atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems Telrad Telephones & Systems ImaGen failing/upgrade

We are currently utilizing an ImaGen voicemail system with our Telrad Digital Key PBX. The issue we are having with the ImaGen is the PC hardware is aging and unreliable. The system has failed to re-boot several times with errors on the harddrive and the floppy drive. My current support for the system says that the PC portion of the ImaGen cannot be replaced or upgraded and that our only solution is to upgrade both our PBX and the Imagen to the latest versions at a cost of appro. $10K. This seems crazy to me. Can I not simply replace the ailing PC hardware and transfer the data from the harddrive to a newer PC without buying all new software and some new hardware?

If you don't want to upgrade the pbx and get a new Emagen, ask your vendor about a refurbished Imagen. Personally, after using and programming the Emagen, I loathe the Imagen. The unified messaging is very nice as well, especially with a fax server and DID's (I get my faxes and voicemails on my blackberry). Look into what you could gain with the upgrade before you saddle yourself with a refurbished vm.

It is not that we don't want to upgrade, but at a cost of 10K, we are not prepared for the cost. We want to get our voicemail back to it's reliable status, then look into our options for upgrading/replacing in the next fiscal year.

Is it NOT possible to simply transfer the data from the HDD and move the card to a newer more reliable platform at a much lower cost? Our system works fine at this point other than the PC hardware issues.

Thank you for your reply, I appreciate it.

[This message has been edited by UVI (edited May 17, 2005).]

Ram and voice boards I've heard of being swapped out. The HDD I'm unsure about. I know with the Emagen if you don't have the EXACT same harddrive from the same manufacturer, then you can't do it. I'm not sure the same applies to the Imagen. The docs seem to suggest that any pc that meets the minimum requirements will work, but having never tried any of this I'd be hesitant without some tech support. Anybody out there more experienced with Imagen have any input?

Can you tell me where you got the minimum requirements information. The system has been in place long before I arrived here, and I have been unsuccessful findong that very information.

And thanks again for your reply.

You will need to load the software on the new machine, if you mirror it you will have startup problems, other then that you can put it on a different system. You will loose all mail box's and messages and will have to set up the Imagen just like a new unit.

You need 486 Intel or compatible with dos 6.2
The rest of the specs on the machine is in the imagen install manuals.

So let me understand this.

Are you saying that if I mirror the hard drive I will have starup problems and that the only way to avoid them is do to a complete reinstall of the software, in which case I will lose all current mailboxes and messages?

You can try a mirror but I have never seen it work right, it will have startup problems and half the time it won't see the cards. When a new install is done with the software it works every time.

You can give it a shot, as long as you have your old machine working you have nothing to loose.

[This message has been edited by dtmf (edited May 17, 2005).]

My thoughts exactly. If I simply mirror the drive and make it the primary, then try a reboot that should give me a good indication as to the feasibility of the whole project. If it works, I can then move the drive to a more reliable PC.

Thanks for your time, it truly is appreciated.

Brian

See what I miss by being out in the field. Brian what ver is the software and what ver is in the system. Telrad stopped using the ImaGen almost 5 yrs ago due to the AVC/DVC cards need ISA slots and ofcorse new features that are answered very well with the EmaGen. And finding motherboards with ISA's is a task. Depending on the software ver you need to stay in the 486 class of processors as P2 or P3 can make the voice prompts sound like mickey mouse. The next thing you find on these older PC's is the power supplies going bad. I have 3 ImaGen PCs here all with bad power supplies. Drop me a email lets see if there are other options for you.

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