BCM 200 3.6 - Voicemail keeps crashing 2

[exsmogger]

I just installed a BCM 200 in our office. The phone side works fine, but the Call Pilot keeps crashing. The green lites flash continually on the front of the unit as if it was just powered on. I also cannot access the system over the LAN connection or the serial port when the Call Pilot crashes. I am also getting alarm code 50-1 and event code 705-0007 S5. How do I go about troubleshooting these symptoms? Thanks.

Brian Cox

http://www.jandjcommunications.com

 

[acewarlock]

Pull the BFT (Base Function Tray)out and see if the Caps are green and look for a grayish goop leaking out of the Caps. If they are keaking, this is covered for free replacement by Nortel. I have replaced 1 BCM 200, 15 BCM 400 and 7 BCM 1000.

 

[exsmogger]

Thanks acewarlock. I did a Google search and others have suggested the same diagnosis. I was hoping that loading up-to-date patches, or upgrading the software would make the problem go away. I'll do as you suggest first thing Monday and let you know what I find.

Brian Cox

http://www.jandjcommunications.com

 

[acewarlock]

Just in case your not a Nortel partner, you can get it repaired at http:\\

http://www.badcaps.net

for about $80

 

[exsmogger]

The caps are not leaking and look perfectly normal. I am trying reinitializing the Call Pilot and then reinstalling. So far, so good this A.M. I have also read that a corrupt keycode file can cause problems, so I will try deleting the keycode file and then re-input the keycodes if the voicemail crashes again. I'll post an update.

Brian Cox

http://www.jandjcommunications.com

 

[acewarlock]

Are you sure they are not leaking, it can be very little. Are the Caps rounded on the top?
Are the Caps Green?

Look very closley, it is useally the caps next to the flat ribbon cable that leak, but I have seen other's leak.

A bad or corrupt keycode wont keep the serial or IP ports from working.

if you do a hard reboot (pull the plug) does it start to work?

 

[acewarlock]

Go to

http://www.badcaps.net/ident/

and look at the pictures, it will show you what to look for.

 

[exsmogger]

The caps are not rounded or leaking. I replace bad caps on Avaya Partner equipment every day, so I'm familiar with the symptoms. I even put the BFT under my magnifier to be sure and I saw nothing abnormal. The BCM worked fine all day without crashing or any alarms after I reinstalled the voicemail. Before I left work today I loaded the BCM down with phones on my test bench to see what happens overnight. I'll post my findings tomorrow. I appreciate your efforts.

Brian Cox

http://www.jandjcommunications.com

 

[biv343]

Do you have the resource manager patch on your system? I believe this was released after CP3.


BCM 3.6 Resource Manager Update
*******************************************************************************************

CRs Resolved:
Q01109363 - BCM 3.6 Manager & voicemail to be inactive
Q01100524 - BCM Monitor causes BCM voicemail to freeze
Q01152435 - BSOD on netmeeting call to BCM 3.6 CP3 and 3.7

 

[exsmogger]

It looks like the Resource Manager Update fixed the problem. Thanks to all for their suggestions.

Brian Cox

http://www.jandjcommunications.com

 

[exsmogger]

Back to the drawing board. It has run fine on my test bench for 2 days, but within 15 minutes of putting it back online this afternoon the voicemail crashed again. It seems that active access of the Call Pilot makes it crash. This is starting to make Windows 95 look stable!

Brian Cox

http://www.jandjcommunications.com

 

[biv343]

Check how much memory is showing in the system (maintenance, system information, detailed inventory, memory inventory).

I've seen systems that have bad or failing memory - they'll show less than 256MB. I've seen a couple of them that showed 220MB or less. The system runs low on memory when being accesses heavily and it falls on it's face.

Or, if you've got a spare 256MB PC133 DIMM laying around, might be worth a shot swapping it out.

 

[gecko202002]

The problem might be with the MSC - the alarm 50-1 is sometimes a pre-cursor to this. Also with the MSC problem, reboots will clear the problem temporarily, but the services will go down again after a few days.
Look at MSC and see if part # is NT5B15AAAK AO002110 05

 

[exsmogger]

gecko202002,

I checked the part # of the MSC and the one I have appears to be a later model than the number you gave me.

biv343,

The system showed a total of 263MB, but only about 27MB available. I added another 128MB stick and now the system shows 391MB total and 145MB available. I'll keep you posted on my results. Thanks to you both.

Brian Cox

http://www.jandjcommunications.com

 

[exsmogger]

Update: The additional memory and all available patches changed nothing. Voicemail/data keeps going down. I must conclude it is a hardware issue and we are pursuing a replacement from our supplier. Thanks to all for your suggestions and help.

Brian Cox

http://www.jandjcommunications.com

 

[FuturistechComm]

I'm having the same problems with a BCM-400 - 3.6. I've copied the first critical alarm that is registered below. I didn't see it listed as an alarm in the docs. I've attempted to load up the latest cumulative patch remotely - however it seems to fail after about 45 mintues. I'll be on-site tomorrow and check the caps. I'll also try and take a replacement BFT with me.

Questions are - how much of the BCM can I replace without needing to reprogram and install new keycodes? Is that all saved on the hardrive? Can I replace the BFT, power supply, and chassis and just swap over the hardrive and modules?

Thanks for your help.

The Apache service named C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache\Apache.exe reported the following error: >>> [Wed Oct 11 17:21:14 2006] [warn] pid file c:/program files/apache group/apache/logs/httpd.pid overwritten -- Unclean shutdown of previous Apache r

Jason Foulds
Futuristech Communications

http://www.futuristechcommunications.com

 

[acewarlock]

The only time you need to get new Keycodes is if you replace the MSC card.