7975 does not boot past Speaker light turning on

[lbroering]

I have a 4 year old 7975 phone that is not under a  Cisco support contract. When the phone is plugged in to either poe or ac power adapter the only thing that happens is the speaker light will turn on and stay on. When I try the factory reset by holding the # key down, it does not respond to this, the speaker light just turns on and stays on.

I have also tried powering it up with the headset removed. The headset, mute and speaker  lights turn on first, then just the headset light is lit, then just the mute light and then then the speaker light. Once again the speaker light stays on.

I called Cisco and that is a dead end as it is out of warranty. Just wondering if there is anything else I can try before I pitch it?

[paolo bevilacqua · Accepted solution]

First of all, you can purcahse a new service contract for Cisco products anytime as long the device is current.

Second, look at the switch interface. If you see input packets to increase, the phone can be recovered as described in many many threads on the same subjetc.

[lbroering]

Thanks for the quick reply. I gave Cisco my s/n and they said there was nothing they could do. Could you send me a link to "many threads on the same subjetc" as I am having trouble finding one. Thanks in advance.

[paolo bevilacqua]

http://www.ithsc.com/ciscohardwaremaintenance/SMARTnet_calculator.php

In search box enter "phone not booting". All models are the basically the same.

[mixedme123]

I also have six - 7945 phones that exhibit this exact behaviour.  They are v06 so some of the newest versions of that model/series.   I have searched the supposedly "many threads", but they do not address this specific issue, but I am seeing more and more blogs about this in 2012.  I am using a passive ethertap to snif packets and there is not anything even reporting it's MAC and it does not get past the point of the speaker light going off (next step in the boot process should be indicated by the phone line buttons alternating orange from top to bottom)   At this point a "hard reset" by holding down # key is not an option.     I believe this occured due to a SIP upgrade - possibly jumping sip versions or coming from SCCP, but I do not have the resources to test further this theory.  I had found some posts stating you could Hyperterminal into the AUX port so I bought some 6pin6connector (6p6c) RJ12 connectors and tested every pinout combination with no luck.     I also want to know if I can purchase smartnet (nothing has it currently) and then have Cisco fix these, but I'd really like to know if I can do this myself.  I'm very familiar with programming, protocols, cabling, electrical, etc.

[lbroering]

Just wanted to clarify what I ended up doing. Even though the 7975 phone had no current support contract, I was able to buy a 1 year Smartnet contract for that specific phone. It was very reasonable in price. I called Cisco after that and they did not even open a case, just rma'ed the phone and sent me a different phone. My guess  is you can buy support for your phones as well. But good luck if you are going to try to fix it yourself.

[mixedme123]

Wow, thank you very much!  I had submitted several questions to companies if I could buy smartnet knowing the item is currently “broke”, but it looks good.   I’m extremely curious about this issue so had hoped to fix myself.   This seems a common issue like the LCD defect that 7975’s had and other past production issues since mine all have come from the same production line (basing this theory on MAC addresses). 

[Joe Mayes]

These phones have placed on a 'fix on failure' list. See
http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/field-notices/637/fn63772.html