R2 MERLIN MESSAGING 617B49 board 2

[sglascoe64]

This morning, our voicemail stopped working. When trying to access voicemail from any of our phones, it rings then makes a funny beeping noise but never picks up. The status light on the card will blink green then go off, the repeat. None of the 8 port lights are lit up. Any suggestions?

It was working fine earlier this AM with nothing being changed.

 

[Telecomboy]

Try a power cycle of the phone system. I would personally do the following:

1) Power the phone system down (if more than 1 cabinet, power right cabinet off and then the left).
2) Pull the MMessaging module out of the cabinet a little bit
3) Push the MMEssaging module back into the cabinet until you hear it click and you know it is seated properly
4) Power the system back up (right cabinet first then left if you have multiple cabinets)
5) Listen to the card as it receives power. Does it "click"? Does it make weird beeping noises? or does it sound like a normal hard drive booting up? If it is giving sounds out of the ordinary the hard drive is probably shot and you are out of luck. It does take 5-10 actual minutes for the voicemail to properly boot up so make sure you give it enough time before thinking it is broken.

 

[sglascoe64]

Hi Telecomboy,
Thanks! I will give that a try and see what happens.

 

[sglascoe64]

Telecomboy,
I forgot to mention. I was always told to power down from left to right, then power back up from right to left. Is that not correct?

 

[Telecomboy]

Yes. Although the power down is not as important as the power up. The right has to be powered on first so that the left will "see" and recognize it. I know others on here will tell you it is important to go left-right when powering down, but I have been working on Merlin's since 1995 and never had an issue powering down right-left.

 

[sglascoe64]

Okay, I purchased a 617C49 card which is a Release 2.5. The card that was in there was a 617B49 (relase 2.) but was told this one will work. So, I installed the new card, powered on the system from right to left. Now, on the new card, all the port lights stay on green and the status light stays on orange. And, I can't dial 770 or 777 to get to voicemail. All it does is ring and beep. Is there something I need to do?

 

[WikiTech]

I have a feeling your recently required board maybe bad . . .
You always need to do a "Board ReNunmber" in MTCE when you change-out or add a module. You can then go into Inventory in MTCE and check that your processor recognizes the circuit modules in your carriers.

 

[sglascoe64]

WikiTech,
What is MTCE? Is that the WinSPM software?
Thanks!

 

[Telecomboy]

Did you put the port/license card into the R2.5 module? The messaging requires a port license to function. You should be able to move the port license from the old module to the newly purchased module (this is the pcmcia card sticking out of it).

You should also do a board renumber as stated. Press menu, system program, start, system board renumber, enter. The system will need to be idle and no calls can be made during the renumber. It should only take 30 seconds or so.

 

[sglascoe64]

Telecomboy,
I kept the 4 port pcmi card that was in the old 617B49 card and put it in the 617C49 card that I purchased. I haven't done a board renumber but I will try that when the systems is idle. Once that is done, can I restore the info on the 4 port pcmi card so that I don't have to reset up all the voicemail boxes?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Telecomboy]

You can only do a restore between exact releases. So, if your old unit was an R2.5 you can try a restore. The only issue would be if the old unit had not been backed up ever (which I see a lot) you are out of luck anyway.

 

[sglascoe64]

The old unit was a release 2.0 (617B49 board). So that means I have to set up all the voicemail again including the auto attendant and night service?
It had been backed up I believe in 2010 or 2011.

 

[Telecomboy]

Yeah. You'll need to recreate that stuff. The restore only creates the modules anyway. No wav files get transferred so greetings/etc don't get transferred.

 

[WikiTech]

Yes, MTCE in your SPM or WinSPM.
In the Inventory, VoiceMail modules are identified differntly. Not sure about the newer Merlin Messenging . . .that was always confusing when going through "Inventory

 

[sglascoe64]

Thanks to everyone for your responses.

 

[sglascoe64]

Telecomboy, I did a board renumber but that didn't help. I did notice, however, before I did it, all but 4 of the port lights were lit. Before, all the port lights were lit green. After I did the board renumber, all the port lights are all on green again and the status light is still orange.

 

[Telecomboy]

The status light being orange is not good. It might not be seeing the license card properly. I would power the system down, remove the mmessaging, re-insert it, also remove/re-insert the port pcmcia card, and then power it back up.

You can also go to maintenance, slot, enter the mmessaging slot number (0 is processor, then 1, 2, etc going left to right not counting power supplies), and see if it is in main busy or standby mode. You could try a busyout, reset, release to see if that does anything.

It is also possible you bought a bad card. It happens. the R2.5 is prob 15-17 years old at this point.

 

[sglascoe64]

Okay, I tried all of that earlier today and still nothing. So, I am returning the board and purchasing the EXACT same board (617B49) that came out of the system. This one comes with a 6 port card but I am going to put the 4 port card that came out of my system into the board when I receive it so that I can try to do a restore if this card works.

Thanks

 

[sglascoe64]

Okay, I replaced the board and the voice mail system is working. However, the message waiting light on the main console won't light when someone leaves a message on that extension. The night service voicemail goes to 9991 and you can leave a message but the light won't show a message but yet I can check messages for ext 9991 and it will tell me there are messages and I can listen. That console is the cover extension as 550 and there is a 555 also associated with it but light still won't light when a message is waiting.

 

[sglascoe64]

Also, when an outside calls comes in to the main console and the night service isn't on, the voicemail doesn't answer. The phone will just keep ringing and ringing and ringing.