I Got The Latest Update NO Restart, MJ Reconfigured Audio!!!

[tekknokat]

You would have thought I would be happy about getting the latest upgrade to magicJack. I have had the screensaver and monitor not sleeping issue since August, and no workaround for Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, or I gave up before one was ever found, out of sheer frustration. Now my screensaver and monitor shut down fine, NO PROBLEM!! I have a whole NEW set of problems.

Last night around 3:00 AM, my magicJack shuts itself off and turns itself back on while I was doing some RapidShare downloads, it messed up my Download Accelerator Plus in fact, which I had to shut down and restart so it would stop downloading at 200 bytes and saying the 200MB file was complete.

Ever since the upgrade, every audio in my computer was reconfigured. I have 1 pair of stereo speakers with a subwoofer, 2.1 Analogue sound. magicJack reconfigured my audio so that RealTek began using the Digital Audio output, 5.1 stereo surround audio, which is not compatible with my setup. So I changed it back the way it was, and now all audio on my computer has a horrible echo, whether the microphone is enabled or not, it is really making me mad!! I cannot get rid of it, no matter which interface, there are at least two in Windows 7, that I use to reconfigure my audio. It's like a permanent audio that with no adjustment or even unplugging magicJack or my desktop style microphone will go away!! It's present in Windows Media Center, in my browser, playing any software audio player, any media player, it doesn't matter, a perfect echo in my speakers courtesy of magicJack. It was working fine watching hulu+ plus only minutes before this happened.

I have played with every possible configuration, and I am in no mood or time this morning to speak to magicJack chat, those idiots don't know anything. I will only call them to ask for my renewal fee back. I know it's not refundable, but then I am going to make a report on Ripoff Reports.com. Maybe if that jerk Dan gets enough of them, he will stop sending these broken software updates. I want people to know what they are getting into if they buy magicJack. When I had XP and Vista everything was fine, ever since Windows 7, every new Lucky You update brings new heartache, headaches, and "know-it-all" chat folks who give me the same old "fixes" that fix nothing except their sense of self-importance.

I HAVE FINALLY HAD IT. NO MORE MAGICJACK FOR ME. I HAVE A CRICKET CELLPHONE WITH NATIONAL UNLIMITED TALK FOR TEN YEARS NOW, MAGICJACK WAS JUST BECAUSE I HAVE CARPAL TUNNEL AND NEED HANDS FREE TALKING. I CAN GET ANOTHER HEADSET THAT BREAKS AND SOUNDS LOUSY FOR $20 - $100. I JUST LIKE TO SIT AT MY DESK AND SPEAK WITHOUT USING MY HANDS WHENEVER POSSIBLE TO HOLD A TINY PHONE UP TO MY EAR AND MAKE MY ULNAR NERVE HURT, WHICH I AM GETTING SURGERY ON WHENEVER MY LAZY DOCTOR GETS AROUND TO SCHEDULING IT.

How do I get my computer back to the way it was, without this echo? Noise cancellation is on, microphone is turned off, it won't go away. It's like they programmed a permanent loop into my audio, the digital or the analogue portion were all turned around and it didn't work at all. magicJack is totally inaudible when turned up all the way. The caller can hear me, I cannot hear them. Now I can't hear hulu+ or media center period without this echo. Windows sounds all echo as well. It's a nightmare.

Am I the only person experiencing this? I don't see another post still, I am looking.
Thank You
Alan
Denver

[gashliquor]

You would have thought I would be happy about getting the latest upgrade to magicJack. I have had the screensaver and monitor not sleeping issue since August, and no workaround for Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, or I gave up before one was ever found, out of sheer frustration. Now my screensaver and monitor shut down fine, NO PROBLEM!! I have a whole NEW set of problems.

Last night around 3:00 AM, my magicJack shuts itself off and turns itself back on while I was doing some RapidShare downloads, it messed up my Download Accelerator Plus in fact, which I had to shut down and restart so it would stop downloading at 200 bytes and saying the 200MB file was complete.

