3G Microcell - 3G Red Light Flashing

[midget3376]

BTW...  I woke up a flashing red light and no connection.  Turned off for 30 seconds before I left for work.  Green when I got home.

[mdumond]

I have found the reason why my ATT microcell 3G bars blink red.  I am not sure if this is everybody's issue, but it certainly is mine.

If my microcell is connected to a Gigabit Ethernet (GbE or 1 GigE) network, i get the flashing 3G bars after a reboot.

If I connect to a 100 Mbit/s network, all is good.

I basically had to convert my gigait ethernet network to 100Mbit using a 100Mbit switch.

Hope this helps.

[TR3]

So, I recently had same problem as everyone else > 3g red light flashing.  I reset both my router and modem and unplugged microcell.  For 24 hours after doing this, it worked.  Now, the 3g red light flash is back and NO MCELL!  My router is the Cisco E4200 and Modem is the Actiontech MI424.  I changed the MTU as referenced on line in an attempt to fix the problem.  No dice.  Is there a solution?  Or do I now own a door stop?

FWIW: I also am using the VZ network extender in my house as we are on VZ as well as at&t.  The VZ NW extender works and has worked from the begining.  So, I am no expert but the problem seems to be with Microcell. 

[midget3376]

What is a VZ network extender and what does do?

[Otto Pylot ACE - Czar]

Verizon Network Extender is similar to the MicroCell but it works only on the VZ network and appears to be more reliable than the MicroCell.

[TR3]

Same concept as AT&T Microcell but used on Verizon network.  In my family, I am only one on VZ.  Wife/kids on AT&T.  My VZ extender has worked from the start.  Microcell, not so much.  Since my post, I reset modem/router twice and so far (since Sunday) I have MCell.  IDK, I hold my breath and check the front of the Microcell daily to ensure 3g is green.  

[zaydon]

Just waiting until the iPhone 5 is released so i can get off ATT and this microcell.  Wonder if VZ will throw in an extender to switch.

[TR3]

spoke too soon.. back to flashing red 3g on microcell.  Is there a fix?

[Otto Pylot ACE - Czar]

I believe there's a little reset button (hole) on the back of the MicroCell. You might want to try that. I think you hold it in for 10 seconds but you may want to consult the instructions first just to make sure. For me, all I had to do was power cycle and the flashing red 3G light went back to green and has stayed there ever since. I think one of the reasons that VZs work better is that they are on a different technology which may make it more agreeable to signal booster/extenders than AT&T. Maybe less interference?

[Swordfish2172]

I'm currently being plagued by the flashing red 3G bars on my mcell. Over the last few weeks my mcell has gone from needing to be unplugged once a week to multiple times a day. I'm going to try the method over clocked mentioned and hope it helps. It seems randomly when it goes to flashing red sometimes it continues to work but others it does not. I've got a full gigabit network in my house and I wonder if that has anything to do with it. Are both Ethernet ports on the mcell 10/100? Or do they support gigabit? Any ipswould be appreciated. This thing is driving me nuts lately

[E the P]

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Otto Pylot wrote:
I believe there's a little reset button (hole) on the back of the MicroCell. You might want to try that. I think you hold it in for 10 seconds but you may want to consult the instructions first just to make sure. For me, all I had to do was power cycle and the flashing red 3G light went back to green and has stayed there ever since. I think one of the reasons that VZs work better is that they are on a different technology which may make it more agreeable to signal booster/extenders than AT&T. Maybe less interference?

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Wasn't there a long discussion a few months back about how pushing the reset button would "brick" the device?

[Swordfish2172]

Tried this a little while ago. I'll report back in the morning if I'm red light free

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overclockedpc wrote:

I also have had the flashing 3g light problem for a while and I MAY have come up with some kind of fix but need someone to help me test it. 

So, if your microcell is flahing a red 3g light, please try the following and let me know what happens.

1) With the microcell flashing red, unplug the ethernet cable while leaving power plugged in.

2) Wait 2 mnutes, unplug power cable.(whileethernet is unplugged).

3) Wait 30 seconds, plug power cable in with ethernet cable unplugged.

4) Wait 2 minutes, plug in ethernet cable. (while microcell is powered on)

5) Wait 2 minutes, unplug power cable (leaving ethernet plugged in).

6) Wait 30 seconds, plug in power cable. (with ethernet cable plugged in).

