TRU8888 Base Unit - No Dial Tone After Power Failure

Unplug the base station / charger for 10 minutes and then plug back in. It may reset. Also, check if the battery in the phone is fully charged. I had a power surge last year and unfortunately, it blew my base station and I had to get a new phone.

The TRU8885 has a Do Not Disturb feature which will disable the ring on the base and all handsets. To toggle this off, press and hold the DND button on the base. (The key is on the lower left of the keypad, next to the * key). The answering system will turn on when the DND feature is enabled, if it wasn't previously on.

However, this shouldn't disable the dial tone when you call out. I suggest that you check that the base has power. After that, you have to look for a wiring problem. The problem could be the phone, the RJ-11 cable between the base and the wall jack, a wire that is damaged in the wall, or an outside line problem.

First try a new RJ-11 cable; make sure not to use a wired handset cord. After that, I like to use an old corded phone that requires no power adapter to test the line. If the test phone gets a dial tone, then the TRU8885 base has a problem. If the test phone doesn't hear a dial tone, try plugging it into another jack on the phone line if possible. If there's no dial tone (or no other jack), find the incoming service box. If there is an RJ-11 plug in the box, check for a dial tone there.

If you have no dial tone at the service box or can't test the line at the box, contact your telephone company. Most companies will check the line and fix outside problems for free. If the problem is at the first jack, remove the cover plate and look for a loose wire. There are two styles of RJ-11 jacks. The screw terminal type require you to strip the wire and secure it under the correct screw. For the keystone jack type, you do not strip the wire. You use a punch-down tool (available at many hardware stores in the electrical section) to push the wire back into the correct section of the keystone. The little pins will puncture the insulation when the wire is properly inserted to make the connection. See http://www.lanshack.com/wire_phone_jack.aspx for the connection wiring connections. If you have an DSL filter inside your home, replace it if it is faulty. For any other inside wiring problem, you may want to let a professional find the wiring break in the walls. Your phone company will do this for a fee.

I hope this helps.

Cindy Wells
(I have had dial tone issues from several different causes. A single jack's wire was left disconnected after a service upgrade. Several outages were from damaged outside wiring either from mice chewing or a contractor digging through the wire. With a DSL line, the lightning strike damaged the filter and blocked all of the signals. Recently, a fiber-optic service card failed resulting in intermittent dial tone failures. Except for the first issue which I could fix myself, the local phone company or appropriate contractors fixed the issue for free. However, I don't live in an area where the phone company is trying to stop serving some wired phone customers.)

If you have another phone connect it to the wall outlet to see if you get a dial tone. This will indicate if your base unit is faulty.
Check the power adapter to the base unit, make sure it is getting mains power.
If the base unit has dual phone lines and if line 1 is only connected and the line 2 has beed selected then you cannot get a dial tone. In the chase press the line 1 to get a dial tone.
If your base unit has only one line then check the phone line at the wall socket make sure it is plugged in tight, also check the the connection at the base unit.
If this does not work then ring the phone company and get the to test your phone line, you may have a faulty line to your home.

To Reset The Main Base of a TRU8888:

Hard Reset: With Power off, Press and Hold Delete and Volume Up on main base and plug power back in (holding the buttons until you hear the successful beep)

Soft Reset: With Power off, Press and Hold Do Not Disturb and Volume Up on main base and plug power back in (holding buttons until you hear the successful beep)

The battery in the handset could be bad . First I would test that the base unit is recieving dial tone by pressing speaker button on base unit. If there is dial tone then problem is in handset or in base unit communication to handset. Try resetting power to base unit. Check manual for any re-initialization procedure. If the base unit is not receiving dial tone then I would test that the phone line is delivering dial tone to the base unit by connecting a known good phone to the line cord. If the dial tone is not present , problem could be in line cord from outlet, outlet, building wiring, or service provider.

You have not mentioned the model but it is for sure that your phone inter communication has failed. Hence the base and the hand set is not locking on. Remove off all the leads and clean the base terminal charging points. open the hand set and reset the battery, dry off any residue of water moisture on the front panel of the hand set. now connect back and lock it in to see if the set latches. If not check if the power outage had caused a failure in the base unit DC input. check the area for +5 volt to processor , optocoupler and sub circuits. also checck the battery of your hand set for low voltage as it would have gone below the threshold level of charging. Test the voltage, if not replace the battery and set . it must work then. Helpful? Good day

I could tell the base unit was about to go a few days ago. Have had the phone for years with intermittent problems but it has been for quite awhile now. However, the screen on the unit started to blink a bit a few days ago. Had a feeling it was about to go but the phone kept working until this morning when it suddenly dies. After reading that changeing the cord might work, I replace the unit power cord with one from my handset and the phone is working again! Thanks for the suggestion!

First try plugging the unit in and out a couple of times. If that doesn't fix the problem then check the battery packs on the phone units. BTW I meant to plug and unplug power to the base unit. If these solutions don't work then most probable cause is an audio component failure due to the voltage surge on power up. This is normally when most electronics will fail. Hope this helps.

E4 IS AN ERROR MESSAGE, THE BASE IS NO LONGER GOING TO WORK, POSSIBLY A POWER OUTAGE COULD OF DAMAGED THE BASE.

Hey.. Did you check to see if the phone is registered correctly ???