Ok, next problem. I lift the receiver and there's a dial tone. I start to dial but the dial tone doesn't clear.
I tried a different handset, same problem.
Anyone got any ideas?

The loop fault must be showing on a TDR then as I'm sure some of them will have looked at the TDR.

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Ok, next problem. I lift the receiver and there's a dial tone. I start to dial but the dial tone doesn't clear.
I tried a different handset, same problem.
Anyone got any ideas?

What happens when you leave the handset off hook for a few mins, do you get the whining tones?
Also what happens when you phone it?

Could be a DC power issue, dial tone and ringing is AC, could also be a broken wire, some AC can jump over a short break, where as DC can have an issue.
The DC I think powers the phone, AC is for the dial tone and the actual ringing.

Paul

Thanks. It seems to have gone ok now and the errors and noise margin look ok now too. So I'll try those things if it happens again.

Ok, so I checked again and the problem returned. I'm also getting some ES errors and now some SES errors. I've been informed that the persistent dial tone is symptomatic of a rectified loop problem, so I'll be reporting that in the morning and getting another engineer visit no doubt.

Did you get your 4th engineer's visit, Batboy? If so, problem hopefully solved?

No, I didn't report it yet as I'm a bit tied up right now

Same here with this intermittent line fault. The attenuation has dropped back down from 23dB to 20.5dB (earlier it was 19dB) but is now not sufficiently problematic to warrant calling Openreach, at least not until next time. Difficult decision when £130 is potentially at stake. Hope you get your issues sorted soon, Batboy.

Edited by deleted (Wed 07-Oct-15 00:51:45)

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

Ok, so I checked again and the problem returned. I'm also getting some ES errors and now some SES errors. I've been informed that the persistent dial tone is symptomatic of a rectified loop problem, so I'll be reporting that in the morning and getting another engineer visit no doubt.

Did you eventually get your fourth - or was it your fifth - engineers' visit over this? Have Openreach finally resolved this line fault for you? Or was it chalked it up as another "no fault found" - with a bill for the usual call-out charge of £130?

In a sense it's worrying that industry insiders like yourself still can't get a satisfactory fault resolution - after multiple visits from Openreach engineers. What hope for Daily Mail readers who can't even describe, never mind diagnose the fault symptoms?!

Funny this. What happened was that the phone started working again normally, which I put down to the damp-affected joint finally drying out. However, I was still noticing sudden problems between 11:30-14:30. I had mentioned this to the engineer before but he said there was no reason the problem would occur at the same time every day.

Also G.INP finally returned after the DLM reset and this helped no end.

Anyway, then I noticed the problem only occurred when the sun was shining and I figured out it was something to do with the sun heating up the cabinet all morning before going behind a hedge for the rest of the afternoon. Then Autumn arrived and the problem is gone again.

So I think the problem will probably return in 6-9 months, and I'll report it then. I'm now back to full speed.