Re: Cisco SPA504G freeze

markprice9 · ‎10-14-2010

We have 7 SPA504G phones recently deployed, connected to an ESW 520 24P PoE switch.

At very random times, a phone will "freeze" such that the screensaver is stuck and the time displayed on it stands still. Pressing keys on the phone including menu button do not show any results on the screen of the phone.

Oddly, I was able to ping the phone when this happened and also load the web interface in my browser. The web interface shows the current time on the phone being the same time that is "frozen" on the screensaver.

This doesn't seem to be related to a calling or QOS issue as my phone froze at 6:18am before anyone was in the office.

All phones are running the current latest firmware, 7.4.6

David Carr · ‎10-15-2010

Try re-downloading the 7.4.6 firmware and reflash the firmware. Give that a shot and if that don't work, give the SBSC a call at 866-606-1866 to get a troubleshooting ticket opened.

JeffBourgeois5333 · ‎10-15-2010

I have experienced the exact same random lock-ups as described by Mark Price.

I am, and was,using firmware 7.4.6 when the lock-ups occurred. Hardware version is 1.0.0(0001).

My SPA504G is behind a Linksys WRT54G.

I experienced 3 or 4 random lock-ups during early and mid September.

My last lock-up was on Sept. 19. The only way to recover from lock-ups was to unplug power and re-connect power to SPA504G. It has not recurred since Sept. 19th. I can't recall, if at that time, I re-downloaded firmware version 7.4.6 or not. But, it has not locked-up again since then for unknown reasons. (perhaps I did re-flash, but can't remember).

When the lock-ups did occur, LCD display showed the time of lock-up. All LED's displayed normal and indicated all 4-lines were registered. But, there was no dial-tone on any line, and pressing keys did nothing. I too was able to connect to the web interface as usual.

I did a screen capture of the Info tab page for reference in case it happens again (before disconnecting and reconnecting power).

One point of interest is that the screen capture indicated that all lines were registered.... But, "Next Registration In" value for all 4 lines was displaying "0" seconds.

It has been working fine for the past three weeks. I just wanted to post this info to confirm similar problems submitted by Mark Price.

markprice9 · ‎10-17-2010

Thanks for the replies. I have 7 of these phones in our office, and it has happened on at least several of them. I've opened a case #615746657, waiting to hear what they say.

marxom7713 · ‎10-25-2010

Have you heard anything back on your case #?

This appears to affect more than just the 504G, we have 15 509G's and are experiencing

the same problem on a daily basis.

Has anyone tried downgrading to a previous version?

markprice9 · ‎11-01-2010

I didn't hear anything specific back on the case, they just said I could call back in presumably to RMA.

I was troubleshooting NAT issues and had put the phones on the public Internet to bypass NAT. Now that I've moved them back behind a NAT device, that seems to have cured the random freeze problem. My guess is that the phones were getting malicious SIP scanning traffic. When running a packet capture I noticed SIP packets coming in from some IP in China.

I also had a problem with the phones freezing when placing a call, it seems to be related to DNS responses not 100% sure if I've fixed it yet.

JeffBourgeois5333 · ‎11-01-2010

My SPA504G is behind two NATs. The first NAT is the SPA2102, and the 2nd NAT is the WRT54G.

My SPA504G is behind the WRT54G, and does not seem to have any issues with connections.

I don't seem to have any issues related to NAT for any of my VoIP connections.

My SPA2102 is connected directly to my ISP Modem and never loses connections and never freezes.

Also behind my WRT54G is a PAP2T, two PC's, plus the SPA504G. The PC's use the 3CXPhone softphones and they all work great.

In my previous post I noted that the SPA504G randomly locked-up too.

I note that when I turned-off its screen saver, I did not have a single lock-up for 3-weeks.

But, last week I turned the screen saver back on just to see if there were any issues with that... Sure enough, a day or two later the SPA504 locked up again.

So, I turned off Screen Saver again. Now, it has not locked up since then...

So, I'm waiting to see if that is just coincidence, or a related cause...

marxom7713 · ‎11-02-2010

I locked down the firewall on our office VOIP vlan, and for the first time in a month I haven't seen the phones

freeze overnight. It's only been a day, but things are looking good.

Thank you for the suggestion.

JeffBourgeois5333 · ‎11-08-2010

It is now about 2-weeks since I turned-off SPA504 Screen Saver feature. And, I have not had a single phone lock-up during this time.

To me this is starting to look like a trend: Screen Saver On.... lock-ups, Screen Saver OFF.... no lock-ups.

Has anyone else made this observation?

l.dickerson · ‎11-09-2010

I find my SPA504G freezes every few hours for no reason. If I am using the phone to make calls, it usually freezes within 1 minute.

Quite frankly, it's the worst SIP device I have ever used. It came with firmware 7.4.3a, so I upgraded it to 7.4.6 - made absolutely no difference. I've factory reset the thing more times than I've had hot dinners. The only saving grace of this phone is it doesn't drop calls when it freezes - everything continues to work except for the the keys on the phone itself, so once your call is done, powercycle it again.

Tried disabling screen savers, specifying particular codecs (and restricting it to them), tried different SIP providers, separating onto different vlans, I've tried everything - nothing fixes this phone.

Pretty sure I'm just going to pack the thing back up and hock it on E-Bay. Cisco just seem to put their fingers in their ears and go, "la la la! Not happening!". Worst investment ever.

[EDIT]

Downgrading to firmware 7.3.7 has corrected the problem for me, though it still occasionally likes to reboot for no reason. It doesn't freeze anymore, hooray!

samuande · ‎11-10-2010

Lloyd,

Sorry to hear of the problems you are experiencing with this freezing/reboot issue. We are aware of certain issues that might be causing this behavior and are working on a fix.

We certainly recognize the investment that you make with Cisco gear and, as always, hope to live up to the exacting standards of all our customers.

Sam

kustergustavo · ‎11-11-2010

Any idea went the fix will be available?

Thank you!

crimsonict · ‎11-18-2010

i'd also like to know wenn the fix will be avaible.
We have also 7 phones that randomly freeze. We like to enroll them but its not possible with this major problem.

Another question:
Are there good replacement phones that don't have this problem like a 508G or lower then the 504G?

Thanks

JeffBourgeois5333 · ‎11-10-2010

Well, I spoke to soon in my last post. I last said it hadn't locked-up for 2 weeks since In disabled screen saver.

Now, this morning I see that the SPA504 had locked-up once again at approximately 5 AM.

The phone hadn't made any calls since yesterday. My lockups don't seem to have anything to do with making or receiving calls.

So, now I guess the screen saver correlation was just coincidence, unless there are multiple causes of lockups...

One consistent observation is that while the phone is locked-up, I can always access the phone via web browser while locked-up.

And, quite curiously, I note that ALL four of my registered lines (with 4 different voip services) still show as registered.

And, I also note that ALL four lines indicate "Next Registration In: 0 s", each. I expect this is a good clue about.... something; ... what, I'm not sure.

I attached another screen capture of the locked-up state as seen on the Info page.

kustergustavo · ‎11-11-2010

Same issue here, we have more than 90 SPA 504G on diferent locations, all of them on 7.4.6 many users are reporting lock-up.

They need to power cycle device to get it to work.