Advantage to reflash Mofi firmware?

[A.Bursell]

Hello,

I have a Mofi4500 on AT&T and am not satisfied with the speeds. A lot of it is due to signal strength, which is difficult to correct in this situation. However, I do see some funny things- like I normally connect to band 12/17 and band 2 for CA, when doing a signal scan I get a MUCH better signal on Band 4, but when I connect I never am able to get internet. It connects to the band, but doesn't connect to where I can use it. Not sure if this is firmware, hardware, or signal related. Just one example.

I'm wondering if there may be an advantage to running GoldenOrb instead of the Mofi firmware. I have never used it before, but I understand from reading here it is "better." For the most part, Mofi firmware has worked and I keep up on it with updates as they come out.

My questions are, would I be better off with different firmware, or am I just spinning my wheels? And, if it would be worth flashing, do I just do it through the Mofi manually flash firmware menu, or do I need to follow a different process?

Thanks!

[JimHelms]

My questions are, would I be better off with different firmware, or am I just spinning my wheels? And, if it would be worth flashing, do I just do it through the Mofi manually flash firmware menu, or do I need to follow a different process?

Thanks!

You can try a different firmware build, and if it brings no value, reflash it back to the MoFi firmware.

You will need to use THIS process to update the firmware which includes links to different builds.

[gscheb]

Hello.
Have done what you are talking about. In in my experience the golden orb has better connectivity. The mofi keeps dropping the signal on me. But seen no difference in download speeds at all. They where identical in my case.

like I normally connect to band 12/17 and band 2 for CA,

When it comes to this if you could get a pair of antennas and get this situation reversed. Meaning band 2 is the primary and band 12/17 is the CA band then you would see allot more speeds that is what I did.
One thing you can try with out buying anything is if you band lock to band 2 only. Know it sounds like the two would be faster together but in my experience if band 12/17 is the primary it runs faster on band 2 only. Now remember if you your band 2 isn't real strong signal could be unavailable at times and this isn't the way LTE performs at its best. But could be something you could try quickly without much effort. Think you will see faster speeds and band locking is very simple with the Mofi software. Hope that helps, good luck.

[A.Bursell]

Thank you both. I think I tried locking to 2 before and saw better download speeds but it crippled the upload speed. I didn't mess with it any more after but worth trying again. I'll use the link provided for the flash as well- thanks. Won't be able to get to this until next week but I will report back.

Any more comments are welcome.

Thanks again!

[A.Bursell]

Well - I'm in trouble now.

Started out good. I flashed over to the WiFix 11-16-19 firmware and everything started up nicely and I think was working better. BUT, in my looking around and trying to do the best I could, I followed a tutorial on here and reset the modem and reflashed (thinking I would make sure I cleared everything out). From that point on it has been downhill. The modem would no longer connect to the internet. I tried and tried several different resets but could never get it to connect back again. I could get into the firmware and click around and see things happening in the debug screen, but never a connection.

I decided to try reflashing to the Mofi firmware to see if it would reset. Worse now. It looked like it reflashed ok, but again wouldn't connect. So I tried to reflash again and I'm not sure what happened, but I can't even get into the firmware now. I tried recovery mode and I can't get into that.

When I try to get into the webpage I get this error:

Help please?!?

[gscheb]

Did you clear your cache in the browser? This can cuase issues if not cleared. Could also just try another browser. Like instead of chrome use fire fox and etc.

[A.Bursell]

Thanks for the reply. Yes I cleared cache and tried with multiple browsers (IE, Chrome) and get the same results.

[gscheb]

I have had to do this couple times, recovery mode and it worked.

https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?t=5

[A.Bursell]

I have had to do this couple times, recovery mode and it worked.

https://wirelessjoint.com/viewtopic.php?t=5

Thanks- that's actually what I tried. I haven't been able to get into the recovery mode again even though the lights on the modem indicate I should be. I will continue to try, but I feel like I have this in a bad state and not sure how to get it all reset.

[gscheb]

Well would you need to slightly modify the steps on the recovery mode since the steps are for golden or and not mofi? Since the two have different ip addresses.

[A.Bursell]

Well would you need to slightly modify the steps on the recovery mode since the steps are for golden or and not mofi? Since the two have different ip addresses.

Mofi actually instructs to do nearly the identical steps for recovery. Exceptions are that they want you to set IP to 192.168.1.7 (not significant) and that they want you to wait for the WiFi light to blink fast to enter recovery mode - which is where I'm at and can't get anywhere. So I wonder if I need to do something different to force a reset or there is another way into the firmware to re-load it?

Or am I missing something?

[A.Bursell]

Better news! One of the recovery attempts worked to allow me to load software! Not sure what was different except I held the reset button for a LONG time. I reloaded WiFiX the 11-19-2019 version rather than Mofi as I think it allows for more access to what I need to continue to fix this.

Now I'm back to where I started where I have the software installed fresh but the modem cannot connect. Looking around I see an error in the debug modem page and the unit keeps trying to connect but can't. Attaching screenshots.