Ever since the upgrade, every audio in my computer was reconfigured. I have 1 pair of stereo speakers with a subwoofer, 2.1 Analogue sound. magicJack reconfigured my audio so that RealTek began using the Digital Audio output, 5.1 stereo surround audio, which is not compatible with my setup. So I changed it back the way it was, and now all audio on my computer has a horrible echo, whether the microphone is enabled or not, it is really making me mad!! I cannot get rid of it, no matter which interface, there are at least two in Windows 7, that I use to reconfigure my audio. It's like a permanent audio that with no adjustment or even unplugging magicJack or my desktop style microphone will go away!! It's present in Windows Media Center, in my browser, playing any software audio player, any media player, it doesn't matter, a perfect echo in my speakers courtesy of magicJack. It was working fine watching hulu+ plus only minutes before this happened.

I have played with every possible configuration, and I am in no mood or time this morning to speak to magicJack chat, those idiots don't know anything. I will only call them to ask for my renewal fee back. I know it's not refundable, but then I am going to make a report on Ripoff Reports.com. Maybe if that jerk Dan gets enough of them, he will stop sending these broken software updates. I want people to know what they are getting into if they buy magicJack. When I had XP and Vista everything was fine, ever since Windows 7, every new Lucky You update brings new heartache, headaches, and "know-it-all" chat folks who give me the same old "fixes" that fix nothing except their sense of self-importance.

I HAVE FINALLY HAD IT. NO MORE MAGICJACK FOR ME. I HAVE A CRICKET CELLPHONE WITH NATIONAL UNLIMITED TALK FOR TEN YEARS NOW, MAGICJACK WAS JUST BECAUSE I HAVE CARPAL TUNNEL AND NEED HANDS FREE TALKING. I CAN GET ANOTHER HEADSET THAT BREAKS AND SOUNDS LOUSY FOR $20 - $100. I JUST LIKE TO SIT AT MY DESK AND SPEAK WITHOUT USING MY HANDS WHENEVER POSSIBLE TO HOLD A TINY PHONE UP TO MY EAR AND MAKE MY ULNAR NERVE HURT, WHICH I AM GETTING SURGERY ON WHENEVER MY LAZY DOCTOR GETS AROUND TO SCHEDULING IT.

How do I get my computer back to the way it was, without this echo? Noise cancellation is on, microphone is turned off, it won't go away. It's like they programmed a permanent loop into my audio, the digital or the analogue portion were all turned around and it didn't work at all. magicJack is totally inaudible when turned up all the way. The caller can hear me, I cannot hear them. Now I can't hear hulu+ or media center period without this echo. Windows sounds all echo as well. It's a nightmare.

Am I the only person experiencing this? I don't see another post still, I am looking.
Thank You
Alan
Denver

SUE

[bitstopjoe]

Well for one the screen saver issue has been fixed for weeks now ever since Mj 2.03. You got 2.04 update today which made the contact list easier to read.
What I would do is a system restore prior to when you got the update last evening.
Then d/l the MJ removal tool from their web page. Reboot and then MJ should update itself. It is possible the update from last night got corrupted from the other stuff you were doing at the time.

[coloradoz]

I've got similar issues - the update on Oct 18 hosed me badly.

Symptoms:
Unintelligible audio at the very startup of a new call and during the call - rendering the MJ useless.

I spent 4 hours with MJ tech support - less than worthless. After countless reinstalls, deinstalls, reconfiguratiions, MJrecover, MJremover, upgrades, downgrades, and the like I am back to where I was before the call to their tech support.

On a lark, and on my own, I started to kill processes on my machine until I got to my last killable process - my AV. I unloaded my AV - and viola! it came back. There is something NEW and disturbing that MJ is doing to web traffic. After some meticulous sleuthing I homed in on a feature of my AV called 'browsing protection' to keep nasties off my machine if ever I should get redirected or if any information is sent from my computer to a foreign website. When I turn that off I get normal operation. So that means that there is something NEW and not quite cricket in MJ's ip traffic that is triggering this.

To those who have the ability - please sniff this new IP traffic resulting from the new MJ firmware update and report if there is something here we should be worried about.

The story doesn't end there - even when this feature is off, my calls have noticeable and irritating echo. MJ can't fix this and neither can I - I'll try NetTalk next.

[tsmith]

Go ahead. I've had no issues since the update with my AV or audio. Hope you find something you can work with.

[lychy]

Dramatic much?

[bitstopjoe]

Dramatic much?

Imagine if MJ charged more!!! Holy crap..