This should clear the red 3g light.  If it does not, try power cycling again (unplug power, wait 30 seconds and plug back in).

If anyone is dealing with the red 3g light issue and can try this, please report back and let us know if it works or not.  AT&T support is clueless on this issue, but maybe we can help each other find a solution.

Thanks for everyone's help in testing this.

[Edited to comply with Guidelines]

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[Otto Pylot ACE - Czar]

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E the P wrote:

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Otto Pylot wrote:
I believe there's a little reset button (hole) on the back of the MicroCell. You might want to try that. I think you hold it in for 10 seconds but you may want to consult the instructions first just to make sure. For me, all I had to do was power cycle and the flashing red 3G light went back to green and has stayed there ever since. I think one of the reasons that VZs work better is that they are on a different technology which may make it more agreeable to signal booster/extenders than AT&T. Maybe less interference?

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Wasn't there a long discussion a few months back about how pushing the reset button would "brick" the device?

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I don't recal that discussion but I haven't read everything here. I've used the reset button a couple of times and never had any problems. Can't see why they would put a reset button on the back to only have it brick the MicroCell. It's not marked Service Only. It's marked reset.

[Swordfish2172]

Mine went back to flashing red light at around 11pm last night so it only made it about 2 hours after trying overclocked's method.

[Otto Pylot ACE - Czar]

That's because there isn't a universal fix for the MicroCell being unable to properly reset itself after an update. I'm glad overclocked's method worked for him but tjhere seems to be a lot of MicroCell's out there who can't handle the recent round of updates. Probably due to a poorly designed set of chips that AT&T can't, or won't, properly address.

[midget3376]

Is what you are saying, that the flashing red light is caused by a failure to properly process a firmware update?  My first one went for a year without an issue.  Why do you suppose it would suddenly change?  I replaced it with a new one and I think the longest this one has gone, without flashing red, is a few days.  Are they really updating that often?

[midget3376]

Hey, AT&T... How about some technical information about this issue.

[Otto Pylot ACE - Czar]

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midget3376 wrote:

Is what you are saying, that the flashing red light is caused by a failure to properly process a firmware update?  My first one went for a year without an issue.  Why do you suppose it would suddenly change?  I replaced it with a new one and I think the longest this one has gone, without flashing red, is a few days.  Are they really updating that often?

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I don't know, or think, they are updating that often but it could be that whatever they did, the new chipset doesn't understand what the mother ship is sending and tries to reset itself. Purely conjecture on my part though. In my case, the blinking red light happned about  3 or 4 months ago and was noticed in the morning. Typically, AT&T does their updates at night when there is the least likelyhood of service interruption so if it doens't work, you'll see the blinking green or red 3G light. I had never seen a blinking red 3G light before which meant a hardware failure. A simple power cycle fixed mine and has been trouble-free since. The assumption then was an update that failed to reset properly making the MicroCell think there was a hardware failure. I am on my third MicroCell. All three were replaced under warranty well over a year ago but the third one, my current one, was a version 2. I don't know if that makes any difference but this one has been rock solid ever since even thru multiple power outages and the dreaded blinking red 3G light  "update". The version numbe BTW is on the bottom of the MicorCell on the serial number sticker in very small print (V2).

[jwlionking]

I have the same issue for the past week. The 3G light has been blinking. Every morning I have to reset and wait almost a half hour for it to re-connect.

[Swordfish2172]

My Mcell has been going to a red flashing 3G light every day even with power cycling it. Sometimes my phone will continue to connect to it even when the light is red.

One thing that I didn't think would be related but I have an ipv6 tunnel setup thru my router. I'm guessing I need to update my addresses as I started having issues with it last night. Since I haven't had time to do so I've got ipv6 disabled. My Mcell went green when my Internet came back last night and was green when I got home tonight as well. I will do some more experimenting later this week and see if my ipv6 settings were in fact the cause of my Mcell issues.

[drgiggles007]

Microcell was flashing red about initial setup and operational for two hours. After trying all methods to reset and re-activate I gave up and returned the device to the local AT&T store. The second device did the same thing and online customer service was a JOKE. The kindly told me that the GPS location would not verify my registered location and they would call me in the future if a fix was possible. This is a poor product design with poor support. I am going to return the second MC. Sincerely, Frustrated User

[jwlionking]

Mine continues to have this issue.  Every morning I have no service and must reset Microcell.  It takes on average 30 minutes every morning for this process.  As I am typing, the 3G light is currently flashing red and I still have service and service is as usuable as it typically is, which is decent.

