atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Mitel Telephones & Systems MITEL SX 20

I have a mitel sx 20 @ my business ( motel business). lately i am having problems with it!!! every 3-4 days the system will busy out, like all kinda a alarms will start ringing, when i press the status button on the console it will keep giving me diferent alarm status every time i press it. The other thing i have notice is a day b4 this alarm starts going off, everytime we try to make a call from each extension first time there will be continous dial tone so we have to hang up and try it again...and second time it will work, so basically it would only let us dial out from all extensions ( 18 extensions)on the second attempt, and this gives us the sign that the system will do that alarm ringing soon. So far everytime that alarm ringing happens, to get rid of it i have been reseting the system, sometime it will go off straight away afterwards, and sometime i have to keep reseting till it stops ringing. I have tried all the other methods to stops those alarms like *31, *32, *13, but it would not stop it, so that would only leave me option of reseting the system....even that takes so many attempts to reset b4 it would clear all those alarms... once its reseted it would work perfectly fine for next couple a days, and at that time all calls can be dialed out on first attempt without and problems, but these would only last like 2-3 days b4 the system starts acting up again. I really dont have a clue what part needs replacing or fixing??? so if u could please help me out here.... thankyou

What does the alarm say,Do You have ground start trunks?

What year did that product come out sir, 1980.
it has lived a full life, your options card sounds like its hooped,good luck finding a replacement that works though.

Update your system, its a ticking time bomb. Your lucky it works at all.

Stick with Mitel, as you can see it is an excellent product.
You get 10 years out of a phone system and your doing pretty good, 25 and your doing awesome.
If you wait till it dies completely it will then cost you more...start shopping

I have to concur with Mr. Telephone Man. You should talk to "Gene," above, about getting you a Mitel ML.

I'd do it before your trunk module goes to heck -- is it just me, or is there a handbasket on your phone system?

RAKS, the SX20 has served it's purpose but is hopeless out of date, the only parts available have been rebuild so many times, you can't trust them to work. (I had to replace a CPU card 3 times with refurbished parts before I found one that would work)

You might check out the CMP Phonesuite, it's designed for the hotel market and has proved to be as reliable as Mitel at half the cost.

Phonesuite looks to me like a rip-off of the SX-50. Are you sure it's legal?

Remember the hoopla over those "Dean" brand processors for the SX100/200 (Supposed to be 218 processors, but they were an unlicensed ripoff, and everyone who touched them got burned).

RAKS I've found that older Mitel products use low quality contacts that need cleaning quite often. Shut system down and with yourself grounded pull each board and clean contacts with soft cloth and contact cleaner. (CAUTION) This should be done by a qualified tech. I do have to agree with the others that its time you concider a new system.

Sounds like you have 1 DTMF receiver going south, and various other problems. Can't argue with others that are suggesting replacing the system.

The phonesuite is not related to the sx50 at all. It is build by Call Management Products out in Colorado and has been for years.

The system is going in sequence through the different alarms, Sx-20 is a reliable work horse. There is still cards available for the system.