[VaHam]

Dramatic much?

Imagine if MJ charged more!!! Holy crap..

You know that brought back a funny thing for me. I used to have a couple of rental houses and the tenants always gave me fits skipping out on rent tearing the places up etc.

I hired a rental agent and they came out and told me to double the rent and I would get a better class of tenant and keep them rented better.

Guess what they were exactly right I doubled the rent got good tenants and never any more troubles.

[tsmith]

Both good points. Expecting $600+ a year service for $20/year. The "entitlement" mentality has become cancerous.

[cell14]

Guess what they were exactly right I doubled the rent got good tenants and never any more troubles.

Guys, it would be really great if you took or your non-telecom stuff to the lounge.
But since already aswering this let's ad my own crap: Every landlord, no matter how "liberal" he is, charges the market rent. If you give somebody a break, there must be a reason for that. If you are unable to determine the market rent, get a realtor or manager indeed. So the whole story makes no sense . BTW, watch out with the 'good tenants' . They sue you in a hartbeat . Or once they creditcards accumulate 50 K minus, they declare bankruptcy and you wait for months until you can resume the eviction procedure( talk to a lawyer if you do not understand) . Just a friendly hint from someone who was in rental business for years. too much right wing talk here

[tekknokat]

After I tweaked with my audio settings for about 2 hours, I got my end sounding ok, even had to get my media players to play without an echo. I cannot really pinpoint one particular setting I tweaked that fixed the problem, but I don't have an echo on my end anymore.

On the other hand, my friend who I speak to on a regular basis who has tuned his ear to listen to magicJack, most other people I call don't have the patience to listen to me and I call them on my mobile phone, ... anyway he still hears the echo. He says it wasn't there before today, v2.04. I don't hear it anymore though, and we had a conversation just now that he was able to understand me ok despite the echo, and the echo was gone for my ears.

After you tweak audio for awhile, it all sounds the same, and I had to get away from it for a couple hours before I could hear normal again and make the final adjustment. Everything sounds normal again, but I couldn't repeat what steps I took to save my life.

I must have never gotten that last update, the 2.03 you speak of, I never got it because my screensaver didn't begin working until today. I never got the green "lucky ____[you?]" whatever that message is when I get an update either, they usually happen for me at a reboot, but my computer hasn't been booting normal because Acronis has made me get a BSOD at every boot since August, I've been too busy to fix it. Maybe that's why I didn't get magicJack upgrade, every boot I am recovering from a crash, and I need to uninstall Acronis True Image 2010. I don't know what triggered the upgrade this morning, I've only been rebooting Windows 7 64 Ultimate about once every week, or with software installations and upgrades, or Windows Updates that require it.

My computer says I got a Windows Update at 3:00 AM, it looks like just another Windows Defender definition, Windows doesn't even notify me when I get those anymore, even though I set it to notify me before actually downloading the definitions, which I am supposed to authorize before the download actually begins. The feature works great in Vista, not so much in Windows 7. Windows 7 Security Center is strange, it runs incorrectly and gives notifications when nothing is wrong, and doesn't respond when something is, same as Norton Security Suite Comcast internet subscribers get for free.

Anyway, the things I miss most about the previous softphone builds of magicJack are that the mouse would snap to the answer button when a call was coming in. I could click my mouse to answer the softphone without looking where my mouse pointer was on the computer screen, or my LCD monitor being warmed up all the way to find the button, now I have to wait for my monitor to come on and find my mouse pointer and move it to the button, after the phone has rung several times already, annoying to the caller I wonder as I frantically answer the call. The softphone is no longer mouse pointer aware, when the phone rings the pointer doesn't snap to the answer button now. It has done that since August when the screensaver and monitor powersaving mode stopped working, and I wonder did you guys have to download the 2.03 build of magicJack at the site, or was it an automatic upgrade? I never got it, how bizaare.

