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Recently a local lightning strike created a power surge which fried my answering machine. I purchased a new AT&T standalone machine and, after hooking it up into the single line phone system, it will work perfectly for about 2 hours, then for some reason the phone lines inside the house will go dead (callers hear a busy signal). if i take the answering machine out of the loop, the phones operate normally. does anyone have previous experience with this phenomenon? will another answering machine fix this, or will i have the same problem?
thanks
Sounds like the answering machine is picking up the telephone line and not releasing it.
Hence the busy signal, cause the answering machine has the line off hook. It's like leaving your telephone off hook, the next caller will get a busy signal...
The answering machine might be bad... have you noticed that you were talking on the phone and hung up then the next call would be the busy signal? Maybe test this out.
Do you have the correct voltage to the answering machine, too much power or too little power can do funny things to telephone equipement.
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Outdoor network cables or power cables are routed overhead.
A switch is deployed outdoors but is not properly grounded.
Damages of Lightning Strikes
If power cables of a switch are routed overhead in an outdoor environment, lightning strikes may burn the power supplies.
If network cables of a switch are routed overhead in an outdoor environment, lightning strikes may burn interfaces of the switch.
When a switch undergoes lightning strikes, overvoltage is induced by lightning on network cables and transmitted to interior of the chassis. The surge protection measures, such as lightning rod and chassis grounding cannot prevent the damage. Therefore, surge protectors or surge protection circuits are recommended.
Surge Protector Use Precautions
Take the following precautions to protect a switch from lightning:
Ensure that the ground cable is connected to a ground bar or a ground point on the cabinet.
Avoid routing cables overhead in an outdoor environment. Bury cables underground or route them in steel tubes.
To protect network interfaces against lightning, use 8-line surge protectors (or Huawei certified 4-line surge protectors).
When installing a network interface surge protector, connect the IN end to terminals and the OUT end to network interfaces of the switch.
If a fixed switch is installed in a network box, follow these instructions:
Connect the ground cables of the switch and surge protectors to the ground bar in the network box.
The maximum length of a ground cable cannot exceed 40 cm, and a length of smaller than 15 cm is recommended.
If the network box is located outdoors and power cables are routed aerially over a long distance (more than 300 m) to the network box, it is recommended that you install a power supply surge protector in the network box. The decoupled power cable must be at least 3 m long
If you got hit with a power surge from a lightning strike, it can come into a device from the AC outlet OR the telephone line.
I suspect the modem (needed for FAX) section of your machine is fried.
If this is in a home office, you should really have a 'whole house' surge protector installed to avoid business interruptions.
We have the Intermatic IG-1300-2T; for 4 telephone line protection it is : IG-1300-4T
Simple to install in the main breaker box and both include 5 years of insurance for losses of $10,000.
You can see them here:
Intermatic Surge Arrestors
The 4 line model (4T) is currently on sale.
Either the cable is defective (it has a break inside it so try another one) or the onboard LAN chip was fried by the power surge generated by a lightning strike that came in your vicinity.
That is unfixable, disable the onboard one from the BIOS and install a simple PCI LAN card in its place.
This sounds as if it has shorted out the main power board inside the printer. Some small TV Repair shops handle out of warranty printer repairs, but will charge considerably for this. Unless your willing to pull it apart it would be more economical to replace the printer.
But ask around, someone may be willing to give you a quote, and this should be weighed against the cost of a replacement
Unfortunately with lightning strikes the amount of power surging up the line can destroy many components inside the printer,and not much can be done from the outside.
Sorry it was not the answer your looking for, but lightning is a electrical devices worst enemy!!
Regards
GM
It wont turn on? Well if it is damaged by lightning the only thing damaged would be the varactors on the power supply. They are there to absorb tremendous surge of electricity. The same way a surge protector works. A worse case scenario is the power supply board is fried up. Then being a non electronic technician you can purchase the whole board or order on line and install them yourself. If you brought it to a shop they will charged you for the labor and the board. Don't buy used boards on the internet because a lot of them are no good in my own experience. Get a new one for about a little over a hundred buck or so.
It sounds as though your phone has been hit by a power surge or lightning. Try the phone at another location and try another phone at this location to make sure there are no problems with the line. I would almost bet you will find that another phone will work but this phone will not work at another location. Phones are very susceptible to a power surge and to a lightning strike. If another phone works at this location then just buy another phone. It will be cheaper than having this one repaired. Phones are cheap but repairs are not.
Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Lightening may have caused a surge on your power lines to the house and to the outlet the TV was on. Do other things work on that outlet? If not you tripped a power breaker.If they do work check this. Unplug the TV for 2 min or more and plug back in. Try bypassing your surge protector you had it plugged into. It could have died when the lightening struck. (no surge protector?) Bet you'll buy one for your next TV. Look for 3000 joules and up rating for a surge protector and insure it has protection for a cable/antenna input too. If this doesn't work the TV may be fried or internal fuse blown. Time to take it to a repair shop or depending on it's age (5 years+) it may be time to buy a new TV and surge protector. Near Lightening strikes can effect appliances from several inputs that could be affected from outside like Power, Cable, Antennas, Phone Lines that come into your house.
you may have had a lighting strike to the phone line causing a surg to your unit. it may be fried. try completly powering down the system and powering it back up, then try to send a signal to your monitoring station. also you my have your monitorimg station try and connect to your system and check the programing it may have been scrambled.
Replace with new will need new main board (170 bucks) and modeum board, for best protection it needs a fax filter that protects power line and phone line, standard surge protecter only protects power line
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