New GPRS shield problems

Products & Technology Shields
#1

I ran around the message board and google to figure out this problem. no avail.

  1. I have to move the device to a new COM port every time I boot it up
  2. When the GPRS shield starts up it spits out YYYYYYY like for other people
  3. After spitting out the Ys it does NOT proceed any further.

I have used a few different sketches that pass soft serial data, all produce the same error.

I have an arduino UNO R3 and the GPRS shield 1.4 from seeed

#2

SOLVED:

I spent some time troubleshooting my actions.

  1. to avoid messing up serial communication dont use the external/Xduino power source switch as a power switch.
  2. it just spits garbage at start up sometimes
  3. make sure you attempted to set the baud rate of the GPRS module

thanks guys, im obviously retarded

#3

Is the GPRS Shield sold on Amazon under the Seeeduino name the same one you have?

The forum software accused me of being a new user Spammer and would not allow me to post the complete URL.
3w(dot)amazon(dot)com/SLD33149P-GPRS-Shield-Seeeduino/dp/B007JOAPFU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361458102&sr=8-1&keywords=seeeduino+shield