atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems Vodavi Telephones & Systems Vodavi Dispatch SERIOUS issue

Greetings,

We are using a StarPlus phone system (SP7000-00) connected to a SLT Adapter SP7420-00 which is then conneted to a Vodavi Voice Box DHD2G0744, and today, abruptly, whenever anyone dials in, the voicemail doesn't answer, and when we dial the voicemail in-house, none of the keys on our phones work.

Has anyone heard of this before? The system does not appear to be fried or damaged in any way.

On the voice mail system itself, can you tell us which of the eight LEDs are lit, if any?

We have a 4-line Vodavi Analog Dispatch box (and I've cracked it open since it's out of warranty, and all the parts look beautiful), and 4 of the lights are lit up bright red. I couldn't find anything in the manual about whether or not they were supposed to turn green?

When we connect via the Vodavi Admin program, the admin program seems to have all the correct registry settings and seems to be keyed to answer the phone, I believe the problem may exist somewhere in the Starplus DHS Phone box, like perhaps it's not forwarding the rings properly to the Voicemail? I'm not sure.

When you call the VM in-house, does it actually answer?

No, the LEDs won't turn green. They should be lit steadily when the ports are idle, and flash whenever one of them is in use. If anything else is happening with them, then the VM is in trouble.

My suspicion would be that the SLT adapter (7420) may be the culprit, which is a very good thing. Obviously, the Dispatch is functional meaning that the hard drive is still good (that's usually what fails on them).

You'll need to connect a true single line telephone set to all of the SLT adapter's ports and try ringing each one by dialing their respective extension numbers. If you don't ring the phone, then the 7420 has failed. Check back and let us know.

Yeah, it answers, but we just can't push any buttons on the phone as soon as it picks up I don't understand that.

I'll check the ports as soon as I can find out what each extension is (I did not install this system and the person who put it together left no documentation *sighs*)

Thank you for your time, I will try to let you know.

Just hook up the SLT and dial a display phone. That should tell you the extension number.

Sounds like that blasted option card in the DHS system strikes again. The fact that buttons on the phones become inoperable after the call to the VM is answered is yet another of those inexplicable issues.

What does the Options Card look like? Can I yank it out without consequences?

Single line ports on a DHS SLT adapter that are not programmed as voice mail ports will not pass any DTMF tones when you call them. You need to program the ports as Voice mail ports, put them in a vm group and then it should work.

Yeah, but everything was already working.

Chris, the option card can be safely removed from the equation as long as you power the system down before you disconnect it. It has a ribbon cable that connects it to the motherboard, so the card itself can be left in place for the test. For most installations, it's only there for misc. functions, like paging, etc. This card has a 9-pin data connector (AKA "DB9") on one end that sticks out through the cabinet's side. The system will function without this card connected.

You may be experiencing a typical EOL (end of life) failure of this system, where the memory retention battery starts failing. In this case, bits and pieces of programming information are lost. This causes just about anything to not work properly. If this is the case, it is time to invest in a new system. I seriously doubt that your system is less than ten years old anyway and that's a good run for a low-priced product.

Stay in touch.