Norstar VM ** (STARkey-STARkey) from motorola razr 3

[TedTheITGuy]

Norstar VM user mailboxes are accessed by ** (STARkey-STARkey)-- that means the star key pressed twice in rapid succession. If the 2nd star isn't pressed fast enough, the system sees it as 1 star, then a pause, and then a 2nd star. That pause will send you to another area of the voicemail system instead of to access your messages. My previous cell phones (other Motorola cell phones and also Nokias) have been doing the star-star for many years successfully. There have been some cheap brand corded phones that haven't worked but generally, modern phones all work fine -- except for the Motorola RAZR!!

The Motorola has a lag between the DTMF sending. I already know about long and short DTMF and have tried it set both ways on the RAZR. The problem is not the Length of the DTMF tone but rather the LAG BETWEEN the two tones being sent. Regardless of how fast I press the star key, the Motorola lag causes a pause in between as far as Norstar VM is concerned.

This issue has led me to learn more about Motorola hacking than I ever really wanted to. With my new hacking knowledge, I have made other useful changes to the RAZR (like increased volume) but I can't find a solution to retrieving my Norstar voicemail.

Any ideas? Preferably I want to modify the RAZR functionality to work with the Norstar but I would be open to changing the Norstar VM if there is another way? Or is there another key command that will access user mailbox without pressing star-star?

Thanks in advance for any of your help or suggestions.

Ted

 

[lugerlover]

that was an issue in early 90's with same manufacturer of cell phones....shit can raz...heard they suck anyway...get real cell phone

75$ please

 

[senk1s]

Does it NEVER EVER work or it doesnt work most of the time?

the reason i'm asking is that i know a few who use it without problems - the CP have a bunch of patches for dtmf recognition issues

 

[TedTheITGuy]

Well lugerlover, now Cingular got the money and a 24 month commitment and of course would never let me go back to my former plan and former phone. The day I discovered the DTMF problem and the volume problems with the regular earpiece and the speaker phone, I imagined putting the phone in a ziplock bag, smashing it with a hammer into little pieces and sending it back to Cingular with a note "you keep it, it sucks and so does your customer service!" -- but truth be told I needed a new phone this seemed like the path of least resistance -- I like the size and shape of the phone -- fixed volume issue -- I have been told I can fix the DTMF issue too -- don't know what you consider a real phone but would be open to changing if I had the time to research a better alternative. What do you think is a “real phone” that has basic camera, speaker phone, pc editable phonebook, small size, etc? Certainly if I cannot improve the issue, a different phone will be mandatory. I am probably dangerously close to the end of my no-consequence return period (the phone sat in a box for over 2 weeks before I got to activate it, etc. Hopefully I still have a few days.

Senk1s: to answer your question, I have found I can make it work after pressing the ** pair about 30-40 times to get to vm -- I guess 80 frustrated presses of the star-key, including swearing and violent images of phone smashing, leading to 5% success can't truly be called “never ever work”, but it might lead me to drinking or a car accident… or both.

I do feel like this is yet another example of a big company (Motorola) producing a bad product but marketing it very well, selling billions and making billions at their customer’s expense.

Thanks people,
Ted

 

[polarbear85]

As senk1s points out, there is a bug in a bunch of Call Pilots wherein they don't consistently recognize DTMF tones. This bug shows up mostly on cell phones, but not on every call; it's seldom a problem from a land line. It can be fixed with a firmware upgrade to the Call Pilot (which needs to be done by a qualified phone tech).

As for other ideas: instead of dialing **, you can dial the Call Pilot extension; that gets you to the same prompt. Dial Feature 985 from a digital set to determine the Call Pilot extension if you don't know it.

emk

 

[TedTheITGuy]

OK! I found a fix!! -- or actually it is a work-around -- the dtmf lag is fixed -- I would say the problem is the cell phone not the startalk

There is some trade off so far (I can now get my voicemail with " ** " but I sacraficed a few phone features) but with a couple more adjustments perhaps the rest of the new issues can be corrected eventually.

I flashed to the v3 razr OEM version instead of the Cingular version -- this has fixed the dtmf lag -- however some other things were lost like sending pictures (not something I would miss terribly but may need some day). However, I have lost "My Stuff" (I don't remember exactly what was there or if I need any of it or if it is all available in other menus).

There also used to be a setting called "audio" but I don't find it anymore.

Of course I realize I could flash back to the proper cingular version but I would rather have access to the voicemail and try to work with the OEM software instead.

I realize I have now stepped out a nortel issue (the reason for posting in this forum originally) but if anyone could give me any clues to solving these motorola razr cell phone issues it would be great

Thanks
Ted