Help! Software won't start.

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angryinch
MagicJack Newbie
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Apr 24, 2008 3:30 pm

Help! Software won't start.

Post by angryinch »

I got my magicjack yesterday and was very close to returning it today but figured I'd give it one last shot. Hopefully someone can help. When I plugged the magicjack in the first time, it loaded all of the USB drivers and everything seemed to be working just fine except it didn't start the softphone software. I got online with tech support who proved to be completely useless and frankly, didn't know squat about their own product. It seems they were just cutting and pasting canned replies and not really listening to what I was telling them.

Anyway, they had me plug, unplug, try different usb ports, install the upgrade.exe and recover files, and everything else under the sun for 3 hours without any success.

What happens is this - when I plug the unit in,the blue light turns on, it creates the two drive letters and they are accessible. Nothing happens after that. If I try to manually open the autorun.exe file I get an hourglass for about a second, then nothing. I tried the upgrade.exe and the install recover files and they did nothing. The upgrade runs, then nothing happens. The recover file ends up by saying no device found.

So, I went exploring on my own and found that at some point, something had created a program folder called mjusbsp and I started digging around in there. I tried manually running the magicjack and magicjackloader files with absolutely no success. Same thing happens as with the autorun.exe. I get an hourglass for a second then nothing. I then ran a file in the ug00000 subfolder called setup.exe. SUCCESS!!!! It installed the softphone software, created the magicjack icon on the desktop, and started the softphone program.

I thought I was done. Unfortunately, no. I unplugged the magicjack when I went to work. I got home, plugged it back in thinking the software would load. I was wrong. I was back to square one. I tried the magicjack icon on the desktop, nothing. Tried the upgrade.exe, nothing. Tried the install recover, same error...no device found.

I went back to the program folder and tried running the magicjack.exe file, the magicjackloader, and nothing. I had to resort to running setup.exe again and that finally got it to run after reinstalling it.

Does anyone know what might be going on here? It took me 4 1/2 hours to get it to install, a far cry from the 5 minutes they claim it will take, and even then it still isn't installing or working properly.

That said, after running setup, the software does open, I was able to register, and I was able to make and receive calls.

So, what can I do to get this thing to work properly? I already managed to get an RMA so if I can't get it working I'll have to send it back but this is such a good deal compared to other VOIPs out there that I'd really like to make it work so I can justify keeping it.

Ah, the important stuff. I'm running XP SP2. I have AVG installed but had it disabled at the tech's request during all the troubleshooting. I have Sygate firewall but also disabled that. I do have Nero but I don't have nero loading any virtual drives.
angryinch
MagicJack Newbie
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Apr 24, 2008 3:30 pm

Post by angryinch »

Anyone???
MagicHack
Dan isn't smart enough to hire me
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Post by MagicHack »

angryinch wrote:Anyone???
If the setup ran at least once, you should have a folder like:

Code: Select all

"C:\Documents and Settings\<yourname>\Application Data\mjusbsp"
If you do have this folder, try starting the magicJack manually, and enable logging like:

Code: Select all

"C:\Documents and Settings\<yourname>\Application Data\mjusbsp\magicJack.exe" /foreground /lf log.txt /scf _magicJackPersonalDataRoot "F:\magicJack"
(substitute the proper drive letter above for the F:\magicJack)

Then look at the log.txt file that is created from the command above. Perhaps the log file contains some useful debug info.
HolmanGT
MagicJack Sensei
Posts: 1127
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2008 7:13 am
Location: Saint George, UT

Re: Help! Software won't start.

Post by HolmanGT »

angryinch wrote:

Ah, the important stuff. I'm running XP SP2. I have AVG installed but had it disabled at the tech's request during all the troubleshooting. I have Sygate firewall but also disabled that. I do have Nero but I don't have nero loading any virtual drives.
First I am not familiar with Sygate accept to say that it come on the HP Thin Clients. If you don't remove that little beast from the thin clients you can't get MJ to work at all. So maybe you should try removing it, at least for testing purposes.

Also look in your device manager and make sure there are no flagged drivers relating to MJ if there are uninstall them or delete them. Then delete the mjusbsp folder reboot and put your MJ into a different USB port. This procedure is plagiarized from another poster but hell I will steal anything that works and it got him going. :roll:
- George -

HolmanGT - St. George, UT MJ-Area/Prefix 435-275
ooma-Area/Prefix 435-579
Baja Broadband, up-1mb dn-10mb, on days with a good tail wind.
MJ on HP T5730 2GBF/2GBR Thin Client XPe SP2 Router Dlink Dir-655
angryinch
MagicJack Newbie
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Apr 24, 2008 3:30 pm

Post by angryinch »

