these KPC680s act.

I originally had a UM150, but i hated how i couldn't set it to HDR mode. So, i took it back and got this.

My work around for the dormancy issue was to download the "reload every" firefox extension and have it reload news.google.com for me every 5 seconds. That tends to keep my connection live.

As for the random disconnects i don't know. It seems completly Random. I consistantly sit around -85dBm signal strength. It's worked like a champ for the last 3 or 4 days, but last week i was trying to download drivers for a PC rebuild and it was just about impossible. It was disconnecting every 7 or 8 minutes, and the only thing i could do was the re-insert the card.

Been downloading bunch of Linux packages for the last couple of days and it's been working great. The inconsistancy makes it quite difficult to troubleshoot.

tjfluharty · EVDO Newbie Joined: 08 Mar 2008 Posts: 6

Well I've just been reading responses and suffering like others with this card. It honestly seems like just a faulty piece of hardware. As stratman4300 said the inconsistency makes this one almost impossible. Honestly, on a small rant, I'll never buy anything Kyocera again. The only observation I've noticed would be more random disconnects during the day than at night (past 10:00 or so). Getting kicked off just because of tower congestion seems a little ridiculous, eh?