Our friends and family who are reading this blog will need to excuse me for a minute (or rather a post) while I address the internet. I tend to do this from time to time, especially when I’ve found a fix for a technical problem that I want to share with others. That is the case here.
The GT-1900u is a combination VoiP/Dect phone from a company called Perfectone.
The first thing I want to mention is that if you get an error about “USB Bandwidth being exceeded”, don’t ignore it like I did, this is a problem. While I’m talking about the problem, in my case this problem was evidenced by three beeps (indeed, 3 beeps) when I tried to call numbers from the phone using Skype.
Basically what the story is, is that another device is hogging the bandwidth to the motherboard, and the device (in my case the phone) doesn’t have enough bandwidth to operate.
So how do you fix the problem?
The fix most commonly suggested on the forums is to get one of the devices off the PC. Usually (and in my case) the offending device is the USB ADSL modem, so they suggest replacing it with an ethernet version.
However, I wasn’t happy with that option so further investigated. It turns out various modems, including my Speedtouch 330, have two modes, isochronous and bulk. The ISO mode is to optimise speeds over 4mb/s and bulk is the best for speeds under.
It turns out that one of the side-effects of ISO mode is that it uses more of the USB bandwidth than bulk. I haven’t been getting 4mb most of the time anyway, and it’s more than I need, so I decided to switch back to bulk.
I’m sure there was an easier way, but I just uninstalled the modem and reinstalled, selecting <4mb/s this time instead of >4mb.
Problem solved. Please comment, or link this article if it solved your problem.
Update 1: We still occasionally (after this post) experienced the three beep problem so replaced our USB ADSL Modem with an ethernet version.
Update 2: We’re still occasionally experiencing the three beep problem, so are pretty stuck. I suspect it may be because the device is still draining too much power, perhaps my USB connection to the motherboard is not connecting properly or there is some other reason. Anyway, I’m keeping the phone as it works sometimes. Let me know if you find another fix.
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4 comments
Paul Bradley says:
November 17, 2007 at 2:17 pm (UTC 13 )
Having read this, it sounds like you have done all you can and have failed. I wish I hadn’t bought this phone. There is no customer backup for it online or elsewhere. I have thesame problems but I cannot get mine to work on PC mode at all.
The instructuions are abominable too.
Louise says:
November 28, 2008 at 12:42 am (UTC 13 )
Hi, I read your article about the GT1900-U with interest but I am having other problems and wondered if thorugh your experience you could help at all. I can receive calls from other people who dial my Skype number but I cannot make outgoing calls to people using my internet connection. I never hear a ring tone and it just goes to some outomated voicemail message: “the person you are currently trying to reach is unavailable. Please leave your message after the beep”. Yet, I know the person I am calling is waiting for my call the other end and does not have this voicemail greeting anyway (I suspect it is Skype’s). Also I cannot access Skype voicemail via this phone…so all in all pretty useless at present! The guy who sold it to me can’t help and Skype can’t help so I am stuck with something that does not workl Any ideas? (I have Windows XP)
By the way, the Angel of the North is impressive isn’t it! Thanks.
Jon says:
December 13, 2010 at 8:43 am (UTC 13 )
Got mine a couple of years ago, and gave up on it a couple of years ago! Completely useless piece of kit. Confined it to the back of a drawer and there it has stayed.
This has now reminded me to stick it up, sorry, on eBay (among other places) and someone else can have a go at the bloody thing.
Kevan says:
October 25, 2011 at 4:32 am (UTC 13 )
Hi,
I have one of these but my driver disk wont read do you still have the driver and could you send me a copy I WOULD GLADLY PAY.
K