KM0017: Phone troubleshooting

Question/Answer

Summary

steps to troubleshoot a down phone system

Question

What steps would I go through to troubleshoot my phone system?

Answer

Step 1
After first noticing any problem, spend some time testing the phone before giving up and assuming anything. Try unplugging, then plugging it back in a few times. If the problem is intermittent, try to get a good understanding about what the cause is. If the problem is constant, try to find out if it is intermittent and just acting up at that moment.

Try knocking the phone around a little. Tap all sides as if you are knocking lightly on a door. Pull and push on the curly handset cord on both ends as well as the line cord where it plugs into the bottom. Try leaving the phone unplugged for a few minutes and then try it again.

Step 2
With any problem you must try it in at least 2-3 locations with 2-3 completely different handsets, handset cords and line cords. Unplug everything and take only the main part of the telephone to another location where you have the same type of telephone (try to swap the phone with another of the same model number!). Unplug the good phone and use all the cords and handsets on the problem phone. Again, test the phone there for a few minutes. Repeat step 1 at this new location. Try the good phone in the previous location using the handset, handset cord and line cord from the problem unit. If you can, leave the two phones in their new locations for an extended period.

Next:
If the problem phone still does not work in the new locations with different cords and the good phone is working with the cords and handset from the problem unit, then you should have just eliminated 90% of the possible outside sources for the problem.

You must provide a clear and accurate problem description no matter how obvious the problem may be. We do not miss obvious problems on the test bench, your phone was most likely working when we had it.

Here is the bad news: There are phone systems that have identical looking phones that require different types of handsets. It's very rare but we have seen phones that work perfectly on one control unit, and have major problems on another identical control unit using the same wiring! We have seen phones that only showed problems on even or odd ports of a control unit or on one station card in a multi-carded system. We have seen phones that did not like a certain type of line cord and would work fine with other brands. (Most of these problems are rare and caused by the phone and the control unit both being on opposite sides of their tolerance range) 

If you plug in a phone and after 5 second you notice some problem then after another 5 seconds, unplug it and send it back for warranty work then you will be wasting a lot of your time, a lot of our time, and spending too much money on shipping, handling and testing fees.

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