Cisco 79xx Phone Troubleshooting Guide

Cisco 7960G Phone Troubleshooting Guide

If you use a Cisco 7960G phone, then you may find yourself in need of some troubleshooting help from time to time. Below, you will find common techniques, questions, and error messages along with resources to help you resolve the majority of issues that may come up while using this model of phone.

Important Troubleshooting Techniques

Before we get into common questions and specific error messages, there are a few techniques that come up in many different troubleshooting operations. These are things like factory resets and rebooting the phone. You will find step-by-step instructions for them below.

Rebooting the Phone

Rebooting the phone is not frequently necessary, but if troubleshooting does lead you to this as a step toward remedy, you can follow these steps to complete the process.

  1. Start by pressing *, 6, and the settings key, all at the same time. When you do, the headphone light will flash.
  2. The phone will reboot on its own from here. No other steps are necessary.

Factory Reset

If it is necessary to perform a factory reset, follow these steps:

  1. Press the *, 6, and "settings" keys. Then the headset light goes on, press and hold the "#" key.
  2. The phone’s LCD screen will change and display a new message that reads, “reset key sequence detected.”
  3. When you see that, let go of the # key and input the sequence: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,*,0,# — in that order.
  4. After you input the sequence, the screen will display, “save network cfg?”
  5. You can press 1 to save the configuration before the reset, or you can press 2 to discard changes.
  6. Either way, the phone will perform a reset after you choose one of these options.

Unlock the Phone

To unlock the phone, follow these steps:

  1. Press the "settings" key.
  2. Choose option 9 and hit the select key.
  3. You will be prompted for a password, and it will be one of two possible default passwords: Sn3t or cisco (these are both case-sensitive passwords).
  4. If one option doesn’t work, try the other.
  5. Once you input the password, the phone will unlock.

Change TFTP Settings

To change the TFTP settings, follow these steps:

  1. Unlock the phone following the steps mentioned earlier.
  2. Enter the settings and choose option 3 (network configuration).
  3. Select option 32 (you can type 3 and 2 on the number pad to get there faster).
  4. You will see a message that reads "alternate tftp: no."
  5. Press the "yes" option, but don’t save yet.
  6. Press 7 to reach the TFTP server.
  7. Delete the existing server and enter your new server information as needed.
  8. Accept the changes and save them, and the phone will reboot itself.

Frequent Troubleshooting Questions and Answers

The steps in the previous sections will come up for a number of different troubleshooting paths. The following sections can help you diagnose problems in order to find their solutions. There are a lot of specific tasks that will be mentioned as part of the path to resolution. For a complete guide that explains every possible step you might need, you can reference the complete Cisco user guide.

What if you can’t hear a dial tone or complete a call?

There are a few possibilities that cover the vast majority of cases that lead to these outcomes:

  • First, log into the Extension Mobility service.
  • If that doesn’t resolve the situation, remember that you have to use a client matter code or forced authorization code after you finish disabling a number.
  • Finally, the phones have a time-of-day restriction option. If this is enabled, you might not be able to use the phone during certain times.

The Settings button doesn’t do anything

When this happens, it is because the system administrator has disabled this capability on your phone. You need to work with the sys admin in order to implement any changes or resolve any issues with that particular device.

You can’t find the right softkey

The softkeys allow you to navigate a number of different settings and options. If you can’t find the right one, then there are three possibilities:

  • You need to press “more.” This will pull up additional options that should contain the softkey that you need.
  • You need to change the line state (e.g. you have to “go off-hook”).
  • Your phone doesn’t have the right configuration for the feature you’re trying to access.

Join doesn’t work

Join is a feature that allows multiple calls to connect simultaneously. To use this, you have to have more than one call available. There should be an active call and an additional call that you can select. If this isn’t available, you may need to transfer all calls to the same line before the Join feature will function.

Barge fails

When Barge fails, you will typically get a busy tone. The most common issue here is encryption. You cannot use Barge with an encrypted call, unless the phone you are using is configured for encrypted calls. If you get the busy tone, it means you tried to Barge an encrypted call with a phone that can’t support it.

The call drops after Barge

If you get dropped after successfully using Barge, it means that the call was transferred or put on hold. Keep in mind that turning the call into a conference will also disconnect you after Barge.

Call Back fails

Call Back does not support call forwarding. If the other party uses call forwarding, Call Back will always fail.

LSC fails

This is a CAPF configuration error. To configure CAPF, you will need to use the Cisco Unified CM Administration. You can find a full breakdown of configuration options and how to select them here.

Device authentication error appears

You will see this error if the CTL file has an incorrect certificate. This is also managed via the Cisco Unified Call Manager.

TFTP authorization failure

This error comes up when the TFTP address does not match what is in the CTL file. You will need to either update the CTL file or the TFTP server in the phone settings.

Additional Learning Center Resources