Request factory 'hard' reset for new 'Telo 2'

[s3v3n]

For Tom B., or anyone with relevant info;
I've looked and searched my fingers off over the past few hours, trying to locate an updated manual for the newer Telo2 phone device (the one without the 'trash/square' button, and no top row of lights/buttons). There are numerous references to the older hold 'Trash/Envelope' buttons reset procedure, but with no 'envelope' button to hold, it's not terribly useful. We've been Ooma customers for 2 years now. Had our original Ooma Telo2 replaced within the first 45 days due to horrible performance, and the replacement worked as good as a Voip device can, or did until today.

We completely power down all computers and systems at night, including the modem, router and Ooma, cycling them all on in order each morning, ie, cable modem, router, then Ooma Telo2. We're in a very rural area, and even though the system is on its own UPS power backup unit, we still shut it down if we're not present for the day to avoid power strikes; power hits don't affect the units if it can't reach them. Until now, it's always worked. Last call in today was about 10 hours ago, a 'trash' call; those aren't answered, and although we put them on a blacklist, it does little good; apparently I'm not alone in voicing the blacklist ineffectuality, as another current post indicates..

The Telo2 and system was all shutdown for the majority of the day, and although everything else is working, the Telo2 won't stop cycling; at first, it briefly comes up solid red, then begins blinking red, then turns solid red again, then goes completely out, only to start the cycle all over again within a minute. I cannot log into the device, and replacing the new Cat7 cable with another new Cat7 cable has no effect, nor does attempting to move the Telo2 to a different router port. There are no local ISP issues, with any of our other services.

As Ooma service has not bothered to respond to an email we sent them on April 6th, though as always, they say they will get with you quickly, I am not hopeful another email (for this subject) would encourage Ooma's Philippines customer support would get a quicker or better response. If you have any suggestions, or have access to a factory reset procedure that would work for the Telo2 (new 2015 model) without the 'envelope' button, I'd be most grateful. We have no other viable phone service, so I can't afford to waste emergency cell phone minutes trying to reach Ooma's Philippines support. Thanks for any help you can lend!

[Tom]

There's generally no reason to do a factory reset if you can get dialtone, but an alternative to the procedure above is to dial *#*#099.

Symptoms suggest your telo2 has gone bad.

Telo1 factory reset:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=17085

Telo2 Bootup sequence:

a- play-solid-yellow - power on (3 sec)
b- logo-solid-purple - boot mgr starting (3 sec)
c- logo-solid-red - linux booting (60 sec)
d- logo-blinking-red 1/2 sec on/off - linux up (30 sec)
e- after that you can get following status:

1 short red blink, long delay [repeat] - network down
2 short red blinks, long delay [repeat] - vpn down
3 short red blinks, long delay [repeat] - management down
4 short red blinks, long delay [repeat] - dect base firmware upgrade


Telo2 Factory reset:

- press down on play and trash buttons as soon as stage d. is reached (blinking red), or sooner if you like
- wait for blinking red to transition to a fast red/blue blink
- wait for fast red/blue blink to transition to solid red
- release the buttons
- the logo will next be off for about a minute (but there will still be link lights)
- the unit reboots

[s3v3n]

Thanks Tom; Sadly, I practically had to threaten to fly to Manila to finally receive by email what you posted here on the Telo2 reset. It's a grim forecast, but indeed; I'm totally in agreement with your assessment, that the unit has gone bad. There's no trade-in program, which likely means low interest in recalling or examining devices that suddenly die (for whatever reason, be it a faulty forced auto-bios update or Sudden Ooma Death Syndrome). No one will ever know unless and until Ooma corporate becomes pro-active on these cases.

Until we applied the new/improved Telo2 reset procedure, the unit cycled non-stop from solid to flashing red and back. I've sat watching the data or lack thereof, inside the router and on our network software. After finally getting and implementing the reset procedure, it's made sort of an improvement; now the Telo2 only takes 1-3 hours each day to connect to Ooma's servers. The Telo is basically a router/switcher, but compared to our own wireless router's specs and programability, the hype has me wondering what all the fuss with the Telo2 is all about.

