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Static white noise OBI100

Started by knave, August 06, 2012, 06:22:51 PM

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knave

Hello, I just purchased OBI100 from Amazon.com. I have Comcast HSI with a Motorola Surfboard 6120. I connected the OBI to DIR-655 router, and used my vtech 5.8ghz cordless phone. Dial tone from OBI sounds clear. When I dial **9 222 222 222, the test call guy's voice is layered with a very strong static noise.

Next I configured GV, no problems getting the connection up. I made a test call, the dial tone and ringing sound nice and clear, but once connected I hear the same static/white noise problem. The other party reported good audio with no noise, but on my end the sound quality sucks. It's not as loud when I talk, but gets quite loud when I'm listening to the other party talk, kind of a half duplex effect.

Because of the type of noise, I thought maybe it is electronic interference of some kind. I moved the OBI to another level of the house, different circuit than the cable modem and router. I also disconnected the cordless and used regular handset, too. Same problems, didn't seem to make a difference in the quality.

Then I went completely barebones, plugged the OBI directly into the cable modem. I tried making test call before the connection was complete, and sure enough, even the error message guy that says there is no connection was accompanied by a lot of white noise.

My problem seems similar to this thread http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=1509.0 that I found in the forum, but there wasn't any fix in there that I could understand. Before I return this thing to Amazon I want to see if anyone has any other ideas. Is my OBI defective?

Thanks!

QBZappy

Others have said that this has solved similar problems. You might want to give it a try. Let us know if it works.

Make this default setting: OBi's Ethernet ports to 100 mb/s full duplex
http://www.obitalk.com/forum/index.php?topic=3788.0
Owner of the 1st OBi110/100 units in service in Canada & South America. 1st OBi202 on my street. 1st OBi1032 in Montreal.

knave

Thanks so much for the tip! I followed the instructions to change the Ethernet port to 100Mb. I noticed that the OBI voice prompt guy has that same "scratchy voice". Anyway, it wasn't apparent after saving the new setting that the OBI had rebooted, but I tried the OBI echo test call anyway. Same static noise from the message that said there was no service available.

I then cycled the power to the OBI to be sure it had rebooted. Waited for phone light to turn green, then checked option 27 again to be sure it was set at 1. After verifying, I then tried OBI test call. It connected successfully but the with same noise problem layered over "Welcome to OBI talk and the OBI voice echo test..."

Anything else I should try? I'm ready to throw in the towel. One more question: Should I switch out for another OBI device and try again, or should I just give up and realize OBI is not for my setup?

Thanks again!


ianobi


knave

Good tip! I just tried two other 12V positive center adapters (>=1A output) that I had lying around (one from a vonage ATA and one from an external hard drive). Unfortunately, no difference in static/white noise/sound quality.

One interesting thing about that thread is that most seemed to think that the hum/noise from the power adapter would be isolated from a cordless phone, but I have the same noise whether I use cordless or corded handset.

Will a support ticket with OBI get me anywhere?

ianobi

It's worth a try. They have been known to send out replacements :)

knave

Thanks ianobi and QBZappy for the advice. In the end, I got a replacement from Amazon.com and that seemed to do the trick. New unit is clear as a bell!

RichardC

I had a similar problem with a LinkSys PAP2T, and was able to repair it.  These devices use a high-frequency oscillator and transformer to step up the voltage sufficiently to provide  a ring-voltage output.  The high voltage is then rectified and filtered to provide 40-50 Volts DC.  In my case, the problem was the filter capacitors on the output of this circuit that were bad, and replacing them fixed the problem. (obviously only to be done if device is out-of-warranty)

Quote from: knave on August 09, 2012, 04:35:01 PM
Thanks ianobi and QBZappy for the advice. In the end, I got a replacement from Amazon.com and that seemed to do the trick. New unit is clear as a bell!