Subject: (usr-tc) USR-TC chassis dying. Help!

From: Brian Elfert <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 08 Dec 1999 06:01:42 +0000

One of my USR-TC chassis appears to be dying or it's dead already.

It's the old 2059 bundle with Quad modems and a Netserver card.

I first noticed a problem Sunday morning when I came in to do a system
upgrade.  It seemed strange that TC rack had zero calls and the other TCs
had about 10 calls each.  One of the modem cards on the rack was in alarm,
so I powercycled the rack.  The modem card just flashed red after, so I
reflashed the card and all was well.

Now, tonight I got a call saying callers were getting dead air.  There
were callers up on the rack, but far fewer than the other racks.  I called
in, and sure enough most calls to that rack got dead air, with the modem
led going red instead of orange.  I soft busied that rack, but every
single caller on the rack eventually got dropped with a lost carrier.  5
of the callers got a lost carrier within 2 seconds.

I pulled the dead modem card from the rack and power cycled it.  After
that, every single caller gets dead air, but the modem lights now go
orange instead of red.  I took the modem rack out of service until
tomorrow.

Where do I start on fixing this?  Do I just declare it a total loss and
buy a new one?  I do have spares for every part except the modem cards.
(The T1s are good, as they work on some extra modem ports I have.)

Brian

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From: Tatai SV Krishnan <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 08 Dec 1999 06:04:28 +0000

You may first want to open a ticket with support first.  It would be easy 
for us to detect what is wrong and have you up and running soon.

krish

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 08 Dec 1999 06:07:43 +0000

Are they analog/digital quads?  Check your PRI card if they are digital.

also make sure that your cards are still assigned to the netserver (sho
assigned?).

Buy a hiper arc chassis!

Paul Farber
Farber Technology
[email-masked]
Ph  570-628-5303
Fax 570-628-5545

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From: Brian Elfert <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 08 Dec 1999 18:00:23 +0000

> for us to detect what is wrong and have you up and running soon.

This chassis is 2.5 years old, so my 1 year support contract is long gone.
and so is my warranty.

What is the price for a single incident?

I don't want this to turn into a support contract battle, but I've saved
enough money not buying overpriced contracts to buy a used replacement
chassis for this unit, and still come out ahead. 

I do have a spare chassis with every part except the modem cards, so I'm
probably going to swap the cards from the bad unit to my spare to see if
the midplane is bad.

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From: Tatai SV Krishnan <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 08 Dec 1999 18:16:39 +0000

Well in that case you have two choices.

1. Make sure that the modem is set up properlly.
	Set the modem to load from defaults, set the hardware and 
software template on them.
set all the modems on the netserve to inactive - reset the modems on the 
netserver, set the modems active one by one and reset them

2. If the above does not work, then remove all the modem from the 
chassis, put them one by one and activate the same one at a time to 
identify the bad modem. 

If both of these fails and if you are sure that its the chassis midplane 
(you may want to swap the cards into a different chassis )
then you still should be able to get the chassis reparied.

krish

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From: Brian Elfert <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 08 Dec 1999 18:17:58 +0000

> Are they analog/digital quads?  Check your PRI card if they are digital.

I have a combination of Analog/Digital and Digital modems.  They are all
running in digital mode.  I've checked the PRI/T1 card, and it all appears
in order.  The CT1s themselves work, because I was able to move one to a
spare port on another TC rack.

> also make sure that your cards are still assigned to the netserver (sho

Actually, it's show modems on the Netserver.  I tried that and all modems
seem to be properly assigned. 

Brian

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From: "Bob Purdon (Lists)" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 09 Dec 1999 09:43:43 +0000

> I don't want this to turn into a support contract battle, but I've
> saved enough money not buying overpriced contracts to buy a used
> replacement chassis for this unit, and still come out ahead.

Ditto here...

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bob Purdon,                          Ground Floor, Marine Board Building
Technical Manager (Tas/Vic),                  1 Franklin Wharf, Tas 7000
Southern Internet Services.                            +61 (3) 6234 7444

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