merlin/partner vm did not come back after power failure

[realfoneguy]

Hi all,

[/I got some great advice that got me through the original issue. So here I am again asking for guidance. The same customer called me and said they had a power failure and the phone system came back but voicemail did not. The unit in the system is a MLM 007 card 5 unused with and this is what it says, 6 internal VM ports, 1 internal modem port and in brackets 5 unused ports. I plan on going to the site today to see what may have gone wrong. I am not sure, but I believe the VM is in a separate carrier with the single station card. It is possible that that carrier did not come up. Let me know if anyone has any ideas. I did remember shutting down the phone system before and it did not affect the VM other than access to it obviously. So let me know any thoughts, would love to have the guidance. Thanks Brad​

 

[Telecomboy]

If they had a power outage and the 2nd cabinet did not power back up prior to the 1st then it will not be recognized by the system. Have them power down both cabinets, then power the right-most cabinet on 1st, wait a few seconds, then power the left (main) cabinet on. It will then recognize the 2nd cabinet.

If they have 3 cabinets, power on right-most, then middle, then left.

The power down order doesn't really matter, but I always tell clients right-to-left for both.

 

[Dexman]

I would power down left to right...but that is strictly personal preference. If it isn't the power up sequence, check for a failed hard drive.

I "FEATURE 00"

http://dexman.webs.com/

 

[realfoneguy]

Ok, I went to the site today. The top four lights are Green Red (so it looks like that and the aux board VM 3 and VM 4 are for sure Green red Green red. Now you mention a hard drive. Where is that, In the MLM card? I call the 777 and it just rings and rings, so I know there is no connection from the main to the VM. I will have to see what extensions are used for the 777 number or try and figure out how that works. I did download the text file I dropped back on the other thread. So here I go again, the first thing out of her mouth, will you keep the price down? Well I told here that if there are any parts to be had, they will have to pay for those up front. Now my question to you now is, can I just replace the MLM card without doing any programming? is it as simple as a VM on a Panasonic? probably not. Well what do I do now, any more ideas?

 

[Dexman]

My thought would be to verify that the saved configuration is correct. Power down the system and power up in the proper sequence. Verify that the correct ports are assigned to the voice mail group. Ring each of the ports and see if the voice mail answers. If they don't answer...replace the voice mail with an Avaya Merlin Messaging. I've never had to do that sort of a substitution before, so, I will defer to others for more advice/instruction.

I "FEATURE 00"

http://dexman.webs.com/

 

[realfoneguy]

The second cabinet was for the digital card for the DID. So that is not a part of this issue. I can check the saved configuration, but why would it change? These people put the word cheap to shame. I am thinking that once I find what stations are assigned to the 777 group, I may have a bad station card. So just a question, are the stations default to a particular station card? Someone mentioned a hard drive, where is that? I have not seen one. I thought the VM was housed on a pcmia card. I will do some digging in the books later. Thanks Brad

 

[Dexman]

The hard drive is on the voice mail board itself. The PCMCIA stores a partial configuration...enough to restore basic functionality.

If someone moused with the system programming without saving it...the correct configuration can retrieved from the PCMCIA card plugged into the front of the processor.

The only Lucent/Avaya voice mail to be fully contained within a PCMCIA card is the Partner Voice Messaging.

I "FEATURE 00"

http://dexman.webs.com/

 

[TouchToneTommy]

Here's the manual for the beast.

Your VM ports are Ext. 7164/65/66/67 from your previous posts.

Sounds to me like a hard drive failure. There is no back up/restore for this system. If you put in a new hard drive, you have to rebuild the mailboxes, AA, and system settings from scratch. I can't tell from your print-all if this is a Legend or Magix, but if you want to replace it with a Merlin Messaging, and it's a Legend, the Processor must be Release 7 (or any version of Magix)

 

[merlinman]

As Tommy says, That's how I'd do it. Messaging is the preferred way, and R7 Processors are plentiful and cheap nowdays.

http://merlinmanswebpage.yolasite.com

 

[realfoneguy]

Guys, you are great. Hope someday I can help someone out with my 40 years of telephony experience on Lucent 5ESS Panasonic VM and 1232/816 systems etc.

