Residentail answering machine 1

[jordy5535]

Has anyone experienced this before ?

A friend bought a new Uniden 5.4 ghz cordless phone/answering machine. When someone calls his number it rings 4 times and then the answering machine picks up. but only gets dial tone and eventually hangs up, while the caller still hears ringing. I verified via the caller ID that when I called in from a cell phone my cell phone displays on the caller ID and when I call out the correct number appears on my cell phone's caller ID.
There is no DSL service on the line.

 

[franklin97355]

Send it back and get another or have the store test it for him.

 

[jordy5535]

He did take it back and the new one does the same thing. I suppose they could have gotten a complete bad batch.

 

[franklin97355]

There may be a problem with the phone not providing enough resistance to trip the switch in the CO.

 

[jordy5535]

Your probably right. Any way to fix that ?

 

[NX01]

What happens when he answers the phone?

In the future everything will work...

 

[TouchToneTommy]

Wait - it picks up after 4 rings, the answering machine gets DIAL TONE and the caller hears it continue to ring?

Do you have "call forward on no answer" through the phone company, and the call stops ringing at the same time that it starts ringing someplace else?

 

[skip555]

ttt has a good point what happens if you take the answering machine off line and call his number ?

does it continue to ring or does it ring 4 times then stop

can you answer a call on the foiurth ring and talk to the other party ?

haqve you tried taking the machine to another line and if so does it behave the same .

really dosnt sound like a bad machine

 

[jordy5535]

Yes, you can answer after any number of rings using the cordless handset

 

[ISDNman]

Please confirm that if you listen to the Answering Machine when it answeres that it gets dial tone.

If so, is it possible there is a second line into the premises?

I guess the next step would be to put a loop current meter in line with the answering machine and verify it actually pulls loop current when it answers. Also, if the loop current is below 23 mA maybe that is the problem.

Perhaps it answers and immediately flashes the line? That would be indicative that loop curent might be sub par, and or the design is marginal when loop current is low.

Definitely try this on another line. If this is on a 5ESS then also try it on another 5ESS line. The 5ESS has a lag in delivering full loop current after going off-hook. But if this machines' design meant it did not "see" loop current due to this quirk I'd expect it to just go back on-hook.

 

[jordy5535]

There is only one line in the house and the mounting cord is only a single pair cord. He has now returned the unit twice and purchased a Panasonic and that does the same thing. Has to be a problem with the line from his LEC or his inside wiring.

 

[franklin97355]

Take the unit out to the network interface and try it there.

 

[jordy5535]

That's exactly what I will do next. I will have to run an extension cord so I can power it up. Thanks to all.

 

[jordy5535]

The final outcome was I set the answering machine to 2 rings and ot picked up. This led us to contact SBC and we found out the line had call forwarding busy/no answer active even though the user was not aware of it and not paying for it. I was not losing my mind after all.

 

[TouchToneTommy]

SBC strikes again!