General Satellite Phone Troubleshooting Steps

Troubleshooting

This section is about troubleshooting various problems you may face when configuring your PC with Iridium

Serial to USB data cable

1) Problem: Computer not recognising the serial to USB data cable

The driver may not be installed properly. Please verify that the driver is correct by following the instruction below.

Please locate the COM port number in the following way. Please be familiar with the process because Windows will occasionally decide to change the number, particularly if you plug the adaptor into a different USB port.

[SEE SCREEN SHOTS IN SETUP MANUAL]

Internet connection

1) Modem (or other connecting device) is already in use or is not configured properly

This means that the COM port numbers have changed. Some serial to USB converters change the COM port settings if you plug them into a different USB slot – check you are using your normal USB slot. Otherwise run the automatic installation routine again

2) Phone dials and then disconnects while the computer says “Authenticating”

This is usually a symptom of an unsupported Serial to USB adaptor.

3) Automatic install is unable to detect the satellite phone

Check

  1. the connections between the phone and the computer
  2. the phone is turned on (turn it off and on again to reset it)
  3. recheck that the drivers for any USB adaptor are installed (see above)

4) System is slow and the connection frequently times out

Background programs are hogging the connection and therefore taking up bandwidth

This is well covered in our section Disable Background Tasks