Anyway, thanks for the advice. I take it I do not have an R7 processor in the system. I will also try to do a start on the voice mail unit. I have not done any of the reset to unlock ports or any of that stuff as yet. I will do all of that on Monday. I will try all of that stuff first, but will at the same time tell them they have to think about an update. If I get the hard drive running and the card up, I will have one last chance to do maybe do a image copy of the drive. I am not sure what is saved on it, but if I clone it and the drive survived, it may give me some much needed time to work on the owners to pry a dollar or two from the budget.

I will let you all know in as much detail how I make out. Thanks fort being here guys. I will have to barter some paint for my house in exchange for time on this one I think. We shall see.

I just want to get them up on the VM ASAP, then work on them for upgrades. I may get a local firm in to do it and just consult to get it done. Oh the Jams a good guy can get into. Brad

 

[Dexman]

Depending upon what expansion modules are in the carriers, upgrading to a Merlin Magix processor might be worth consideration. All but a very small number of expansion modules can be carried over from the Legend processor to the Magix processor. Staying with a Legend processor would be required if you have ATL telephone sets. Those Classic Merlin telephones from the 80's are not supported by the Magix processor. The MLX, ETR and SLT telephones are.

I "FEATURE 00"

http://dexman.webs.com/

 

[realfoneguy]

heh, how do i get to the attachment I posted in my other thread?

 

[TouchToneTommy]

Click on your own name. That will lead you to a list of the threads that you have started (and replied to). Search your threads to find where you posted the print-all.

 

[realfoneguy]

Thanks everyone for your help. I feel when I am not that familiar with something to be sure I have on board a place to go for those who do. The customer wants a back door to the Voice Mail now. It seems easy enough, I can assign a DID to the 777 group. Not sure if that is how it is done or not.

Anyway, I went to the site yesterday with a copy of the Merlin Partner Mail with me. I acquired the highly technical mandatory too of a bent paperclip and pressed the reset button on top of the 9 pin comm port to the VM. It did natta, NOTHING for me. All lights still locked up. So I tried to connect to it for the interface, I connected, but nothing on the screen.
So I using the highly technical tools known as fingers, I removed the card from the unit, waited a few minutes and plugged it back in. This time the lights were all off and the status light was still a solid green. I figured I was safe as the status light shows boot of hard drive according to the manual. I now waited a bit, nothing so I pressed the reset button again and alright, the u8nit started coming to life.I waited and all green lights were on and red were off. I accessed 777 and the system answered.
One thing is that these people think they know all about the unit. When I mentioned a possible bad drive and one could be purchased but every message put in would have to be redone etc. They said oh that's no big issue. Well i do VM all the time and it is an issue and can be time consuming getting everything done the way the customer would like. People today have what I call answering machine mentality. This just means they usually after spending so much on a VM unit, refuse to use the features and want just a general mailbox. In some cases, this is not even an option to do. It is Voice Mail, not a master answering machine. Sometimes i wonder why my friend even sells it to small installs because in those cases either phone company or an answering machine works much better.


Thanks guys for the help. I did not think it would be so bad, but I was just not going to just pull it out and reset it without knowing any consequences of doing so. Brad

 

[Dexman]

One quick note...the voice mails for the Merlin systems are the:

Merlin Mail
007 MLM
Avaya Merlin Messaging

There really isn't a voice mail called the Merlin Partner Mail.

I "FEATURE 00"

http://dexman.webs.com/

 

[TouchToneTommy]

Now that it is working, go back, connect to the serial port, and do a text capture while you print the system configuration. When that thing dies and needs replacing, you will have a printed record of the mailboxes that were created and the auto attendant settings.

 

[realfoneguy]

MERLIN LEGEND MAIL

I meant Merlin Legend Mail from the fron page of the manual. I will do that backup. Thanks.