I’ve been having a conversation on a Skype bug reporting forum, and it came to a conclusion that the Philips VOIP321 Skype Phone is just not worth purchasing. I’m an owner of a Philips VOIP321 phone, and until December 2008 it worked fine. However the latest Skype update has put an end to product useability.
Since Skype Version 3.8.0.188 (Release date: November 19, 2008) and all later versions (including Skype 4 Betas as at Jan. 2009) the software Philips supply no longer works with Skype and the VOIP321 phone.
The latest VOIP321 driver from their website suffers the same issue, even though it states “The VOIP321 USB Phone Driver V 3.8.3 which can be downloaded from Philips web site is compatible with Skype software version from V2.0.0.x until V3.8.0.x”. This is plainly no longer correct with the latest stable release of Skype, V3.8.0.188.
Skype developers are unable to do anything about it as they see it being a Philips driver problem. Phillips wont update their driver (Quoting support staff “… no more development/fixes are being incorporated into the VOIP321.EXE file”).
The solution to getting this beast working again:
- Uninstall Skype 3.8.0.188 (or later non-working version)
- Visit the Old Apps website where you can (without support from Skype) download a previous version and use it.
- I found that Skype
3.8.0.1543.8.0.139 worked fine for me with the VOIP321 hardware under Windows XP - Reinstall the older version.
- Launch the newly installed older version of Skype
- Remove the VOIP321.exe application from the Skype menu: Tools > Options > Advanced > Advanced Settings > Manage other programs Access to Skype
- Reboot your Windows Computer
If you don’t own one of these yet, don’t waste your time on Philips Skype phone devices. Their driver support is lacking when Skype is updated and they EOL their product too soon. You buy a product for a few hundred dollars and it becomes useless 12 months later. Phillips would probably rather sell you a newer bit of hardware.
Should they update their driver at this point I will be the first to commend them. I forgot to mention: Phillips Skype phones (where your PC is required) are Windows Only. No Mac or Linux support or drivers are offered.
My next purchase will be a wifi or wired ethernet Skype phone, and not Philips.
hello there is hope yet for me! l have purchased a voip and in the process of chucking it out the window!! l have installed on my computer all the necessary things, the cd installation for the phone is version 1 everything works fine apart ffrom the fact l cannot hear anyone on the handset or speak to anyone! l can make calls and end them answer calls but cannot hear anyone, a few posts say that maybe the handset speakers have been disabled, could someone tell me how? doesnt make it any eaiser for me as my computer is in spanish!!! arggg!!!! thanks
Hi Jane. You can try using the latest driver from phillips and see how you go. It can be downloaded from their VOIP321 driver page.
I am having the samw problem in windows 7 – the USB system is not recognizing the VOIP. Unfortunately I have a nettop tiny pc which means I cannot install the PCI USB card as other people have stated to fix this.
Does anyone have any solutions that do not require a new PCI USB hub?
I am sure this is not a skype problem, it is a windows/hardware problem.
I have tried all the suggestions above, and keeping the NEW VOIP driver, I deinstalled skype version 3.8.0.188 and then going back to 3.8.0.139 (which didnt work either) and then went back to an earlier version (not important which one.. read on). However as others have suggested above I finallyI managed to get Skype going again by clicking through the Windows Sound card settings. I discovered that something (through the passage of upgrades, instals and deinstals that I have done) had MUTED the skype sound device in the windows set up.
For example on XP go to see for yourself go to Control Panel>>SoundSpeed and AudioDevices>>Click on Sounds and Audio Devices>>Click on Audio TAB>>Change Device to Philips VOIP321>>Press Volume Button, and the Phillips Sound Controller appears…
In my case the sound control settings had the Mute all Clicked for the Philips VOIP321, so I unchecked that and the Philips VOIP321 started to work again…
I have the Philips dual phones VOIP321, Windows XP and Skype version 4.1.0.179. It works well after a 5 minutes fix
I had one problem after this latest Skype upgrade: the VOIP 321 was not connecting to Skype. I looked at the Skype menu, Tools, Options, Advanced, and went at the bottom of the page, to the “Manage other programs’ access to Skype”. This is where you can allow VOIP321 to use Skype (by clicking on the “change” button). Maybe this advanced option has been added in the latest versions and by default doesn’t allow VOIP to use Skype (since Philips doesn’t support it anymore).
Just installed Philips V3.8.3 driver, while I already had Skype V.4.1.0.179 in my XP pro system.
Everything works perfectly fine!
My phone with 3 hand sets works fine with skype version 4.2.0.152 and VOIP321 version 3.8.3 running on XP Pro
I have a Philips Voip321 and are running windows 7 x86 (32bit) with skype 4.0. The driver says that the phone is connected and phone calls via the skype button fine, but when i recieve a call the handset doesn’t ring. HELP
I’m sorry I can’t help in this case. I’ve dropped Windows OS for any personal computing, and I’m still only running XP for Business requirements. If Phillips wont provide a driver that works, it only proves my point in the post about not buying another phillips pseudo “VOIP” phone.