Packard Bell and Broadband

[notetosender]

Hi everyone, I just upgraded to Wanadoo Broadband and received my installation pack today, I tried to put the disk in and after making funny noises it didnt run, I tried going to the start menu and running it from there but when I clicked the CD-Rom icon it said "insert disk into drive" even though there was a disk in. I have a Packard Bell computer running Windows ME. Anyone know what the problem could be? Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[Me__2001]

does the drive work with any other CD's or DVD's ? have you checked the disc for scratches ?

 

[notetosender]

Yeah, the disk has no scratches and I can play both music CD's and CD-Rom game disks. I had heard something about needing to download a patch if the computer is Packard Bell but Im not really sure.

 

[muckshifter]

oops ... don't sware on this forum please

I upgraded my Freeserve/Wanadoo account to Broadband as soon as it became available in Etchingham.
I am still waiting for the day I get more than five minutes without the computer crashing.
This is apparently a known fault with the combination of the Wanadoo Broadband Modem software with a Packard Bell computer.
I am now virtually on 'best chum' terms with the helpful person, at the Wanadoo Broadband Helpdesk, that I have exchanged several long phone calls with.
We have now tried just about every combination of installing and uninstalling, and downloaded the Packard Bell patch which is supposed to cure the problem. But every time I connect the computer crashes in minutes, sometimes seconds, the computer completely freezes and the only way out is to disconnect the power supply and boot up again.
All this is currently making Broadband for me 100 times slower than Dial-up.

I have had to start in safe mode several times and restore the system back to a date prior to the Broadband instalation and revert to the dial-up connection, just to catch up with work and e-mails.
My dial-up connection will only remain active for a few more days so hopefully I will get it sorted over the weekend.
If I don't, I am seriously thinking of telling Wanadoo that I want my nice 'safe' Dial-up connection back.

...

I have been checking out posts on the Users Forum on the Packard Bell site, this problem seems to be pretty common, most of the post indicating that they have tried everything so far suggested, their forum is littered with posts from people with Packard Bell computers running XP not being able to get the Freeserve/Wanadoo Broadband working.
I also noticed on that forum that it is also a problem for people trying to install AOL Broadband on a Packard Bell + XP with the Speedtouch Modem.

It seems to be the Speedtouch software that is the problem, I have tried looking at the Speedtouch website to see if there is anything helpful on there, but that seems to be mainly devoted to sales, but I will investigate there again when I get a chance.

I am trying to avoid the tedious task of a clean install of windows, but it is looking more and more like the only option.
I have exchanged a couple of e-mails with the technical help desk, have sent them a maill with everything I have tried so far, what happened when etc., I am still waiting for a response (but, it was such a long e-mail he is probably still reading it)

I will let you know how I get on.

oh dear ...

I have blown the dust off my old windows 98 Dell and it works perfectly on that, only problem is the machine is a bit slow so the Broadband is downloading faster than the computer can process it, but still better than the dial up connection.

I still cannot get it to work on my Packard Bell Laptop running XP, have tried everything suggested by Wanadoo/Freeserve. The problem with that is every time you ring the helpline you speak to a different person, and you have to explain it all over again, and they keep suggesting all the thing already tried.

As far as I can make out the problem is a conflict between the software for the Speedtouch Modem that they supply, the Packard Bell set up and XP.

Now I just re-read you post ... and you haven't even got the CD to work.

Sorry, not laughing at you, but Wannadoo wanna go and die in a corner somewhere.

 

[Adywebb]

I would send the wanadoo stuff back saying its not fit for the purpose, and go with a different ISP.