Does Anyone Really Understand BCM?

[bklumpp]

We purchased a BCM 200 just over 2 years ago. The unit crashed last weekend. We had to power cycle the unit. When it rebooted, it ran CHKDSK. It found a ton of bad clusters, corrupt indexes, etc... Since then it won't boot fully. I took the hard drive out and plugged it in as a slave to another NT box to examine the data. Of course, the hard drive consisted of numerous file00x.chk folders and missing OS files - in other words bad hard drive.

I called our Nortel reseller technician to take a look at it. He ignored my information about the bad hard drive and tried to tell us to get a new MSC card for $2300. I know for a fact the drive is bad and ordered a new drive from a Nortel distributor on my own. The new drive, however, didn't work. The unit will not completely boot.

It boots to the NT boot screen and seems to hang. We are still able to receive incoming calls, make outgoing calls, and all our extensions work. The only things that don't work are the IVR, Auto Attendant, Voice Mails, etc...

Could it still be a bad MSC card too? Any suggestions would be appreciated. At this point, the thought of spending another $2300 + labor to replace a part on a system that is only 2 years old is not giving me a warm fuzzy feeling about this box.

 

[senk1s]

dont know the answer to ur subject question.

if your phones are working then ur MSC card is functional
some questions to you
what kind of hdd did u order - preloaded/ same type/ version?

 

[bklumpp]

To elaborate on the subject, we've had 3 different techs/nortel partners in the past 2 years try to help us with this phone system. I know more about the unit than any of them... None of them seem to understand the technology (case in point diagnosing that the MSC card is bad). I'm very frusterated with Nortel at this point.

--------

We ordered a BCM 3.6 HDD from a distributor of Nortel products. It came preloaded. The version we were at was 3.0. I know that by replacing the drive, I'd have to reprogram everything, which at this point is no biggy. I just need to get the unit to boot up so I can get to that point.

 

[senk1s]

when changing the version, you may have to use the command line to 'initialize' the system.

be sure to have the keycodes, otherwise your applications will not work

 

[bklumpp]

Question is... How do I get to the command line if it won't boot up? When it boots into NT, shouldn't it get me to a command line of some sort? Right now all I see is the boot blue screen (not a blue screen of death) with the loading "dots".....................

 

[bklumpp]

FYI, I was able to recover the keycodes from the old hard drive

 

[senk1s]

unplug the monitor/kbd ...
connect a serial cable and login with the default passwords (new for 3.6)
that should give a better indication of where the bootup is stopping

 

[bklumpp]

Serial a null modem cable? or a special pinout?

 

[biv343]

Null modem cable. 9600-8-N-1. You'll need to set the IP address, etc back on the system. The monitor port on the BCM will show the NT blue screen - it isn't good for much at all, except watching the memory count or looking for BIOS/POST errors. In the 1.0/2.0 days, the keyboard ports were usable, but that went away in release 2.5.

Since the system was at 3.0, and you installed a 3.6 drive, you may need to run the Universal Profile to get the system back on it's feet. At the main screen, see what your Init Status says (should be Complete(6.2) when all is well. If it's stuck at Pending(1.1) or something like that, then the system hasn't fully initialized - that could need Nortel ITAS intervention to remedy.

Good luck.

 

[biv343]

Just reread my reply - I should say the monitor ports were actually usable (could see the NT desktop) in pre release 2.5. The keyboard/monitor/mouse ports are still functional up until NT begins to load.

 

[bklumpp]

From the com port all I see is the Username: prompt. I don't see any of the booting process.

I also tried the default username/password combo that got me into telnet/web interface when it was working before. (supervisor/visor) However, that doesn't seem to work from here. It's also asking for a Domain though, and I never made the machine a member of a domain nor do I recall the default machine name.

Other combinations I tried (leaving Domain blank):

supervisor - visor
supervisor - PlsChgMe!
ee_admin - eedge
ee_admin - PlsChgMe!
administrator - PlsChgMe!

 

[senk1s]

4th one is the default in 3.6 ...
is it rejecting the combination or just ignoring it

 

[bklumpp]

went into old hdd and found the default computer name is "needsnewname". that needed to be in the domain field for login.

 

[3Sixty]

Hi bklumpp

What was the original version of the BCM?

If you upgraded the version you will need to flash the MSC card to match the harddrive version.

If this is not done the BCM will eventually boot but you will have problems applying patches and updates later.

The username and password should be default if it is a new harddrive.

username ee_admin
Domain
password PlsChgMe!

If the password has been changed then the harddrive you have been sent is not new.

 

[3Sixty]

Just to clarify something bklumpp the boot process for the BCM is it will boot to the blue screen on windows NT but you will never see the login prompt.You need to use the VNC access in another article to access the login prompt.

 

[bklumpp]

Login from the console is:

username: ee_admin
Domain: needsnewname
password: PlsChgMe!

domain left blank doesn't work...

 

[3Sixty]

It should will . The needsnewname is just the netbios name on the BCM the default domain is not set up.

 

[bklumpp]

Well, apparently once I added the hard drive, I had to initialize and flash the MSC card. Now that I did that, I am able to get into the Web Interface to complete the programming and resetup all my auto attendant, voice mail settings, etc...

Thanks to everyone for all your help, it is appreciated.

Regards

 

[bklumpp]

If anyone of you are in the detroit metro area and want to make yourselves available for future support (T&M), let me know.

As I mentioned above, we went thru 3 "Nortel Partners" and none of them were any help.

 

[Serenitynow109]

that term "Nortel Partners" does not hold much water in my opinion, and I am a "Nortel"guy...