Is it possible to Flash firmware of Cisco IP Phone 7965?

[rmnr]

Hi All.

We have a couple of Cisco IP Phone 7965G which is restarting in a pattern at certain interval of time.

Firmware version is 9.3(1)SR1.

IP Phone 7965G with Firmware SCCP45.9-0-3S are not rebooting.

We are unable to downgrade the 9.3 phone to 9.0 because by factory it will not allow us because the hardware version. *** Hardware version 13.0 and higher manufactured after Feb 2013 contains firmware release 9.3(1)SR1. Phone firmware does not allow phone to be downgraded.

So is there a way like flashing the firmware and loading the required version 9.0 with this IP Phone?

[Mohammed al Baqari]

Hi,

May I know the procedure you used to downgrade? Also, where did you get the info about hardware restricting downgrade.

Any error during the downgrade?

[rmnr]

https://support.shoretel.com/kb/view.php?t=Supported-Phones

There will not be any error messages but the phone wouldn't boot!

We have tried pushing 9.0 after hard resetting the phone which also failed to boot...

[Mohammed al Baqari]

In this case,  I don't suggest to force the firmware on the phones (assuming it is possible with flashing) as this won't be supported by Cisco.

Why don't you think about upgrading the firmware of the phones to 9.4 which may resolve your problem?

[rmnr]

Hi Mohammed al Baqari,

Upgrading is not an option for us as Shortel will not support anything higher than 9.0!

We are stuck with this one!...:)

[Leo Laohoo]

Upgrading is not an option for us as Shortel will not support anything higher than 9.0!

Not really a lot of options to choose from as this sounds like a contractual issue.  

[Leo Laohoo]

Also, where did you get the info about hardware restricting downgrade.

Hardware Updates

The hardware updates improve the compatibility of internal phone components.

The following table lists the updated hardware versions that require this release.

 

Phone	Hardware Version
Cisco Unified IP Phone 7942G	15.0 and higher
Cisco Unified IP Phone 7962G	15.0 and higher
Cisco Unified IP Phone 7945G	13.0 and higher
Cisco Unified IP Phone 7965G	13.0 and higher
Cisco Unified IP Phone 7975G	12.0 and higher

Phones manufactured with these hardware versions must run Firmware Release 9.3(1)SR1 or later. The phone firmware does not allow the phone to be downgraded to releases earlier than Release 9.3(1)SR1.