magicjack either won't start or crashes computer

[gnimsh]

OK this has been the most frustrating experience with my magicjack thus far. It started about 2 hours ago. I tried to plug the magicjack into the usb hub (yes its powered) only to havea windows bubble pop up telling me that the device wasn't recognized (bull, as I've been using the same port for the MJ since I started plugging it into the hub. On top of that the light flickers as soon as I put it in but then turns off. I repeated this process once more, and then restarted my computer (this fixed the problem the last time it happened) but still no dice. I plugged it into my girlfriend's mac and the light went on, but I hadn't done hte mac upgrade....I took it out thinking that might've been the kick it needed, plugged it back in, and still no light. About 20 minutes ago I went back to it and plugged it in only to have the system lock up, a BSOD memory dump appeared and the computer restarted. This happened a 2nd time as well.
I even plugged it into the gf's mac and tried to use it in the virtual machine, it loaded magicjack device fine but the blue light never came on, and the cd drives were both empty.
Its very frustrating for me, I just want to be able to use my service with a phone so I don't have to be at the computer to make a phone call, but I will if I have to be. I've got X-Lite set up on both computers in the mean time. Please tell me if any of you have ever experienced this before, and what you did to fix it, if anything.

Thanks for the help

[Davejb]

Every time I've had the missing blue light problem I have to re apply the Vista patch (even though I'm on XP) to get it working again, happened twice already.

[gnimsh]

So how are you able to apply the vista patch to MJ if you have to have the MJ plugged in first, but the MJ won't stay on long enough for it to even load?

[SpamBox]

What a pain in the arse! Wish I could help!

[gnimsh]

OK so I tried 2 different fixes, the vista patch and the MJ recover program. Trouble is, the MJ apparently needs to be turned on for both of these, which mine won't do. So I'm stuck until it gets to be later in the day so I can call back to the US or chat with MJ...probably better that way so they don't say "How are you calling us now?" and then I say "I have a different softphone"

Good thing they have chat...

[gnimsh]

Argh! I just ran the magicfix, and the only error it gave me was that autorun is disabled, and it said my MJ is working properly!

[Davejb]

So how are you able to apply the vista patch to MJ if you have to have the MJ plugged in first, but the MJ won't stay on long enough for it to even load?

It shows up as installed, with both drive letters, just no blue light and no software running, I run the upgrade, unplug it and plug it back in, and it's working again.

[gnimsh]

So I talked to customer support tonight...the guy was pretty intent on me repeating the same, ineffective steps, multiple times. I kept telling him it didn't work, and he kept telling me to repeat the same things that didn't work again. This can only lead me to assume that I should just give up on getting the hardware to work again and just stick to the SIP info from now on.

Henok: Hello, how may I help you?

Justin: hi

Justin: my magicjack will not start up at all

Justin: I plug it in, the light flickers and then goes out

Henok: is the blue light on?

Justin: nope

Justin: I ran it in a windows vm on a mac and the light was on but I

still couldn't load the phone

Justin: even on this one the light flickered and then went out and it

tried to load while it flickered but then stopped once it went out.

Also, it will crash my computer while trying to start up as well

Justin: I've tried a couple things as suggested on the forums, such as

running the vista patch, and then also the MJ recovery program.

Neither of those work for me as the MJ has to be on for them to

install

Henok: Download and run the Recover Tool from the link below. After

running the tool, unplug your magicJack, wait 15 seconds, and plug it

back in.

Henok: http://www.magicjack.com/site/downloads ... _setup.exe

Justin: ok I'm going to plug it in, but it might make my system crash

Justin: ya the same thing happened, it said no device found

Justin: windows keeps popping up a message: "USB Device not

recognized"

Henok: is this the first time installing the magicjack?

Justin: NOPE

Justin: -caps

Justin: its been working fine for 3 months or so

Justin: this happened once before but was fixed after a restart

Justin: this time restarts don't help at all

Henok: ok unplug your magicjack wait 15 sec and plug back in please

into a different usb port

Justin: same thing is still happening

Henok: http://www.magicjack.com/site/customercare.html

Henok: run the magicfix when done also run the vista upgrade please

Justin: hm

Justin: it says the magicjack is functioning properly when I run

it...obviously not the case though

Henok: run the vista upgrade please for the magicjack

Justin: running it now

Justin: says "Warning: you must plug magicjack into USB" even though

it already is plugged in

Henok: run the macbeta upgrade please

Justin: failed to locate magicjack

Justin: and "an error occurred while upgrading MJ"

Henok: run the magicfix again and please run the mac upgrade again

please

Justin: sorry

Justin: I actually have to go now, picking up brother from airport

Justin: didn't think it would take this long...

Justin: I'll come back later

Henok: ok please try that and let us know

Chat InformationChat session has been terminated by the site operator.