[Bnethers]

I read somewhere on this page to unplug it over night so it will clear all settings. Then i plugged it in the next morning and in ten min or less the light was solid!! Thanks to who ever posted it first! I tried everything else possible and now im hoping it stays wirking. I didnt have to reactivat. I think think stormy weather or power flash causes it. ??

[chwilsontennis]

I am definitely NOT a tech.....Tried overclockedpc's fix to my flashing red 3G light.  So far, no connection.  Once I activated the MCell it worked great for about a month.  Then it started going "off-line" every couple of weeks.  Gradually it got to the point I powered off the MCell at least 3 times a week until last week.  After that the power offs haven't worked.  This is so frustrating.  If I'm lucky I have 1 bar inside my house.  When the MCell works I still don't have all bars, but at least I can receive calls and text. Wish there was a permanent fix.  If I switched phones to the newer Iphone 4 would it help?

[Otto Pylot ACE - Czar]

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chwilsontennis wrote:

I am definitely NOT a tech.....Tried overclockedpc's fix to my flashing red 3G light.  So far, no connection.  Once I activated the MCell it worked great for about a month.  Then it started going "off-line" every couple of weeks.  Gradually it got to the point I powered off the MCell at least 3 times a week until last week.  After that the power offs haven't worked.  This is so frustrating.  If I'm lucky I have 1 bar inside my house.  When the MCell works I still don't have all bars, but at least I can receive calls and text. Wish there was a permanent fix.  If I switched phones to the newer Iphone 4 would it help?

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A newer iPhone probably won't make a difference. There are still issues with the iPhone that Apple, Cisco, and AT&T need to still work out.

[purplenoise]

I just received a microcell. Mine worked for about 10 minutes today (first day) then solid red light. Reset didn't work, power cycle didn't work, and the multi step recipe involving 2 minutes of wait time between some steps did not work either.

So what should I do? any helpful AT&T representatives reading this forum? or do they only intervene  when they need to moderate?

-Aurelio

[Otto Pylot ACE - Czar]

It's possible that you received a defective MicroCell (as opposed to a crappy MicroCell). You may have to call support (not a pleasant experience) and jump thru the hoops. Hopefully they'll send you a replacement if you've set it up properly (no double NAT, etc).

[InWeHeCA]

So, like many of you, I too woke up a couple mornings ago to MicroCell that had been work great now with a red flashing 3G light. I tried reset by unplugging and some of the recommends here. I tried AT&Ts support page recommendation which included restarting my router. After calling tech support and discussing the problem, we both came up with the same thought: reregister the MicroCell, which the tech did for me but you can do from the management page by deregistering the MicroCell and doing the registration over again. You'll need to rekeying everything. Bottom line, I'm up and running in under 90 minutes. And haven't had any issues. Hope this helps someone.

[ipmcc123]

Here's my story:

I bought the MicroCell about a month ago. Everything seemed to go fine, but about once a week it gets the 3G light flashing red.  Power cycling it resolves the problem (after re-acquiring GPS etc) and returns me to green, but I'm gonna be pretty annoyed if I have to power cycle this thing every week. As to the questions:

1) Pittsburgh, PA

2) No idea

3) Been happening ~ once a week for a month.

4) Lasts about 4 days.

I finally called AT&T support today, and they "re-registered the MicroCell" for me, but told me that I might want to consider taking the unit back (since it's 28 days old) to swap it out for a new unit.  I'm somewhat concerned because the problem takes several days to manifest... I guess we'll see between now and tomorrow.

I'm sort of tempted to give up on this and just get a signal booster.

[Otto Pylot ACE - Czar]

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purplenoise wrote:

I just received a microcell. Mine worked for about 10 minutes today (first day) then solid red light. Reset didn't work, power cycle didn't work, and the multi step recipe involving 2 minutes of wait time between some steps did not work either.

So what should I do? any helpful AT&T representatives reading this forum? or do they only intervene  when they need to moderate?

-Aurelio

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There is a reset button on the back of the MicroCell just above the power cord I believe. Just use a straightened paper clip and insert and hold for about 10 seconds. I think there's instructions in the sparse docs that came with it. I don't remember if you hold in the reset button and power up the MicroCell or not. It's like a hard reset that sometimes fixes issues that a simple powercycle won't.