MagicHack wrote:
angryinch wrote:Anyone???
If the setup ran at least once, you should have a folder like:

Code: Select all

"C:\Documents and Settings\<yourname>\Application Data\mjusbsp"
If you do have this folder, try starting the magicJack manually, and enable logging like:

Code: Select all

"C:\Documents and Settings\<yourname>\Application Data\mjusbsp\magicJack.exe" /foreground /lf log.txt /scf _magicJackPersonalDataRoot "F:\magicJack"
(substitute the proper drive letter above for the F:\magicJack)

Then look at the log.txt file that is created from the command above. Perhaps the log file contains some useful debug info.
Ok, I tried that. The program actually starts when I use that command. I looked at the logfile but I'm not really sure what to look for. I'm wondering, since the software doesn't start if I use the autorun.exe or the magicloader, or if I run the magicjack.exe file without the switches, is there a way to get it to create a log file without using all of the other switches so that it logs what it does when it doesn't start properly?
MagicHack
Dan isn't smart enough to hire me
Posts: 241
Joined: Mon Nov 12, 2007 4:11 pm
Contact:

Post by MagicHack »

angryinch wrote:
MagicHack wrote:
angryinch wrote:Anyone???
If the setup ran at least once, you should have a folder like:

Code: Select all

"C:\Documents and Settings\<yourname>\Application Data\mjusbsp"
If you do have this folder, try starting the magicJack manually, and enable logging like:

Code: Select all

"C:\Documents and Settings\<yourname>\Application Data\mjusbsp\magicJack.exe" /foreground /lf log.txt /scf _magicJackPersonalDataRoot "F:\magicJack"
(substitute the proper drive letter above for the F:\magicJack)

Then look at the log.txt file that is created from the command above. Perhaps the log file contains some useful debug info.
Ok, I tried that. The program actually starts when I use that command. I looked at the logfile but I'm not really sure what to look for. I'm wondering, since the software doesn't start if I use the autorun.exe or the magicloader, or if I run the magicjack.exe file without the switches, is there a way to get it to create a log file without using all of the other switches so that it logs what it does when it doesn't start properly?
If it starts up properly using the command line, then the problem must be with the magicjackloader/autorun/etc. I am not sure of a way to show any kind of logging information for the setup. Though, you might have some luck trying some of the Sysinternals tools (like filemon, regmon, etc...)

I always start my jacks manually using that command above. The loader itself merely installs the software, and starts the softphone. Since the software is already installed, you can skip the loader - you'll notice that the sofphone starts up MUCH faster when you start it directly rather than using the loader.

The only real function of the autorun is to install the software, put an icon on the desktop, etc. Since you have the software already installed, there is no real benefit to the loader.

In my opinion, your best bet would be to simply disable autoruns for that drive, and start the jack manually.
angryinch
MagicJack Newbie
Posts: 4
Joined: Thu Apr 24, 2008 3:30 pm

Post by angryinch »

Thanks for the answer. I can always start it manually like that but I guess I was just hoping someone had run into this problem before and had a solution. I was going to recommend magicjack to a few friends and family members but based on the experience I've had, there is NO WAY I'd recommend it to anyone who wasn't technically proficient on computers. As it is, I work in IT and had all of these problems. No way could I recommend it to my family or friends. Magicjack is a great concept and I'll keep mine since I figured out how to get around the problems but it's just not ready for mass market yet.
curiousgeorge
Dan isn't smart enough to hire me
Posts: 193
Joined: Wed Jan 23, 2008 5:55 pm
Location: California

Post by curiousgeorge »

Hello, have you also tried unplugging any and all USB devices from your system? I gave an MJ to a friend and he had the same issue,once he removed all power consuming USB devices it worked perfect. Note: this also includes any extra power hungry pci cards etc. good luck!
help! I am running out of USB ports!!!!!!!!
Tell me, Mr. Anderson... what good is a phone call... if you're unable to speak?
Elemeye
magicJack Apprentice
Posts: 17
Joined: Sun Feb 10, 2008 11:31 am

Could be some anti-spyware of Firewall

Post by Elemeye »

I've seeing issue where some weird anti-spyware or firewall software was blocking the functionality for the programs starting.
Windows Defender can be configured to block auto-start for some applications. Could be blocking magicJack? I've had mine disabled before could use MJ.
Just a guess.
DocMCSE
MagicJack Newbie
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Aug 19, 2008 8:23 am

Post by DocMCSE »

Not sure if you ever figured this out or not but I had the same trouble. In my case I also have VMWare installed and recall it turns off the CD autorun functionality to allow the guest instances to attach to the CDROM without host interference. As the MJ acts as a virtual CD-Rom device I have chalked it up to this as being the culprit.
Simply one man's opinion.
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