atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems Telrad Telephones & Systems Audio problem with S400

I've had our Telrad S400 system up and running for a couple weeks now, and yesterday, the church secretary informed me that it wasn't working correctly. Whenever she would connect to an outgoing trunk, or to the Imagen voicemail system, the audio would stutter along with repeating short bursts of static about 3-4 times/second. The audio was understandable, but unpleasant. Sounded a bit like a mis-tracking CD player. Internal dial tone on her phone was OK.
I checked a couple other phones (all happened to be on the same ELD card, though) and they acted the same. I did not think to check to see if phones on other ELD cards were affected or not. I pushed the reset button on the MPD card, and when the system came back up, it was acting the same. I also rebooted the Imagen system, which didn't fix the problem either. I had to leave right then for another appointment, but came back in an hour to do some more troubleshooting, and it was running fine!
The system is running version 3.05. The 7 trunks are on a COL card, and the 4-port Imagen is on the OCD card.

Has anyone seen this type of problem before? Any ideas for fixing it? I heard this one other time, but it was before the system was fully operational and had any users on it. It seemed to go away on its own then, although coincidentally, about the time I had restarted the Imagen PC after putting a new Apgen file on it. Otherwise, the system is working great.

Larry

I would swap the ELD and see if the problem moves and go from there.

Sounds like a highway problem on the MPD.

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ssimpson@oneringtelecom.com Need a Telrad Programmer Kit? Telrad Programmer Kits

Swap eld chards and see if the problems moves to the other station.

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[This message has been edited by tony3866 (edited July 11, 2005).]

You should also look at your unit resources as SS posted to see if you may have highway problems.

Well, it happened again yesterday after running with no problems for about a week and a half. Like the last time, it acted up for about 1-1/2 to 2 hours, and then started working again all on its own. This time, I was at work, away from the church, and did my observing from an outside phone.
I called one of the church trunks, and the autoattendant answered. I could hear the noise bursts (about twice/second) while listening to the autoattendant. I then left a message in my voicemailbox, and played the message back. The message had the original noise bursts recorded in it, plus it now had a second set of noise bursts as I listened to it. It appeared to me that each time the message traveled from one card to another, it was experiencng the noise. Meanwhile, the secretary reported that she could talk to other extensions on the same ELD card and did not hear the noise. But when she was conecting to a resource on another card (MIM card for Imagen or COL card for trunks), she did get the noise pulses.
So, I'm not suspecting the ELD card as much now. My external call to the autoattendant/Imagen didn't pass through the ELD card at all- just from the COL card to the MIM card (and the MPD card too?). So I think my next step will be to swap out the MPD card. Fortunately, I just got a spare card about a month ago!

Two questions I have-
1. If I pull the memory cartridge from the old board and install it on the new board, will my system configuration (the config that I use the PCP software to set up) come with it? Or is the config stored somewhere else on the board and not in the memory cartridge? Just wondering if I will have to reload the config from my PC.

2. I've actually had the system running with a couple phones on it for about 9 months while I learned how it operates and how to configure it. I never heard this problem until the last month or so. It might have been doing this all along, and I just never caught it at the right time. On the other hand, about 2 months ago I added an SHD card to support a standard analog cordless phone that was used by the day-care folks. That is the only card that didn't come with the system originally. Maybe its a coincidence, but the only times I have experienced the problem are since I added that card. Is it possible that the SHD card could cause a problem on the backplane if it's firmware version was too old (unlikely) or too new (more likely). What is the correct firmware version for the SHD card in a Digital400 system running system firmware version 3.05?

So, is this problem pretty rare, or is it a common problem on the Digital400 systems? Or is it a known problem with this 3.05 version of system firmware?

I'll be swapping out the MDP card one night next week unless someone has a better suggestion.

Thanks, Larry

Larry
You have to understand your playing with DB3 hardware and software that stuff is 10 to 12 years old. No telling what that equipment has been thru in the past. I still think it is a MPD highway problem. When you switch the memory cartridge to the other MPD your programming will stay but you should backup cfg and you will be fine. You will need to reset the real time clock. You may just want to default the memory and restore from backup just to clear any other possible errors. It will only take 10 to 15 min to load and reset all of the programming.

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ssimpson@oneringtelecom.com Need a Telrad Programmer Kit? Telrad Programmer Kits

Well, I'm still having the problem with the noise bursts in my S400 system. Happened again today for 3-4 hours, then went away on it's own. Today, the noise bursts were happening about 2-3 times sec.
I changed out the MPD card about 2-1/2 weeks ago. It went for about 10 days without having the problem, and I thought it was fixed. Then several days ago it acted up for about 2 hours, and then again today. So its not the MPD card.
Is it possible that there are incompatible firmware versions on the cards? Or is there maybe some other defective card that intermittantly screws up the backplane highway channels?
Most of the cards are the original ones that came with the system, although I have added an SHD card and an ELD card since we got the system. The SHD card is the only one that has been added recently. I must admit that I hadn't heard the problem until after the SHD was added, but then again, the system wasn't being used by anyone until about a week after the SHD card was added.
The problem is only experienced if the audio has to go from one card to another. For example, from a station on an ELD to the voice mail on the OCD, or a station on an ELD to a trunk on a COL card. Or an incoming call on a trunk on the COL to the auto attendent on the OCD card. No problem if the call stays within a card, though.
Here's what I've got in the system. Any obvious firmware levels that are too old or too new? What are the proper firmware versions on each card for a system running SB 3.05?

Slot 1 MPD type C-5 Software ver 3.05
Slot 3 COL firmware ver 3.6
Slot 4 COL firmware ver 3.3
Slot 5 ELD type C-4 firmware ver 1.6
Slot 6 OCD firmware ver ??
Slot 8 ELD type f-3 firmware ver 4.5
Slot 9 ELD firmware ver 1.8
Slot 10 ELD firmware ver 4.5
Slot 11 ELD firmware ver 4.5
Slot 12 SHD firmware ver 2.F
Slot 14 ELD firmware ver 1.7

This is really becoming a problem for the church office and I'm running out of ideas. My only other idea is to start pulling/swapping boards one at a time to see if there is one that is intermittantly causing the problem. Of course, it may not act up again for a week, so this could take a long time!

Larry

Larry
Please think about upgrading the MPD/Memory Cartridge. You are playing with a Used to you 10+ year old card. We talked about this before. It's a Highway problem on the processor. You have changed all the cards around in the system.

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Our Digital400 system acted up again today... but its no longer so intermittant. It exhibits the problem almost all of the time now! But I'm pretty sure I know what the problem is now.
I had swapped almost all of the boards with spares, including the MPD, and that didn't fix it.
I checked the power supply voltages, and the -5 volt output was bad. It was jumping rapidly from -5 volts to -1/2 volt (viewed on an oscilloscope) at about the same rate as I was hearing the noise in the phones. It is doing this pretty consistantly now. But alas, I have spare parts for almost everything EXCEPT the power supply. The system is down now, and I switched back to the old phone system that we had previously so the office has at least a few working phones.
Any of you dealers out there interested in selling me a power supply module? The part# is 76-400-1600/1.

Larry