Panasonic CF-72 Notebook radio device

[Florida mud wrestler]

I am trying to help a friend who has purchased a Panasonic Toughbook running Windows XP Professional with Intel Pentium III 694 MHz processor. My friend knows even less about computers than I do and has been using it on a LAN cable but wants to use it “wireless” When the computer was purchased on e-bay from a non computer literate guy, it was loaded with XP Professional and the hard drive had been wiped clean. The wireless was not working at that time and the computer has an extending ariel and stickers on the base and an "unknown device" which all suggest that there is a wireless device installed.

The wireless device is shown on the Device manager as “unknown device” with a yellow question mark against it. There are two stickers on the base of the computer, one says:
“For use with Panasonic Notebook Computers, CF-72 Series RIM RF Modem TX FCC ID: L6AR802D-2-0 or L6AR902M-2-0
The other says RIM Model:R902M-2-0 Man:16195465 ESN:031/11/069944 PRD-02426-001

Clicking on the “unknown device” the Device Status says “The drivers for this device are not installed (Code 28) To reinstall the drivers for this device, click Reinstall Driver”. Clicking on “install driver” results in a request to provide the location of software. Of course, searches on the web are impossible because it is an “unknown device” I have tried to uninstall the device but windows finds an “unknown device upon a reboot and asks for a location of the driver.

Can anybody help unravel the mystery of the “lost” wireless device or point me in the direction of a suitable driver please?

[Saab Dastard]

Why don't you try "www.panasonic.com", they made the thing so they might be the best place to go for information.

SD

[Florida mud wrestler]

Thanks for that SD. I have just spoken to Panasonic Technical Suipport who told me that it is a "hot key issue" and the modem will not work in the UK, only when connected to Singular!?!?!?

They suggest a laptop wireless card!

[Keef]

Sounds like it's not a WiFi, but a cellphone card.

PCMCIA wireless LAN cards are cheap, and usually come with install disks.

[IO540]

RIM (Research in Motion) used to make various kinds of modems, until they stumbled upon the Blackberry and since they made loads of money on it they dropped all the other stuff.

I fitted a couple of their GPRS modems into ruggedised tablets a while ago.

That radio modem is either a GSM/GPRS modem (which could be made to work by inserting a suitable SIM card into it, and setting up Dial Up Networking appropriately) or it is one of the special modems used by firms like British Gas for their field engineers to connect to base.

Are you sure your notebook isn't a CF-27 - second one down this (http://www.sterlingxs.co.uk/)list? I have two of them here, and the modem in them is not usable for anything whatsoever.

[Florida mud wrestler]

No, I'm absolutely certain that it is a Panasonic CF-72 and I think that it is fitted with a GSM modem which I believe is absolutely useless except for specialised communication!

[IO540]

If it is a GSM modem from RIM then it is probably a standard part.

It will needs a SIM card to connect to a network.

It will have the usual Hayes-compatible command set, and it will appear on some COM port number, say COM8 or whatever. If you start up a terminal emulator on the right port, and type in the 3 keystrokes

AT <enter>

you should get back

OK

and if you see that, you are in business.

I believe the AT commands will work even without a SIM card. Email me if you want to pursue this; I think I have some data sheets on RIM modems which used to be on their website but have been removed.

If you can get it working, you will have a laptop with GSM/GPRS and that is quite nice. "Every" laptop has wifi and even bluetooth but GSM/GPRS is a rarity. Together with wifi it gives you a very good mobile data platform; wifi can be hard to find but GPRS works just about everywhere.

[TMA-1]

Hello,

i bought an Itronix Laptop and there is also a Rim R902m - 2- 0 card.

did anyone have drivers or software for it ?

is it right that the card is good for "packed radio" ?

thank you from germany

TMA

[medic62001]

Please email me with more info.