atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Nortel Telephones & Systems Norstar Voicemail problem

Hi guys, I'm new to the BB and an overall PBX virgin... lol...

So, my church bought a new building from the school district that just happens to have one of these Nortel systems in it, and whenever I try to access any of the voicemail features, it says "Inactive Feature". I found instructions that said to "power down the flash", and then power it back up, wait 10 minutes, and enter feature 903 first thing... well, first, "power down the flash" just means to power cycle the box on the wall, right? Secondly, I did that, and f903 still got me "Inactive feature".

Every bit of troubleshooting info I've found on the net or in books here at the church always seem to have me punch in more features that come back inactive. I've restarted the system via the "Diagnostic Tools" menu, and by pulling the power cable from the bottom of it.

I'm going to do my best to identify my system... lol...

My System Version is SP: 30DEC04 NAT
On the "main box" (or whatever it's called), none of the markings seem to be usable... lots of serial numbers or something, but there is a small card (about the size of a credit card) that appears to be removable, and it has "NA - MICS - DR 7.0 FC" marked on it. It also appears to have a date stamp of "2006/10". How do I find my software version?

Mounted on the wall next to the first unit, is a smaller box labeled "M0x16". There's a also a couple of ATA2's on the wall if that matters.

I'm at a loss of what to do to get my voicemail (and hopefully, other stuff like CCR and Automated Attendant) back. Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated.

Hey, forgot to mention, the front of that box on the wall also says "Meridian" on it. Thanks.

1st off, to the board.

The purpose of this forum is not for Installer information, but for End-User type questions on system functionality.

Your best bet is get a qualified installer from your area to come in & set it up for you. Small cost to get it setup the way you want. Setting up a Nortel VM is not as EZ as you might think. It can get VERY complicated.

You're going to need him anyway, as most likely you should have to default the phone system to get it back to start for you. There could be information on the previously installed system that the old user would prefer NOT to have available to just anyone. You will also most likely need a different setup for lines, extensions, etc.

A good chance as well to get acquainted with the local Pro as no matter what your background is, you're no match for Norstar with proper training.

I agree, but we operate on a very tight budget (especially after buying this building) and don't want to hire a tech who's going to charge us an arm and a leg. By the same token, I'm a volunteer. :-P

So if I don't get this myself, we may end up just not having voice mail.

Any help as far as where I could get to get the info I need would be greatly appreciated.

In the mean time, I've found some docs on nortelnetworks.com that says the default feature codes may have been changed. I'll look more into that tonight.

Wish me luck! :-)

Here is a link to our Manuals at the top of the page.

After you read the Documentation, you will be able to program the system, and customize it the way you want.

There are many possibilites as to why the VM features are inactive.

Connection trouble, software incompatibility to name two.

While I appreciate your honesty, this will not get you very far. Most members here make their living selling, servicing and installing telephone and voice mail systems.

So I've figured out something... Apparently, the old tenants never used the built in VM system, but rather issued 4 extensions to a computer running a VM system called VoiceGate VIP4000. For whatever reason, the thing was unplugged.

I plugged it back in, found the manual lying around for the VM software, re-recorded our own messages, and I now have a semi-functioning system. lol.

Thanks for everyone's help!