Discarding CallPilot 150 - How to wipe messages?

[Javik]

We have an old Nortel / Meridian system sitting around, which was replaced with a Cisco VOIP phone system about 3-4 years ago, after Nortel went bankrupt.

The Nortel system is the modern fancy one from about 2007 with fiber interconnects between the line expansion modules. But it's all in a million pieces in storage, the phones went to an electronics recycler, and it's been years since any of the core hardware was touched.

I'd like to discard it, send it to an electronics recycler, but I don't want it going out the door with any old voicemails on it. I have seen the manuals on the web to reset the admin password, but that assumes the system is assembled and there are working phones to do the password reset.

Are the voicemails are only stored in the CallPilot 150 unit? I took it apart and I don't see any flash memory on the circuit board, so is everything kept on the PCMCIA card with the software?

The PCMCIA card auto-mounts as a disk file system when I plug it into a Windows XP laptop, but I don't see anything obviously named "message storage database" that I can just delete and overwrite.

Here's the directory listing for the PCMCIA card:

http://pastebin.com/2knjKuvr

If I were to make a wild guess, I'd say the message storage is in the "filepool" directory..

Will I remove the messages if I just pull the card and zero the flash sectors with a disk wiping tool?

 

[curlycord]

Best way is to fire up the CP (while attached to the KSU or wont boot up).
Once the CP is active after 5 minutes then log into F983 and press 1 to do REINSTALL.

That will wipe out the structure, greetings and messages back to default.


Suggest you sell whats left.



=----(((((((((()----=
curlycord

http://www.curlycord.com

Toronto Canada

http://www.telcopc.ca

 

[exsmogger]

Javik, I'll take the system off your hands.

Brian Cox
Georgia Telephone

http://Georgia-Telephone.com

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

 

[Javik]

As I previously mentioned, the system was disassembled about 3-4 years ago and has been unused since. I'm guessing it was a brand-new install in about 2007.

As I'm sure you are all aware, this Nortel equipment is best described as "end-user hostile", with nothing like a serial port, network jack, video connector, or anything else an average computer technician might expect. It just has those huge 25-pair connector sockets.

The original cabling is still in place but is abandoned. (It'd take a lot of effort to rip all this out, so it's easier to just leave it where it is.) I could try to just plug the head unit back in, but I have no idea where any of these cables went. None of the big 50-pin plugs are labeled.

Does it matter? Can I plug them in, in any order, and the head unit will find the CallPilot? I did manage to track the voice mail connection wires.. but I have no idea where its 25-pair fanout cable was connected to the head unit.

We have no Meridian phones anymore. We were quite thorough with either discarding or giving them away the past couple years. Apparently now I would need to re-obtain one again, and one of the fancier models with the LCD display and buttons around the LCD, that was only at the secretary's desk.

Once I do have a phone, do these need 1 or 2 pairs to work? Can I just connect it to any pair(s) of the 25-pair fanout cables, and it will be seen by the head unit? I have little hope of plugging in the six original fanout cables into the correct original spots on the head unit and expanders.

,

If the hardware really is worth something to people like y'all, then after going through all this hassle to reset it to defaults, vs just zeroing out the PCMCIA cards with a wipe tool and discarding it, I would want to get a fair value from it. So I'll probably put the CallPilot, head unit, and extenders on eBay as individual listings, once I know the messages have been wiped.

Should I pull the expansion boards and the fiber connector module from the head unit, and list those separately? (I assume at minimum the head unit needs to keep its power supply and the software cartridge/PCMCIA card.)

I do not have the dust caps for the fiber sockets on the modules, though the doors have always been closed since it was disassembled and taken down. I would assume there's a safe way to clean dust off the exposed fiber interconnect ends, with alcohol, etc.

 

[exsmogger]

The digital phones run on one pair. Seeing as how it's been sitting idle for 3-4 years I highly doubt that the system has held its programming. The backup battery (super cap) in the MICS will have drained its voltage by now and defaulted the programming. The CallPilot will still have its database if that's a concern. You could sell it without the software card and this would suffice to default its programming.

Brian Cox
Georgia Telephone

http://Georgia-Telephone.com

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