Power Surge & USB Ports Burning Out

[canadianabroad]

I have been using the magicJack on two different laptops i'm writng because i have been using the magicjack for two months on two laptops and now on one laptop both USB ports will not read any usb devices and on the other I keep getting a USB port has a "power surge" message. Has anyone else had this issue? Do you know why this would occur? I tried to talk to the people on tech chat and they claimed magicJack would not do this to a computer; however I have my doubts. I'm not overly technical so any thoughts/advice you could provide would be great!

Thank you!

[az2008]

Do you know why this would occur?

I haven't seen anyone mention a problem like this. If MJ was burning out USB ports, I think we'd hear about it (we hear about all the other problems).

Mark

[neo1]

If I am not mistaken, the USB port allows up to 250 ma at 5 v. This is 1.25 watt. This power must supply the MJ itself as well as the attached phone. My MJ runs pretty warm. If the current draw were to exceed 250 ma then I could see MJ burning out USB ports depending on the computer and attached phone.

I am not an expert so I don't know. With the mass marketing, new problems may arise.

Hope this helps.

[az2008]

If I am not mistaken, the USB port allows up to 250 ma at 5 v. This is 1.25 watt. This power must supply the MJ itself as well as the attached phone. My MJ runs pretty warm. If the current draw were to exceed 250 ma then I could see MJ burning out USB ports depending on the computer and attached phone.

I've read people say MJ needs 500 ma. Or, that that's the max defined by the USB standard and some equipment makers don't supply the max.

If requiring more than a computer provides can burn it out, that would be another reason to use a powered USB hub. At least it will protect the computer's ports.

As I've posted before, this one is claimed to provide the most power. The seller says s/he uses MagicJack too:

http://www.windmilltrading.com/USBProds ... H-214A.htm

Mark

[neo1]

I decided to go to Wikipedia and look up USB power:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usb#Power

I was mistaken. It appears that USB 2.0 allows up to 500 ma. This would allow a maximum power draw of 2.5 watts.

When I checked my system earlier, MJ with my phone was using 250 ma.

It seems that a phone requiring more power and/or a poor or overloaded motherboard could lead to burned out USB ports.

You are right, a good powered hub would be a safety precaution.

neo

[az2008]

It seems that a phone requiring more power and/or a poor or overloaded motherboard could lead to burned out USB ports.

This is interesting. I use a USB-to-PS2 converter, which splits into two PS2 connectors, specially designed for a PS2 mouse and keyboard.

For the past few months it's been acting flakey. The mouse will freeze. I have to disconnect/reconnect the USB convertor. Often 10 times a day.

Now I'm thinking that this may have all started when I began using MagicJack as a nearly always-on phone (connected to this computer.).

I began running "dongleless" a few weeks ago. Not using the MJ device doesn't cause the behavior to go away. So, I'm wondering if using it with the dongle for 2-3 months might have done something to the USB controller (inside the laptop).

It's probably unrelated. I still think if damage occurred even infrequently we'd hear about it.

Mark

[hsweiss]

Well, if you are running a desktop machine, you can always add a USB card to add-on/replace the motherboard USBs.... Tigerdirect has a 6 port USB PCI card for $15.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... u=ULT31500

[az2008]

Now I'm thinking that this may have all started when I began using MagicJack as a nearly always-on phone (connected to this computer.).

Just an update. I got a 2nd MJ. It is the 3rd generation device. When I plugged it in (to register it), Windows went through a sequence of "new USB hardware detected," installing drivers, etc. Since then, I haven't had the USB mouse problems I described in this thread.

More info here: http://www.phoneservicesupport.com/post29253.html#29253

Mark

[kyletheone]

I have been using the magicJack on two different laptops i'm writng because i have been using the magicjack for two months on two laptops and now on one laptop both USB ports will not read any usb devices and on the other I keep getting a USB port has a "power surge" message. Has anyone else had this issue? Do you know why this would occur? I tried to talk to the people on tech chat and they claimed magicJack would not do this to a computer; however I have my doubts. I'm not overly technical so any thoughts/advice you could provide would be great!

Thank you!

I recently bought this 4port hub from Ayagroup.com and it works great. They are selling this at $10.95.

http://www.ayagroup.com/product.php?pro ... t=0&page=1

Cheers!