weird cordless phone problem: anyone else?

I have weird problem with either the phone or phone line. I have Uniden cordless phone at home. Sometimes my phone goes dead with no tone signal;however if I unplug the phone line from the phone & plug it back. The phone get tone signal again.

Has anyone have similar phone problem like mine phone?

Replace the phone line, it probably has a break in it.

Yes. Depending on your climate, individual phone lines (your phone company's pairs) can go bad over the years. This has happened to my landline three times here in the sub-tropics and once I get beyond the jerks at customer at the customer service number who invariably tell me that the line is fine, the repairman "gives me a new line" with the same number and it works fine.

In my experience the phone companies have become so incompetent that just accomplishing something simple like switching your phone service to a new address when you change apartments may be nearly impossible to coordinate with them unless you have a cell phone.

My apologies, it would appear that I wasn't really clear and my response was open to interpretation.

What I meant was to replace the modular cable between the terminal block (modular plug) and the wireless phone base. Not the line on the other side of the demarcation point.

Brighteyez said:

My apologies, it would appear that I wasn't really clear and my response was open to interpretation.

What I meant was to replace the modular cable between the terminal block (modular plug) and the wireless phone base. Not the line on the other side of the demarcation point.

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I did replace the phone line connecting the phone to the wall plug. The problem still exist. This problem cost me in term in loss of job interview. The company didn't bother calling me back. Could it be the phone itself?

By all means, take the phone in question and test it on a known good line (freind's house, relatives).

If it is a 2.4GHz and you have a wireless router (uses 2.4GHz also) they can interfere with each other. Wherever your phone drop is--the place where the line off the pole or out of the ground comes in to your house--there should be a plastic box on th eoutside of your house-usually grey. Open it and there is usually a modular plug that is very obvious. Plug in a working hard-line phone and see if it works. Yes means your house wiring is bad. No means it is the phone company's problem.

Many cordless phones will scan for the quietest available frequency when they power up. Chances are that you're experiencing RF interference from some other nearby wireless device (is it a 2.4ghz phone?) and a power-down reset forces it to pick a new frequency.

Hey Photon, we should get together--It appears we are on the same frequency.

Is the phone's battery good?
It's gotta suck to lose a job interview for a faulty phone or line.

I have that problem with a plain old phone. It seems that when the avaliable lines are used up that happens. When folks call me they get all circuits busy or a fast busy signal. Nothings more fun to dial out and get NOTHING..

Generally, if you have a cordless phone, they generally don't have batteries in the base station--so in a power failure they will go dead. Another reason to have at least one POTS (plain old telephone set--really) plugged in too.

Also, with all of the wireless routers and other stuff growing by leaps and bounds--sharing the same few groups of frequencies--it is very possible that somebody near by "stepped" on your phone's frequency (or spread spectrum usage) and "broke" the link... Even if it is sitting in the cradle. (I had this happen to my wireless router---worked geat for months, then dead--thought it or my drivers were broke--just had to change the channel and it came right back).

If you have a wireless network nearby (or even a microwave) try operating the phone near the devices and see what happens.

-Bill

My 2.4ghz microwave oven sent an email to my wifi laptop which then dialed my 2.4ghz phone to tell me that my eggs are done.

If everything that you've posted is accurate the next step would probably to check the terminal block itself. Perhaps the RJ11 jack is loose and needs to be replaced (you said the dial tone would come back after plugging the modular cable back in.) Check to see if the modular connector wiggles around in the terminal block. The other thing that I would check are the connections from the house wiring to the terminal block (especially if it is one of the terminal blocks that used spring connections.)

With regards to the job interview, tough luck. Sounds like a loser company anyway if they can't return a phone call. Doesn't sound like anything worth whining about. I don't go for job interviews very often, but the times that I have, the companies that were worth working for would always work around my schedule for any interview and/or starting dates.

picard said:

I did replace the phone line connecting the phone to the wall plug. The problem still exist. This problem cost me in term in loss of job interview. The company didn't bother calling me back. Could it be the phone itself?

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I will call phone company to let them check terminal block. I live in Condo therefore phone box is located high above ground. I can't access the dam thing.

My digital cordless system routinely goes out with any power interruption that occurs. Power surges from nearby lightning strikes do the same thing.

Unplugging the base unit power supply, and reconnecting, has brought the whole system back online so far.

I'm no electrical techie, so somebody else explain it.

It is my experience that ANY digital device is more sensitive to power fluctuations, than the older systems.

If you already lost a chance at a job interview over the issue, why even bother keeping a phone you don't trust any longer? Get a corded phone and use that in place of the cordless for a while and see if the problem goes away. They cost about the same as a delivered pizza. If no more problem, save up for a better cordless phone. It kind of sounds like the phone base-station is taking the line off-hook and leaving it off. The phone company only beeps the line for a short time before making it go silent. When you unplugged the phone base, I figure it is hanging up the line, so you get a dial tone again when you check right away.

A story from my childhood in the late 1970's. That was a time of great change with phone service when the government deregulated the industry and broke up the Bell system. My parents were still of the mindset that the phone company owns all the phones and wiring in the house (was recently changed at that time) and so the phone company would put them in jail or something if they ran a second phone on the line. My mother wanted a phone by her bed because all of my 5 siblings were much older than me and doing the drunken young adult thing. My father was also a cop working the night shift at that time. Cordless phones then cost in the hundreds of dollars. She came home with one after work one day, a "back of the truck" deal. I guess the black market deal was too much to resist.

That phone had problems from day one. It was in the days before basic digital security codes were used. As long as it was on the handset was on the base, no problem. Once my mother took the phone upstairs to her bedroom, the base would come alive. It would click on-hook, off-hook regularly. It would start dialing numbers. Other weird stuff. I could not convince my mother that this was some kind of problem. She was never present with the base to see it. She also did not understand when this was going on that it would prevent other people from calling us since the base is tying up the line. She would not give up her "good" phone and have the money spent on it go to waste. This went on for about 3-4 years before she finally witnessed the clicking base in person one day. We replaced it with a rummage sale cordless phone that worked perfectly when I replaced the battery pack.

The fact that you have to unplug the phone from the wall jack and then plug it back in to get it to work tells me it's most likely a faulty phone or base unit. If it was just interference from another device, just hanging up and then pressing the talk button again (or the "flash" key) would fix that problem since the phone would just search for another channel. If you've already replaced the cord from the wall to the base unit and you still need to unplug the phone cord from the wall jack to get a dial tone, then wiring, both inside and out, doesn't seem to be the problem either. I don't see how removing the cord from the jack and then plugging it back in would temporarily fix a wiring problem somewhere else in the house or outside.

I have two Uniden cordless phones and I've never had a problem with them.