I also miss that the color of the text would apply to the entire entry in the call history, a failed call would turn the entire text red. Incoming and outgoing calls were either blue or green, the entire text. Now I have to look at those itty-bitty arrows and x's, those small markings suck. mJ is stupid for making you type to a chat personnel to give feedback, I don't need the annoyance. They need to have a feedback email, so we can bypass the "chat monkeys" as they have been aptly referred to. I guess if I were paid and listened in on randomly to stick to a straight script only, I would have to do so as well. It makes me mad, I find it extremely annoying and I think Dan is stupid for making them do it, even when they know they are behaving ineffective and annoying. I have had jobs where my income depended on saying the same thing over and over in a situation when I knew I was being a "broken record" to avoid saying libelous statements or ones that might make my company appear responsible, even if they were true. It feels dirty to the one speaking as it does to the one doing the listening, knowing they are being shined on. It did for me anyway, I have a very painfully aware or highly tuned conscience.

I wonder if it bothers a magicJack support technician that the fixes they offer are the same no matter what you tell them your issue is, and they generally don't work, and when you tell them they don't work, they keep repeating the same fix like a broken record? Whenever I have needed them, either the software build works or it doesn't work, the workarounds they give only "hold" until the next reboot of windows, and then I had to run them all over again. If a softphone build is a "good one," you don't need tech support anyway. They said magicJack was ready for Windows 7 64-bit prematurely, but mine only worked for Windows XP and Vista x64 Home Premium until sometime several weeks after I upgraded to Windows 7 in February 2010. It worked when I first plugged it in, but after my first green message upgrade, it didn't work for a couple months after that, then sometime in April it finally started working consistently again, those months were a real headache for me, with the daily chats and all. I saved the downloads and would already have them when they told me to download the one they told me to click on in the chat box, so they started sending them to me already opened and running automatically, so I didn't get the option to click on the .executable file when I wanted to, it was very aggravating if I was doing something else at the same time they answered me in the queue, or were finished reading the transcripts of my previous discussions.

I'm never buying another online product or software without going to the support forum like this one first. I was stupid and bought Acronis True Image Home 2010 this summer as Acronis is generally recognized as a good product by PC Magazine, PC World, PC Advisor, Windows Networking.com, many of the tech blogs I read. Well, when I read the support forum recently, I discovered that all the other people who couldn't use that release of TI in the forum also were running Windows 7 64-bit. You can't get a refund after 30 days, and I was in the hospital twice the first month I bought the darn thing in June 2010, so I didn't get to try it out. Never again. The support forum is the best place to look before you buy something. Nobody there has got TI 2010 working on this version of Windows, and they have released True Image 2011 already, which claims to have "True, Improved" Windows 7 compatibility. Well if they aren't compatible with Windows 7 in 2010, they should refund our money, but the user agreement we clicked we gave up the right to get that. If they don't have a user forum check RipoffReport.com, if you can't find any complaints about a company, wait, it's too soon to buy that new product. I always learn the hard way. No company is complaint free, it's how they handle those complaints that makes them stand out as a place to do business. You probably already know this though.

[tekknokat]

Both good points. Expecting $600+ a year service for $20/year. The "entitlement" mentality has become cancerous.

I don't think it's an overblown sense of entitlement, to merely expect the magicJack to work as shown on TV. I don't want $600+ a year service. I only use this thing to speak to one person on a contact list with over 110 people (I keep the contact list on my other phone not the MJ), business associates, doctors, mostly medical personnell and home health staff. I have ONE friend who tolerates the poor sound of my magicJack to speak on it with me. Every one else tells me to phone them on a real phone and hangs up on me. My expectations are really overblown, to just be able to speak to one other human being on my contact list. My farmacy won't even accept calls on my magicJack, they tell me to call back on a working phone and hang up on me.

Living with Multiple Sclerosis and being unable to work for the past 7 years, I already spent my entire retirement at age 38, and at age 42 stuck on a Social Security Disability Income. Every dollar I spend is money that must have a return of some sort, some value. Being repremanded for complaining about the unit's inability to operate is something I don't see the other posters being harrassed for here. Why isn't a moderator or administrator watching this board?

I've paid my fees for three years, despite never being able to use my magicJack for anything practical since I purchased it. The only thing I use it for is to vote for my favorite dancer on FOX's TV show, "So You Think You Can Dance." I just want it to do what Dans irritating progeny with the puppies says it does, nothing more. This is the magicJack forum, not the angry white guy has a black president forum. I'm happy you two blondes (I see you chickie) have enjoyed such usefulness with your $20. Do you have anything to contribute 'hiccup' I hope you two can swallow, you don't seem good at much else.

