Line Cord Error

[Ivan82]

I have a BT Premium Phone, however when I plug it into my telephone socket, I get a 'Line cord error'. I know its not the line itself because I have a Binatone Spirit 111 corded telephone plugged into it at the moment and this works fine. I have also tried plugging it into two other lines and still get the same error message. I have tried changing the batteries to no avail. I have spent a reasonable amount of money for this two handset package, so if anyone can help I would very much appreciate it. 

Cheers

[rbz5416]

Did you buy it new or used? If new then it's possible the cable or base is faulty. If used it's possible it has the wrong cable, in that the wiring is incorrect. If the cable on the Binatone is removable you could try that, but that could also be the wrong wiring.

[Ivan82]

Yes, I brought it used and I did try to use the Binatone cable but had the same problem. How can you find out if it's the wrong cable? and if it is, where could I get the correct cable?

Cheers

[licquorice]

I suspect it is a faulty unit

[rbz5416]

The actual issue is the internal wiring of the phone & this harks back to early modem days. Although the RJ11 connector was adopted as standard, the way it was wired wasn't. So some devices used the centre pair & others used the outer pair. So all you can do is look very closely at the colours used at both ends, which will probably require a magnifying glass unless you have excellent eyesight!

It's all a long time ago for me but I think the BT plug uses pins 2 & 5, ie one in from either end. They will either go to the middle pair of the RJ11 connector or the outer pair. Whichever you have you need to find the opposite, maybe try the cable from your router unless you have FTTP?

If anyone knows of an actual standard to identify one over the other then hopefully they'll post.

It's possible that as above it's just faulty, but it's quite a common issue for the cable to go AWOL or get mixed up with another device because they look the same.

[Ivan82]

If it is a faulty unit, can it be repaired? 

If so where could I get it repaired?

If not, could I buy a new single handset and then pair the other phones to this new base?

[rbz5416]

Just checked the cable on my BT8500 base & that has pins 2 & 5 of the BT plug connected to the centre pair of the RJ11 like this:

You would hope that it's standard across BT products.

[harrysnotter]

As rbz says sometimes the cable between phone and wall is wired differently. I made the mistake of using the existing cable with my new bt phone. Don't. Use the cable supplied by BT with the new phone. Hope this helps others.