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Landline phones damaged from thunderstorm

M

Mike S.

Jan 1, 1970
0
I am trying to help my grandmother with a phone problem. I'm not
entirely sure what's going on (she's very confusing) but some
(possibly all) of the Caller ID displays on her home telephones are
garbled to the point where they're unreadable. I think it happened
after a thunderstorm where the electric went out. The phones work fine
except for the displays. It's on both the cordless and corded phones.

Is it at all possible that the storm would damage only the displays on
the phones but yet the phones still work fine otherwise? I can't be
sure, but I think even the cordless extension sets that aren't even
connected to the phone line have the garbled display. That seems
really strange to me.

I think the displays on at least five phones are damaged.

Just out of curiosity, could it be something on the phone line that's
damaged which is causing the garbled displays? Or is it actually the
phones which are damaged?
 
G

Geoffrey S. Mendelson

Jan 1, 1970
0
Mike said:
I think the displays on at least five phones are damaged.

Just out of curiosity, could it be something on the phone line that's
damaged which is causing the garbled displays? Or is it actually the
phones which are damaged?

The answer is yes and yes. All of the phones could have been damaged in
a lightening strike, even if the lightening did not strike anything in
the house, or that enters it e.g. power, telephone, cable tv wiring.

Or they could just be getting garbled information.

The first thing to do is to bring a phone you know works and try it.

If it fails, unplug all the other phones, surge supressors, etc from
the phone lines and see if it works.

If it still does not work, and you live in the U.S., find your demarc
(demarcation) jack. This is were the phone line enters your house and
officially the phone network ends and your private wiring begins.

Unplug the house wiring from it and plug in your known working phone.
If it still fails, call the telephone company.

I have no idea if demarc jacks are used anywhere else. Here they are not.

Geoff.
 
A

Arfa Daily

Jan 1, 1970
0
Geoffrey S. Mendelson said:
The answer is yes and yes. All of the phones could have been damaged in
a lightening strike, even if the lightening did not strike anything in
the house, or that enters it e.g. power, telephone, cable tv wiring.

Or they could just be getting garbled information.

The first thing to do is to bring a phone you know works and try it.

If it fails, unplug all the other phones, surge supressors, etc from
the phone lines and see if it works.

If it still does not work, and you live in the U.S., find your demarc
(demarcation) jack. This is were the phone line enters your house and
officially the phone network ends and your private wiring begins.

Unplug the house wiring from it and plug in your known working phone.
If it still fails, call the telephone company.

I have no idea if demarc jacks are used anywhere else. Here they are not.

Geoff.


Could be just that the micros in the phones have got screwed up. I would try
a complete reset on all of the phones, and then 're-mating' the cordless
extensions with the base. Seems odd that it should have knocked out all of
the phones, and all in the same way. Also agreed with what Geoff said. Try a
known good phone on the line.

Arfa
 
F

Franc Zabkar

Jan 1, 1970
0
I am trying to help my grandmother with a phone problem. I'm not
entirely sure what's going on (she's very confusing) but some
(possibly all) of the Caller ID displays on her home telephones are
garbled to the point where they're unreadable. I think it happened
after a thunderstorm where the electric went out. The phones work fine
except for the displays. It's on both the cordless and corded phones.

Is it at all possible that the storm would damage only the displays on
the phones but yet the phones still work fine otherwise? I can't be
sure, but I think even the cordless extension sets that aren't even
connected to the phone line have the garbled display. That seems
really strange to me.

There's the clue.
I think the displays on at least five phones are damaged.

It doesn't look like a display problem. Instead it appears that the
caller ID data is garbled before it gets to the display.
Just out of curiosity, could it be something on the phone line that's
damaged which is causing the garbled displays? Or is it actually the
phones which are damaged?

Could it be that one partially damaged phone is loading the line and
affecting the signal strength? I'd measure the voltage on the phone
line at the wall socket with all telephone devices and modems
disconnected (it's 52V here in Australia), then reconnect them and
measure again. There should be no appreciable difference. Of course
all phones must be on-hook for this test.

- Franc Zabkar
 
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