atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems NEC Telephones & Systems nec electra professional 120 no voicemail

uugghh it never gets any easier.

Apparently the power was out for a couple of hours last night and my phone system now doesn't have any voicemail. I've tried shutting down and restarting the unit but the voicemail still doesn't kick in.

I've noticed that on all my phones, I get access to a live line when I just push on one of the the buttons on top. I have DTU-8-1 at the extensions and DTU-32D-1 as the attendant. So I can still make calls from all the phones. If a call comes in, the button would light up, I have to push it and I can answer that call.

The actual extensions are working. I can also intercom someone at a specific intercom.

So it seems the voicemail isn't kicking in. Does the system have to be told that there's a voicemail available ? Maybe my voicemail card died ? After I've rebooted the system, the VM card led's all light up. then after the hd is finished booting up, the BCLR is led is green and the LIVE led is red.

Your VM is fine but the system needs to know what card in the appropriate slot, probably the last one. then you have to specified which ports numbers you are using for VM, put them in Hunt group. It looks like you lost a Programming cause you don't have Ringing line preference and you lost all your buttons programmed. I don't know much about 120 Professional but it should be almost the same like Elite. The best way to call professional Installer and let them take care of you.

In short the phone system defaulted.

Thank you vad60 and dans.. I had a feeling that it was something like that.

The problem I've had in the past and am having is that I can't find anyone that would service this system. I called an NEC installer and he flat out told me that they wouldn't send out a senior tech just to do a 2 hour service call. Since the system is so old, only a senior tech would know this system and they'd rather send out the senior tech on bigger jobs.

He was basically doing a microsoft and forcing an upgrade on me. The only difference being is that my phone system worked perfectly fine up until the loss of power. Needless to say even if I was going to upgrade, he's not getting my business.

I put up a craigslist ad and I'm currently in contact with someone in cali who's going to "walk" me through on troubleshooting. If anyone is in the NYC area and knows this system email me . If this guy in Cali doesn't fix my problem I'm going to need some assistance.

Have you looked for a dealer in your area. Go to necunifiedsolutions.com click on the dealer link. The Electra 120 is an older system but up to the IPK2 the programming was the same so really it should not be a learning curve for anyone who has worked on the IPK and below. The real problem is that if your system defaulted then the CPU battery is dead, that being the case even if you reprogram it now...it will happen again when the system looses power. I have customer's who have insisted on installing UPS systems to keep the system from going down and this works great for a while but it will happen again. Your best bet in the long run is to find a reputable dealer have them evaluate your system and give you options for maintaining what you have versus upgrading.

Back to the original issue... loss of power. Normally the battery on the CPU would retain all programming.. unless the battery is dead. The battery usually has a 5 - 6 year life span. You will need to have a knowledgeable technician replace the battery since it is soldered into place. The replacement battery is 3.6v 50mAh NiCad.

You can reprogram the system with the dead battery in it, but the first time you lose power you will be right back where you are now.

The NEC Electra is not "old" in terms of programming. I would say 90% of the programming is identical to the Elite model, and IPK. Check your yellow pages for other NEC vendors in your area.

Thank you smoom and eriway.

So here's the weird thing I just discovered with my longdistance troubleshooter.

One of the extensions is still blinking. So when I push SPKR ## my voicemail system is accessed!!!

So my voicemail is still intact and one of my extensions can still access it. So now we have to figure out how to have the system activate the voicemail to pickup when someone dials into my main line.

I'm replacing the battery that's in the unit right away.

we're still trying to figure out the process... If no success then I'll have to start looking again for another dealer.

ok so the long distance troubleshooter wasn't able to fix the problem.. But he did get me in touch with someone that works with NEC products. After speaking to this person Mr. P. He's sending someone out tomorrow... I'll keep you guys in the loop as to the progress of this fix.

ok so the tech showed up and he was able to replace my battery and reprogram the system for me. He definitely knew what he was doing. He started clicking away on the attendant phone and setup all my phones. He was pretty much done programming in about 1.5 hours. He spent another hour checking on my hard drive for the voicemail. All in all he was here for 3.5 and the company is charging me 4. PLUS I paid for travel time. They didn't disclose to me that they bill in 1 hour increments prior to sending out the tech.

Of course AFTER the tech leaves I realize I'm missing the ability to redial and transfer a call directly to a voicemail extension.

I'm pretty sure I could've done this if I had the proper documentation for my system. Does anyone out there have a set lying around ?

So it sounds like you should be grateful that you got a tech who knew what he was doing. A good tech always makes it look easy from over their shoulder, but the knowledge he brought was invaluable. It's pretty standard practice to bill in one-hour increments and to charge a trip origination fee.

That being said, it sounds like you have found yourself a great resource, and you don't want to allienate them when you may need them again in the future.

There is a manuals link at the top of this page, and you can start looking there for the documentation you need. Im not an Electra programmer, but if there are shortcuts to redial and vocemail transfer, I'm sure someone will chime in.