CP7945 not working 1

[DavidSigma]

I need to repair a few CP7945. All have the same problem. When connecting power the display lights up for a second (without text) same time all leds are on. After that all lights off, and now sequence of the 3 leds above Headset Mute and Speaker. The green led above the speaker button remains on(green) forever. The 2 lines leds wouldn't light and the display remains off. I tried to factory reset the phones but they still behave as described. Any idea...? Thanks.

 

[gnrslash4life]

POE or power brick for power? If POE, and you have a power brick, I would test it that way. Or at least put it on a POE port that you know works with another phone. Chances are the phones will need to be replaced. It has been awhile since I have worked with the color phones though. I have seen them randomly go bad however.

Certifications:
A+
Network+
CCENT

 

[SteveBallantyne]

I second gnrslash4life's advice.

I had a similar issue, only once. Try getting onto the switch that your phones are connected to and do a 'term mon'. I found that when plugging my phones in, the switch was screaming something about an incompatible vendor power option ... or something like that.

For me the problem ended up being the wiring. Not the switch, or the phone. Using a different wall-port and a new network cable to the phone resolved the problem.

But yeah, when the color phones die there is little you can do with them. I have had a few brick on me and when you take them apart --- they don't "look bad".

 

[DavidSigma]

Hi to All. The poe and the cable are good. I connected another 7945 that works OK. Still, 18 sets are behaving as I described.
David

 

[SteveBallantyne]

You have 18 dead phones? Out of how many total? That seems like an awful lot to go bad on you ... unless maybe you are dealing with thousands of handsets.

Another thought - are you out of power on the switch? I wouldn't think so if you hooked up another phone and it works fine. But if you have more than 3/4ths of a switch loaded with PoE devices, you may just be running low on juice. A 'show power inline' from an IOS terminal session will tell you.

 

[DavidSigma]

Indeed a strange situation, in any case the POE is OK I also tested them with external 48V PSU (Original Cisco) still the same i.e. the speaker led green and the display off. While monitoring the port the phone is not asking for any data/files...
Thanks
David

 

[whykap]

How did these 18 phones go bad? Where they working and stopped for no reason or after an upgrade for example?
Where they purchased new or did you receive them this way?
18 phones don't just croak all together for no reason.
Also can you share the factory reset procedure you used to verify it's correct?

 

[DavidSigma]

Since other people did something to these phones we are now trying to get the details. I think they tried to upgrade or to change to SIP from SCCP. No info yet. As for the factory reset, while holding down # key connect power and wait until the 2 line leds blink orange. Now release the # key and press 123456789*0# this will reset the phone to "factory". In my case I couldn't complete this procedure since the phones didn't reach the blinking state of the 2 line leds. I did it anyway ignoring this fault state but nothing happened and the phones are still without display and only the speaker green led is on.

 

[SteveBallantyne]

** DISCLAIMER ALERT ** I have not tested any of these methods.

It seems that when you are doing the 123456789*0# routine, you are only performing a "soft reset". It sounds like in your case you need to perform a *HARD* reset.

However --- you will need to have a private TFTP server up and running (tftpd) and preferably a cross-over connection to your phone to avoid any mistakes or confusion on your production network.

[b]Factory reset alternatives codes:[/b]
Soft reset (delete all files) 123456789*0#
Hard reset (format flash) 3491672850*#
Network preservation hard reset (format flash; network settings are preserved in RAM only if you don’t remove the power cable from the phone during the reset process) 3491672850*#

Source: Factory Reset Cisco 7940, 7960, 7941, and 7961 IP Phones

This page has a really good tutorial: A Guide, FAQ, and how to unbrick or reflash the Cisco 7970G (I realize that this is NOT the same model phone that you have, but I think that the procedure is the same.

I was also reading that while your phone may look like a darkened brick - the screen may actually be displaying details without a back-light. You might try shining a LED flashlight down onto the screen while you are working with it.

 

[DavidSigma]

Thanks for the good info, although in my case it won't work as the phones are not reaching the state where I can reset them. As for the display the backlite is OK as when connecting power it lights up for a second.