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Intermittent failure

Started by dcuste, July 09, 2019, 09:39:54 AM

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dcuste

My 6 month old OBI202 has been randomly dropping out on both phone lines. This has been happening more and more frequently lately where now it is occurring once per day. When the drop out occurred, all the led indicator lights stay normal but I will not get any dial tone on either line and neither phone will ring on incoming calls. The fix has always been to momentarily disconnect power, but now it will fail again within a day or two.

I submitted a support request a week ago and have heard nothing back. Not even an email saying they got my request. I resubmitted today.

Does anybody have any ideas on what is causing this issue and what i can do other than reboot every day?

Is there a phone support number or another way to get a warranty replacement?

Update 7/12/19 - I did get a reply from support ...

"We've received a message that your OBi202 device experiencing intermittent failure and that you have to disconnect/reconnect power back to the OBi device.  Thank you.

Please make sure no switch, nor extender, nor hub connected and be sure to connect your AC power adaptor to a surge protected power strip -- Protect your OBi and other electronic devices from the potentially harmful effects of power surges and lightning strikes. Please click link to learn more."

The OBI202 is connected directly to the modem. It has been connected that way since I connected it 6 months ago and the previous OBI202 I had for 6 six years was connected this way without an issue.

The OBI is connected to a UPS with filtering and surge protection. The manufacture provides a $360,000 guarantee against damaging any equipment power by the UPS. So I doubt that is the issue.

OBHAI Support replied with "If issues remain, see if you can open up certain ports within your router for traffic flowing:  https://www.obitalk.com/info/faq/Troubleshooting-sec/ports-to-keep-open-on-my-router"

I opened the ports but had another failure last night. My experience is that the OBI202 should give out dial tone even if it is not connected to the internet at all. 

What else do I need to do to get this fixed?

dcuste

How is it possible that this post has been viewed by over 1500 users and nobody has left a reply? I mo expert on this and may be using the wrong terminology, but I thought I would at least have gotten a reply with a comment like "I have no idea what you are talking about". But I get nothing. 

My OBI202 is under warranty, yet I get no reply from Obihai. I tried more emailing and now calling support at 1-408-890-6000 and left messages. Waited days and never got a call back. I even tried calling that number pressed 1 for sales. Nobody ever picks up. Held for hours. I'm beginning to think that Polycom has completely abandoned Obihai.

Does anybody here know how to get a response from these people? Anybody have another phone number?

Is there another product that has the same features as the OBI202 and will work with google voice. I hate the idea of just starting over but I see no other choice as I can't justify buying a new device from Polycom.

   

drgeoff

A powered up OBi202 should give dial tone on both phone sockets.  No network connection needed.  Even with nothing plugged in to the ethernet jack.

I'd say that your OBi202 has an intermittent hardware fault or some external influence is crashing its microprocessor.  Very strong electromagnetic interference or a faulty OBi wall-wart PSU.

dcuste

Thank you Drgeoff,

I've now moved it to the other end of the shelf. Maybe 3 feet from where it was. I've also swapped out the wa;;-wart with one I had on hand. All is working now, but I won't know for sure for a few days.

Yesterday I called Polycom tech support and actually talked with a live person. He was of no help but he did create a file to track my problem and emailed me the file on the problem. He said I would hear back if they come up with a resolution.

dcuste

Update. Moving the OBI202 3 feet away from my router appears to have allowed an automatic recovery from the failures, but it still does fail every day or two. I know this because my alarm system monitors the telephone line. So now that I've moved the OBI202, when I get a telecomm failure message I now check and both my telephone lines have dial tone and work fine whereas before I moved the OBI202, when I checked the phone lines were dead. I can probably live with this but I think it may be an indication of a complete failure in the future. Probably the day after my warranty expires.

I still have not heard anything from Polycom nor Obihai support in regards to a fix or replacement.

Has anybody here been able to get a warranty replacement?

SteveInWA

Post the ticket number they gave you, and I will see if I can get somebody's attention.

dcuste

Thanks Steve,

Just today they sent me out a replacement. I installed it and so far it is working. Time will tell.

The old OBI202 did work better after I moved it further away from my router, but was still failing on occasion and a few of the failures resulted in loss of dial tone and had to be rebooted.

I noticed that my replacement OBI202 has an all dark colored case whereas my original was two tone. The last six digits of the OBI number on the replacement is 1/2 of the original and has a number "2668-08416-349 rev A" printed on the label and has Polycom listed. Whereas the original doesn't have any numbers to indicate the firmware version and only has OBIHAI listed no mention of Polycom. I am curious if this replacement OBI202 is a return from somebody else and if it is an older model. Does anybody know how to tell? The serial number is alpha numeric. The first letters/numbers are the same up to the letter that is forth from the end. The forth from the end on the original unit is a letter "Y", whereas the replacement is a letter "V". My guess is that the replacement is a much older unit but it is weird that it would list Ploycom.

I'll write another reply if the replacement unit fails. Otherwise you can assume it fixed my problem.

SteveInWA

The black units are the new branding and color scheme.  Obihai was bought by Polycom, who, in turn, was bought by Plantronics.  The combined company is called "Poly", and their products are black.