I have nortel phone system, voicemail is not working at all and feature 981, 983, 985 all say inactive feature--how do I reactive the voicemail??

SOURCE: Norstar: Inactive Feature (981)

This generally happens from one of two things. Your voice mail system is connected to your phone system through a station port. If it loses connection it will not communicate with the phone system. Loose wire or connection can cause this. or it has just crashed and will need repair or replacement.

First thing you want to do is unplug the unit wait 15 minutes and plug it back in. wait 10 minutes Try feature 981 from a set that has voicemail. if nothing. hit feature 985 from a m7310 set or a m7324 set not a m7208. If it comes back with inactive fearture now your connection between the units is bad or the unit itself is bad. If it comes back with the voicemail intercom # and you cant get into any mailboxes it has lost all programming.Try this first.

SOURCE: inactive features

Is this just voice mail or are other features not working. Voice mail is a separate part from the phone system so you could be having phone system trouble or voice mail trouble. Most Norstar system use a capacitor for memory backup and they typically do not fail. I have seen circumstances where rapid on/off cycles (that can happen when the power goes out in a storm etc..) cause the programming to become scrambled. You should put your phone system on a good surge protector or UPS battery backup. How about other programming? Did anything default? What is the time and date on the system?

SOURCE: Changing MAIN voicemail announcement

I am not a phone installer and we have another vendors' phone system here at our work.

It can be *extremely* difficult setting up these phone systems, even with a manual.

Here is one such link that might help:

http://www.alphatelecom.ca/meridian_norstar_manuals.htm

Here is another forum that has lots of friendly folks that might be able to help

http://www.sundance-communications.com/forum/ultimatebb.php?/ubb/forum/f/8.html

You will get an answer much sooner on there than here probably.

Mike

SOURCE: Remote Voicemail - How do you do it T7316

Call the phone system.

When you hear the voicemail greeting,
Press "* *" (thats 2 stars)

then just like sitting in front of the phone.

SOURCE: Feature 981 is displayed as an inactive feature and not available

Try powering off the voicemail system and and then power it on again. I've had it happen many times that after a power failure they just don't boot up correctly.