88XX offhook/onhook issues

[Andrew Skelly]

Has anybody encountered an issue where your 88XX (specifically 8851) phones have randomly exhibited off-hook/on-hook tendencies?  Over the past year we have had upwards of 250+ phones randomly go off-hook then on-hook in less than a second, sometimes causing active calls to be dropped.  Different hardware and firmware versions but the symptoms are always the same.  TAC hasn't found anything yet, so I'm just trying to gauge if this is an issue others are having.  Thanks.

[Joshua Lamb]

You can try searching your phone logs for the phrase hook, which is where you would see tons and tons of on hook/off hook messages indicating a similar issue. 

[jschweigert1]

Thanks, but all this will prove is that the phone is going off or on hook.  It does not indicate what is causing the issue.  I have reached back out to our Territory Account Manager to see if this can be brought back up to the BU for investigation/resolution.

[Joshua Lamb]

True, and also since expressway is encrypted you cant even see that in the phone logs. Have you opened a case with Cisco against your expressway to look into the cause of the off hook on hook behavior?

[jschweigert1]

I've had 2 tickets opened with TAC (one with CUCM/phone and one with Expressway) engineer.

[Andrew Skelly]

Have you disabled the handset from the device configuration page within CUCM Administration?

[jschweigert1]

Update: I contacted our Territory Account Manager who is saying that the problem is because we did not purchase our phones through Cisco or one of their vendors even though this is happening to plenty of organizations having the same problem and I would bet that others have purchased direct.  His recommendation was to open a TAC case for this issue with a phone purchased through a Cisco vendor.  I think that the best way to get this problem resolved is to flood TAC with these tickets and bring this issue to the forefront. 

[nanosynth]

YES, I have this exact problem going on right now, but with a 7841 phone. This has no relation to any 79xx model phone or its simple 'angle' problems, as this is a MRA phone. I'm starting my quest to figure it out now. I will remember this post if I figure it out. 

[nanosynth]

Here is my answer from Cisco TAC about this, as it pertains in my case of these annoying off-hook/on-hook conditions which come into our help desk as tickets for phones 'chirping', as in the noise that comes out of the built on speaker when the off-hook/on-hook condition exists. My temp fix is to replace the phone now. In my organisation we do not have Presence, so the fix regarding IM&P is not for me. I haven't done any of this yet because we are upgrading next week to 11.5 above (SU2) because of an even bigger problem with when you enable 'SIP Path Headers' on the Expressway-C (and we do this to support multiple lines on the MRA phones), it breaks our call recording built in bridge setup. 

---------------------------------------------------------------

Problem Description: 7841 MRA/Expressway phones will periodically go into a cycling state of off hook/on hook by itself.

Action Plan:

1. Description: A defect with BLF Speed Dials in CUCM that causes TCP connections to close due to illegal value in the "expires" parameter.
   
   Possible Symptoms: It presents itself in different ways: trunk resets, no audio, one way audio, and the phone rings, but when call is answered it gets dropped.

Details: The system is affected by CSCuu06649. Communication between Unified CM and Expressway-C is unstable and can affect MRA calls and logins.

Workaround:  Disable BLF speed dials by going to CUCM > System > Enterprise Parameters Configuration -> BLF For Call Lists : Disabled

If you cannot apply this workaround you need to upgrade your CallManager  to version 11.5 (SU2) or above.

1.        Details: MRA is configured on the Expressway but no domain is activated for IM&P. Your MRA users will be in phone mode only.
   
   Action: Go to Expressway-C >> Configuration >> Domains and add a domain for IM&P

[nanosynth]

Well, we upgraded CUCM to 11.5(SU8) over the weekend and I still have 'chirping' phones going on in the company, so I dont know what the problem is now. I am just sending the MRA home users another 78xx phone. Luckily we dont have but 2 of them doing it, plus my own but I just unplugged mine and shoved it in the closet and got another one, no more silly off-hook/on-hook problems for me.

[mikewbowen]

My organization is also experiencing the issue.  It is occurring on 8845 and 7841 phones globally.  It occurs on phones in offices and on production floors (unconditioned spaces).  We have sent phones to the software and hardware BU, without resolution.  The problem we see are sporadic on/off hook while the users are using the phones, and when the phone is at rest, untouched.  The incident rate is typically around 1-5 devices a month.

[loizosko]

1 of our 8841 phones started experiencing on/off hook cylcing. you can be on the phone and will hangup or off hook without touching it or lifting the handset

was anything figured with this issue?

[mikewbowen]

There appears to be a corrosion issue with the metal used on the hookswitch hardware in the phone.  Engage your Cisco rep.

[yogesh.mhatre]

we are also having the same issue with 8841. Phone go chirping when idle or on call which drops the call.

has anyone able to fix the issue? I see one of the cisco TAC resolved it by fixed saying its a corrosion issue. We have about 100+ phones do this on random basis. sometime they work for weeks and not face issue.

[mikewbowen]

The metal/material used on the hookswitch has a corrosion issue.  Cisco said the failure rate wasn't high enough to warrant a recall, but we continue to have failures in our organization.  I hear Cisco may be making some production changes in the future.  I suggest you contact your Cisco account team.  They may be able to get you replacement devices. 

[nanosynth]

I really don't believe this at all. Corrosion issue? I still have a few 78xx MRA phones here and there that act up like this. I just send the people new ones and have them send theirs back to me and I put them in a pile.