sundance-communications.com/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Panasonic Telephones & Systems KX-TA624 strange (and true) problem

I will appreciate your help since it is difficult for me to explain what might be the root cause of this problem.

I had to put "true" in the message’s subject and mention it here again before you read my problem's description, because you would probably believe I am joking. Really not.

As background information, I noticed yesterday my laptop battery or its charger started to fail, since it went into start and stop charging cycles.

System description: The KX-TA624 with 1 caller-id card, 1 door phone card. It has 2 CO lines and all 8 extensions connected to proprietary Panasonic display phones. The led illuminated function buttons are programmed for extensions and CO lines.

All extensions have the auto-answer enabled, with the corresponding beep sound on.
The system has been working great for the past 3 years, until today.

Problem description: Today I noticed at the kitchen phone that other extension lights started to turn on and off randomly, but nobody was upstairs… where most extensions are.

So I picked up and tried to call those “in use” extensions (with auto-answer) and confirmed they were “busy”. I then hanged up and see things getting worse. All extensions started to “call each other” and by the sounds I listen around, I heard: auto-answer come on, low tone (busy extension) ringing, and incoming call rings. So I picked up again and there wasn’t tone, function buttons didn’t work, and finally, all kind of strange characters were showing in the display.

My first idea was to reset the system, turned it off and back on. Apparently that made it work fine.

So I went back to work, opened my laptop and before catching up where I was, the TA624 went crazy again. This time I disconnected the phones that started to light up at the beginning. It seemed to stop the ringing concert but had to go to each “in use” extension to pickup and hang them again.

Everything was normal for some minutes until I went back to work, opened my laptop and tried to catch up again…… and surprise!!! … the remaining connected extensions started the same erratic behavior for third time.

It was until that time when I stopped thinking I was in a hidden camera, and started to think on the relation between my faulty laptop and the 624 system.

My last move was to unplug my laptop’s charger (ac adapter) from the outlet and reset all blocked “in-use” extensions unplugging and plugging back their cords.

Having disconnected the laptop AC, I was able to open the laptop, start and use it without bothering the TA624...
Does this make any sense? Is it possible that a faulty electronic device interfere the TA624 functionality? Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.
Joe

there was a problem with the kxta 624 uk system with power, if the power spiked or dipped the system would just stop and the display would go funny. we would have to initialize the system to get it to work and put an ups on it. could be your laptop psu was putting noise on to the mains causing the behavior of the system

Is the KSU near any equipment that generates EMI (Electromagnetic Interference) MIG welders, Florescent Ballasts etc. Unplug extensions one at a time from the KSU to see if the problem clears. You might be getting interference down a station cable that mimics the oscillation of the CPU. The KSU will go into defib. I have seen this happen personally.

The KSU is in a closet sharing the space only with a DSL cable modem with Wi-fi. Besides that, the closest electronic device is 18 feet away across brick walls.

Could also a station be the way in for this type of interference? In that case, I’ll need to go as you recommend, station by station to also check the area around for possible sources.
Thanks!

When you say WiFi do you mean a wireless router or an actual WiFi transmitter? I have seen a linksys wireless router cause havoc with a Comcast voice modem. Maybe disable the wireless side of the router. It sounds like an outside source of interference is causing your problems. Ground the KSU just for good measure.

"I’ll need to go as you recommend, station by station to also check the area around for possible sources."
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Start with the phone next to the laptop!

i have seen this type of problem before it is normally caused by " dirty power " that is why they call for dedicated power outlets in most install manuals , the solution is to have a dedicated circuit or to install a good quality power strip with a filter in it