Appendix i: Troubleshooting

What just happened during the call?

During program set-up, your test calls may send you to places in the program that you had not anticipated! 

It is easy to press a key incorrectly, or skip the recording of an important prompt (you may hear 'no message recorded' and wonder what that file name is, or what the box number is). Under Maintain, then Display Activity, you can choose to send all activity on a given line to a text file, that you can then view at your leisure. This will show the exact filenames that are being played, and what touchtones were entered. If you do not send it to a file, the information will go by quickly on the screen only, and Murphy's Law states the information you need will have scrolled by. See the section on logging for more specifics on logging and tracing program activity. It will show you the box number greeting the program was trying to play (and could not find) just before it shows playing 'nogrtrec.voi - no greeting has been recorded'.

Anytime anything unusual happens during program operation, information can be sent to logs.

driver service won't start:

If you see an error when trying to start service on your voice board driver, there are several possible areas to check out.

Do the irq and address jumper settings on the board match the settings in the software? Double click on the device to be sure they match. Use the sheet that came with your voice board for settings. SC bus boards do not have jumper settings. They are strictly set in the Dialogic software under the Configuration Manager (DCM). Also see the section on Hardware for more specifics for different board types.

Be sure you do not have your BIOS set for plug'n'play. You can check that under the PNP section. It should not be Yes. It should be NO, or Other. Be careful making changes to any BIOS settings. If you are not sure about this area of your computer, you should contact the store where you purchased your computer. There are many different possible BIOS types and setting. Entering incorrect information can disable your machine. Please see documentation that came with your computer before making any of these changes. Also, be sure the interrupt you want to use has been set in your BIOS under the PNP section for ISA/Legacy, if you are using an ISA board.

You can try different interrupts (2,3,5,7,9), and if those are unsuccessful, try another address. Try changing from the default of D000, to D8000. Information has been provided with your board showing how to make those changes. Changes will also need to be made in the Dialogic Configuration Manager for the device.

If you still have  a problem, to see if there truly is an interrupt conflict, disable the LPT1 in your BIOS. That will disable your printer port, which is interrupt 7 by default. Then, be sure 7 is set for ISA/Legacy, and set the board accordingly. If that works, then you know the other interrupts have conflicts. You should be able to contact the machine manufacturer to get them resolved. Otherwise, you will not be able to have a printer attached.

driver will start one board, but not multiple boards:

Check all of the info regarding interrupts and addresses. Be sure that you can start EACH individual board by itself, in EACH of the slots you are using. This is to eliminate a bad board, or a bad slot. If the multiple boards are SC type boards, be sure that you either have cabled them together properly, or have both boards set to run in independent, stand alone mode.

To have them set in stand alone mode, double click on the device listed, then the Telephony tab. Set the Bus Type to None, and the SCBus Clock Master to None. Also, check that under the MISC tab, that the Board Enabled setting is set to Yes.

enter

delay after entering touchtones:

set under maintain, switch, each individual line, then technical info. see 'interdigit delay'. the system can also be programmed for digit entry in access boxes under tweaks, then max wait. when entering a box number or password in either the user access phantom or an access box set for validate, the setting is in the \winnt\stplus.ini. maxboxlength and maxpassword length. if you only have 4 digits box number and you set the maxboxlength to 4, the system will not wait for more numbers.

NT restarting:

If you attempt to open the program and NT restarts, there is probably a problem with one or more database files and you may have a database error. The program by default is set to 'exitonerror' in the \winnt\stplus.ini file. If there is a database error, the program MUST be re-started in order to function properly. The \stplus\log\dberr.txt file will show you the error. If you are doing a lot of outbound dialing and have had a power outage, the queue.db files may be corrupted. the \stplus\boxes\outboundboxnumber\results.dbf will have the numbers that have been dialed. You can delete all the files in the \stplus\db\queue subdirectory, re-open the program, click on end all in the outbound box, and begin again.

