nho95042's profile

Tutor

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4 Messages

Friday, May 3rd, 2013 5:35 AM

Closed

Landline stuck in "engaged" mode. Disconnect jacks do not restall service

The last use of the landline phone was 27 hours ago.  I tried to make a call tonight and found the land line stuck at "engaged" mode.  I could not dial out at all, from all of the phones in various locations of my home.

One cordless phone displayed "Line In Use" message.  Disconnecting all phone jacks do not resolve the issue.

 

Went on ATT website to look for trouble shooting help.  The website detected my line has problem but wanted me to test the "outside box", else it wanted me to accept a $99 service call.  I declined.

 

I live in a Condo.  I dont know where is the "outside box" but I assume the condo's phone system is located indoor in a big utility room where also houses the FPL meters.

 

Since I dont have a cell phone, I cannot call ATT service now because it is too late at night I cannot go to my neighbor to borrow one. 

 

I will call ATT tomorrow but before I do this, I want to ask here, is there other ways to find out whether this is my inside wire or ATT's connection?  The phone wire has never been touched and the phone worked fine on last call which happened to be a long distance to the other side of the globe.  We did get disconnected a few times but that was not unusual.  But the phone was hung up properly.

 

We had some heavy rain for about 10 min this afternoon.  We have had much heavier rain in the past (live in South Florida) and never have such issue before.

 

Are there any suggestions to further test inside to make sure this is not my issue?  I dont want to get stuck with a $99 service call bill.

 

Thanks for suggestions.

Teacher

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19 Messages

10 years ago

One thing to do is to see if the RG Gateway shows the green light for the phone.  Try doing a hard reset on the RG Gateway disconnect all of your phones and printers. Press and Hold the Power Button or disconnect it from the jack. Reconnect it after 10 minutes. Reconnect your phones.

 

What could have happened is the "Hangup" signal was not properly sent to the phone to end the call thus stopping the charging.  If it says Line in Use it means that your last call was not ended properly.  If your RG is showing a Red light by the phone it means there is a problem at the Central Office or outside your home.

 

Sometimes VOIP services do not refresh properly after a call so this is why doing a reset of the entire RG and phone is sometimes necessary.

 

When you call your home and you get a busy signal it means the call was not ended properly at the CO Office. One thing to always remember is to firmly press the Talk Button when you end the call. 

 

Another thing may be  a call went to voicemail but it may not have been setup properly. For instance if you do not have it setup sometimes it thinks there is a voicemail box and it tries to send it to the voicemail server using the code *98. 

 

What happens if you try a * Code does the phone respond?   

 

Isn't there a code to reset the system and refresh it? When I worked on voicemail systems sometimes the Message Waiting Indicator would not clear so i had to enter a code to clear the indicator. 

 

 

Contributor

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3 Messages

8 years ago

My landline also says line in use. Tried unplugging everything.  No change.

Expert

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10.1K Messages

8 years ago

@kf74114 - Try it plugged in to the RG to see if it goes away. If it does go away, there is a problem with the house wiring.

Contributor

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3 Messages

8 years ago

Try phone plugged into RG? What is RG and how do you plug phone into it? Don't understand.

Expert

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10.1K Messages

8 years ago

@kf74114 - RG is u-verse modem that breaks broadband signal into TV, internet & voice - voice is accessed via a jack labled tel. Standard rj-11 jack found on all tel patch cords. May already beconnected to wall to distribute dial tone to wall jacks.

 

Squeeze the little lever to release & replace with a wire to the telephone.

Contributor

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1 Message

8 years ago

I have the same problem with my mother's land line.  Line-in-use message.  Unplugged it, left it unplugged, plugged the power supply and the phone cord back in, nothing.  Not sure how to proceed.  I took the phone to my house so I could look up the manual on-line and just to see what would happen, plugged in the power cord and got the line-in-use message.  Any thoughts?

Expert

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10.1K Messages

8 years ago

@Daughter64 - There have been a number of posts on the phone swowing line in use. I believe that is caused by the phone detecting lower voltage on the line.

 

No dial tone is a big deal. when testing on your line there is no dial tone? But, with your phone there is dial tone?

 

Also what are you using for the connecting cord? Is the cord ruled out by using it with your phone? Or, are you treating the phone & cord as one unit? Try the problem phone with your cord on your phone line.

 

Could be a bad cord or bad phone. Could be the handset cord.

Contributor

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1 Message

8 years ago

I just started getting the line in use message on my handsets and couldn't dial out or receive calls. I called ATT and got the nutty virtual robot proudly telling me he could understand complete human sentences. Really? He told me my phone line was clear and it was a problem with my "equipment."

 

My Panasonic set was old and I have wanted my landline activated again so I purchased the KX-TGF382M Panasonic for landline. Much to my horror, I got no dial tone from the base unit and when I started charging the handsets, they indicated Line in use!! Same problem.

 

Now I'm confused as to what the robot meant by "equipment." What equipment? All the posts above are confusing. I have U-Verse wireless in my home. How does my Uverse equipment affect my landline? What all needs to be unplugged? My worry is that once I unplug and replug everything I won't be able to get my computer and internet going again.

 

My modem doesn't have a Phone label on it, hence, no green light. Help.

 

Contributor

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1 Message

7 years ago

I have the AT&T 1070 Business Phone System. 

 

Not sure what happened, might have dropped something on the phone and pushed a button by accident.

 

When the business phone rings, it doesn't ring on my phone, only my boss's phone.  When I lift the handset, it opens line 2, not line 1.  The phone line light on my phone is red, but when I pick up the handset and push the button, it's an open line.  Can't answer any office calls, because they ring on line 1.  I have unplugged all cords, waited, then plugged them back in, nothing has worked.

 

Does anyone have any ideas??

Contributor

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1 Message

7 years ago

I had the same problem shortly after I bundled  all my service.  It seems the Tecks do not know that when they bundle the service it is changed to VOIP and your land line (old reliable line) is not compatable with the VOIP.  If you have the new U-Verse bundle package then you have the little black box for you service.  On the Black box, look on the back and fins the jjack that is labeled phone line.  If there is a line plugged in, take it out and plug your main phone line into that socket.  Your phones should work then.  I say again the Service Teck nor anybody I talked with knew of this procedure.???

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