atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums More-Phone & VoIP Systems Other Telephones & Systems AT&T 5830 - old model - setup

My MIL has an old AT&T 5830 phone and we need to update her speed dial numbers and have no clue how to do so. She doesn't have a manual. Any ideas?

I've done a search, and there's a new phone with this number, but this is a much older model. She's not about to buy a new one unless this breaks, so that's not an option.

Manual click here you don't say how old, but this is copyright dated 2002. I saw no new AT&T phone with the same model number.

The one we're talking about is definitely older than that. It's a putty beige color, no buttons on the base, no answering machine or other features, but apparently there's speed-dial. I should have taken a photo.

The AT&T manual site shows discontinued but it wouldn't surprise me if it came with a different base in a cheaper model also.

At any rate this manual show a phone book only, no one touch speed dial. I'd think playing around with the menu would tell you all you'd need to know.

If the hand set is the same as the manual provided I'd think the info would be good.

It's definitely not just a cheaper model. I'm guessing the one she has is a 900mhz 1980's phone. It's ancient.

I didn't get to look at the handset because she was using another phone and I didn't want to pick up while she was talking, but my husband saw it on a previous visit and said that the screen was big enough for one line of text. No idea about the buttons.

Three people before me have looked at the phone and found the manual that you linked, and they gave up on it. No one wants to go with trial-and-error because she has numbers programmed in that she doesn't want to lose.

It would be easier if she just got another phone, but she's not going to do that.

The original 5830 is so old that even Advanced American Telephones (The division of VTech that deals with at&t branded telephones) won't have the owner's manual archived.

I'm afraid that this will end up being a lost cause.

That's what I'm afraid of, but I'm hoping someone might still have theirs. This can't be the only one still in existence. Or maybe it is.

I wish she'd just get a new one, but as long as it works, she's not going to. She's still got a corded phone in another room.

Thanks for trying.

You can use an app on your smart phone to decode DTMF digits, if you need to decipher those old speed dials. Then you will know the numbers programmed on the buttons, get a brand new set up, and put the numbers back in.

I think that the problem is that the procedure for updating the speed dial presets is unknown and that the owner refuses to purchase a new cordless phone.

That's the problem and we can't help with stubborn. I'd still run through the menu, there's nothing to loose and you still have the "get a new one" option if you can't figure it out, besides the menu will usually pretty much point you in the right direction.