UC520 keeps rebooting

[aipcommunications]

Hey Cisco Community,

I work for a small nonprofit organization that uses a UC520 to provide phone service for our various sites (we had a main site, and 3 satellite sites each with an SR520 that connected back over a VPN to the main UC520). We recently consolidated offices, and moved the UC520 to our new primary office.

Ever since the move, once I got the UC back up and running and registering back to our SIP trunk provider, the unit registers as normal and in bound and outbound calling work as expected.  All of our 7961 handsets register (most are plugged directly into the front panel of the UC), and get their proper info, etc.  But for some reason, the UC520 keeps shutting itself down and rebooting, about once every 45 minutes or so.

I checked the power to make sure it wasn't something happening in the wiring closet, but all of that seems fine and the UPS is running without an issue.  I can't find anything in the configuration that could be doing it either (though I'm no expert).  Can anyone think of any reason that would explain this behavior?  It's becoming quite maddening.  I'm hoping this isn't the UC's way of letting me know it's dying, as it has been a real champ and I'd hate to see it go.

Thanks in advance for any guidance and wisdom from the crowd.

Best,

James

[aipcommunications]

Quick addendum to the behavior I hadn't noticed before.

When the system shuts down, it powers back up relatively quickly (within a minute or so), and then it takes the phones another minute or so to reboot and re-register and go through their normal process.  But the CUE module seems to be taking the longest to come back on line (by at least a few minutes).  I hadn't noticed until now that I was unable to log in to the CUE web interface (and that my vmail indicator light, etc on my desk's 7961) wasn't coming back on line when the phones did.

Is there any chance an issue with CUE could be causing this?

Thanks again.

Best,

James

[Dan Lukes]

I'm no expert on the UC520, so I wish someone else will provide better answer to you. But the symptoms you described look like hardware issue. Catch syslog and debug messages from UC520. It may (or may not) reveal more about the cause ...

[aipcommunications]

Hi Dan,

Thanks for the reply.  Sorry if this sounds incredibly basic, but what is the best way to catch those messages as they are happening?  If I pull the syslog, it is only giving me info current to each time I run the command.  And it seems all previous information is lost from memory after it reboots.

Is there a command (when I telnet in), that will give me a constant output of any systems messages until the point where it fails (so at least I could then review anything that looks weird right before it reboots)?

Thanks.

[Dan Lukes]

Just send them to remote syslog server.

I'm really not expert on UC520, but it seems to use standard IOS. In such case "term monitor' command should cause the messages will be displayed. But no warranty ...

Unfortunately, UC520 is rather old and unsupported device. I'm unsure there's an expert that will give you better advice.

[ADAM CRISP]

Hi James,

The "show version" command gives you a reason for the last reboot.

What does your's say?

eg

CCME#show ver
Cisco IOS Software, C880 Software (C880VOICE-UNIVERSALK9-M), Version 15.2(4)M6,                                 RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc2)
Technical Support: http://www.cisco.com/techsupport
Copyright (c) 1986-2014 by Cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Wed 19-Mar-14 16:21 by prod_rel_team

ROM: System Bootstrap, Version 15.1(2r)T3, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)

CCME uptime is 7 weeks, 6 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes
System returned to ROM by power-on

[aipcommunications]

Hi Adam,

Thanks for the reply.  Here is the output of the show version command:

AIP_UC520#sh ver
Cisco IOS Software, UC500 Software (UC500-ADVIPSERVICESK9-M), Version 15.0(1)XA2, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc2)
Technical Support: http://www.cisco.com/techsupport
Copyright (c) 1986-2010 by Cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Sat 06-Mar-10 04:52 by prod_rel_team

ROM: System Bootstrap, Version 12.4(11r)XW3, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)

AIP_UC520 uptime is 1 hour, 31 minutes
System returned to ROM by power-on
System restarted at 08:43:16 EDT Wed Jul 27 2016
System image file is "flash:uc500-advipservicesk9-mz.150-1.XA2"

[ADAM CRISP · Accepted solution]

Well there you go. That's great news.

System returned to ROM by power-on

The UC is rebooting because of a power issue. Given you've just moved the kit around, I'd suggest checking the power cables again. Failing that the PSU could be failing. I guess you could try a Cisco dealer for some spare parts.

Good luck!

[aipcommunications]

Well, good and bad news I fear.  It looks like many of the UC variants have an external PSU, which are still purchasable from a number of outlets.  But it looks like our UC520 must have any internal PSU, as the unit is connected to the wall with a regular appliance style power cord with no external power brick.

I imagine if we need to find a part, and open it up, we may end up just replacing the whole unit (which must have a good 10 years of service to it's credit).

Thanks so much Adam.

[aipcommunications]

Hi Adam,

It's a bit weird actually.  We couldn't find anyone out here to service the unit (switch out the power supply), but we switched things around so that all of the phones were receiving POE from a Cisco POE switch instead of the UC520 directly.  Since we made that switch (I suppose lessening the draw on the PSU of the UC520) it has been up without a failure.

Thank you again for your help on this.

Best,

James

[ADAM CRISP]

Well done. You've got another year out of it ;-)