PLEASE NOTE: This worked for me, but may not work for all USB issues. You mileage may vary, and I can not be responsible for any damage you do to yourself, your PC, or your Magic Jack. If you attempt this mod, you do so at your own risk!
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Ok, fellow Magic Jack users! I did a search here and on Google without finding an answer to my issue, so I have figured out a simple way to fix it myself and thought that I would share it with everyone here. If this has already been covered somewhere here, then I offer my apologies, as I could not find a post with this information.
My issue was similar to MANY that I found on Google searches. When using suspend or sleep mode on a PC or laptop, MagicJack would not work again upon resuming. My only recourse was to go into the MJ app menu and select Advanced/Restart to restart the application or to unplug and replug the dongle which sort of accomplishes the same thing.
It has been noted that the Magic Jack dongle does not like to work after being put in sleep mode or losing power, so... I figured why not keep power to it all the time?
I had already tried changing my USB power saving settings in Windows Device Manager, but that did nothing to help me in my case.
So... I have plenty of spare 5 volt power supplies around from old cell phones and other devices and decided to try using one to keep the Magic Jack powered up at all times, even when the computer is asleep. In a nutshell, I am using a USB extension cable as an easy way to insert my own 5v power between the PC and the MJ dongle so that the dongle never fully loses power even though the PC goes into sleep/hibernate, etc.
Step 1: Take a small 5 volt DC wall wart, and strip back the wires so that you have +5vdc and ground.
Step 2: Next, I find or buy a short USB extension cable that has the flat male USB on one end and a flat female USB on the other. Carefully open up the extension cable at a convenient spot 6 or 8 inches from the end and, after carefully moving the braid and shield aside (keeping it intact) you will have access the 4 wires inside.
Step 3: The standard USB pinout is white/green for data and red/black for power, so cut the red and black wires, strip them back on the FEMALE end of the cable only, and wire them to your 5v power supply red/black wires that you prepared in step 1. You can solder them and wrap with tape, or just use wire nuts if you prefer.
Step 4: Make sure to tape off the red/black wires on the MALE end of the extension cable, since your PC or laptop will put 5 volts on these when it is powered up. You won't be using that 5 volts for anything since you are now powering your MJ with a wall-wart power supply, but you don't want them shorting against the braid / shield, or anything else, so tape them up well.
Step 5: Plug your magic jack into the female end of your extension cable, plug in your 5v power supply from step 1, and then plug the male end of the extension cable into the USB port of your computer. Your Magic Jack dongle should now be getting its power from the wall-wart power supply, and not your PC. The light on mine (a 3rd generation dongle) did not light, even though the wall-wart was plugged in. Don't worry about this. The blue LED will light when the dongle is plugged into your PC and your PC is awake.
Step 6: You may need to restart the MagicJack software at this point, or even reboot your machine, but once it is back up and running again you should now be able to put your PC into hibernate or suspend (sleep mode) and when you wake it up again to use it, Magic Jack will function correctly, and will give you a dialtone that actually does something when you try to dial out!
One last note: I found that the 'recovery time' from when you wake up your computer to when you can use your MJ to make a call varies depending on the PC. For example, my laptop was able to dial out as soon as the wifi reconnected and the dialtone was heard from the handset, whereas my PC upstairs took around 15 seconds or so before I could make a call.
I am running MJ as a service on my machine (Google 'magic jack service tool' if you want a simple way to accomplish this), and have not tested this external USB power mod running Magic Jack normally, but I see no reason that it wouldn't work the same.
If anyone gives this a try, let me know how it worked for you! This little mod will no doubt save me the endless headache of picking up the phone and having dead air when I place a call because I have forgotten (yet again) to restart the MJ software when waking my PC each morning. I hope it works for all of you!
Best wishes,
Eric
Solution for Magic Jack Sleep/Resume USB Issues! (Cable Mod)
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