USB Modem Power Issues / USB Extensions

ginggs

ginggs

༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ
Super Moderator
Joined
Jun 26, 2006
Messages
12,171
Reaction score
737
Location
Kapkaupunki
placeholder for USB Modem Power Issues / USB Extensions sticky
 
Last edited:
E1820 connection resetting [solved - power]

Hi all,

Was wondering if anyone has had an issue with the E1820 modem constantly resetting the connection to Cell C's network. I currently have an issue on my Windows 7 machine where the modem connects with no problem but then after a short amount of time (from a few seconds to a about 2 minutes maximum), the connection stops responding (no download), web pages timeout etc, and I am forced to disconnect (which takes longer than the connection stays up for ironically) and then reconnect only to have it stop responding again in the timeframe mentioned.

Calling Cell C the lady took some info about my location and said she had updated some setting her side to fix it but it made no difference.

Not a very auspicious start I'm afraid.
 
Hi,
Try looking at your signal level. Settings/Diagnostics/Network Status tab & look at the RSSI value.
If it is high 90's might be why its doing it.
Also these modems like power, Have you tried it on a differant USB port? on a tower PC try it on a rear port if you have it in a front port.
 
Tun@ : don't you get those splitter USB cables where you can draw power from more than 2 USB ports instead of one anymore?

@gareth - might be a power-related issue - as tun@ said, move it to another USB port and try again.
 
Tun@ said:
Hi,
Try looking at your signal level. Settings/Diagnostics/Network Status tab & look at the RSSI value.
If it is high 90's might be why its doing it.
Also these modems like power, Have you tried it on a differant USB port? on a tower PC try it on a rear port if you have it in a front port.
Click to expand...

Signal is at 97% on HSPA+ and an RSSI of 70ish (moves up and down). Plugged into rear port after front ports failed to even install the modem properly.

Any other ideas?
 
Well signals fine.
Settings/Options/Network
What is selected in those 2 box's "Network Type" & "Band"?

Also check with cmd.exe what is the ECN setting "Enabled" or "Disabled"
From Start/search/ type cmd.exe press enter
type in
netsh int tcp show global

ECN says Enabled or Disabled
 
Tun@ said:
Well signals fine.
Settings/Options/Network
What is selected in those 2 box's "Network Type" & "Band"?

Also check with cmd.exe what is the ECN setting "Enabled" or "Disabled"
From Start/search/ type cmd.exe press enter
type in
netsh int tcp show global

ECN says Enabled or Disabled
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info and I will check this as soon as I get home. I also remembered seeing every now and then the Cell C desktop app reporting stuff in quick pop up messages like "Device not found" -> "Detecting device" and then I would need to reconnect. So I guess I will try to use all 6 of my USB ports at the back to see if that helps at all.

Oh and ... ECN? EDIT: What setting should it be and if its not on the right one how would I alter it?
 
Last edited:
garethmcc said:
Thanks for the info and I will check this as soon as I get home. I also remembered seeing every now and then the Cell C desktop app reporting stuff in quick pop up messages like "Device not found" -> "Detecting device" and then I would need to reconnect. So I guess I will try to use all 6 of my USB ports at the back to see if that helps at all.

Oh and ... ECN?
Click to expand...

That sounds like the stick is disconnecting,make sure the male part of the stick is pushed all the way out when you insert it,....that or the power to it is getting dropped.
Like Lib mentioned above if you have a double USB lead try using that also.

garethmcc said:
Oh and ... ECN? EDIT: What setting should it be and if its not on the right one how would I alter it?
Click to expand...
ECN needs to be "Disabled" but I don't think that will be your problem -
Your problem is you are losing connection between your PC & the stick causing the issue
 
Last edited:
Well, doing some rough research on Google for ASRock motherboards in general, it seems they are notorious for not having USB ports that can power devices to the USB specification of 5V, and tend to start getting flaky around 4.5 V, so it seems this is my issue. Wondering now where to get a powered-USB hub to test this theory out before actually buying one hehe.
 
"No Money no Honey" - "No 5Volt no Internet" ;)
 
Tun@ said:
"No Money no Honey" - "No 5Volt no Internet" ;)
Click to expand...

Well, here's some good news. I am posting this on my Cell C Speedstick connection. Its seems that power is shared across 4 of my USB ports round thye back but the last two have their own controller. Which means that sufficient power is actually applied to the last two ports.

Thanks for the help guys :)
 
Hi guys, had a similiar problem which I also resolved by plugging in at the back of the PC. I however experienced periodic disconnects after an hour or so last week. Is this normal? It does not bode well for online gaming if this is the case.
 
garethmcc said:
Its seems that power is shared across 4 of my USB ports round thye back but the last two have their own controller. Which means that sufficient power is actually applied to the last two ports
Click to expand...

Good to see working now. I wonder how have you figured out that power comes from the controller?
 
Yea - also like to know rather than trying it in each, connecting and redoing ;)
 
Dolby said:
Yea - also like to know rather than trying it in each, connecting and redoing ;)
Click to expand...
Knowing is fine, but you end with trying each port. :) It is matter of distributing power on the motherboard, and/or load of extra cables (by example to the front panel of PC). USB power doesn't come from the controller, but from the power supply.
 
Can someone tell me how I can find out what power goes to my various USB ports and if that can be adjusted?

I am having the same problem and all the ports on my Samsung R720 laptop are the same. The modem runs quite hot. Could the heat have something to do with this? That would explain some aspects of the problem.

I live in Plumstead, Cape Town and before I bought I had a technician come round and test it so I could be sure I had a decent signal. The Cell C dashboard reported 5 bars which is perfect but subsequently I have discovered that it is not reporting it correctly. The Win7 interface reports a signal of only 2 bars. When I plug it directly into my laptop I only get one bar so I bought a repeater USB cable and now hang it in the window where it is a little better. Still, my connection constantly dies. Sometimes I even get an error message that the USB device is not recognised.
 
You can't adjust the power,If power is the problem you could try either a powered hub or if you have had other 3G modems that may have come with the 2USB to 1 USB "Y" type splitter cable try using that plugged into 2 usb ports.

Re signal - From the Cell C dash if you go to Settings/Diagnostics/Network status - there you will see a RSSI value of - **dBm
That figure would be a bit more useful than bars showing - Number higher than 90dBm i found gives headackes with connections,the lower the value the better.
 
Last edited:
Thanks Tun. I'm on 87dBm.

I'm inclined to think my real problem is with the signal strength, although when I looked at the Cell C coverage map it looked good. I think I'm in a shallow dip or something. Does Cell C supply a booster?

It has helped some to get a USB repeater cable for hanging my modem up in the window so I do think that power might be part of the mix of problems. Can anyone tell me how I can find out what the power supply is to my USB ports. I thought I might find that in my laptop manual but no.
 
A friend of mine's Lenovo laptop (less than a year old) cannot provide enough power to his speedstick. Only when using the docking station and plugging the modem into the docking stations USB port does his modem get detected. He has only 2 USB ports and tried both. Kinda kills the whole being mobile thing, doesn't it!
 
You know, I can't help wondering if this isn't at least partly a server side problem. I get patches when my connection is stable and runs beautifully and then patches when it bombs all the time and struggles to connect. Or more specifically, it stays connected but only allows a trickle to traffic, just a few bytes which leads to nothing but timeouts. Its the latter that makes me wonder if perhaps my connection has been throttled down or something maybe to do with the poor signal. I'd be intersted to hear from the Cell C techies about this.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X