[SpamBox]

So I talked to customer support tonight...the guy was pretty intent on me repeating the same, ineffective steps, multiple times. I kept telling him it didn't work, and he kept telling me to repeat the same things that didn't work again. This can only lead me to assume that I should just give up on getting the hardware to work again and just stick to the SIP info from now on.

Chat InformationChat session has been terminated by the site operator.

Wow what a pointless chat session. And I'm guessing MJ doesn't have any kind of tiered help desk support. Have you tried running it on a different system all together?

[gnimsh]

Well, I tried it only on a XP VM inside mac, and the light went on and the drives loaded, but they were empty. The next this happened I couldn't run the fixes on it either. Sorry this reply took such a long time...

[johnlvs2run]

The magicjack worked pretty good for me for a few months, and now it crashes my computer.

I have been on the magicjack chat 3 times over the last several months, going through the same steps repeatedly as you mentioned and each time it took approximately one hour. Most of the time whoever was on the other end appeared to be absent one way or another, as simple questions would take 5 or 10 minutes to answer. Then the answer would be different to the question, such as "okay unplug the mj, wait 15s and then plug it back in." Very annoying.

Each time I would ask when my account will be updated to show the 2 years that I paid for last August. Each time I was told it would be updated within 24 hours, or within the week, or else "soon". I PAID through August of 2009, the site is still showing August of 2008 - now the magicjack doesn't work and crashes my computer.

Due to the constant crashes and not being able to use my computer at all, I have deleted all of magicjack completely, and am going back to Linux as mj was the only reason I used windows. I will find some other carrier for long distance. This is sad as I have told many people about magicjack but am not able to recommend it any more. I paid $60 for 2 years and ended up getting 8 months and it almost destroyed my computer. I hope the issues get resolved but in the meantime am not holding my breath waiting for things that should have been DONE a long time ago.

[gnimsh]

The only other suggestion I have is to find out your SIP info and then use a softphone. I would try it on another windows computer first. Send me an email or PM if you need help. It will most likely work inside your windows VM on linux (it does on mine...when the VM works. VMware hasn't updated their server for hardy heron yet). But once you get it working you can either keept it running in VM or just install twinkle and use that as your phone. In ubuntu 8.04 the MJ device works as a sound device with a phone plugged in no problem. Only drawback is that it doesn't ring the phone, but still uses my speakers (actually it sends the ringing of the program to the phone headset) and also you can't dial on the phone with twinkle. That apparently only works either with the MJ softphone or in windows. Its been a while since I've used windows...

[soulstormdotcom]

MJ works great on a few laptops I have access to but my desktop PC's just reboot with the BSOD after the app is finished loading. At first I thought it was a low voltage condition on my motherboard (Gigabyte GA-K8NSC-939 w/an AMD X2 64 CPU) since I have too many USB devices and the app never had a chance to fully install/load.

Hence, I purchased an AC Powered USB Hub w/the highest amphere I could find (2.5A). Now the MJ app seems to load all the way till the GUI resolves and says "ready" but the desktop PC just reboots due to some sort of BSOD which I can't seem to read quickly enough to document.

I have updated my mobo's USB drivers to no avail. When trying Safe Mode my desktop freezes (no kb & my cursor disappears) but I get a dial tone w/MJ. Anyone have a similar issue? I've read posts about Nero possibly being a conflict but I have Nero on my laptops and they run fine. My desktop PC is running XP Pro w/SP1. ...I'm still skeptical about using SP2. Have not tried the upgrade.exe file and can't even run magicFix cause my machine either reboots or locks up.

[gnimsh]

How can you be skeptical about SP2? Its been out for more than a year! You might as well go ahead and upgrade already, SP3 is out now anyway.

[soulstormdotcom]

You're right gnimsh I should try SP2 (or SP3) but I was skeptical because my laptops are using SP1 too and they work just fine. I guess I have nothing to lose since my desktops just reboot and BSOD when MJ is connected. I'll try an update to XP Pro and post results later.

[gnimsh]

The only thing I've never installed with SP2 is the malware detector. Never installed any of the updates either. Also I've only had SP2 slipstreamed into my install as that is the best way to avoid any conflicts, but I upgraded my VM of windows to SP3 with no problems at all.

[soulstormdotcom]

I promised I'd post the results of my upgrade to XP Pro SP2 after having BSOD/reboots on XP Pro SP1 near the end of the MJ GUI load process. After upgrading to XP Pro SP2 I was finally able to stop the BSOD but MJ didn't work at first; I got a Windows encountered an error in softphone error. The good news, however, is that my PC did not BSOD and reboot this time so I was able tinker a bit by unplugging and re-plugging the MJ back in. Without rebooting my worksation the un/plug got it working now w/out the softphone error. Looks like I've got it running now. I have a dialtone on my desktop! Yipee, I don't need to keep my laptops powered ON anymore.

I can't express enough how cool the MJ is. I'm considering being a reseller!

[gnimsh]

Cool!