atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems ESI Telephones & Systems 25 pair to modular or patch panel

Yes,

Thanks John Grider

The patch panel works!


Can you help me with a new hard drive?


<img src="https://www.soldonkevin.com/phone/telephone/p1246318.jpg" width=600 height=500>

83SanDimas is needing a hard drive for his Original IVX.

I'll try to make the story short.

83SD requested the above Patch Panel be custom made in order to organize the previous install. Now the mess in the closet has been cleaned up but the system hard drive has failed during power down/power up.

FYI The hard drive failure was caused by a fellow ESI Tech. I won't mention his name but his initials are JJ. Just the other day he and I discussed the hazards of working on older equipment and I know he put some kind of Voo-Doo hex on it just to prove his point.

83SanDimas is not looking for anything free. If anyone has a hard drive I would like to help him out.

FYI..... it was NOT me or anyone at Phone Solutions.... I'll see if I ca get a drive for him.

I believe you can still get that stuff from ESI??

e-mailed 83SanDimas

On behalf of the customer I would like to say thank you to everyone trying to assist this customer.

We have a rare occurrence of an end user/customer willing to listen to veterans in the business. What is rare about that is frequently when the end user doesn't hear what he wants to hear (or read in this case) he goes elsewhere. In my personal communications with 83SD I have found him to be open minded. That also is rare in this business.

Having said that I feel it is important that we look into 83SD situation as the professionals we are. Here is how I see things.

The ESI system 83SD has went out of production around 90-92. It is clearly around 16 years old. That is of course if I have my dates correct. In order to revive the system a hard drive must be acquired and installed. Once that has been done there are no guarantees on the life of the hard drive we put in place. I'm assuming any hard drive found that is cost effective will be a reconditioned one and it won't come with a warranty. I hate to break it down this way but what we will be doing is equivalent to a heart transplant on a 90 year old man that has terminal lung cancer. The original IVX was a quality system in it's day and if any reader out there has one doing the job it was intended to do then the old saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" applies.
That is not the situation here. In my opinion the most cost effective solution is a later version ESI. The reason I say that is I want 83SD business to be focused on Real Estate, not the day to day problems of a dying telephone system.

Several members will be offering 83SD a replacement hard drive and I know these members quite well. They are honorable business professionals attempting to satisfy a customer as they should. Since prices will be discussed those communications will take place privately. I request that 83SD take full advantage of the knowledge being offered. My friends here can do much more than just quote a priced on a component.

We are standing by!

Thanks guys,

I am very happy with everything that John has done for me. Yes I am trying to maximize my existing system. I can get my hands on a exact replacement drive(unformated). Does that work for me and if so how does the op system go on? Forgive my ignorance. I have no install disks for this system. So am I needing to send the unit to someone or would someone be selling me a formated ready to go drive?

FYI, the drive did not reboot on 1st install. She was noisy before I sent the unit to John so no surprise she failed. After a few attemts (and much head thrashing on the drive, she booted long enough to test the panel.

My goal was to resperate this legacy system and keep it on life support for a while. Long enough for me to research a new system. I am looking for some type of IP phone system (voip) with remote access. I am not familiar with the capabilities of the new systems but was impressed with a Talkswitch system I saw recently. I liked the ability to be at home with a fast internet connection and still be on the office system as if I was local.

As a followup, ESI has an interesting and quite intelligent solution for the replacement drive for this system, even though like John said it's pretty old. Instead of replacing it with another drive (refurb or otherwise) ESI wil supply an adapter to allow a Flash Card to be retrofit just like the newer small Comm Servers!

Although a replacement sytem may truely be a good idea, the old one would definately be more functional and have a renewed lifespan with the Flash memory versus a new HD!

The fact that ESI actually has a retrofit solution with newer technology for their systems that are this old says alot about the company! IMHO

83SanDimas,

I'm confused about something: If this ESI system has been such a great system for you, and lasted THIS long, WHY would you be looking anywhere besides ESI for a replacement system. They have plenty to offer along the lines of VOIP capabilities.

Justin