Alcatel SpeedTouch USB Review

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Alcatel SpeedTouch USB
2 stars
Average rating for this product is: 2 out of 5

From 2 ratings and 35 reviews

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Simon.'s Review of Alcatel SpeedTouch USB Wireless Modems and Routers Reviews

28th Jun 2002

Overall Rating

1.5 stars
  • Value for money
    4 stars
  • Quality
    3 stars
Good Points

Simple to install, looks good.


Bad Points

Drops the connection every now and then but not that often. Excessive power draw causes restart problems with PC, PC won't even go into BIOS, solution is to unplug the modem before booting.


General Comments

The Alcatel Speed Touch USB modem works and is dead simple to install. Every now and then it does drop the connection but it's not that often, 99.9% of the time it works. My only gripe is that it seems to draw too much current with the result that the PC fails to go into the BIOS on boot up. The simple fix is to unplug the modem before booting, but I've just ordered a USB PCI card to see if that'll fix it.

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Members' Comments onSimon.'s Review

  • local sys admin. on 25th Sep 2002

    i, can you help?
    I was asked by a friend to look at his computer which had crashed. He had managed to get everthing working again with the exception of his broadband connection. 'No problem' I thought, 'get that sorted in a jiffy'. Boy was I wrong. The problem seems to be after installing the Alcatel usb software I connect the Alcatel USB in and it detects the new hardware and starts trying to load the required drivers, when it gets to the file alcawh.sys file (one of the required drivers) it just sits there looking like it is loading up but nothing is happening (checked with task Manager) and it will sit there untill hell freezes over. I have to end task to get back to the pc desk top.

    When i check Device manager it shows that a driver is not installed but the port is enabled. When I click on the driver tab it list 3 .sys files including the alcawh.sys file that caused the system to hang. I have tried to update the driver from Device manager only to be informed that a better driver could not be located (searched on both cdrom and hard drive(new dowload version 1.6 from alcatel site) I checked the system registry all appears to be fine. Other usb devices scanner, printer, Camera are all working fine. I have tried to reinstalling xp re formating the hard drive. I have downloaded the latest version of The alcatel Modem driver version 1.6 but problem remained the excact same. as before. I checked to see if there was an interrupt conflict, there was not. I checked the event logs, nothing of any consequence found. If there is someone out there who knows of a way forward with this problem please let me know.

    PS:My friend has stated that he installed the software when he got the computer and had a months trouble free surfing before the machine crashed.

    The pc is a (1 month old) Dell 1.7 intel pentium with intel chipset for usb support. ISP is AOL and phone connection is BT, operating system is xp home edition.
    Yours

    going insane

  • Disconnected. on 10th Oct 2002

    My problems seem to be similar to the ones described in the comment above. I have a PIII 500 MHz w/ Win98 (yeah, its old, but it works like a dream (or used to)). Then I subscribed to DSL from SBC PacBell in CA, and got the Alcatel Speed Touch USB modem in their package. Installed it and everything was fine for 7 months.

    Suddenly, one day about a month ago, the system rebooted. And from then on, the damn thing wouldn't start. Spent a really painful 2 nights ripping the system apart, swapping in sound cards, video cards and power supplies from my linux desktop into the new one. Narrowed it down to the power supply, but even then the system would sometimes not work.

    Went and bought a new power supply, but really didn't understand till now how come it suddenly went bad. Seems like the damn USB modem drew more power than my power supply could handle.

    But that's not the end of the story. A few nights ago, as I was surfing, I got the BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) about a fatal exception in some file called VXVIOS or something. This time the computer wouldn't reboot unless the USB modem was disconnected. Called up DSL tech support, and they told me to d/l the new drivers. How was I supposed to do that w/o being connected ???

    So now I'm waiting for them to send me the driver CD, and from what I read here, even that won't help!! I'm stuck now, just praying that the new drivers will resolve my problem.

    Dejected and frustrated,
    xxx
    ========================

  • cavrecich on 11th Mar 2004

    Did you solve your problem? I\'m getting crazy like you did (... it detects the new hardware and starts trying to load the required drivers, when it gets to the file alcawh.sys file it just sits...).
    I had the Speedtouch software running on Millenium O.S. and it worked fine, I\'ve just remade the PC with the Windows 2000 and I encountered this problem. I downloaded the R3.0.1.2 version but nothing will change. I hate this 330 Speedtouch modem, I\'m spending too much nights for it.
    Please, help me