"Dramatic Much?" Did you think of that all by yourself dolly? Dramatic every day, raging to the max biatch. I'm high strung that way, nobody asked you anyway.

Farmacy really? The word farmacy must be blocked because of the spammers?

[speaker2112]

Back to the audio topic for a second...

Since the 2.04 update a couple of days ago, everyone I speak with through my MagicJack hears an echo on their end. On my side the audio is clear and I do sometimes hear echo for the first few seconds but then it typically goes away. I've noticed a couple of echo blips throughout calls, but mostly the sound is passable on my end.

For the other calling party however, unfortunately they are no tolerating the echo very well and this is rendering my MagicJack not very helpful. All other audio on my system is fine. MagicJack was working perfectly before this upgrade so I'd like to revert to 2.03 or 2.02 if possible. Anyone know how to do this and make sure MJ doesn't auto-update to 2.04?

Thank you!

[bitstopjoe]

Back to the audio topic for a second...

Since the 2.04 update a couple of days ago, everyone I speak with through my MagicJack hears an echo on their end. On my side the audio is clear and I do sometimes hear echo for the first few seconds but then it typically goes away. I've noticed a couple of echo blips throughout calls, but mostly the sound is passable on my end.

For the other calling party however, unfortunately they are no tolerating the echo very well and this is rendering my MagicJack not very helpful. All other audio on my system is fine. MagicJack was working perfectly before this upgrade so I'd like to revert to 2.03 or 2.02 if possible. Anyone know how to do this and make sure MJ doesn't auto-update to 2.04?

Thank you!

Unless you have a copy of the 2.03 update not much you can do to revert back. EVEN IF YOU COULD, MJ would most likely update you again and as of right now there is no way to prevent that from happening. A lot of different suggestions over the years to make that not happen but up to now none have worked.
Maybe try re-intalling your audio drivers and see if that helps...

[speaker2112]

Hey Joe,

I'm not having any other audio problems other than the echo on the MJ calls and I use my system for audio processing quite a bit. I just checked all my audio settings and the driver software and everything looks fine.

Are your (callers / called parties) not experiencing any audio echo problem with the MJ 2.04 update?

This seems to be more of a problem with the MJ software or other changes they've made on the networking or server side, but it's a bit hard to say.

Thanks!

[tsmith]

Both of my MJ's are working without any audio issues on either end. I wonder if it might have anything to do with the MJ server you're going through.

[bitstopjoe]

Hey Joe,

I'm not having any other audio problems other than the echo on the MJ calls and I use my system for audio processing quite a bit. I just checked all my audio settings and the driver software and everything looks fine.

Are your (callers / called parties) not experiencing any audio echo problem with the MJ 2.04 update?

This seems to be more of a problem with the MJ software or other changes they've made on the networking or server side, but it's a bit hard to say.

Thanks!

2.04 here for over a week, XP SP3 and no audio problems, no echo on either end...
Sometimes if your speaker and microphone setting in the Volume/Headset adj on MJ are too high it can induce an echo. Some have set both to 1/3 the way up and it has helped. So you may want to look there at that setting.

[speaker2112]

Thanks for the tips Tom & Joe. I'll see if changing servers or my MJ audio settings makes a difference. I'm running Windows 7 x64 btw.

[tsmith]

Let us know what happens.

[speaker2112]

I will Tom. So far I've tested various mic and headphone volumes and the person I called to test reported varying echoes during the calls. They seemed somewhat related to my changes but also varied a bit when I did nothing, so the evidence is inconclusive at best. We also did a test where I blocked my Boston proxy and Washington was auto-selected, but this did not help much as echo was still heard on his side.

I am experimenting with excluding proxies now, and so far was unable to connect when I blocked all but 1, 2 or 3 proxies at a time. I probably won't have my full test results until Friday or over the weekend but will report back.

[speaker2112]

Well, I'm still having callers tell me they hear echo on their side. I've modified (e.g. lowered) my mic and speaker settings as suggested and tried different levels but it doesn't seem to matter much for the echo situation.

I've also played around with going through various proxies and the echo is still heard on the other parties side. I almost never hear any echo though on my side. Very strange as I was getting very good call quality on both sides prior to the upgrade to 2.04.

Any other ideas?