SPA525G2 - fw 7.5.2a crackling sound

[FAST-DETECT]

Hello,

a few days ago I noticed that cisco released a FW update for the SPA525G phones. Until now I used the 7.4.9c FW that comes with the 8.6 UC560 software package. I uploaded the FW to our UC560 edited the load and updated the tftp config. After a reboot the phone just upgraded fine.

Since the upgrade I hear a strange crackling sound in my handset when I'm using the phone. The crackling appears like once every 60 seconds and lasts for 5-10 seconds. It sounds a bit like as if the other party would stutter or there was a "chopping" like effect applied to his/her voice. In Germany with analogue landlines we had some analogue call-charge pulse that sounded quite similiar :-). 

I flashed the newer FW because I thought it might fix some compatibility issues with BT Headsets (I bought a Logitech H800 BT-Headset which pairs just fine with my laptop and iPhone but just won't work with my SPA525G2 using 7.4.9c and 7.5.2a-bt). The cisco SBS support told me that it's not in the compatibility list and they pretty much don't care about it.

So basically I wanted to ask if somebody else noticed the crackling within the 7.5.2a FW and / or has some adice on the Logitech BT issue?

regards,

Fabian

[Paul Norman]

I am using 7.5.2a firmware on my SPA525G2's i fashed with 7.5.2a-bt and when my iphone 4s is paired with them the audio is utter crap! i had a call only yesterday and it was embarassing lol.

Choppy audio, low audio and im sure it cut's out every few seconds or so.

[tonypearce1]

Did either of you manage to fix this? We're having issues pairing a Bluetooth headset using 7.4.9c software. I noticed there is now 7.5.2a and 7.5.2a-bt (what's the difference?) but if you are now having audio problems then I will not upgrade. I think we are actually going to downgrade to 7.4.6 as apparently Bluetooth is better:

https://supportforums.cisco.com/thread/2128390

What a load of of s***e?

[FAST-DETECT]

Hello,

meanwhile all 4 SPA525G2s in our office were "auto-upgraded" since I deployed the upgrade on the UC560. All phones show the same crackling issue. No difference if internal or external calls.

My solution is to wait for a new release to fix the problem. I don't want to downgrade.

The difference between the normal and the -bt software is often cited as extended or advance bluetooth capabilities. If you don't need BT flash the normal version, because it's faster, since it's about 1 MB smaller. Yeah sounds also strange to me :-)

I don't know the exact differences between the non-bt and -bt versions. I also didn't find anything in the release notes about that. Sorry.

[klogata]

Hi,

I can help with the "bt" version. The "bt" version has better Bluetooth capabilities and is recommended if you are using Bluetooth features on the phone.

Please contact technical support by phone regarding the bad audio and crackling sounds. They can determine if a problem with the software exists and if so, get it on the list to be fixed. Here is the support info:

https://www.cisco.com/en/US/support/tsd_cisco_small_business_support_center_contacts.html

Hope this helps.

[brian]

Hello,

Same issue with SPA525G running firmware 7.5.4 - I thought I was hearing things!

Issue wasn't there in 7.4.9 which I upgraded from.

brian

http://iptel.co

[FAST-DETECT]

Hello,

hence the problem wasn't resolved within the latest update 7.5.4 (with or without bt), and I can still get rid of the crackling by downgrading back to the 7.4.9 release I contacted the support and the case got escalated. Unfortunately cisco was not yet able to reproduce the issue within their own lab(s).

Easiest way for me to constantly reproduce the issue is just to take the phone off hook and wait for about 20 to 30 seconds - the crackling starts while listening to the busy-tone.

Since cisco was not yet able to reproduce the issue: which UC-version do you use? How are your phones powered (switch or dedicated psu)? Which switches do use.

On my end there is a UC560-BRI with an additional VIC-2BRI. I only use cisco series 300 poe gigabit switches for the phones. The crackling is only present on the SPA525G2 phones with a firmware of the 7.5.x train.

Perhaps some other SPA-phone-users could verify the issue also.

regards,

Fabian

[Paul Norman]

I have 2x SPA525G2's running 7.5.4 and they suffer from this crackling bug so much so we no longer use them, between these and cisco's SPA112's they seem to have lost that reliability factor.

Our 525's use their own power supplies, they are original cisco's not cheap knock off's before anyone asks. Not tried reverting firmware back to 7.4.9 but will give it a go in the next few day's see if it helps.

[tonypearce1]

My company ripped these phones out and installed a Mitel system Client now happy.

We still have the UC560 but we're going to bin the phones. I'm going to bring in some 79xx and a 9971 to demo some better phones on the same system The UC560 was grief from the beginning but I blame the phones. I use a CUCME / 2901 at home, no issue there.

[yajoshi · Accepted solution]

This seems to be an issue only when the Side Car is attached to the SPA525G2 phone. Testing was done using a SPA500DS and SPA500S side car models.

Issues seems to be persisten on all flavors of  7.5.x. Trying to track the issue and get  pernament fix for this.

[FAST-DETECT]

Hello Yash,

thanks for dropping by and confirming the issue - although it was a bit tricky to sort this out.

Hopefully the days of crackling will soon be over :-)

Regards,

Fabian

[Paul Norman]

Both my units have a sidecar, did not even occur to me that those would or could be the cause.

At least Cisco acknowledge the issue and in time we can expect a fix, after several months of dust collecting maybe I can get some use out of them. I have to be honest though, I'm done buying any more Cisco stuff.

[FAST-DETECT]

Hello Paul,

Both my units have a sidecar, did not even occur to me that those would or could be the cause.

Usually if I run into a problem I'm always inclined to do testing with basic parameters and removing all unneccessary equipment. Since I already tracked down the issue the 7.5.x train it didn't occur to me to remove the sidecar.

If Yash hadn't sent me two RMA phones I probably never had even thought about removing the side-car unit. You almost forget that it's an accessory.

Well lets lean back and let the devs do their job fixing it. My guess is, that when the indroduced support for the 500DS sth. got changed in the side car code... well it's just a guess.

regards,

Fabian

[yajoshi]

Filed Defect CSCue68027 for the issue faced.

Can be tracked after a few days from the below link:

http://tools.cisco.com/Support/BugToolKit/search/getBugDetails.do?method=fetchBugDetails&bugId=CSCue68027

[Paul Norman]

Any news on this?

No sign of any new firmware as yet and i am unable to view any updates given the above link?

Has been 8 Months since original post. :S