answerphone make phone ring continuously

krishna

I have a separate answering machine and phone. If both our plugged into the phone socket (via 2 way adapter) the phone rings continuously. With either one plugged in, everything is fine. Same problem even if I change the phone and/or the two way adapter. When the answering machine was previously plugged into the fax machine, there were no problems, but I've removed the fax now. Any ideas? Could I be using the wrong cables from the answering machine? (had it a while but only started using it recently when old telephone/answering machine packed in). The answering machine is a Retell 340.

TIA

DVardysShadow

From the Department of the Blindingly Obvious, of course if the phone is not plugged in, it won't ring. Does the phone - or other phones ring on other sockets? Does it happen with the AM on another socket?

I suspect you may have the wrong cable for the AM - does it work fully?

krishna

Only have one phone socket so can't test others. Yes, the AM works perfectly, provided nothing else is plugged into the socket. OK, I'll try other cables.

K

Heinz

I had a similar problem a while back when, for the first time, I plugged a (corded) phone into a previously unused extension socket. Doing so made my DECT phones (but not the corded phone) ring continuously. The DECT phones' base station was plugged into another extension socket.

It turned out that a nearby lightning strike months before had blown the master socket's capacitor and that had to be replaced.

I had not noticed the problem because my DECT phones (with AM built into the base station) had continued to work perfectly despite the faulty master socket.

krishna

Interesting one, Heinz.

The AM is a Retell Tiptell 340 clip. I bought it a year ago on ebay for a fiver, which is a great price for what it is, but it didn't come with the line cable. Was working fine when connected to the fax so I assumed all was well.

I spoke to Retell yesterday who want to charge me £20 to send a replacement line cable. They say I have the wrong one, but now I wonder as we did have problems with our line a few months ago.

Think I will take the AM to someone else's house and try there. Retell say that the correct cable is wired so that the ring signal is sent first to the AM, then from the AM down the line again to the phone and that it has a special connector on the end so that you can plug both phone and AM into same socket.

krishna

New line cable from Retell did the trick.