This last episode alone is indicative of a failed bios update on a motherboard; I've seen much the same behavior in PCs over the years, but the Telo2 has no 'backup/secondary bios' to take over when a bad flashing or corruption of data occurs. If the bios update were to blame, that's something Ooma could easily fix, by allowing Telo2 'owners' download the bios updates and flash them offline, the way we do our router, to keep the update from being corrupted by other data flowing through the router at the time the update is being put into place.

It isn't a mystery, but then not all Telo2 owners would like to update their owned equipment. Unfortunately, there are more than a few users who have reported the exact same failed Telo2 circumstances, that match up to the exact same time period, prior to 4/15, with more reported each day. These reports are popping up in several high profile places, which speaks to the non-responsiveness of Ooma.

One poster did garner a strange response from Ooma; someone at the company (and who knows where they get these people) asked the reviewer to a website, fill out a form so that their remarks could be included on social platforms. I have my doubts Ooma corporate really wants to spread all of the bad news on this turkey of a problem on Twitter and F/B. I believe that all Telo2 owners who are coming forth on this one, can believe the volume of 'suddenly gone bad' devices is a result of either an extended bad production run at the factory 1-2 years ago, or more likely, due to the effects of the auto-bios update gone horribly wrong.

The original Telo2 we received last year was bad out of the box. We gave up on Ooma support, and were forced to contact Ooma corporate to halt the endless hemming and hawing from Manilla to have it replaced. To Ooma corp's credit, it -was- replaced and pronto, within 48 hours, which is darned excellent customer support. Ooma corporate even apologized for not being able to get it to us next-day air, which really impressed me. I immediately put forth good feedback and recommended that others turn to Ooma for Voip service.

That was the final time we received such incredible support from Ooma. The replacement 2nd Telo2 did work out of the box and it worked -OK-, but not in any stellar sense. The only time we ever got the 2-5 second latency down was by doing our own port forwarding. The support folks said they tried several times but they made only made it worse when they supposedly adjusted the latency. I was never able to verify they'd touched the settings in the Telo2.

With this failure of the Telo2, and no comment from Ooma, (sadly, all email to Ooma corporate remain unanswered), the 'support' rating for Manila is abysmal. The chat reps sugested that I 'call' them to talk to them re the issues. Since the Telo didn't work I declined. The chat people then suggested I call them on my 'mobile'; since everyone in Manila must have mobiles, I guess all Americans are expected to have them also, but we don't.

I worked in the tech industry for years, building & servicing PCs. I'm still competent at configuring hardware and software, so I have a fair idea what this is all about, finally; volume; selling lots of Telos, which will have to be replaced when they quickly fail, to support a supposedly 'free' calling service. The fee debacle is for another time, but none of this current episode is making us replacing the Telo2 with yet another Telo2 we have zero faith in, before it too fails.

There are still new original Telo units available, and while that might be what we buy, we're seriously looking at Grandview and IP through trunking. The costs are roughly comparable after you buy in, but what will wind up clinching this deal will be service. When one invests in any kind of calling hardware platform, you fairly expect an American-based, publicly-traded company to provide a solid level of prompt, quality service. A fair number of customers have put it out there, that their Telos are now 'suddenly' dying within the same time/date-frames.

If I were an Ooma exec, I'd surely jump on this at once, to ascertain the cause, fix it to limit the past and future damages, and offer customers a prompt resolution with extended warranty on the replacement Telo2 (I'm an optimist). Being able to call 'free' when it actually isn't, is called marketing. This case give us a pause, to seriously rethink where our next $100.00 should be directed; stepping in the same puddle twice is enough. If Ooma wants to make amends serious inroads must be made to rectify this problem with all Ooma owners, with a blanket email to all Telo2 owners, that Ooma cares.