Thanks again for your help. Let me know if you think I should start a new topic or we can get this fixed in this thread.

[gscheb]

Sorry don't know about this one. Hopefully someone else can help.
Could try power cycling it. Just unplug and replug back in.

[A.Bursell]

Thanks for your help so far. I've been poking around for hours and I think the problem is related to a firmware mismatch. But I can't seem to get it to switch to a different firmware. Wondering if I am at the limit here and will need to figure out a way to update the firmware manually. Not sure if that requires disassembly or new hardware or what's next.

Definitely need some help from someone with more knowledge than I have now.

[JimHelms]

A Sierra Wireless MC7455 holds four different carrier's firmware. You can select which carrier firmware you want to use via AT Commands.

Run the following command:

Code: Select all

AT!IMPREF?

That should return which carrier firmware is currently being used.

To find out what carrier firmware is on the modem, run this command:

Code: Select all

AT!IMAGE?

Most applications use the Generic carrier firmware.

To select using the Generic firmware would require this command:

Code: Select all

AT!ENTERCND="A710"
AT!IMPREF="GENERIC"
AT!RESET

Use the same logic to select another carrier as your preferred firmware.

[A.Bursell]

Thanks Jim. I saw reference to this is another of your posts and what lead me to think this is the problem. I am unable to switch firmwares, I just get an error after running the commands you listed. I have switched to MBIM with no change (suggested in another thread). I have restarted multiple times and can't seem to get anywhere. It actually shows on slot 255 (even though it can only have 4), so I'm not sure where to go from here.

Happy to provide screenshots and follow directions to try things. At this point I'm dead in the water.

[JimHelms]

Do you have a USB to Mini PCI-E adapter that you can install the modem in and update the firmware?

I would reset the modem to OEM and update the firmware with the latest Generic.

I would then use the GUI and upload a fresh copy of GoldeOrb and be sure and UNCHECK the box to save settings.

In my opinion. this would be the easiest route to take--and assuming your SIM Card is active and being read properly, should connect without issue.

[A.Bursell]

I don't have an adapter but I had a feeling that was the route I was going to have to take.

SIM is active and was working up until this adventure.

Do you have a tutorial for the USB adapter and software to upload the firmware?

Thanks again.

[JimHelms]

Do you have a tutorial for the USB adapter and software to upload the firmware?

LTE_Fix_It_Series_Utilities_Drivers_and_Firmware.pdf

The firmware for the MC7455 can be downloaded from HERE

[A.Bursell]

Thanks! I'll get my order in ASAP and work through this.

Appreciate the help!

[A.Bursell]

Order placed and I see it shipped already. Will update once it comes in and I work on it.

Thanks again!

[A.Bursell]

Hello Jim!

I worked on this today and had some learning experience but mostly success! First think I worked through your tutorial and reloaded all four firmwares (just so they would be most updated), ending with the generic -- and did them twice. Put everything back together and it worked. I decided to try to make sure I had a fresh start so I did the reset again like your tutorial shows and it reverted back to the old firmware and I had a mismatch. This is exactly what happened before. Not sure why it happened (twice). So I took it apart and reloaded the firmwares again, put it back together and I am up and running again!

I am going to avoid the reset again, but it is good to know I can get back up and running again if I need to. I would like to know why doing the reset reverts the firmware on this one and causes a mismatch if you happen to know? I have some other questions, but I'll do some more thread searching and make new posts if I need to.

Thanks again for all of your help!

[BillA]

Hello Jim!

I worked on this today and had some learning experience but mostly success! First think I worked through your tutorial and reloaded all four firmwares (just so they would be most updated), ending with the generic -- and did them twice. Put everything back together and it worked. I decided to try to make sure I had a fresh start so I did the reset again like your tutorial shows and it reverted back to the old firmware and I had a mismatch. This is exactly what happened before. Not sure why it happened (twice). So I took it apart and reloaded the firmwares again, put it back together and I am up and running again!

I am going to avoid the reset again, but it is good to know I can get back up and running again if I need to. I would like to know why doing the reset reverts the firmware on this one and causes a mismatch if you happen to know? I have some other questions, but I'll do some more thread searching and make new posts if I need to.

Thanks again for all of your help!

Sierra modems (in particular the MC7455) are known to lock up after a router reset. However, by flashing GoldenOrb and sending the QMI mode commands, usually fixes the issue. I believe it has something to do with either getting stuck in the wrong mode, or the firmware doesn't get loaded properly. Unfortunately those who don't own an external usb adapter, they are SOL. :/
As an weird fix, I was wondering if flashing all 4 slots on the MC7455 with the SAME generic firmware would eliminate the reset issue. Maybe someone can try it and report back.

[A.Bursell]

Thanks for the reply. I have all 4 slots filled on mine and each time I took it out I flashed each one. Twice if I remember right. Didn't have any effect that I could tell, I still got stuck and had to do it again when I tried the reset.