Avaya Merlin Voicemail Stops Working 1

[JRuntz]

We have a dinosaur Avaya Merlin Magic phone system. The voicemail has suddenly started acting up. It will stop working with no warning. Phone service is fine, but voicemail just keeps ringing and will not pick up when calls are transferred and you did not dial into it. I have to unplug the main boxes to reset it. I think the Avaya tower may be losing power, too. I’m not a technical person and only know what I know and I’m afraid I’m doing more harm than good consistently rebooting the system. Sny advice out there on what may be happening and how to fix it? I don’t know anyone in our area that works on this old phone system. Help, please!

 

[Dexman]

When looking at the voicemail module, do you see any alarm indications, or hear any weird noises that might point to a failing hard drive?
The next time that the voicemail becomes inoperative, consider snapping a picture of the system before an attempted reboot and post it here for us to look at.

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[JRuntz]

That's just it. I don't know what I would take a picture of to show you. The phones are still operating and all lights are still on. This is a system from 2004. It is a dinosaur. Here are a few pics of the equipment. Several times I have gone through the steps of restoring the voicemail with no success of restoration of service. The only fix is dropping power to the entire system. Can you advise where in the menu I should look the next time the voicemail does not work? Again, it just continues to ring when you try to connect to the voicemail. And it is not a normal ring...it has a strange beep at the end of each ring. Calling inside and outside lines are still functional.

 

[Dexman]

Can you remove the covers from the two chassis and take a picture or two of the modules inside? I want to see if the anything is showing an alarm.

The Merlin platform is rock solid. It is long in the tooth, but they just keep on going & going. [Smile]

Looking at the picture of the two carriers on the wall, it looks like they are right up against the drop ceiling. That will impede heat dissipation out the top of each carrier.

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[JRuntz]

It has been rock solid up until about 6 months ago. I'm not sure what has happened to our service. We are also in an older building and I'm afraid the power is dropping sporadically. Here are a few more pics. There is more space above the boxes than the first pic shows. I'd say 6-8 inches at least.

I'm learning more about this system from your questions. Thank you for your responses!

 

[Dexman]

No visual alarms. The voice-mail looks happy. Much better picture of the carrier & modules. [Smile]

Does the auto attendant answer incoming calls consistently, or is that becoming hit or miss

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[Dexman]

This is a picture of the Magix that I installed at my church more than a decade ago.

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[Dexman]

One more question. Just want to make sure that the display on the telephone looks complete like the one in the church office.

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[JRuntz]

We have a receptionist answer calls during the day. When she is away from her desk and/or leaves for the evening, we turn on the night service. When the voicemail is not working... The calls are answered but if the caller is transferred to an extension, it just continually rings and does not get picked up by voicemail. The caller is also not permitted to leave a message in the general voicemail box used by the receptionist's extension(Ext.200).

The display on the main telephone is complete. It just doesn't show up in pictures from some reason. Looks exactly like your phone display.

I've considered deleting and reprogramming the night service button and the attendant rules.

 

[Westi]

try it and see if all the vm ports are busy you can watch the voicemail module and see them flash if I remember correctly.

Joe
FHandw, ACSS, ACIS

 

[Dexman]

I think that is correct Westi. When any one of the four voicemail ports is being used, the corresponding LED will flash on the front of the voicemail module.

I was wondering if a voicemail port is incorrectly programmed somehow (a port was pointed to the voicemail in error).

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[Westi]

If a port is assigned as additional port then it should alternate through and sometime down the line get to the voicemail.
Maybe it is just tired of working and wants to be retired after 25 years

Just looked at the pictures and it shows 4 ports active in one and 8 ports active in the other picture. Or the 4 just flashed and the picture is taken while they were off


Joe
FHandw, ACSS, ACIS

 

[Dexman]

The four port system is the OP's. The eight port system is the one I installed at my church. [Smile]

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[Westi]

hahaha, now that would explain it.

Joe
FHandw, ACSS, ACIS

 

[Dexman]

@ Westi

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[JRuntz]

Voicemail has been working fine for the past two weeks. Today it decided to quit again. First pic is the box before I had to cut the power to restart it. Second is what it looks like after rebooting the power.

It has power, but no lights on the port tree. I just don't understand what could be going on!

https://res.cloudinary.com/engineering-com/image/upload/v1694711428/tips/No_VM_Photo_9.
[img [URL unfurl="true"]https://res.cloudinary.com/engineering-com/image/upload/v1694711573/tips/Avaya_phone_5_xvkrez.jpg[/URL]14.23_etojmr.jpg]

 

[Dexman]

Thr before picture shows that all four of the voice-mail ports are unavailable.

This could point to either a failing license PCMCIA or the voice-mail itself.

My thought would be to first power down the carrier and try to reseat the PCMCIA card and see if that helps.

If not, try replacing the PCMCIA card with another 4 port card. Lastly, replace the voice-mail module itself.

One of the leads might have another suggestions, but those are mine.

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[JRuntz]

Thank you for the recommendations. I'll give these a try. I'm beyond frustrated with this issue. Voicemail is down again this morning.

 

[Dexman]

The nice thing about the Merlin platform is that it is very reliable. Once the defective part has been replaced, the system should be ready to roll.

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