Avaya Partner ACS system all handsets dead... help please..novice user 1

[tolch]

Hi... thanks in advance for your help. For starters, I know nothing about phone systems... so please answer in ways a novice like me can understand. Two years ago I bought a house that the previous owner had installed an Avaya Partner ACS system... with handsets and different extensions in every bedroom. I think he previously used the house as an office. Anyway... all has been fine for the past two years... until now.

Came back from xmas out of town and my APC Battery Backup was making all kind of weird noises. Displays on phones were all dead. I unplugged the Avaya system from the APC Backup and plugged it directly into the wall outlet. Avaya unit started back up but all handsets are still dead.. no displays.. no dial tones. Turned off switch in Avaya carrier and waited a few minutes and turned it back on. Same result...nothing on the handsets.

I have a 5 slot carrier... it is light gray and is marked 103H. On/off switch is in upper right corner near the power supply cord.
In the far left slot is a Partner ACS 308ec module. Numbers on the module say: 103G9(28) R3.0
In the middle slot is a Partner ACS 509 Processor. Numbers on this module say: 103R1 R7
I have a card in the processor that says voicemail and another that says remote PC access.

The only specific thing I noticed that is unusual is that the 308ec module green LED blinks every 10 seconds or so. The processor green LED is solid green. I read on some other forums about battery backups inthe processor or module... I have not changed any batteries in the past 2+ years.. but also I have not seen any messages on the handsets about a low battery.

I have no idea how the system should work.. but I am pretty handy at fixing/trouble-shooting electronic things if I know where to start and get some good advice. Please help.

Thanks,
tolch

 

[cvrbob]

power down & remove the 308 in slot one, power up with just the processor, and check your stations ,

 

[tolch]

do I just pull out the 308 or are there clips of any kind that hold it in place?

 

[cvrbob]

just pull straight out , it's probably a bad power unit in the 308, which you may find on the web, as same for batteries in the ups

 

[tolch]

Pulled out 308 unit and restarted. Still no display .. no power.. no tone on any of the extension handsets. Any other possibility?? Thanks again.

 

[cvrbob]

next is to remove the processor and power up with just power cord, check your stations, still no display bad processor ,

 

[tolch]

yup.... tried the processor by itself.... still nothing on the phone displays... could it be anything else besides a bad processor?

Given the $700+ cost for a processor replacement and the fact that the system is being used in my house mostly as a high-tech intercom so that I can call my kids to dinner.... is it worth even fixing? Or am I better off selling the parts and handsets that work?

 

[cvrbob]

Try replacing the power unit inside the processor , you can find then on the web @

http://www.refurbsupplies.com

it not that hard to replace and cheaper POWER SUPPLY 30425 is what you need

 

[tolch]

OK.. thanks. I will give that try. I guess I need to make sure I have fresh batteries in the processor before changing the power supply... to avoid losing all my programming.

One other thing I noticed.... the displays on the handsets that are attached to the 308 module light up every ten seconds or so.. and then go dark again. The displays on the handsets connected to the processor are completely dark and dead all the time. Is this just additional proof of a bad processor... or perhaps something else?

 

[cvrbob]

until you get your power unit, you can put regular type telephones into place of you partner phones at jack 10 & 11 ( power Fail stations ) to receive calls ,make sure your power is off at the control unit

 

[TouchToneTommy]

Losing your programming is going to happen regardless. You can't open the case and keep the batteries intact. But if you have a PC backup/restore card installed, you can restore from that, otherwise programming is pretty simple.

 

[Dexman]

The Partner ACS R7 processor fell victim to a series of problems. Avaya had to issue several patches to fix the problems (which is common in the IP world, but almost unheard of for Partner & Merlin telephone systems).

The original R7 processors would drop programming if power was lost.....even with fresh batteries installed. One of the patches Avaya issued got around that problem by instructing the processor to boot up off of a stored system configuration that could be found either on an external PCMCIA card.....or.....from memory inside of the processor itself. The only function that the batteries had at that point was to keep the replace batteries message from appearing on the displays of system phones connected to extensions 10 & 11.

If you send the processor in for repair, my suggestion would be to have the facility either load the final R7 software.....or.....flash the processor up to the R8 level and take advantage of the largest/final feature set that the Partner ACS offers. My feeling is that most.....if not all.....of the R7 processors found on sites like eBay will eventually become R8s.

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