How to repair CompactFlash card?

[DamoIcon]

Hi Folks,

So we've been having some voicemail problems at a couple of our sites. One has an IP500V2, and one has an IP500V1. We had a subcontractor from our Avaya partner out a few weeks ago, who suggested that he thought our problem was the few thousand messages on the CF and SD cards on our systems (We run Embedded Voicemail), and suggested we pull the cards out and delete the contents of the LVMail directories (Do you see where I'm going here?).

On the SD card on the V2 system, that worked fantastically! We just re-recorded our greetings, and all is good.

Then I did the same on the CompactFlash on our V1 system. And we no longer have voicemail. From searching this forum, I found that there is supposed to be this 00031001.clp file on the CF card, which is some kind of license file. I've spoken to our Avaya partner, and they're not sure how to fix it. They tried supplying a copy off another V1 system, but that didn't work. I'm looking in the file they supplied, and there's not much room in there for any magic, so I'm hoping someone has figured out the 'magic' to fix it? Any ideas?

Or anyone know HOW to fix it? It took three months of phoning every Avaya office in the world (I'm not joking) to find THIS partner.. If they don't know how to fix it, I'm not sure how we're going to get our system working again

Thanks,

Damien

 

[amriddle01]

You can't fix it, that file was unique to that card and once deleted it's gone and therefor so is the licence, only Avaya could fix it but that would cost more than a new card



"No problem monkey socks

 

[DamoIcon]

Bugger, so it's time to buy a whole new PABX? (Since new cards are double the price of a whole IP500?)

Can I buy a new IP500V1, and just pop it's CF card into our existing system?

 

[amriddle01]

They don't come with the compact flash voicemail, that was/is a seperate product



"No problem monkey socks

 

[AndrePa]

That CF Card without the 00031001.clp file will not work at all for embedded voicemail!
A new CF card would be cheaper than repairing an old one.

 

[tlpeter]

It will be cheaper to buy an IP500v2 with an SD card
You only loose 2 channels as the IP500v1 has 4 channels and the IP500v2 has 2 by default.
You could send the CF card for repair as it is possible to get this file again but only Avaya can do this.


BAZINGA!

I'm not insane, my mother had me tested!

 

[DamoIcon]

Hi Peter,

I had thought of that, but as I understand it, we'd have to have all our licenses transferred to the serial number of the new unit? (Which sounded like hassle and time - I know it took about a week to get our upgrade licenses when we took our systems from v5 to v7..)

I should probably mention that we're in Australia, where Avaya seem to be non-existent..

 

[tlpeter]

You will need to swap the licenses indeed.
You will have two weeks to return the old dongle and then you are free of charge.
I wonder why it takes that long to be honest.


BAZINGA!

I'm not insane, my mother had me tested!

 

[holdmusic34]

Avaya are not non existent in Australia.
Upgrade licenses from distributors are generally received that day.

Should assistance be required in Australia, Avaya are more than willing to help. An adequate BP should be able to escalate an issue to a distri or Avaya if required.
Sounds like you're being dicked around.

 

[DamoIcon]

Sorry Holdmusic, but they're absolutely totally not willing to help. Infact, they have absolutely no idea what's going on. Seems like they're only interested in the government/enterprise-business market.

When I joined the company here two years ago, we had a couple of these IP500's, and noone supporting them - they'd been installed by the local Optus dealer a few years earlier, and had lots of problems. So I picked up the phone and called Avaya. Figured i could just explain that we needed someone to support our systems. Well, the lady who answered had NO idea how to help. She suggested I might want to talk to their business manager, but he only works part time, and wasn't in that day, so she'd have him call me back. At the same time, I jumped on the Avaya website, and put in a contact form thing saying I needed to get in touch with someone who could help us maintain our PABX's.

Over the next two weeks, I made six more calls to Avaya Australia (each time getting bumped to a different person, and them all saying they didn't really have anything to do with 'those little systems', and they'd try to find someone to call me back), and submitted three more contact forms. BTW, I'm pretty sure 'Avaya Australia' is actually a bunch of voip phones spread around a heap of people's back rooms. There were kids crying in the background of more than one of the people I was transferred to!

And had no replies at all.

So I started phoning Avaya offices in other countries. Afterall, it's an internet-enabled product, so it doesn't really matter where our support comes from, right? Over the following two months I phoned just about every Avaya phone number I could find in english speaking countries around the world, and not one of them knew how to get support for an IP500.

Eventually I was sitting on whirlpool (a local everything-technical type forum), and having a whinge, and managed to get a round-about contact from a bloke who worked in enterprise support at Avaya here in AU, who put me onto the guys who now give us support.. But they're really quite slow to respond, and most of their answers come back as something along the lines of 'oh, i'm not really sure, I'll have to ask someone'.

It's really darned irritating I don't understand how it can be SO hard to find someone to hand money to each month who KNOWS the IP500 works, and fix problems when they come up.

Sorry, rant mode is now offline

 

[DamoIcon]

Well, after getting an SD card image sent over from Avaya to 'try, but we don't think it'll work', indeed it didn't work. Apparently you can't purchase the CF cards anymore, so we're now getting a quote to move to a V2 chassis. Getting to the point where I'm also getting quotes to move to a cloud-based PABX. UGH

 

[holdmusic34]

Please call me on the 1300 number on the website on my linked signature below and I will personally find you a BP so your company can receive the service you deserve at whatever level of expertise you require.
It's not likely that you are in my region, but please let me get you in touch with someone who can help.