How to turn off Super Auto Dial on ACS Rel 6

[jlshelton]

My ACS Rel 6.0 has the "Super Auto Dial" feature. That's where extension 11 dials Last Number Dialed at 6am, even if no one is in the room.

I can't find the feature documented in the ACS instruction manual, so I can't figure out how to turn it off. Apparantly "Super Auto Dial" only works on Tuesday and Thursday.

Any ideas?

No, we do not have any cats walking around the telephones.

 

[itpphoneguy]

Hi jlshelton,
Sounds like you have a sticky or defective button on the phone. Have you tried swapping phones around?
-Chris

 

[jlshelton]

I haven't yet tried swapping phones, but now the problem has repeated on other phones. I've power-cycled the system to see if anything clears. Strange how this repeats now 3 times, alternating days, around AM.6.00.

 

[itpphoneguy]

You are haunted.

 

[skip555]

change the system clock ahead every night to 7am then back to correct time in the morning

does it dial the same number every time or is it last number called from the phone ?

have you looked at smdr data ?

are you sure its the partner system thats doing it ?

 

[jlshelton]

SMDR goes to a server in the garage, that coincidentally is dead. It has turned itself off several times recently, perhaps around the same time as the magic auto dial. But I caught a few long calls, unexplained, on SMDR anyway, resulting from this feature. I've been wondering if the two problems are related; could somehow a glitch on the server be feeding something up the SMDR line causing Partner to misbehave?

I am confident the problem is not human: i've caught at least one magic auto dial event as it happened, and made sure no one was near the phone in question.

Perhaps fixing the server will help; new power supply scheduled for Tuesday.

 

[jlshelton]

Well, another morning, and another AM.6.40 "wake-up" from the Partner ACS. Yet a different extension went off-hook and dialed LND; no one present in the room. I haven't tried changing the system clock yet.

Garage server has been powered off and disconnected for 2 days, so that's not the cause (though perhaps it fried something in the Partner when it failed.) Next obvious step is to CLEAR the system and reprogram it; have to wait for some spare time in the next few days.

 

[itpphoneguy]

Hi jlshelton,
I wouldn't think a reprogram would help, the Partner does not a timed outside call feature. The only thing I can think of aside from power issues and sticky buttons is ... someone forwarding random extensions and using the "wake up call" feature. Someone would have to be messing with you (or them).

A restart (cycle power) would solve all other issues. Any pattern to the outcalling extensions?

-Chris

 

[jlshelton]

The system is at home, and only two residents including me. Spouse doesn't know how to program anything, and we don't have any break-ins, so I don't think anyone is messing with us. So far, all the outcalling extensions are on the main processor module, not an expansion 308 module. Perhaps this is a good excuse to upgrade to ACS R7 and the improved 509 processor. But I'd rather not make the expense right now.

 

[itpphoneguy]

Well that narrows things down a bit. I hear you on the upgrade bit. I'd like an R7 too! Can't afford it. New VM would be sweet also. MySMDR is hooked up to my server in teh basement, about 10' from the systems the crow flies.
So have you reseated the cards in the carrier, and are you using an old or new carrier?

-Chris

 

[jlshelton]

More information for the mystery. The problem has been happening almost exclusively between AM.6.30 and AM.6.45. Normally, I am asleep when this happens, though a couple of times I have been up, but not looking at the phones.

This morning, I was awake at AM.6.40, and at my desk. I heard a beep from the garage, and immediately looked at my phone. It was dead. Then, the phone came back to life. Apparantly, the garage suffered a 1-second power failure. The beep was the UPS complaining that power was out. But the UPS didn't do its job; power to the Partner ACS was interrupted, so the system reset itself. In hindsight, previous events have included the UPS beep as well, but I didn't realize what it was.

A Windows server on the same UPS also crashed, confirming the lack of power. And I just tested the UPS a moment ago. It is definitely dead. (Too bad it couldn't have told me it was dead a long time ago.)

Still a mystery: why a 1-second power glitch in the garage. My desktop computer continued working. No power failure in this room. And why would I have repeated power failures at a similar time every day?

Oh well, off to <generic electronic store> for a new UPS. This one is 10 years old.

 

[itpphoneguy]

Hi jlshelton,
What starts up at this time every morning on your garage circuit? I don't think you had a complete power failure, but a severe brown out. That may explain the Partner's flakey behaviour. If one outlet in the chain has poor connections, even a fan or light starting may cause an issue with power. Measure the voltage on the outlet supplying the Partner and load the circuit with something that draws around 4 amps. Look for the amount of voltage drop you get.

I have a "drop out" relay on some sensitive things. If the power flickers, the relay drops out and the circuit is de-energised until the reset button is pressed. You don't want this on your phone system.

-Chris

 

[jlshelton]

I can get out a volt meter and do some checking. Due to poor electrical design, the garage has one circuit that powers a freezer, the central vacuum, and all my techie equipment. It's a 20 amp circuit, but is technically near capacity.

I had assumed that voltage was not a problem in the past, because operation of the central vacuum, a heavy beast with a big motor, doesn't disrupt anything. If voltage were low on this circuit, running the central vac would cause enough voltage drop to trigger the UPS, but it never has. (Perhaps, though, the central vac has taken a toll on the UPS electronics.)

Running a new power circuit to my techie equipment is an expensive option, but could be considered. We've been in this place 7 years without the central vac causing a problem, so I hope I don't have to do something now. But....

The mystery remains about AM.6.40. I can't think of anything on a timer that could be causing this. Perhaps its a load in a neighbor's house, though again, why would some remote load cause a voltage drop that my central vac isn't capable of doing?

Perhaps the UPS itself has been overloaded. It is a large-capacity unit, but I don't recall the rating now. Plugged into it are the Partner ACS and the Windows server, plus cable modem and router. Perhaps the ACS, doing its morning voice mail maintenance, is causing a temporary power suck, and yanking the UPS down. That might indicate a slightly defective power supply in the ACS and/or UPS failure. I'll learn more when I replace the UPS.

 

[itpphoneguy]

Hi jlshelton,
I was able to run circuits for may servers and phone system. Also for my service bench and other things. I know I'm lucky to be able to do this.
I think I'd seriously consider running your own circuit for your servers and phone system. Can you yank your own power cable and just pay for the electrician to hook it up?
Consider that the larger UPS units had an adjustable trip point. Yours may have been set to a low setting. At least the filtering in the UPS saved your stuff from the spikes caused by motors cycling. Beware, the new ratings are VA, not watts. Newer units have smaller batteries, so the run time is shorter. You may need to over buy.

-Chris

 

[jlshelton]

Installed a new UPS tonight. APC brand, 50% more wattage than the APC unit it replaced. The old unit is confirmed bad, 9.5 years old. Probably just a bad lead-acid battery, but to be safe, I did a new bigger unit. Comparing the internal batteries, the new one has about the same Amp-hour capacity, (7.2 AH) but I don't need long coverage time. I do need full power for short duration during the short outages that we occasionally get. So I'm happy. (In 9.5 years, APC has improved the units; the new one allows hot-swap of batteries, no tools required. And it reports more events, so if I feel like it, I can hook it up to the server and monitor it. Someday.... Also, the new unit has programmable trip-points. Got a good deal at Fry's.

Now, to watch for a few days and see if the AM.6.30 "event" happens again.

Separate circuit will have to wait....

 

[itpphoneguy]

Hi jlshelton,
Good luck! I hope this helps, and if it does it only confirms you need your own circuit some day.

-Chris