handset power

[rugsy]

Hey all, new to the forum - seeking some advice.
We have a Mitel 5000 PBX setup with about 100 5320 IP phones connected.  I have a stack of new phones to setup, and I usually fire them up in the office before deployment. I'm on a POE switch (with plenty of juice, contrary to what the Mitel techs thought).  Previously the phones would boot fine, but recently they get stuck with all the orange lights on, and don't boot properly.
This is pretty random, such as one in three booted fine yesterday with the other two getting stuck.  Sometimes they come good after leaving them overnight on the 'stuck' mode.

Mitel wanted to upgrade our PBX firmware but I'm not convinced that will do anything because this issue seems to occur before the phones can actually try to contact the PBX.

[Tech Electronics]

Rugsy,

Do you have a PoE injector that you could use instead of the getting it from the switch? If you do then try that with the faulty ones and see if they come up on that. If they do it could be the switch is having power issues on one of it rails which happens with HP switches a lot.

Also, I am not sure at what point they are getting stuck, but if you hold down the blue applications button it will allow you to get into the programming of the phone. It depends on its software version on what steps to take, but you will be looking for an option to default the network settings of the phone. It will have a * - Yes 0 - Default # - No and at that point just press 0 to default the network settings and then tell it to save and reboot. If you need more specifics on that procedure I may be able to find something on that for you.

Thanks,

TE

[rugsy]

thanks for the reply
I did initially think of using a POE injector - the spares I have don't even get the lights to come up - they're probably dud POEs as we use switch power (cisco, and the usage on the rails is miniscule)
I have also tried different switches to eliminate a local fault.
Basically the mute light, the envelope light and all but the top 3 soft buttons light up.  It's odd. unplug/replug the same handset about 10 times and it might come up.

I guess it's not a common issue? Perhaps the handsets are faulty

[Tech Electronics]

Rugsy,

So these are brand new phones direct from your local Mitel Direct Warehouse and have never been installed on a system before? If that is true then I would look at getting them replaced as they may be a bad batch of phones, which happens from time to time. I once got an entire box of 12 phones with not one display that worked and they were not "physically" broken.

Thanks,

TE

[rugsy]

I did consider this, which is when, instead of replacing them the reseller wanted to upgrade our PBX firmware (at considerable cost).

[Tech Electronics]

Rugsy,

I have heard others say that the e-series of the phone takes longer to boot and I guess it does since the firmware is different, but taking it hours to boot is a little excessive.

How far in the boot process do you get before it starts this behavior? Do you see anything on the display telling you what state it is in? If you hold down the blue application key when you plug it in what happens?

Thanks,

TE

[rugsy]

Rugsy,

I have heard others say that the e-series of the phone takes longer to boot and I guess it does since the firmware is different, but taking it hours to boot is a little excessive.

How far in the boot process do you get before it starts this behavior? Do you see anything on the display telling you what state it is in? If you hold down the blue application key when you plug it in what happens?

Thanks,

TE

they are the e series actually.  I get no LCD display at all. Hence why I believe it can't be a PBX firmware issue as the handsets aren't failing at a point where it tries to contact the PBX.
I get the glowing lights like what happens when they first receive power. I'll see if i can get an image uploaded somewhere to explain it.

the blue button doesn't seem to do anything at this stage.

[Tech Electronics]

Rugsy,

Well that explains a lot then, if the display is showing anything and the blue application button doesn't send you to the configuration menu then the phone is getting stuck on loading its firmware for some reason.

Once you get the phone up and running, however long that takes, and the new firmware gets downloaded does it continue to behave this way or does it respond normally after that?

Thanks,

TE

[rugsy]

it does it seems.
Any way I can speed up or unlock the firmware so I don't have to wait overnight to run a handset up?

[Tech Electronics]

Rugby,

There is not a faster way to upload the firmware that I know of.

Thanks,

TE

[maximumboost]

How did you go with this issue?
I have two 5224IP phones that do exactly what you are describing.
You plug them into the POE switch and all lights light up but the phone doesn't appear to boot it's firmware.
Nothing is displayed onscreen, etc.

Did you find a fix for this issue? Or did you have to replace the handsets?