3g connection issue - g570 [ Edited ]

[Baser999]

My elderly mother has gone out and bought herself a G570 laptop and (on the advice of PC World) a 3G pay as you go dongle. However we can't connect to the internet even though there is very good 3G reception in her area - at first she'd not slotted the sim in correctly which is what we thought was the problem , but no, even with sim in correctly. . . . . . nothing .

Have downlaoded the user guide from home and theres reference to switching the integrated wireless switch and using the Fn and F5 keys. Is this where we're going wrong?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank you.

subject & text edited 

[topmahof Community Moderator]

http://www.manualowl.com/m/Lenovo/G570/Manual/117940

Hi Baser999 and welcome to the forum,

On the front of the laptop, there should be a switch that turns on the wireless.

With the dongle inserted, press Fn + F5 and a window should come up showing your wireless adapter, bluetooth, (if you have it) and the dongle. There should be a software button to turn on the dongle. (with a little luck).

Activating it is probably going to bring up the software for the dongle.  It might or might not ask for some information. (I'm not familiar with that wireless carrier)

Dave

[yigit]

check if your system comes with 3g support. if you don't have wwan card, the sim slot is useless. you need to buy wwan card.

[topmahof Community Moderator]

Baser999,

You're not trying to put the sim card in the laptop, are you?

The sim card goes in the usb dongle, not the laptop.

Dave

[Baser999]

Thanks - this is the advice I'd gleaned from the user guide - will pass the info on to her and see if that works, although I suspect she'll leave it now until I can get there next week. 

[Baser999]

Hi, I might not be Bill Gates but I did realise the sim card went in the dongle - thanks for the 'tongue in cheek' advice
This forum has the same sense of humour as the car forum I'm on lol lol

[topmahof Community Moderator]

Always try the easy stuff first, right?

Dave

[Hellion]

"thanks for the 'tongue in cheek' advice"

You would be very surprised what solves a lot of issues these days in regards to technology! haha, what you might deem as tongue in cheek can very well be the solution to some.

I do call services for trouble shooting wireless/wired connections and on a number of occassions I have had people merely putting cat5 cables and the like into, or trying to force them into the wrong receiver slots on a computer. Even the basic "is it plugged in at both ends?" is an embaressing fix for some 

Back to your problem, is it the operating system which cannot enable an internet connection through the dongle, or is it the software bundled with the dongle that is unable to establish a connection? (if it came with software, and what it is the name of that software)

[kiixx]

You beat me to it.

Lets breake it down.

First, we need to verify if the pc came with wwan or not, as that is very important to solve the problem as quickly as possible.

If it did not come with WWAN support and card already installed, but just a dongle, you should start the pc, insert the USB dongle into a free USB port, and when Windows detects it, it should ( if program is written correctly ) pop up and ask you to accept the installation of the software ( drivers and connection program ) for the dongle, once thats done, it all depends on the wwan subscription, activated by the carrier, pincode etc..

But you should have an icon on the desktop for the specific connection program, launch that, and you should be able to a button like i.e  connect. and then be connected, and once connected, be able to open internet explorer and see this guide on the laptop.

Hope this helps.