I have a WE 2500 phone that has quit working. I thought it was becuase the last phone tech from UVerse messed up my polarity, and the only old phone t hat is polarity sensitive is this phone. So I reverse the red and green aga in in the phone jack. Still will not break dial tone. I repeatedly pushed t he hook to break dialtone and get a silence, then pushed the buttons, and t here were no tones. Does this mean that the mechanism is broken, or that th ere is a polarity problem? I did plug another modern phone, not polarity se nsitive, into the jack, and it works fine.
WE 2500 buttons do not make tones
Dec 08, 2013
6 Replies
What kind of voltage is the UVerse line putting out, and what's across the line when it's off hook and you push a button? Since it's not coming from the CO, the POTS line might be spec'd low, able to support modern phones but not old ones that draw more current.
Reverse tip and ring, many earlier 2500 sets didn't have a polarity guard...
ET
Got any other helpful suggestions?
Sure (sorry I missed the T/R swap...). Since he can break dial tone with pulse dialing (switchhook action), the tone pad failure is probably the single transistor in the circuit (I forget the part #), particularly if all the switches fail to operate... If only a single switch, or a single row, or a single column doesn't work, check the switch contacts.
Less common failures are broken wires connecting to the tapped inductor or a cap failure.
Of course getting an old dial pad and swapping it will confirm the problem is with the pad.
ET
Take the telephone to a neighbor's house who has a CO-powered line and see how it works. If there still are such lines in the neighborhood...
I suppose the the single transistor could have blown, though, given its age.
Try the set with a 9v battery, that should be plenty to make the tonepad work (or try the friend's house as already mentioned).
z!
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