SPA525 Reboots and poor audio

[jeremy.hudgeons]

Since we have implemented the UC500 systems at multiple sites I have consitently received complaints regarding the SPA525 model phones in regard to poor audio quality, delayed button response, and constant reboots. I dont receive these complaints on the SPA509 or SPA504 phones. I have sent the end user some 79xx model phones to compare against and I am in the process of capturing logs to identify the root of the issue but I am curious as to other peoples results. Is the SPA525 harware/software trying to do more than it is capapble of? Is it faulty hardware or software, or is this not the experiance of the majority? Currently we are running 7-4-3 firmware. Any thoughts?

[Darren DeCroock]

My first suggestion would be to upgrade your firmware version.  There have been some improvements in audio quality with the newer releases of the firmware.  The latest release of the firmware is 7.4.7, which was just released last week.  You could also try the previous version if you like.  It was version 7.4.6.

[Thomas Gruendler]

We are also having issues with one of our deployments with a UC560 and SPA525g phones.  They are running the 7.4.4 firmware and I have heard multiple complaints of the phones rebooting themselves multiple times during the day.  We are using out of band configurations so I am needing some help in installing the latest firmware using the CLI and was wondering if anybody was having the same issues with the rebooting issues and if the firmware fixed it.

[bethingt]

Here are the steps to manually load the firmware to the UC. I copied this from a older how the firmware mention is older but you get the idea of how to do it manually.

Download and unzip the spa525g-7-4-3.bin to you TFTPD32 root directory. Within your UC500 console enter enable mode. Issue the following command:

copy tftp:spa525g-7-4-3/spa525g-7-4-3.bin flash:/phones/525/spa525g-7-4-3.bin

In this case I am copying the firmware file from my TFTP server. tftp:spa525g-7-4-3/spa525g-7-4-3.bin indicates that the firmware image is in a subdirectory of the TFTP servers root. flash:/phones/525/spa525g-7-4-3.bin indicates that I will be placing the file on the flash drive in sub directory /phones/525/. If this phone load was not loaded with your Software Pack, you would have to create this directory first.

Now move to configuration mode.

conf t

Issue the following command:

do show run | begin alias

You should see a line similar to the following:

tftp-server flash:/phones/525/spa525g-7-4-2.bin alias spa525g-7-4-2.bin

The above line is displayed when Software Pack 8 is in use and SPA525G phone loads are installed. This should now be undone. Use the following command to accomplish this:

no tftp-server flash:/phones/525/spa525g-7-4-2.bin alias spa525g-7-4-2.bin

Now we need a new alias. Enter the command below to accomplish this:

tftp-server flash:/phones/525/spa525g-7-4-3.bin alias spa525g-7-4-3.bin

Now that our alias is set up, we must associate the phone to the firmware. Enter telephony service configuration mode with the command listed below:

telephony-service

Now we need to verify the phone load exists and if so, what it is set to. Enter the command below:

do show run | section load

In my case I see load 525G spa525g-7-4-2 indicating 7.4.2. Manually updating the firmware on the SPA525G will only result in the UC500 re-imaging it back to whatever the load is set for. We must remove the current load with the command listed below:

no load 525G spa525g-7-4-2

And now add the load we wish to use with this command:

load 525G spa525g-7-4-3

Brian

Copy run start if you wish.

[jeremy.hudgeons]

I am not against upgrading the firmware but my largest concern at this point is the phone reboots. I am used to the 79xx series phones that do not reboot unless the phone is in an idle state which I believe should be the default action on all phones but does not appear to be on these particular models. I am still pending a log review and I will update when this is complete.

Tom - if you still require assitance with the cli upgrade on the firmware let me know. 

[Steven DiStefano]

No need for manual CLI.   CCA provides a drag and drop capability.   (drag from your PC to the UC500 ICON

in topology view.   Then reset the phones.

Are you using CCA?  WHich version?  CCA 3.0 is the latest.

There was a bug in CCA 2.2.x where when you make a configuration change to a phone, the reset command got sent twice.

To a Cisco IP Phone (any model) this means force reset (one reset is queued until party disconnects from established call).

SO if you are banging in lots of config changes, it could be why the phojnes reset.

I dont know of any issues with SPA525 Phones rebooting though.

[Thomas Gruendler]

If you read above, we are using out of band configurations so CCA was out of the question.  Even though, I did try to do the drag and drop feature before I did the manual, it did not work.  Was told by the Small Business tech to drag the firmware zip to the UC560 in the topology and it would update the phones and I would have to do a reset for them to take effect.  Well, to my surprise, dragging the ZIP file not only didn't update the firmware on the phones, the firmware configuration for the phones on the UC560, but also reset all of the 525g phones right after it said it was done updating, in the middle of the day, during business hours after I was told that it would not reset and could be reset at the end of the day.  So, I ended up using the instruction from here:

https://supportforums.cisco.com/docs/DOC-9815 to perform the update manually through CLI to 7-4-7.  The phones updated the firmware with no issues.  But, like before I am still getting lock ups and reboots and the tech is going to look at it remotely hopefully this afternoon.

[Steven DiStefano]

Sorry I didnt read.

I wrote the doc that you used if its any consolation :-)

[Thomas Gruendler]

Awesome document.  Will definitely use in the future.