M3904 Display Issues

[snowskiak]

All,

One of our offices currently is running a CS1000 with digitel M3904 phones. We are having an issue with the phones sporatically losing their displays. It is typically the text in the center of the display ie where the name of the caller will come in. It starts off with a line though it then gradually gets lighter and then disappears.

We have upgraded the firmware (listed below) of the phones and upgrades the patches of the system to the latest release. None of this has fixed the issue. We have verified the ground to the phone system along with the cat5e cabling to the phones.

Any one else seen an issue like this? If so what have you done to correct the issue?

Attached is a picture of a phone that is having the issue.

Existing Firmware
fwvu 4 1 9 8
****M3900 VERSION REPORT****
TERMINAL TYPE = 019
CORE FIRMWARE VERSION = 017
FLASH FIRMWARE VERSION = 087

Firmware upgraded to
fwvu 4 1 9 0
****M3900 VERSION REPORT****
TERMINAL TYPE = 019
CORE FIRMWARE VERSION = 017
FLASH FIRMWARE VERSION = 090

 

[shokyfehNortel]

Yeah, dude.
It is usually the display broken, I mean if you open the phone, you will find that the LCD is connected to the processor inside the phone through some kind of carbon, there is no wires, just contacts, and some of this carbons had been dryed.
It happened a lot with the M3904, M3905 Nortel phones.

You need some really wondeful exert technician in tiny and modern electronic maintenance. otherwise you will lose the whole lines.

Hope I solve your problem

 

[snowskiak]

shokyfehNortel thanks much for the reply. We typically see this after the phones have been working fine for a while. A while could be a few days to several months.

Have you seen this issue right out of the box or serveral day/months after?

Thanks, aaron

 

[Tman45]

We are having the same friggin problem I am going to ask my Avaya engineer as this seems like a similar issue they should be responsible for fixing like the 1140 power board issue. Seems to me that Nortel was trying to cut corners and save money which is likely why they ended in bankruptcy.

 

[PRI265]

I've disassembled, cleaned and refurbished the old M2000 series of sets with success, say when a user spills soda on them and the buttons are all sticky. The LCD contact is just a small rubber strip touching the circuit board. Are there any gotchas associated with refurbishing these M3904's with display issues? I have a bunch of bad sets like this, too, and would like to try to fix them if possible.

 

[snowskiak]

We have been doing some research here regarding this issue. I stumbled upon an ebay site (

http://cgi.ebay.com/M3902-M3903-M3904-M3905-Display-LCD-Repair-/290538377482)

that said it was able to fix LCD display issues on M3903/3904 phones. I called the company that offered this fix and spoke to the someone at the company for quite some time. He said that this issue is very common with the M series phones. Basically what happens is the ribbon cable from the LCD to the circuit board becomes undone or loses its contact. This results in the slow degrade of the LCD screen.

The fix he said was to get a new phone or replace the ribbon cable from the LCD to the circuit board. He said that his company alone has done tens of thousands of fixes like this.

 

[PRI265]

Inspired by this thread, I went ahead and tried to fix one of my retired M3904 sets whose LCD display was going bad. As a result, my nerves are all shot and I will probably have recurring nightmares for a couple of weeks until I can fully recuperate from the shock. Yes, there buried under the layers of plastic was the LCD ribbon cable, lying there like a striped viper ready to strike and inject its venom. No, I didn't get the LCD to work again, but the set did lose all dialtone, and now I can unceremonially place it back into the Pile of Oblivion.

 

[deckelfp33]

Bottom line on this is...
How long will it take for you to repair the phone, (so it will not go faulty again, against the price of a replacement. (What is your cost to the company per hour).
EBay has ten 3904 for £121 thats £12 each. OK - you may say some may not last long, we should 'recycle' instead of landfill - but there has to come a point when you just say - throw it in the bin. Some things are not meant to be repaired.