I'll always give a company the benefit of the doubt if they show they care that I stay with them, but it's not an unlimited offer. Not staring at the Telo2 for the 2 hours it takes it to sign on. Ooma should prove its loyalty to its owners, replace these failed units, institute sincere customer service improvements, to show they care. Doing so would be rewarded immediately with customer good will, valuable good word-of-mouth feedback from all of the owners, and more sales, a win-win senario for both Ooma corporate and all Ooma Owners users. Everyone gets value. Service and a caring reputation sells hardware too. If we buy a Telo, we'll either buy two original Telos, or into the expensive Telo replacement program. Again, thanks for your kind and prompt assistance in posting this updated 'reset' procedure!

[Tom]

The reboot loop can happen on telo behind some networks due to a bug introduced in a recovery routine. As a workaround try powering the telo up without the network cable attached. Then plug the cable in once you see the 'network down' pattern referenced above.

[Tom]

fix was applied to your telo last night

[s3v3n]

Appreciate your post Tom. In my experience and with all due respect, the telo2 is likely the slowest, poorest performing dual core processor router-switch currently being manufactured, for any purpose. During the past week, while waiting for any form of elevated tier support or corporate response from Ooma, I attempted and exhausted all of the usual bag of tricks I used in the trade; nothing made any difference. I trained on running Unix mainframes in the early '80s, and as slow as they were, they never took as long to attempt to cycle. To this day as when I worked on those systems, every trouble-shooting step gets written down, so I can move to the next step without wasted time or repeating steps that don't work. It was also beneficial in that documenting your work kept sysadmins and analysts from shouting at operators for not writing it down.

I had done as you suggested. Several times in fact, during all of this, leaving the cable(s) unplugged except for power. The first day, before I began searching this forum first, I attempted but was unable to login into the telo locally. When that proved impossible I knew this was a critical fault if not fatal. I unplugged the phone and Cat7 to rerun the cycle in varying order, before attempting to login again with no indication the telo was connected to the PC (properly). After 6 hours of searching her and about the web for clues, (disclaimer, medical issues prevents me from typing with my functional hand for long) I stumbled across the log describing the firmware auto-updates to telos. That's when I knew this was a common problem, and from reports from other owners with locked-up telos.

I guess-timated the difference between telo1/2 layouts, but without knowing the proper button and hard reset sequence, including knowing the graduated color changes vs number of blinks-pulses per cycle, it wasn't productive. Even after I received the reset procedure via email then applied it, it made no difference. We'll see if it takes, tomorrow morning. Except for solid red followed by pulsing red cycles, I was starting to see red. Powering up to more than a few minutes of solid red, prior to 20-50 red pulses confirmed the telo was indifferent to whatever I tried. From the 2nd day on I tried several variations, letting the unit cycle for an hour, then rest for a time unpowered, then powering it on again.

The switches and routers I've worked with over the past 25 years power up quickly, then self-check, then indicate they're ready for you to power up the next device in the chain. If there's no detectable signal or connection pattern that makes sense to the device, the sequence will usually hold, or blick rapidly in unison or turn off, before powering off then rebooting. During the third day of a cycle, an Ooma commercial was aired on TV; it wasn't appealing cute nor influenced any positive thoughts toward Ooma, much less referring future business. Some, not all, routers/switches have data so that the device owners can if they're so inclined, check for blink or error patterns/messages, as do most motherboards.

I briefly thought during testing of the CIA/NSA study describing decoding traffic going through routers/switches by reading the LED blinks, not that it's relates to diagnosing a malfunctioning telo2s problems. After hours of watching the telo blink, with no reset indent to push or procedure to follow, I knew when I started remembering CIA studies, it was time to stop fiddling with the telo2. A cheap router I had years ago behaved similarly, there was no pattern to the cycle of blinks, just a jumble of flashing LEDs. The reset indent on the device worked; the entire incident was resolved in under 10 minutes, with no posting or calls for support. 99% of the times I've had to use a hard-reset for any electronics, it's invaribly worked.

