E220 Vodafone D2 Debranding

[9eor9]

Hi,

just wanted to debrand and update an E220 VFD2 Easy Box II modem.
I downloaded the update wizard and connected the device, which was not detected.
On the computer there is installed xp and Mobile Partner.
I recently faced that problem on a Vista computer with an A1-E220, but I thought the reason was Vista - obviously not.

Why the modem is not found?

I saw that the Mobile Partner detects the E220 only when a VFD2 SIM is inserted. With other SIMs - no modem.


?????

[inquisitor]

Strange behaviour. Usually if a Huawei modem is locked, it will require an unlock code to be entered after providing the PIN code. I assume it is pure coincidence, that the modem did not appearing with other SIM cards inserted. Further at least the E220 sold by Vodafone Germany did never have any lock.
Actually with XP sometimes the same problem as in Vista occurs, i.e. the PC does only detect the massstorage component of Huawei modems.
Just follow the instructions for Vista/7 on your XP machine, as described here in German and then run the dashboard update, which will remove the Vodafone software.
If you still run into problems try another USB port of your computer or try to run the firmware update on your Vista computer.

[9eor9]

After some experiments the dashboard update was successful on another USB port.
When running the firmware update, an "unexpected error occured" and the update could not be continued.

What's that???

[inquisitor]

Hard to say. To which step does the update get? Have you come to the dialogue, where it shows your current and the new firmware version?
Have you tried it on another computer?

[9eor9]

.
I checked again, on the same computer.
It's running normally up to a certain point,
Welcome..., will update...
I accept... wizard is ready...
current version...
target version.....aso.
running.....
"an unexpected error occured", can't continue

BUT:
obviously the download from that recommended page was not the latest and on my device there is installed not an old firmware.
That I did not check before.

Current version: 11.604.08.00.00
Target version: 11.313.02.00.01

Which is the latest version, also of the Mobile Partner?

Probably it's not possible to downgrade. Is the target version definitely older than this current version?
What do the different areas of these numbers mean?

[9eor9]

11.117.10.00.00 is now installed, but I think this is also not the latest version.

[VladS]

AFAIK the latest E220 firmware and dashboard versions are:

Firmware: 11.313.02.00.01
Dashboard: Mobile Partner 11.300.05.00.03

[inquisitor]

I have no idea, which is the lastest firmware version for the E220 and also I don't understand Huawei's version numbering.
For Mobile Partner there's a reliable, but inconvenient method to check which version is newer and that is installing it and checking the properties of the DLL files, where you will find version numbers for each DLL file.