sundance-communications.com/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Toshiba Telephones & Systems Trouble w/ Strata CTX100....

Hello Everyone....the company I work for currently uses the Strata CTX100 phone system and as of lately we seem to be having lots of trouble with it. It started approximately 3 weeks ago when our area was hit by some pretty bad thunderstorms. We were out of power for 2 days. Once the power was restored the phone was working fine for the first few days and then on our fourth day returning to work, the phone system was completely down. We shut off the power supply and unplugged it for about 10 minutes and then re-tried it. It worked fine after that for about a week. And the same problem returned. We did the same thing (shut it off and unplugged it) again for about 10 minutes and then everything returned to normal. However, every day for the last week, we come into the office in the morning and the same routine occurs. Any ideas as to what may possibly be wrong? We are trying to advoid having to pay the hefty cost of having a tech person come out and look at it if we can.

P.S. Just for the record, I don't have too much knowledge on such tech savvy info, so please be paitent with me when explaining where I may need to go with this! Thanks so much!

Because it's intermittent, it'll be hard to troubleshoot without looking at it. But my guess is that it's a hardware issue, ie processor, power supply, etc. Looks like you will need to have a tech come out and have a look at it.

Thanks phonemeister for the input. I did speak to one other person and they thought perhaps it may be the battery backup? Does that sound legitimate to you? At this point, I'm realizing that maybe I will need to have someone come out, but I really hate having to put out so much cash for something like that...anyways, thanks again for what ever advice you can give.

Do you have a heavy silver rectangular box mounted near to the phone system?
I would not guess it is the battery backup, but I could not say for sure, since I have never seen that problem. From the symptoms I would guess power supply.

Yes, we do have a "cabinet" (is that the correct term?) mounted in our back server room. The biggest problem I seem to be having besides the phone being out is trying to get ahold of someone who may actually be able to help me. Toshiba doesn't have much of a tech support phone line. I'm supposed to just call a local dealer, but when I call them most of them don't want to go into detail on what may be wrong without coming to look at it. So I guess I will just have to bite the bullet and take one for the team...thanks again for your help. I'll definitely be marking this forum in my favorites in case any other problems come up in the future. I'm getting more feedback here than anywhere else

I was actually talking about a smaller silver box next to the cabinet, which would be your batery backup if you had one. Not all systems are installed with one.

Typically the Toshiba systems are supported by dealers. Toshiba will usually refer you to a local vendor. They would not have the capability to support all the customers out there without the dealers help.

Even if they told you what they think the problem might be, there probabaly isn't much you can do. It is very likely a hardware issue which means that something has to be replaced, but a tech may come out and see something else.

Also it is hard to make a lot of suggestions over the phone (or on a message board). Some people will use that info to try to fix it themselves and could either not fix the problem, or cause other problems, in which case some people may try to blame the person that gave the free advice.

I don't think Toshiba ever inteded to make the business phone system for the end user to install/maintain. If they did I imagine the system would come with a welcome packet, a quick install guide, and a CD with a self installion wizard. It does not come with these things by the way

Thanks for the advice newtecky. I appreciate it. I'm not familiar with the Toshiba phone systems at all. I'm at a new employer that uses them and most of my backround in with Cisco. I'll keep all you said in mind. Again, thanks so much. I guess I'll be making that phone call tomorrow!

It's very strange problem I've ever saw. System works all day with a maximum load of incoming and outgoing calls with no problem but at night when is no traffic it's goes down!!! I have only one suggestion. If your telephone room has aircondition during the day and at night it's turned off then you problem is a Power supply(if no lights on any cards) or Processor card if you have a trouble light on it. To suspect a UPS you have to see it is shot down.