There's never been this provision with an telo1/2, which absolutely makes no sense. As of today, the telo has been powered on for 3 days, after it finally connected after more hours of blinking. We've made a few calls, never knowing if they'd be cut off or we'd return to endless pulsing. We're testing the fix, which your post (4.26.16 9:35 am post) indicates was applied last night, not that we have a choice. We're under tornado-severe weather warnings & watches and all electronics must be shutdown and unplugged. We can't risk the rest of our system even if the fix proves unsuccessful, and the telo2 never stops cycling come tomorrow.

There must be a better system implemented for the sake of all telo owners, even if they haven't suffered the same problem, yet. If these telos -are- our devices and personal property, and they aren't causing any disruptions to Ooma's servers or equipment from any other network, and there are no problems with the status or quality of the owner's VoIP calls, then telo owners must be able to apply firmware updates offline, rather than being subjected to stealth updates or fixes for what wasn't broken. If the telo is out of warranty and the owner takes the risk of updating the firmware of the telo, it's -their- risk. If Ooma updates the telo without owner choice during warranty and it fails, they replace the telo. If the telo is out of warranty and the fix/update causes the malfunction, then Ooma has contributed to the failure of the owner's property affected and should at the very least split the cost of the telo replacement with its owner.

It's a fair proposal, even though this incident has caused me to lose faith in Ooma, Inc. To my knowledge, no other router and/or switching device manufacturer defaults to forcing the owner's property/product to auto-update at the manufacturers whim, without the knowledge and consent of its owner. To act otherwise would cause defacto, needless crippling of valuable networks and/or VoIP systems. How can Ooma not know this, and why do they refuse to address or remedy the problem? When the telos we've purchased are effectively bricked or broken, in addition to the not insignificant inconvenience of being without any VoIP service for days, with no effective customer support or resolution, postive changes and remedies must be implemented on behalf of all Telo owners by Ooma. No amount of 'save 50% on Ooma referrals' marketing emails to telo owners will engender customer loyalty, enhance share value or garner a single future referral.

Tom, whatever your location and rank in the organization, thanks for your help and going between. Though I'm steamed by Ooma's indifference to this serious communications problem, I am by no means venting at you, or those few others who are able or allowed to competently help telo owners. If not for your post this morning here, there was no other response or indication from Ooma, Inc., that any 'fix' was forthcoming, much less had been applied to our telo2 without our knowledge or consent. Peace, and thanks.

[Tom]

A cheap router I had years ago behaved similarly, there was no pattern to the cycle of blinks, just a jumble of flashing LEDs.

The telo2 blink patterns are detailed above.
Factory reset does not apply here because the reboot loop is not caused by a config issue.

[howardc64]

Had to factory reset inlaws Telo 2 tonight. Here is what worked for us.

Disconnect power + internet, wait 20s, reconnect power but not internet
Wait through Telo2 boot sequence in post #2 until step d
Do Telo 2 factory reset sequence in post #2
Waited for awhile and reconnected internet

Telo 2 automatically set up itself online with inlaws account.

[InTheAir]

Hear, hear! I'm certain I was subject to this 'Sudden Ooma Death Syndrome'... I understand updates/fixes are needed but if my system is functioning OK (not affected by the issues/bugs) then give me the option to load it.

There must be a better system implemented for the sake of all telo owners, even if they haven't suffered the same problem, yet. If these telos -are- our devices and personal property, and they aren't causing any disruptions to Ooma's servers or equipment from any other network, and there are no problems with the status or quality of the owner's VoIP calls, then telo owners must be able to apply firmware updates offline, rather than being subjected to stealth updates or fixes for what wasn't broken. If the telo is out of warranty and the owner takes the risk of updating the firmware of the telo, it's -their- risk. If Ooma updates the telo without owner choice during warranty and it fails, they replace the telo. If the telo is out of warranty and the fix/update causes the malfunction, then Ooma has contributed to the failure of the owner's property affected and should at the very least split the cost of the telo replacement with its owner.

[test123456]

I got into the dreaded loop last week and have been with support at different levels. No dices so far but they all tried to convince me to buy another Telo2. I thought if this were due to a bios bug, Ooma should have the defective device shipped back for root cause analysis?

I could not even get the factory reset working with all the instructions aforementioned. Feel weird by not having a landline for a week now... lol