Ricoh MP2851 can receive faxes but not send

[mikadonovan]

When I serviced faxes, I always carried a cheap (under $10) phone with me to test fax lines.

I still do, and used it at least once last year.

[KeviM]

When I serviced faxes, I always carried a cheap (under $10) phone with me to test fax lines. A quick and dirty tool.

A few years ago, I found a very inexpensive butt set online that was about $15 dollars or so, (good ones are expen$ive), and it had alligator clips to make it easy to connect, as well as the standard RJ-11 plug and jack.

More recently I moved on to supporting fax servers. While quite a few did not use standard analog lines, the majority of them still did.

I later picked up a USB-connected modem for my notebook (about $35, as built-in modems disappeared quite a while back), and that was the best investment of all. It came with some really awesome fax software. That allowed me to literally carry my own fax machine with me that could send and receive. Certainly not conclusive, but it helped me out tremendously. Highly recommended. (BTW...Don't get carried away with any fancy features. The more generic, the better.)

I'll have to look into getting some those. It would be a good investment

[mga]

Hello

My client has a Ricoh MP2851. The machine is working fine and has been doing so for many years. In the past 2 or 3 days the client says that they can receive faxes but not send.

I tried calling the Ricoh fax machine from a normal telephone and I do get a fax start tone

Does anyone have idea why ?




Thank you

Could be wrong fax cable they not all the same just in case customer has changed

[KenB]

Silly question, but here goes.

Is that model machine sensitive to the polarity of the phone line wires (tip and ring)?

I think most modern machines technically are, but they auto-sense and reverse it internally.

That used to be a HUGE issue a few years back, where the polarity being reversed would not allow the machine to send, but receive was OK.

A lot of times, phone line work would get done, and the polarity could get switched, either accidentally or otherwise. It used to happen a lot.

I may be dating myself, but I figured I'd throw it out there.

[KeviM]

Silly question, but here goes.

Is that model machine sensitive to the polarity of the phone line wires (tip and ring)?

I think most modern machines technically are, but they auto-sense and reverse it internally.

That used to be a HUGE issue a few years back, where the polarity being reversed would not allow the machine to send, but receive was OK.

A lot of times, phone line work would get done, and the polarity could get switched, either accidentally or otherwise. It used to happen a lot.

I may be dating myself, but I figured I'd throw it out there.

Not sure ... I know everything was working fine up until about 3 days ago. So I'm assuming it was correctly connected up until then. I'll have to double-check that when I get to the customer.

[KenB]

Also, check the voltage between the two.

It should be about 48 VDC on-hook, and about 7 VDC or less off-hook.

When ringing, about 90 VAC.

[slimslob]

Not sure ... I know everything was working fine up until about 3 days ago. So I'm assuming it was correctly connected up until then. I'll have to double-check that when I get to the customer.

And it is still correctly connected now. Otherwise it not only would not be sending but also not receiving.

[slimslob]

Also, check the voltage between the two.

It should be about 48 VDC on-hook, and about 7 VDC or less off-hook.

When ringing, about 90 VAC.

That would be true when connected to most analog phone lines. However if connected behind a PBX, analog or digital KSU or VOIP to analog line converter that value could be 24 VDC on hook with off hook value as low as 5 VDC.

[sandmanmac]

Must admit, i kind of just breezed through a lot of the replies, but a couple of things I picked up on is that you mentioned in your first post that you called the fax from a regular line and got a fax tone, "why"?......That's always been the case, the machine will/ should pick up and try and receive.
2nd......Since very few customers even using fax anymore, I stopped carrying a cheap handset that's been mentioned earlier, but if you press "on hook" and don't hear a dial tone, in order to isolate the problem, I simply disconnect a handset from one of the office phones, and plug it directly into the wall jack. No dial tone? It's Not a machine problem.

[KeviM]

And it is still correctly connected now. Otherwise it not only would not be sending but also not receiving.

That's what I'll need to check when I get there on Monday.