I ran into a problem last night with my Partner ACS system. For those who don't know, I have an R8 (509) processor in a 5 slot carrier with 4 308EC expansion cards. While making some test calls (setting up a new Voip provider) I discovered that extensions 10-18 had a tone overlaid onto the talk path that sounded similar to a 1kc tone. May have been a bit higher pitched, but that isn't the point. When I tried my buttset across the second pair to each extension, instead of the usual low pitched buzzing that's always there I also heard this tone. It was very loud on this second, data pair. Now, I've already fixed the problem, but I wanted to post it in the off chance someone else runs into this problem. I know these systems are getting rarer, but there's still plenty of them out there, and it wasn't a very difficult fix if you have any level of electronics knowledge. The problem was the power supply board in the processor module, and more specifically, dried out electrolytic capacitors on said board. The easy fix, besides just replacing the processor, is to just replace the power supply board with a new or working replacement. The other fix, which still isn't all that difficult, is to replace the faulty capacitors with new ones. I chose the second route for two reasons, one- I have the skill and the tools to do it, and two- because I'm cheap and impatient. There are a total of 10 electrolytics on the PS board and it's all thru-hole, so it's a pretty easy job. I also didn't want to wait for a used, questionable replacement to arrive. Anyway, it probably took all of 20 minutes to make the repair and all the extensions are dead quiet again. So, if anyone happens to run across this weird problem, this is what fixed it for me. Just wanted to add this to the general knowledge base. Thanks.
