sundance-communications.com/forum Forums TDM Business Telephone Systems NEC Telephones & Systems Electra Elite 48 not working..

I have an Electra Elite 48 voice mail unit with hard drive. It was working on Friday when I left the office, but sometime over the weekend something must have happened. We do not work weekends. Monday morning I called to leave a message with someone that I was going to be late and the system kept ringing and ringing. The night mode message wouldn't answer.

I got to the office and nothing works.. can't access voice mail. Can't get incoming calls.

I turned the unit off, waited a bit, and back on with no luck. I opened the unit and took a look inside. There's 4 or 5 cards. Red lights flashing on each one. I tried to re-seat the one with the hard drive on it, no luck again. I don't remember someone had me re-seat a card before, but I'm not sure which one, so that's why I re-seated the hard drive one, I think that's the one someone had me do before.

I have called the person who came out and serviced our unit last time we had an issue (in 2008), but they don't know when they can get out here.

I thought in the mean time someone here might be able to give some advice.

I wonder if we can bypass the voice mail unit so we're at least able to receive calls? My mind doubts it is something I can do since the Verizon wiring probably comes into one place, which is routed to the voice mail unit.

If you have analog lines, yes you can wire up some regular phones for temp use. On another point you have a system that has been discontinued since 2003.

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Well, I had another account here, but was unable to access it, and unable to access the email associated with it it's been so long.

Anyway, someone came out and determined either the hard drive is bad or that board.

We're going to look into a possible Cloud Based system, or another voice mail unit.

Well, I would weigh everything and project paying for 5 years out. Don't discount small phone systems without pricing and weighing cost/risk benefits.

Cloud based sounds so sexy but it really is a waste of money. Consider that you can pay off your investment in a new system within a couple years and from that point forward it is pure savings. Hosted is a permanent expense. Look into DSX 40/80 package deals. They come with Intramail and are very attractively priced. And you won't have to add sizable Internet bandwidth in the process or a POE switch.

The only cloud based system we'll install is Freedom Voice. No contract, month to month billing. Easy out if ya don't like it.

You could probably pick up an affordable used voicemail somewhere

D

Yep.. I know that cloud based will be a monthly charge for as long as we use the service, but at the same time it sounds like we're getting rid of a lot of our Verizon services, which will also save money. We have 4 phone lines total. So, we could cut that down to 1 phone line and through the cloud based system we'll have "3 paths" so if line 1 is busy it goes to 2, 3, and 4. Cutting out 3 phone lines will save a few hundred bucks I think.

The only thing with this cloud based unit is that it works off "minutes" similar to how your cell phone uses minutes. That's stupid. VOIP is free.

I wish it wasn't so hard to get a "basic" price.. just a ballpark figure would be nice. Instead I have to call up every company and give them all our details and have sales call me back.

I know the hard drive sounds bad (loud whirring noise), but maybe there's an off-chance I can pull it out and pop it in a computer? Is it something I might be able to read in Windows and clone to another drive?

I wonder if this old card can even take a new drive.. it's a 2.5" Toshiba, that looks to be like 2.16GB.

LOL, now that is funny!!!!!

VoIP normally costs much more then traditional systems it's far from free. Hosted systems will cost less for start up but in the long run you pay for it many times over the purchase price of a system. Also remember with VoIP and hosted when the network goes down you lose your phones also.