USB 3G Modem working at last!

So I bought one of these last week, but, it doesn't work on Vista out of the box, well at least, it doesn't work on a non-clean installation on Vista.

I found this video on how to install it, and hey-presto, it works! I've ended up with the Huawei software not the t-mobile software due to previous debugging efforts, but that's not the end of the world.

The fix is horrible; the device clearly identifies itself as a USB Mass Storage device, and not a USB Composite Device, which it is (or needs to be in order to enable the Modem portion of it). Simply replace the driver to be a composite device, and hey-presto! Windows recognises it as the 4 devices it should be. Argh!

Why oh why do people not test drivers properly on M$ beta OSs? It bugs me - lots.

Fixing Windows Vista

So I've been bugged for about 2 months now as to why my Vista install on my laptop refuses:

1. To run Windows Media Player.
   
2. To do much interactive stuff in Internet Explorer.
   
3. To open the 'Extended' view in the Services control panel.
   

Well, I've found the answer thanks to this post. It seems that some installation somewhere (I blame OneCare, but this blame is frankly unfounded) has unregistered the VB and Java script DLLs on the system, both of which it seems are required to run WMP and display funky folder properties, etc. There's a simple fix:

regsvr32 jscript.dll
regsvr32 vbscript.dll

So congratulations to the post writer, and I now don't need to reinstall my tablet; that is, if I can get my shiny new T-Mobile 3g modem working!

Incidentally I've been fairly remiss about writing more personal blogs recently – watch this space and hopefully one will appear soon. Life post Edinburgh has been way too busy!