Ricoh MP C5503 Can't Receive Faxes

[Guest]

Hi, All!!

I'm not a real copier technician, so I apologize if that's against the rules. I work at a church currently, but I've got years of experience in the IT world. Anyway, on to the issue at hand.

Our Ricoh MP C5503 can send faxes just fine. However, it doesn't like to receive them. I've turned up the volume for when faxes are incoming, and I can hear the typical fax machine noise, alongside a busy signal. So, it seems that the faxes are making it to the copier, but it doesn't like them?

At the beginning of the year (January-ish), we had a Honeywell Notifier SFP-5UD fire control panel installed. The line that our fax machine resides on appears to be "Line 1" in that device. This is the same time faxes stopped coming in successfully. Obviously, there's something amiss there. When a fax is coming in, the activity light on the fire panel lights up for the appropriate line, and the fax noise comes through the copier.

I've tried to research as much as I can, but haven't been able to track down anything that's helped. I have tried bypassing the surge protector that the phone line ran through before getting to the copier, but that didn't help. I'm happy to provide any additional information, if necessary.

Thank you all for your time!

[LNorris]

Re: Ricoh MP C5503 Can't Receive Faxes

pick up an old fashion phone, the one that uses a cord to plug in the wall.

disconnect phone line from copier and plug it into ur phone, see what sounds you are getting. call the fax number on another phone, see what it sounds like on your corded phone.

if its a digital setup, you will have to get a digital to analog converter for a chance for it to work.

[NeoMatrix]

Re: Ricoh MP C5503 Can't Receive Faxes

I.T. hey...hmmm.
1.Have you been playing around with the fax forwarding option on the MFD or WIM?
If so, did you set the correct password and email address for the fax forward option ?

2.Being a concerned IT security buff that you are, have you turn on secure fax mode an stored all the incoming faxes to HDD ? Such be the case, you will need to enter a password to allow the faxes to print out.

just checking...

It could be a hardware problem like crosstalk through a faulty ADSL filter or something similar.
Is the physical fax line a duet line? Meaning the line has two distinctive audible ring pulses for the same line,say one ring pattern for the fax, a different ring pattern for the fire-panel controller?

The additional fire panel hardware might be creating an incoming attenutation problem for the now deaf fax card. It may be a matter of adjusting the fax attenuation in SP service mode to fix the deaf fax signal.

I've also seen random fax problems when using Analogue-to-Digital phone line conversion hardware....

HTH

[ElliotFriend]

Re: Ricoh MP C5503 Can't Receive Faxes

Thanks for the suggestion, LNorris!

Plugging a known working phone into the cable results in nothing. No dial-tone. No power to the device. I tried on both sides of the surge protector, just to be sure.

By "digital to analog converter," do you mean something like an ATA? I know the rest of the phone system is not VOIP, if it's of any consequence.

The phone line terminals on the fire control panel are labeled "DACT Phone Lines" (digital alarm communicator transmitter). Is that helpful?

Thanks!

[ElliotFriend]

Re: Ricoh MP C5503 Can't Receive Faxes

Thanks, NeoMatrix!

1. Fax forwarding remains disabled.

2. Secure fax is disabled. No faxes are set to save to HDD. I've checked everywhere I can find on the HDD, but no faxes seem to be built up in there.

I'm only tangentially involved with IT here. I'm on the ministerial staff, and they have some volunteers who donate some of their IT expertise (and have been involved here much longer than I have). I try my best to respect their network, and avoid stepping on their toes.

Most of my previous IT experience with WANs is coax/cable. I don't see anything I recognize as a DSL filter, but it's quite possible I'm missing it. How could I find out if the line is a duet line? Would it be duet between PSTN and the fire control panel? Between the fire panel and the fax? Both?

One of my co-workers has put in a ticket with the company that installs/manages the fire control panel for us. So, maybe they can shed some light on the situation, too.

Thanks for all your help and insights!! I'm a bit out of my typical wheelhouse.

[NeoMatrix]

Re: Ricoh MP C5503 Can't Receive Faxes

Thanks for the suggestion, LNorris!

Plugging a known working phone into the cable results in nothing. No dial-tone. No power to the device. I tried on both sides of the surge protector, just to be sure.

By "digital to analog converter," do you mean something like an ATA? I know the rest of the phone system is not VOIP, if it's of any consequence.

The phone line terminals on the fire control panel are labeled "DACT Phone Lines" (digital alarm communicator transmitter). Is that helpful?

Thanks!

You said you can send out faxes but cannot receive them, this would imply the phone line is working.

RE: PABX of sort.
Did you try to press "0" or "9" on the phone handset to get an outside line out of the building ?
An outside line will let you hear the dial tone of the physical line. This would infer a working phone line, provided there is no audible static on the line.

[Iowatech]

Re: Ricoh MP C5503 Can't Receive Faxes

The neat thing about the 80's fax tech is that if you hear busy signals from the receiving stations you are trying to send faxes to, they actually are just busy receiving faxes from elsewhere. Adjust the redial paramaters to deal with that and you're done.

[slimslob]

Re: Ricoh MP C5503 Can't Receive Faxes

The Honeywell Notifier SFP-5UD fire control panel is answering the line before the C5503 and then hanging up. Check to see if there is a way to delay when the Honeywell Notifier SFP-5UD fire control panel answers. If there is not, then you need a different line. I have also seen instances where something similar to the Honeywell Notifier SFP-5UD fire control panel using pulse dial will start to dial and the dialing will be interpreted by the fax machine to be ringing and the fax machine tries to answer.