New MacBook Air 11" 2012 does not recognize 3G dongle

As I mentioned before, see if it is recognized by connecting it through an USB hub.

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A friend of mine lent me his Huawei E156G (older model than E173) and surpringly it worked fine on my MBA 2012 😮

I tried a ZTE mf190 and it worked, installed and connect, although it can't connect to 3G, which I think is unrelated to this problem.

Anyway, it seems to me that it's Huawei lack of updated drivers the problem, not Apple's fault.

Edit: tested the ZTE on another Mac (MBP) and it doesn't connect to 3G as well, so it's unrelated. At least we know that other modems work.

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Running diagnostics ("Apple Hardware Test", press "D" while booting), the modem comes to life, i mean its LED starts flashing green.

So, it is NOT a power issue, it's software matter.

These posts are telling an interesting story and it does look like a USB3 issue. I'm going to forward these to Apple and T-Mobile.

Apple asked me to run their Capture Data app diagnostic test with the modem plugged in and I e-mailed the data to them yesterday so won't expect them t look at this until Monday. I've also just now daisy chained the modem via a powered Iomega hard drive and the T-Mobile driver partion mounted straight away. WIll try installing the drivers but first e-mailing the new diagnostc data to Apple.

T- Mobile customer services were very good and as I bought the modem specifically because it was advertised as OSX Lion compatible, they said that if they can't find a fix, they would send me a free T-Mobile Wireless pointer hub, so for a quick fix it maybe worth contacting your mobile phone contractor.

My work around at the moment is to use an olld Zoom 3G Wireless Travel Router. which you can get for £59.98 from Amazon UK. This not only works but as it uses it's own 5 hour batery, it won't put any addiitonal drain on your 2012 MBP or Air.

More news when I get it

Ok just tried the suggestion of runnig through a powered hub so connected to an old Iomega powered USB2 HDD and the T-Mobile drive partion mounted, I managed to install the drivers and software and connected to a 2G network (3G a bit weak today). Then unplugged the modem from the Iomega HDD plugged straight inot the right hand USB3 port. No status lights or any evidnece that it has been detected. I've run before and after diagnostics and sent to Apple plus kept T-Mobile up to date.

Have asked T-Mobile if they have tested this modem on a USB 3 equipped PC running 64bit Windows.

Update: After being unsuccessful with the Huawei E173, tried the Huawei E1553 and it worked flawlessly.

Conclusion: E173 is the problem. Try other modems.

alrowan wrote:

Update: After being unsuccessful with the Huawei E173, tried the Huawei E1553 and it worked flawlessly.

Conclusion: E173 is the problem. Try other modems.

Then, I wonder why it works on other Macs without USB 3.0 ports, or PCs even with USB 3.0.

I have a brand new MBP 13" i7 2012 - when booting up into Mountain Lion my UK Orange Huawei E173 modem doesn't even register on the machine - checking the System Information / System Report / USB - you can see it doesn't even appear in the list of recognised devices alongside the FaceTime HD camera and the keyboard, for example.

However, this laptop is boot camped with 64-Bit Windows 7. And guess what - holding down the option key and booting it up in Windows natively, it works without an issue and I have been connected in a meeting all day using Windows 7.

So it seems like it's not a hardware issue per-se but an Operating System / Driver issue. Note - Lion wouldn't see it either but during the whole time Windows has worked with it fine.

Hi Mark

when talking with Apple we all concluded it was a USB3 hardware issue, not software. Your post has just blown this theory out of the water. I'm going to e-mail your post to the Apple techies working on this issue.

I had also asked T-Mobile to test the modem on a USB3 equipped 64bit Windows 7 PC but haven't heard back yet.

Hi,

I can also confirm that it looks to be a Mountain Lion software issue and not a hardware one. I have a 2012 Macbook Pro Retina, running OS X 10.8 and in boot camp with Windows 7 the Huawei E173 works, but boot into OS X and not even the light comes on.

Sorry, no solution, just confirming my findings!!

I think your right as I originally had the problem on Lion and it continued when I upgraded to Mountain Lion. I think the issue is with how Lion / Mountain Lion utilizes the USB3 ports on the new Mac's as the 64bit Windows 7 drivers do seem to work.

I have the same problem with an Orange E173 on a brand new 11" Macbook air running 10.7.4. Very frustrating.

I bought a mid 2012 macbook pro and my HUAWEI E173 don't work on mac os 1.7 or 1.8. I solved the problem using USB HUB. :(