Re: 7970G possibly bricked?

fieryhail · ‎12-26-2010

Have a 7970G connected to a CUCM 7.1.5. The phone is powered via a brick (not PoE). After a power outage, the phone kept trying to "Upgrade firmware" but instead of successfully upgrading the firmware it kept rebooting. I tried a factory reset by holding # until the line buttons flashed amber and using 123456789*0#, and no luck. I found another thread that referenced holding # while powering the phone and then using 3491672850*#, this caused the line buttons to cycle red, the phone appears to reset, the speakerphone light goes green for a while, then the first line button goes amber and all lights go off. The phone is still plugged into power, but there is absolutely NO activity whatsoever. I've heard of people leving the phone in this state connected overnight, which I plan to do, but am wondering if the phone is actually bricked now. I've never run across this before. Anyone with a similar experience? If so, what did you do to fix it or what was the outcome? Thanks in advance.

bvanturn · ‎12-27-2010

It is critical that your phone has access to a valid TFTP server via the DHCP option 150 so it can retrieve TERM70.default from that TFTP server to recover the firmware.You should be able to see where it gets stuck by taking a sniffer (may require a span of the switch port)

90% of the times people come to me with broken phones it is simply a matter of doing the above to get it to work again. Just be patient and don't be mislead in case the screen is not showing anything.

Same procedure explained here

Udit Mehrotra · ‎12-27-2010

Also check that the firmware that CUCM is trying to load on the IP Phone. If it requires a step upgrade(You can look that up in the Release Notes of the FIrmware), make sure you upgrade to the version mentioned in the release notes first.

HTH

Udit

Jonathan Schulenberg · ‎12-27-2010

The other noteworthy thing here is that the customer is running CUCM 7.1(5) which would have shipped with a firmware newer than 8.5(2). If the phone is hard-reset it likely will not accept the newer signature of the current firmware.

You may need to manually flash 8.5(2) to it as an interim step and then proceed to the default.

https://supportforums.cisco.com/message/3042348#3042348

To be honest, I have not tried this procedure with a phone in this state. I'm not sure whether it will retrieve the SEP.cnf.xml file or not. If this doesn't work post a packet capture of the phone so we can see what files the phone is requesting.

fieryhail · ‎12-27-2010

I'm trying the TFTP32 route now, using SIP firmware 8.2(1). I appreciate your quickr replies. I'm thinking that there has to be some way to resurrect this phone since when I power it on and hold the # key the line lights DO light up in amber in a walking pattern until I either use the 123456789*0# combination after wich the phone exhibits the symptoms described above or the 3491672850*# combination after which the line lights turn red and then the phone still exhibits the symptoms described in original post. I hadn't thought of the firmware loads on the 7.1(5) CUCM might not take hold after a complete factory reset. I'll post back on anything new. Also, this may be a stupid question, but what would be the best way to collect packet captures from the phone? Anysuggestions are welcome should that be necessary.

Jonathan Schulenberg · ‎12-27-2010

Span the port on the switch to another port and run Wireshark on your computer.

Also, 8.2(1) is a pretty old firmware version. Version 8.5(2) had special significance. You need that exact version - not 8.5(2)SR1 even - before proceeding to a later firmware version.

paolo bevilacqua · ‎12-27-2010

Also, 8.2(1) is a pretty old firmware version. Version 8.5(2) had special significance. You need that exact version - not 8.5(2)SR1 even - before proceeding to a later firmware version.

Actually, recenty I used 8.5(2)SR1 as intermediate version before further upgrades, and worked OK.

Then, I have just upgraded a 7970 from 8.3(5) to 8.5(4S) without any issue.

However, it would not take 8.5(2)SR1 from 8.2.x, so I did intermediate with 8.3(5).

fieryhail · ‎12-27-2010

Once again, I appreciate the quick replies, I have the SIP firmware 8.5(2) firm

ware now that I am going to try loading using TFTP32. I'll post back. On a side note Johnathan, what is it in 8.5(2) that makes it unique or special? Merely curious. Also, I may be wrong, but I believe the firmware the phone was running on before all this happened was 8.4(1) SCCP. The CUCM was originally 7.0(1). Only recently while trying to integrate Unity Connection 7.1x Visual Voicemail has the phone's firmware been an issue at all. And on yet another side not, I know I'm really sidetracking here, is there any difference (pro/con) to running SIP vs. SCCP firmware on the 797x series of IP Phones? I know the Type A phones (40/60) while SIP capable suffered feature loss as opposed to SCCP, but from my understanding, the 797x models are the same either way.

bvanturn · ‎12-27-2010

The reason for this is a change in signing server. All signed software for phones and VOS based software such as cucm,cuc and cup released after June 2009 are signed with the new signing server. If you try to install a recent phone firmware on a phone that has an old version it will not trust the new signing server yet, so it will reject the load. The solution is the intermediate releases that are in place that carries both the old and the new signing key and that were signed using the old key so they can be loaded on software that does not have the new key yet.

So for phone firmware that would be 8.5(2) as it was released june 2009 right before the new server was used so it was still signed with the old key. 8.5(2)SR1 would not work as it was signed in august.8.4(4) and 8.4(3) may also do the trick, not sure when exactly the new key was added in the releases. This is in line with the release notes:

For all SCCP firmware upgrades from firmware release versions earlier than 8.3(3) to version 8.5(2)SR1 or greater, you must first upgrade your firmware to version 8.5(2). Once you have upgraded to version 8.5(2), you can upgrade your IP Phone to version 8.5(2)SR1 or later.

fieryhail · ‎12-27-2010

Thank you much for the clarification. That was something I was unaware of. Very good to know!

fieryhail · ‎12-27-2010

I tried the update with the dedicated TFTP/DHCP server, same results. Time to play with wireshark!

Udit Mehrotra · ‎12-27-2010

Wireshark will tell you exactly where the problem is. Keep in mind the IP Phone boot up sequence.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/phones/ps379/products_tech_note09186a008009485a.shtml

Cheers

Udit