BCM 50 is fried, transfer keycodes 3

[HyTech]

I have a customer with a BCM 50 R1 that is fried. "The BCM 50 is fried, not the customer."

It seems to have taken a surge on the CO line. They were on line 1 and 2, a third call came in; it was answered, then they heard a surge over the phone, and the whole system went down.

We are installing gas tube protectors for the lines on the new BCM 50. I tried resetting the system, with no luck. We sent it out for repair, and it was declared dead.

Just to clarify, I just have to re-generate the existing keycodes with the new system ID on the Nortel site. I won't need to get new keycodes, correct?

Thank you.

 

[dj4020]

Keycodes are generated to a specific System ID if you are replacing unit with new System ID I believe Nortel in the past charged a license transfer fee. I doubt they have changed that though.

 

[Dasheen]

Just regenerate the keycodes to the new system ID via the krs

 

[HyTech]

I called Nortel KRS. There is no charge to re-generate the key codes, but you have to send the old BCM50 to Nortel within 60 days.

The system is not under warranty. I guess they have to take the keycodes off off the system. The lady from Nortel did not know what happens to the system after that. I am not sure if they send it back to yo or keep it.

Thank you for your replies.

 

[telcodog]

I had the exact problem a few times. The process to transfer the keycodes is very simple but you're right. They want the old system back within 60 days or they charge you for the licenses. A huge flaw in their system is how to deal with out of warranty systems.

The last time I had to do it, I insisted that the end user get their old box back because Nortel does not own it and has no right to keep it without some sort of compensation to the legal owner. I know the reason they want it back is so they can be assured that the system won't be put back in service with the original licenses still active because once they're activated, Nortel has no other way of blocking them remotely so they wipe and/or replace the hard drive (or MSC card). If it's under warranty that's fine, they just send you a replacement but the problem is obvious with out of warranty systems.

In this case, they did send the box back minus the hard drive which was fine because if they wanted it re-deployed, all they had to do was get another imaged drive and carry on from there.

So, I guess the moral is, they will do it but you have to pester the hell out of them for it. BCM50 Rel 1.0 might be an issue though as it is no longer supported, but you can sure as heck put a 3.0 drive in it and make it work again.

As far as I'm concerned, the customer owns it, not Nortel and they have no right to keep it without compensation.

Good Luck with it.

 

[HyTech]

Thank you telcodog. It doesn't make sense that the customer has to "give their system" back to Nortel, but its better than paying for new keycodes, I guess. Maybe they could throw in a Nortel shirt or a pen.

 

[Firebird Scrambler]

Your comments have been interesting to follow. I had a BCM 50 system that had died (Hard disk failure) A colleague of mine also followed the procedure to migrate the keycodes and it was a simple enough procedure to follow. However the old BCM unit was returned to my company's stores as it was normal practice to clear our personal stock holding when replacing faulty equipment, otherwise we would be accountable for it.

The old BCM 50 unit was left for a while in the stores awaiting removal, but was spotted by me and I was able to grab it to take it apart, not knowing the history of the unit. I spent a while and learned that it was possible to reimage or replace the hard disk and get a working system again.

Of course, when I looked on the Nortel web site with the M.A.C. address, I found that the ID wasn't listed anymore and this was later found to be due to the keycode migration. A closer look of the keycode site, showed that it was possible to re register the BCM 50 again, which I did. Although I couldn't obtain any keycodes, I was able to use one of the "Try & Buy" keycodes.

When the keycode was generated, the licence file number didn't start at "1", but carried on from the previously generated number. The file only had the Try & Buy keycode, which meant that you started from the beginning again.

Therefore it seems that you can still use these BCM systems, but you can't obtain the old keycodes, unless you still had a copy.

I can understand Nortel's request for the return of them, but in practice, I'd rather try to repair it first if it's a disk failure. Some ofyou may have already seen my F.A.Q on Tek-Tips or the full version at the link below.


All the best

Firebird Scrambler
Meridian Programmer in the UK

http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidbromley

If it's working, then leave it alone!.

 

[vztech]

HyTech

I had the same issue with a customer but I didn't send mine back.They purchased it they own it.We sent the old one out for repair.

It's only dialtone-VZ

 

[HyTech]

Thank you firebirdscrambler, I appreciate all of the info.

vztech
- We sent the unit in to be repaired, and they told us that they could not fix it. It needed a new hard drive. Thank you for your reply.