Intermittent phone line fault.

Hi everyone,

So I have a interesting home phone line fault happens twice or three times an hour sometimes with broadband drop out most of the time not

I'll begin my story. Sorry a long one.

On 16 March afternoon my wife went to make a call using the home phone and the receiver was making a hideous sound. So left it few hours to the evening and ran few Plusnet line test online and it came up with internal wiring fault. Thinking strange new build flat can't see that being a issue so took the home phone out the socket cleared the issue but couldn't have the home phone pluged in. We had a discussion about how old the phone was and worked out we got it in January 2017 so not that old to have any problems. So again left it few more hours and had some time to think about it and had the idea to plug the phone directly into the phone socket in a different room. It worked okay so I'm like uh I never thought about the ADSL filter which was still left in the socket in the other room took it out and could immediately smell electronics not happy inside it I'm like that not normal. Luckily I had a spare filter laying around plugged it into the phone and it worked normally run an online fault test came back no issue found.

On Sunday 17 morning all quite and could hear this strange noise very randomly and intermittent look over at the phone during that time and the home phone making a noise from the handsfree speaker/ LED indicator lighting up when not in use. Like we're getting a voltage spike or something on the phone line. I kept an eye on it during the day, all day randomly making a noise/ flashing led indicator so again in the evening ran a plusnet online fault test. During that test the phone would make a noise flash the led indicator and the the line would drop out. Home phone would came up with check line which would make the test not complete. Which must of been forwarded onto Plusnet as there was a fault on the line on Monday 18. Raised to Openreach for them to fix during the week they got in contact with us to say. That they had found and fixed a problem with it on Thursday 21 during that time the phone was still making a random noise and flashing the led indicator.

I've tried again on Sunday 24th March to run an online fault test and got Oops, something seems to have gone wrong. Phone made a noise flashed the LED indicator and said check line
Fault location: FU
Diagnosis code: G228
Description: FAULT - Wiring fault between EvoTAM and legacy linecard

Still no fix so it continues.

Saturday 30th March
So again I ran a phone line test via plusnet help page it fails but then passed internally to Plusnet support who seem to find this

Fault details
--------------
Fault location: FU
Diagnosis code: G231
Description: FAULT - Probable Exchange Line Card Circuit Fault

External fault

Again raised to Openreach
So Wednesday 3rd April get a call from Openreach engineer never answered as I was driving. Calls the home phone wife answer oh its openreach engineer I'm outside and would like to complete some internal test in your home she say husband be home in 15 minutes as I turn up he driving away. So phone plusnet like what the deal with this. They explained that Openreach have tested and cleared the issue at the exchange the test towards your property was inconclusive, and the appointment is need.

So I book for Friday afternoon engineer turn up and finds.....
No problems, he does three line test they all came back clear he can see a few broadband drop out but say that normal. I'm like I'll l try my provider support help page line test he adamant it's going to pass as he found no issues to his surprise it didn't pass and failed funny he couldn't explain it and said I've done my tests line okay. I've phoned Plusnet explained the situation and they are going to leave an fault ticket open.

Now the interesting part I'm unsure if I can take my findings to Plusnet or Openreach. I've got myself a digital multimeter and got the test leads hooked up to the end of a cable with a BT jack plug into one of the sockets at home and can monitor the line voltage. Now and again I can see the line drop down to 10v from 50v for around 30 seconds.

Include three quick videos two of the phone making a noise and LED flashing and one of my multimeter test.

https://youtu.be/OlsQpkBUWG0
https://youtu.be/heiWrgVMsy0
https://youtu.be/WqmFsRgQKFQ

Any input into this is very much appreciated.

Edited by JohnG1988 (Sun 07-Apr-19 14:24:22)

Firstly, can I just point out that such a very long post with no punctuation makes for hard reading.

You cannot contact Openreach directly, you need to keep on at Plusnet.

You need to be testing at the NTE test jack, with all else removed, to rule out internal extension wiring and equipment.

Can you borrow a known working phone from a nieghbour, just thinking that the phone is newish isn’t really ideal faulting practice.

What exactly has been done in the exchange, New LIC, new broadband ties, new jumpers ?

@Zarjaz thank you for the reply back and I apologise for the bad punctuation and mistakes in my post.

I've done the following tests:

Tried different BT outlets in the home some problem.

Plugged the home phone directly into the master socket same issue.

Tested the line voltage directly for the master socket and it drops down to 10V DC from 50V DC.

What Openreach have done on their side, some exchange work after that not had much feedback from my provider.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

Firstly, can I just point out that such a very long post with no punctuation makes for hard reading.

You cannot contact Openreach directly, you need to keep on at Plusnet.

You need to be testing at the NTE test jack, with all else removed, to rule out internal extension wiring and equipment.

Can you borrow a known working phone from a nieghbour, just thinking that the phone is newish isn’t really ideal faulting practice.

What exactly has been done in the exchange, New LIC, new broadband ties, new jumpers ?

Edited by JohnG1988 (Sun 07-Apr-19 17:25:06)

Testing at the test socket not just the master socket is important as that removes the effects that extension wiring can create

Yes should of made this more clearer. Yes tested directly into the Openreach test socket.

If your somewhat ‘Heath Robinson’ test with the multimeter is to be believed, then I’d expect something like loss of dial tone to accompany these dips in voltage, if not, then I think you should ignore its ‘evidence’.





spelling mistake rectified

Edited by Zarjaz (Sun 07-Apr-19 20:08:13)

Good point, I've never tried to see if there was no dialing tone when it happens. I'll see if I can get to the phone quickly during a voltage drop and report my findings.

In reply to a post by JohnG1988:

Good point, I've never tried to see if there was no dialing tone when it happens. I'll see if I can get to the phone quickly during a voltage drop and report my findings.

My findings are in line dips down to 10V no dialing tone line silent goes back to 50V line picks up dialing tone present.

Call the landline from my mobile during dip and it say. I'm on the phone to someone and goes to voicemail.

Edited by JohnG1988 (Sun 07-Apr-19 19:21:13)

OK, so either a loop fault, rectified loop fault, on you have bum exchange equipment on your line still.

Ring Plusnet