Calling all VOYSYS (Merlin Classic Mail) gurus - HELP!

[djslakor]

Greetings all,

I'm confident there's a few old-timers perusing these boards which can help me with our legacy Merlin system.

We have a Merlin Plus 820d2 with the big white external VOYSYS box for voicemail. The VOYSYS has stopped responding to the * key, and the auto-attendant no longer functions. The VOYSYS does, however, seem to go through its usual initialization routine, ending with a solid GREEN status light 5, which is supposed to indicate no errors and ready state. However, when we try to access the VM by pressing '*', we hear the VOYSYS click to pick up the line as always, but then it's dead silence, no prompt to enter your password, etc.. This has happened a few times in the past, but usually a reboot fixed it (although you'd have to wait a solid 20-30 mins before it came back). I've tried rebooting several times to no avail.

_ANY_ help or pointers would be most useful!

Also, in the event the VOYSYS is dead, what would be your recommendation for the most practical method of adding voicemail back to our Merlin Plus 820d2 these days?

 

[djslakor]

Ok, new symptom. For basic troubleshooting purposes, I noticed the system was still delivering "You have a new message" intercom pages to stations that had voicemail, but it would only do this 1 iteration. So, I figured maybe the system would be responsive for a little bit. I was right, so after rebooting the Voysys, as soon as status 5 goes solid, I _can_ enter the VM system and stay in it as long as I want, however, as soon as I exit it and try to go back in again, it does not work. So, there's a time window after boot that it works, then it basically hangs. That seems to me to signal a software problem.

 

[djslakor]

Ok, the problem is resolved (for anyone out there on the Internet which may encounter this thread with the same symptoms).

Unfortunately, the fix requires a reset of the VOYSYS. Enter the administrator's mailbox, press 9, 5, 8, 1 ... then be patient. It takes about 15-20 mins to reset the unit, and you'll hear quite a bit of hard drive activity on the VOYSYS. I assume the drive is reloaded with data from ROM chips, but who knows.

It did resolve the problem completely. Unfortunately, it completely wiped the unit, so I'll get to spend part of the day tomorrow setting it all back up again.

Merlin + Voysys 4 eva.

 

[exsmogger]

Certain newer versions of Voysys software would take up to 15 minutes after lite 5 goes solid to be fully booted up. This is normal.

Is it possible the GD mailbox filled up with messages? Was this mailbox being checked for messages on a regular basis?

As for other voicemail options for the Merlin, the Voysys is your only choice. There's not many of us left that still know how to work on/repair these anymore.

Brian Cox
Oregon Phone

http://www.OregonPhone.com

 

[Dexman]

If the voicemail's hard drive does stop functioning, there is an outfit that does sell replacement drives (check older topics for the link).

I do agree with something that Merlinman suggested in the other topic in that 820D2 users really should consider upgrading to an R7 (V14.2?) Merlin Legend.

Such an upgrade will allow the use of more current Avaya voicemail systems and the customer will be able to keep their ATL sets, but they will need to add 1 MLX-type module and a MLX-20L console telephone set.

I "FEATURE 00

 

[djslakor]

Dexman,

Thank you for replying, but as I mentioned, the hard drive is working fine with no indications of malfunction.

Thanks

 

[djslakor]

exsmogger:

If the GD mailbox is full, does it cause the symptoms I mentioned? Specifically, where the system stops responding approximately 1 minute after the 5th status LED goes solid? The symptom I was having was that the system was only responsive for about 1 minute after reaching steady green, then there was no way to get back into the voysys other than a reboot and good timing.

Once I did a voysys reset through the administration menu, everything works perfectly now and the system stays responsive (although it blew away all of our configuration).

Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences with this hardware!

For us, there is no compelling reason to upgrade. Our merlin plus + voysys does everything we need.

djs

 

[exsmogger]

I threw that out there as something to check in case the trouble reappears at a later date. As I recall, software version 1.6H will act like you described. You have to allow up to 15 minutes after lite 5 goes steady before the voicemail is ready for full operation. I used to load version 1.6F onto hard drives as they didn't have this trouble. The white sticker near the top right-side of the unit should indicate which version you have.

Brian Cox
Oregon Phone

http://www.OregonPhone.com

 

[Dexman]

I caught that the drive is fine.

My suggestion applies to the time when the drive does fail (they all do at some point).

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