Help ! My Alpha AWUS036H Has Died !

[edsailing]

My Alpha hi power usb wi-fi has died. One day it was working fine, the next it was dead.

Normally the green LED blinks, now nothing. The computer recognises when it is plugged in and unplugged but other than that nothing.

Anyone had a similar experience - is it fixable or is is my only option to let it go to heaven in peace?

[jackiepitts]

I have had similar problems off and on with our AWUS036H. What has worked for me is doing a uninstall on the driver software and reinstalling the driver software....seems there are some glitches in the driver software so may be worth a shot.
Good luck!
Jackie

[rebel heart]

Does it recognize it as a wireless adapter? Does the alpha utility see it?

[Sail323]

I find mine to be very fluky! It works fine on my Dell laptop when plugged into any USB port using only the supplied cable, but on my HP laptop it won't initialize unless I connect it using 2 additional USB cables (yes, that's right 3 USB cables). Same OS and driver on both computers.

John

[Zoef]

Originally Posted by Sail323

I find mine to be very fluky! It works fine on my Dell laptop when plugged into any USB port using only the supplied cable, but on my HP laptop it won't initialize unless I connect it using 2 additional USB cables (yes, that's right 3 USB cables). Same OS and driver on both computers.

John

John, are you sure the HP usb ports provide sufficient power? A usb port is supposed to deliver 500 mW but many do't. I guess that's the reason that the Alfa has a power cable with 2 usb connectors.
The Alfa electronics is not exactly salt proof, so I carry a well-wrapped back-up for 3 years now. Never needed it.

[edsailing]

Originally Posted by rebel heart

Does it recognize it as a wireless adapter? Does the alpha utility see it?

Alfa Utility? Don't think I have that. All I get is 'Dong' from the computer when I plug it in but nothing on the LED and no wireless icon on the start bar. Have tried it on two different machines - no good on either tho it has worked on both in the past.

USB ports support other devices so presume they are OK - so fault must lie with the Alfa wi-fi device

[rebel heart]

There should be a little program that you installed originally; the icon looks like a little blue crab of sorts.

Edit:

You can download it from here:

http://www.alfa.com.tw/in/front/bin/...ategory=105397

This won't necessarily fix your problem, but you can localize it a bit by seeing if the alfa utility can see the adapter or not.

[Zoef]

Originally Posted by edsailing

Alfa Utility? Don't think I have that. All I get is 'Dong' from the computer when I plug it in but nothing on the LED and no wireless icon on the start bar. Have tried it on two different machines - no good on either tho it has worked on both in the past.

USB ports support other devices so presume they are OK - so fault must lie with the Alfa wi-fi device

Strange. I have the Alfa utility both on an xp and a win7 laptop.
Did you try to run the .exe as an administrator?
As the Alfa has a stated max output power of 500mW, it might consume even more. Most usb devices consume less than 500mW.

[Sail323]

Originally Posted by Zoef

John, are you sure the HP usb ports provide sufficient power? A usb port is supposed to deliver 500 mW but many do't. I guess that's the reason that the Alfa has a power cable with 2 usb connectors.
The Alfa electronics is not exactly salt proof, so I carry a well-wrapped back-up for 3 years now. Never needed it.

Zoef,

I don't know if my HP USB ports are supplying 500 mW, but I have tried the Alpha utility with adjustable power control. No difference. I still have to connect 3 USB cables in series for it to initialize.

Also, my AWUS036H came with a power cable that has only (1) USB 2.0 Type A connector and (1) USB 2.0 Mini Type B connector.

John

[motion30]

mine died after a year and a half a new one with more power cost $ 36 I believe that is a good value for the money By another one

[Zoef]

John,
The recent AWUS036H 500mW came indeed with a cable with only one type A connector and so does the very latest model with 1000 mW output.
So Alfa must have been convinced that 1 usb port supplies sufficient power when they dropped the cable with 2 type A connectors.
As motion30 wrote, buy another one for $36. Here in Europe the AWUS036H 1000mW costs 60 euro's, which is well over $80.

[Sail323]

My AWUS036H works fine. It's 'edsailing' that is having the problem. I will try to find a USB cable with (2) USB Type A connectors tough.