CPC091592 202.DOC The Complete Communicator Answering Machine Troubleshooting This document is provided as "For your information" and as is. Neither The Complete PC nor any of it's employees assume any responsibility for consequences resulting from the use of the following information nor can the Complete PC technical support provide help with this document. The user of said information does so at his or her own risk. Configuration Do not plug a full feature (cordless, speaker, multi line, answering machines etc.) telephone into the top jack of the CCOM board! Full featured phones draw too much power from the CCOM hardware, causing it to malfunction. Sometimes CCOM does not answer at the number of rings specified. Turn off the Toll Saver feature, found in System Configuration. See page 1-10 for further information. Sometimes the first ring is not full ring voltage, making the number of rings exceed the number set in the software by 1. The telephone connected to the board draws too much power from the board. Some of the telephones available draw too much power from the board than reserved for local phone operation. Multi- line phones and many phones with features that light up on the telephone cause this symptom. Either use a standard, single line telephone or no phone connected at all. When calling in remotely, I cannot access all the voice features when in Password mode. You have the "Keep Silent about features not enabled" parameter set to Yes. Modify this parameter at the PC. Located in INSTALLC, Modify Existing Parameters, Mailbox Configuration. Remote Access Available is set to No. Check this in Voice Configuration, within CCOM. When I try to access The Complete Answering Machine menus from the CCOM menu, I get the message "Unable to locate C:\CC\CAM\CONFIGCC.CAM". The directory C:\CC\CAM is not found on the current path. To verify this, exit to DOS. At the prompt, type in the word set then press enter. The current path will echo back to the screen. C:\CC\CAM must be on this path. Modify the path to include C:\CC\CAM. Receiving New Messages CCOM is not answering the Phone. System Configuration is set to Answer the Phone as N for Never. Modify the System Configuration screen to either V, F or M. The phone line connected to the board must be Analog. If you have a Digital phone line connected to it, it will not answer the phone. The phone line itself is Analog, but the telephone hooked into the board is Digital. Try again with a standard, single line touchtone telephone connected to the board, or no phone at all. The telephone connected to the board draws too much power from the board. Some of the telephones available draw too much power from the board than reserved for local phone operation. Multi- line phones and many phones with features that light up on the telephone cause this symptom. Either use a standard, single line telephone or no phone connected at all. My callers are unable to leave a new message for me. Instead of the beep, they hear "Please call again later". Check for Message Taking is set to Yes. Check this in Voice Configuration. You do not have enough disk space for your Maximum Message Length. (5 minutes of speech takes 1 MB of disk space. ) You have exceeded the number of New Messages set in Mailbox Control. From Mailbox Control, Modify the mailbox, then select Mailbox Message Limits. Increase the Maximum Number of New and Old Messages. The board is ignoring touch tones. Reseat the board. It may not be getting full contact within the slot. The telephone connected to the board draws too much power from the board. Some of the telephones available draw too much power from the board than reserved for local phone operation. Multi- line phones and many phones with features that light up on the telephone cause this symptom. Either use a standard, single line telephone or no phone connected at all. This can also be caused by a phone that is an extension for the CAM line. Check all of the phones connected. Make sure your callers are pressing the appropriate touchtones during the playing of the voice greeting. It is too late once the greeting is finished playing. I cannot use *** to disconnect CAM and let me talk to the caller The *** feature is used when you want to interrupt CAM during the greeting and talk to the caller. If *** does not work it may be on of the following: *** is pressed too quickly ( it must be three distinct tones within one second) Your system is not understanding touch tones (see above) You here I do not understand your input, You have pressed the *** to quickly and the tones run together, or you have not pressed all three tones in 1 second and the system does not understand one or two tones. Make sure you are pressing *** during the playing of the voice greeting. It is too late once the greeting is finished playing. The phone line connected to the board must be Analog. If you have a Digital phone line connected to it, it will not answer the phone. The phone line itself is Analog, but the telephone hooked into the board is Digital. Try again with a standard, single line touchtone telephone connected to the board, or no phone at all. The telephone connected to the board draws too much power from the board. Some of the telephones available draw too much power from the board than reserved for local phone operation. Multi- line phones and many phones with features that light up on the telephone cause this symptom. Either use a standard, single line telephone or no phone connected at all. I get the phone company messages as recorded messages. There is no hang-up detection built in, on the board. When a caller hangs up during the greeting the greeting will continue to play (even though the caller is gone) and then the beep will sound to begin recording. If the line is silent at that time nothing will be recorded and their will be no record of a new call. If your local Bell company has come on the line and plays "if you'd like to make a call......." that will get recorded as a message. If you are getting these messages forwarded to a cellular phone or to your pager this can be very frustrating. Set up another mailbox to do call forwarding other than the default. This way if callers hang up during your greeting it will not forward unnecessary calls to you. The phone stays off-hook or will not reset after a call The telephone connected to the board draws too much power from the board. Some of the telephones available draw too much power from the board than reserved for local phone operation. Multi- line phones, too many phones, or phones with features that light up on the telephone cause this symptom. Either use a standard, single line telephone or no phone connected at all. There is no hang-up detection built in, on the board. When a caller hangs up during the greeting the greeting will continue to play (even though the caller is gone) and then the beep will sound to begin recording. If the line is silent at that time nothing will be recorded and their will be no record of a new call. If