You can stop the program from re-starting, by making a change in your \winnt\stplus.ini file. You can change the exitonerror=yes to =no. Then re-open the program. This will allow you to see the database error message on the screen. However, DO NOT just click on OK and attempt to continue to run the program. The program is unstable at that point and further databases may be corrupted. The program must be closed and the problem fixed before continuing to run the program.

'Error' on main program screen:

This error light is to make you aware that there was a database error and the program re-started Windows NT in order to continue to operate. See the above section on Windows NT restarting.

voice program not restarting after shutdown:

By default Windows NT has a security logon required. To enable the program to come back up automatically after a power outage, you will need to disable that manual logon. Please see Chapter 24 for detailed information.

line won't disconnect:

you call in to the system, then hangup, but the screen shows the call is continuing. Most phone companies issue a disconnect (break in current). The Dialogic voice boards will receive it and pass the information on to the software that the caller is gone. The software will then stop the call and tell the voice board to go on hook. However, if the phone company does not always issue the disconnect signal, or the system is behind a phone system that does not allow the signal through, the voice board will not know the caller hung up and, because of that, neither will the software.

To be sure that the software can at least have ultimate control, be sure that your access boxes do no default to themselves - as that will cause an endless loop. Rather, under the Default Routing field in the access box, set the destination for H for hangup. That way, the software will repeat the greetings the number of times you have set for max loop, then look to the default routing to see what to do next, and hang up the line.

call is not being transferred:

The mailbox is responsible for handling a call transfer, 3 way call, or bridge call. The transfer information gets set up under each Greeting, then transfer info.  You need to have chosen 'enable transfer' under the Greeting selected and have entered the correct phone number to dial under transfer info, then 'transfer to'. The transfer sequence begins with the information entered under Maintain, then Switch, then each individual line. If all of that information looks correct, listen carefully on your SoundSet and you will probable hear the problem.

The most important thing to do is to make sure a transfer or 3 way call CAN be made on the line you are testing on. Be sure to test it out yourself, without the computer involved, first.

answer with a different message:

Under Maintain, then Switch. By double clicking on each individual line, you can choose the box that will be played to the caller upon answer. This can be set by time, as well. If you want to answer with a different message on Saturday, Sunday and Holidays, click on Maintain, then Holiday to set them up for a whole year.

wrong greeting playing in access box:

Are you using the multiple greeting feature? see the Access Box section for more detailed information. Open the access box on the screen Click on Greeting in the upper right hand corner, then click on play and listen to what you hear on the SoundSet.If that is the correct greeting, remove the checkmark from 'Use Multiple Greetings'.

mailbox name not playing:

Open the mailbox and click on the Name button in the upper right hand corner. That is the box name, not to be confused with the name of a greeting, which is recorded under Greetings, then each individual greeting. A greeting name would be something like "Vacation", or "After Hours.

don't hear ad (survey description) played in Search Box:

Open the Capture Box and be sure you have 'get caller message' checked. If that is not checked the caller will not be prompted to record an ad, just mailbox greeting and mailbox name. If that happens, there will be nothing to play in the Search Box.

new language is not playing after being chosen:

Open your access box where you are choosing the language and be sure the heading on the lower area says "Lang", then Box, then type. If it does not, check under tweaks to be sure you have Language checked- toward the bottom on the right.

caller-id is not working:

Be sure you are enabled for this feature. Click on Maintain, then System Info. If you see CallerID listed, you have been enabled. Be sure you have set 2 rings to answer on EACH of your incoming lines (under Maintain, then Swtich, then double click on EACH line to set the incoming rings to answer). Check the initial access box for each line to be sure you have the tweaks set for caller id and you have the proper numbers checked. Then, if you checked the last 4 numbers, be sure you have those 4 numbers entered in the main access box window and they are routed to a valid box. Lastly, look in the \stplus\log\global1.log to be sure you see that you are receiving caller id from your telephone company. CallerId(ANI) and DNIS on T-1 do not require 2 rings to answer to get the information. The same troubleshooting steps other than that do apply, however.