Last night I went to use our cordless phone that is only about 6 months old. It’s a Vtech 900 with Caller ID.
When I picked it up, there was no dial tone. The battery is fully charged, the tone volume is all the way up and my fiance had used it about 1/2 hour before. There is just dead air.
I took another phone and plugged it in to that jack and to the extension we’re using.
Any ideas??
So you’re saying the handset has power (presumably it has some battery meter, which is how you know the battery is fully charged), but you can’t get dial tone?
When this happens, if you pick up another phone in the house while your VTech should be “on the line,” does it get tone?
I assume the other phone worked, right? Anyways, I wouldn’t mess around with it to much. I believe most of those phones have a year warranty, call up tech support and they’ll have you try a couple of things and if is still doens’t work, they’ll probably replace it. That same thing happened to my phone, I made the mistake of putting it off for a long time, when I finnally called tech support I was about 2 weeks out of my warranty.
Presumably the base was still plugged in and the power was not out on that circuit?
Sometimes when I’ve had that sort of problem, the phone company tells me to unplug every phone in the house, and then go around trying one at a time at various sockets. I don’t understand why, but somehow if one of the phones is bad it can cause the others to malfunction.
Well, it was a late Christmas gift from my MIL, and I’m not sure if she has the receipt.
Anyway, yes, when I plugged the other phone in, it worked, as did the extension we tested.
I had a friend call, and the handset rings, but if you press the “TALK” button, nothing happens and the other phone still rings. It’s obviously not picking up the line.
The LED on the called ID screen shows who has called, so it’s still getting the info from the call.
I emailed their tech support, lets see if the mail me back. If they don’t mail me back by the time I leave work I’ll call them this evening.
I was wondering if maybe there was a lock or something we had enabled somehow.
Have you turned off the phone and turned it back on?
Sometimes with cordless phones, if you leave the phone on and then place it on the base, it won’t hang up properly - then when you pick it up, you just hear a hiss.
That is one of the first things we tested.
We only have the phone in use. We only have 1 working jack in our whole house (the landlord doesn’t want to pay for re-wiring the very old lines).
I just KNOW that I’m gunna get home and it’s going to work just fine.
You guys are quick. I can’t keep up with the posts.
The handset doesn’t have an OFF button. I tried unplugging the base and plugging it back in. I even tested the outlet and it’s fine.
After my fiance used it last he didn’t put it back on the base. I only charge it when it’s almost completely dead. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do?
I dunno; mine goes dead whenever I leave it off the base for a little while, so I’ve become fanatical about keeping it there. (We simulposted earlier, so I didn’t realize that you were able to receive calls.)
Definitely a tech support problem.
You may want to try removing the batter from the handset for a count of three and replacing it.
See, there ya go. Say “tech,” and Juanita shows up with a technical answer. 
If that doesn’t work, try removing the battery.
I did that. Didn’t change anything. shrug
Thanks for all the advice guys.
Hopefully vtech will have an idea on what to do.
At the risk of sounding obvious – after you removed the battery in the handset, did you replace it with a new one?
Even though cordless phones are equipped with rechargeable batteries, the batteries can still get to the point where they no longer hold a charge strong enough to power the phone.
Take your battery to RadioShack and buy a new one. Do take the battery with you, though, and see the person behind the counter.
The LED on the face of the phone still keeps all the info, holds the phone book in memory and everything else. It still rings etc. So, the power to the phone is still on, but there is NO dial tone.
Last cordless phone I had the battery lasted YEARS, not 6 months!! If it is the battery, that is the LAST vtech phone I’ll have.
I will try the battery thing next. Actually, I have a store in the mall near my house that sells these phones. If vtech doesn’t get back to me, I might just go see them.
Many of the VTec phones have batteries in the handset and the base. This would allow you to use your cordless phone in a power outage, as well as have a spare battery fully charged at all times.
If your phone is one of these, unplugging the base won’t reset the phone. I’ve had this problem once or twice before, and this always took care of the problem:
Unplug the base station, and remove the batteries from both the handset and the base station, so there is no power to either the handset or the base station. Wait a minute or two. Then plug the base station back in, and replace all batteries. Put the phone in the base station for a few seconds to let them recognize each other again. Putting the phone back in the base station is crucial, since VTec uses this method to make sure only your handset can use your base station - otherwise, if your neighbor had the same type of phone, you could end up placing calls on each other’s phone line without knowing it.
Hope this helps.
Sounds like there’s already been a lot of on-and-off the base but I’ll offer this anyway:
More then one cordless phone I have had exchanges a security number with the base to keep somebody else in the neighborhood from grabbing your phone line. I’ve often found that when the handset stops working, hanging it up for a few seconds will allow the base and the handset to negotiate a new number and restore the handset to working.
Happens all the time to me - especially when the batteries get low.
Belrix!!! Thank you!! That worked. I had my fiance hang up the handset for about 30 seconds and now it’s working fine! Yippee!
There should be a happy dance smilie!