your local Bell company has come on the line and plays "if you'd like to make a call......." that will get recorded as a message. If you are getting these messages forwarded to a cellular phone or to your pager this can be very frustrating. Set up another mailbox to do call forwarding other than the default. This way if callers hang up during your greeting it will not forward unnecessary calls to you. My greeting repeats over and over again and never gives the beep to leave a message. When you record a new greeting you are prompted to touch the * to stop recording. You may have pressed the #, or hit another key when you were attempting to press the * at the end of your recording. Listen carefully to your greeting. If you hear a touch tone at the end of the greeting you will need to re record, making sure to hit only the * at the end of the recording. In the middle of the greeting my callers hear "there is no mailbox ???", even though they have not made a selection on their touch tone phone. The person who created the greeting may be generating touchtones with their voice. Since the board will not distinguish between a tone generated by pressing a button on a phone and the same tone created by someone's voice it is interpreting the tone as an attempt to access a mailbox and there is no mailbox with that number. It may be necessary to have another person record the greetings. Another solution may be to record your greetings remotely. My callers are being prompted to enter a password at the end of the greeting instead of getting the beep to leave a message. When you record a new greeting you are prompted to touch the * to stop recording. You may have pressed the #, or hit another key when you were attempting to press the * at the end of your recording. Listen carefully to your greeting. If you hear a touch tone at the end of the greeting you will need to re record, making sure to hit only the * at the end of the recording. If you do not hear the tone in the greeting the person who recorded the greeting may generate a touch tone # with their voice. Since the board will not distinguish between a tone generated by pressing a button on a phone and the same tone created by someone's voice it is interpreting the tone as a # and asking for the password. It may be necessary to have another person record the greetings. Another solution may be to record your greetings remotely. My callers hear "Please Hold" instead of a beep to record. You have the default set to T to Transfer the call instead of M to take a Message. Change this in Personal Options, Answering Mode. When set to T, your callers must press a 9 to record a message. My callers hear "Transfer Not Available, Please call again later". You have T (transfer) set as the default action after greeting, yet you are not set up for Call Transfer. If you want callers to transfer set Call Transfer to Y in the system configuration. If you want callers to be able to leave a message just change the default action after greeting to M (for Message). Callers are being interrupted by the system prompts during the recording of new messages. The board is not detecting incoming voice properly. Lower the Voice Detection Threshold value (located in INSTALLC, Modify Existing Parameters, Telephone System information) to a more sensitive level. Decrease the value to make it more sensitive, increase it to make it less sensitive. The default value is 10. Your callers are pausing too long during the recording of speech. The length of their pause cannot exceed 3-4 seconds. Call Transfer CCOM hangs up on my callers during Call Transfer. CCOM performs a call transfer as follows: Flash hook Waits for Dial tone Dials the number in the Transfer code field (may be blank) Dials the numbers in the call transfer phone number field Waits 2 times the Wait for Outside Line parameter Hangs up When you have transfer selected, the board already performs one flash hook, another flash hook in the phone number field (^) is not needed unless your phone system requires it. The parameters listed above may need to be adjusted for your phone system. You can modify the values of these parameters in INSTALLC, Modify Existing Parameters, Telephone System Information My callers hear "please hold", then they hear the touchtones of the number the system is trying to transfer them to and transfer does not work. The flash duration set up for transfer is not long enough. To increase this parameter, go into INSTALLC, Modify Existing Parameters, Telephone system Information. Increase the value for flash hook duration. Make small adjustments so you do not increase the value to a point where it hangs up instead of doing a flash. My phone system performs the Call Transfer function without the Flash hook, i.e. uses a transfer button. CCOM requires your phone system use the Flash hook for transfer in order for the board to transfer your callers. I have a 3-way calling feature on my phone line, will Call Transfer work? No, because 3-way calling requires the middle party to stay on the line for the duration of the call. CCOM's hardware hangs up after the transfer function is complete. If you really want transfer as CCOM performs it, ask your Bell Co. if a "blind call transfer" feature is available. It is different than 3-way calling. Sending Messages When Msg. Forwarding is active, the board calls me but does not play my Msg. Forwarding greeting. Msg. Forwarding is voice activated, you must say something when you answer the phone before it will begin to play ("Hello?"). The board may not be detecting your voice when it calls. Lower the Voice Detection Threshold value (located in INSTALLC, Modify Existing Parameters, Telephone System Information) to be more sensitive to your voice. When Outgoing Messages is active, it calls the recipients but never plays my message. Outgoing Message is voice activated, the recipients must say something when answering the phone before it will begin to play ("Hello?"). The board may not be detecting the recipients voice when it calls. Lower the Voice Detection Threshold value (located in INSTALLC, Modify Existing Parameters, Telephone System Information) to be more sensitive to voice. When trying to access my messages with Msg. Forwarding, it ignores my touchtones. The phone you are using does not emit standard touchtones. The phone you are using reserves the # sign for another function. Lower the Voice Detection Threshold value to make the board more sensitive to sound, located in INSTALLC, Modify Existing Parameters, Telephone System Information. When I call in to retrieve my messages, I get the message "you cannot forward this message" CCOM has already marked this message file for forwarding, therefore you are unable to forward it a second time. I cannot send an outgoing message to another mailbox owner in the system. You may have set the other mailbox owner's phone number as a mailbox number in CCOM. If this is the case, all outgoing messages will be delivered to the mailbox, not as an outbound call.