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New Sierra Wireless EM7345 firmwares available

2 min read zukota EM7345

Yesterday I’ve been checking on Lenovo drivers website and have noticed that they added the X250 model. And what did I find there? Sierra Wireless EM7345 Software for Windows 8.1 (32-bit, 64-bit) – ThinkPad version 1.11.10610.4225, released on 12/16/2014 . So Lenovo doesn’t update WWAN drivers for their “old” models, like X240 or T440 and the latest drivers out there are dated July 31. So I downloaded it, unpacked it and found the following EM7345 firmwares inside:

  • FIH7160_V1.1_WW_01.1410.13_AT_NAND.fls version 1.1 (1410.13) for AT&T (United States only) dated 2014-May-19 12:32:21
  • FIH7160_V1.2_WW_01.1415.07_NAND.fls version 1.2 (1415.07) Worldwide dated 2014-Jun-5 11:54:58. This is the version I had flashed into my EM7345, as described in this post
  • FIH7160_V1.2_WW_01.1415.09_NAND.fls version 1.2 (1415.09) Worldwide dated 2014-Oct-22 17:47:10. Seems to be an update for 1415.07.
  • FIH7160_V1.2_WW_01.1442.04_VZ_NAND.fls version 1.2 (1442.04) for Verizon (United States only) dated 2014-Nov-20 11:23:44.

Of course I couldn’t resist and flashed the new firmware FIH7160_V1.2_WW_01.1415.09. Everything seems to work fine.

I didn’t dare to flash Verizon or AT&T version, even though Verizon seems to be the latest, compiled on 2014-Nov-20. US operators love to SIM lock their devices, and those firmwares can be locked. Unless you are in the US and your network is Verizon/AT&T or you just don’t care, I cannot recommend to flash those AT&T and Verizon firmwares.

How to flash it? Just put file FIH7160_V1.2_WW_01.1415.09_NAND.fls into the folder c:\ProgramData\Intel\MBIM Toolkit\FirmwareDatabase\PreInstalled (first you have to have the EM7345 drivers installed as desrcibed in this guide ) and make changes to file c:\ProgramData\Intel\MBIM Toolkit\FirmwareDatabase\PreInstalled\FLSInformation.xml. But this time use FIH7160_V1.2_WW_01.1415.09_NAND.fls instead of FIH7160_V1.2_WW_01.1415.07_NAND.fls when editing the xml and you’re done.

After reboot, you will be prompted by the Intel firmware updater:

Press Yes and you’re set! Interestingly, VID/PID weren’t reset to their default values so I had no need to restore them. Also GNSS and AT ports were not affected at all, and continued to work just fine.

I’d like to know what new features and bug fixes are brought by the updates, but (as usual) we have no information, no change logs… I’m not using my EM7345 much these days, but if you guys notice something new in this update, feel free to let me know.