Bizarre problem on Partner ACS R6 system...

[telewhore]

I'm a fairly experience Partner tech and this one has me scratching my head...the problem in a nutshell is for the second night in a row, the receptionist would get in at 8am and line one is active for about 4 hours. A button of a busy indicator for her extension is lit up, like her phone initiated or the took the call, in both instances. The first time it happened, I came onsite and moved her ext. 20 to a new port (ext 24) because originally when the issue happened she unplugged her phone and plugged back in and it was dead. I disconnected any cables attached to that possible problematic port, as I have seen wonky issues surface when an ext. port goes bad on this pbx. I also put in a new jack at her station location just to rule that out and verified nothing else is attached to those cable pairs at the MDF. Then called it a day...

Customer called next morning to report the same problem. This time I had her reboot the PBX, by flipping the power switch on the 5-slot carrier. The system didn't come back up, no lights, nada, even after I had her make sure nothing was loose, power wise. When I arrived onsite an hour later the system was back up, customer touched nothing, a whole 40 minutes went by and the system came up on its own! I checked out the 5-slot didn't find anything that seemed loose. I powered it down and reseated everything, modules, power cord, and powered back up without issue...

I read here on tek tips that if there is a bad extension port the lines should be removed from it. So I went into Sys prog and removed them via #301. I didn't have to do this in the past with bad ext. ports but I think in all instances I've removed the modules housing the bad ports.

What do guys think is going on here? Will this issue resurface again around 3am, even after I removed the line assignments on the "bad" port?

Thanks in advance!

 

[exsmogger]

No lights on the system after powering off and then on leads me to suspect the power supply in the ACS is starting to fail. I'd try replacing the power supply if odd problems keep occurring.

Brian Cox
Georgia Telephone

http://Georgia-Telephone.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/briancox1952

 

[Telecomboy]

You do need to remove the lines as you did. If not, even with no phone plugged in that extension port can busy out the line again. I have had that happen. Removing the lines solves it that issue, but the power issue is a bit more concerning. It could be the cards were not seated properly even though the client never touched them.

 

[telewhore]

Customer just called in reporting it happened again, this time at 6am vs 3am...what the heck

 

[meyer1y2k]

You might have a shorted cable somewhere.

Try this -

If you have an unused working port this is much easier. If you are forced to use a working station note down the key programming before you start. Performing this test when there is no usage of the phones will also make this faster and easier.

Create DSS keys for all stations from lowest to highest. You might have to do this in stages if the phone does not have enough buttons. If a DSS key lights, investigate. This could be due to a short on the cable. On many of these calls I have found corrosion built up on the pins of the jack on the station side. Of course, a nail, staple, or moisture can also be the cause.

Even if you find one, since you are there and it is a simple test, rinse and repeat for all stations.

If you used a working station, restore original button programming.

I used to bang my head on the wall against these until taught this trick. Now I am out in less than 1 hour with no callbacks.

Mike

 

[telewhore]

Interesting Mike...I just remembered that the customer said that there are mice hanging around walls of this facility, perhaps one of them chewed on the cable? I will investigate again tomorrow and report my findings. Thank you all for responding.

Chris

 

[telewhore]

Sooo, yesterday my dispatch told the customer to contact their provider to investigate prior to me coming out today to see if the problem is on their end. Guess what? The problem didn't resurface this morning. The provider came onsite and supposedly said to the customer that the issue is with the pbx - of course after tests on his end were conducted.

So can this have really have been a provider issue? Or did I have a few issues coupled into one? I'm still thinking this mouse is the culprit at this point and this issue will return...

 

[Telecomboy]

It could be if they had a short on their wiring. Just curious, after removing the lines from the original extension that was busying the line, what extension was showing it as being used?

 

[telewhore]

It showed the new extension (x24) busy, so the problem carried with the user...which then lead me to believe that her voice cable was the culprit. I was going to go onsite today and pull a new cable but the problem didn't come back.

 

[Telecomboy]

If it followed to the new extension (and it does come back) it could be a bad switch-hook on their phone. I would have them swap phone with another location and see if it follows the phone.