Please help me exorcise my phone.

March 17, 2006 7:11 AM

Help! My phone is totally unplugged. So WHY does it keep ringing?

I know this is totally ridiculous. < / i am not crazy disclaimer.>

A few nights ago I woke up at about 3 a.m. to the sound of my office phone ringing. It wasn't a full ring; it was a fraction of a ring. A spurt of a ring. At first, I thought I had dreamed it, but the phone kept letting out a fraction of a ring every 2 - 4 minutes or so. The phone next to my bed was registering nothing. Finally, I got up to check the office phone--the caller ID didn't register that any calls had come in. Nevertheless, I unplugged the cord from the phone jack in the wall and went back to bed.

It kept happening.

This phone requires batteries or an AC/DC adapter to be plugged in for the built-in caller ID. So I got up and unplugged the power from the phone. But the damned thing kept ringing that tiny fraction of a ring every few minutes.

Then I thought maybe this was a ridiculous feature designed to warn me that the batteries for the caller ID were about to die, like a smoke detector would do. So I scrounged up a screwdriver, removed the battery case cover.... no batteries at all.

I finally went fell asleep after the furnace kicked on and masked the sound. When I woke up in the morning, no ringing. Then it happened again this morning around 8 a.m. and lasted for at least a half-hour.

In the end, there was absolutely no power coming into this phone, yet it kept up with that periodic fraction of a ring. What. The. Hell??

posted by lilybeane to grab bag (39 comments total)

Are you sure there are no batteries anywhere? In the handset itself? Because it sure sounds like a low battery warning.
posted by TonyRobots at 7:19 AM on March 17, 2006

No other batteries. It's not a cordless.
posted by lilybeane at 7:24 AM on March 17, 2006

I assume the phone line is still plugged into it? I am not an expert but I believe these do carry a minor amount of power (remember old phones that didn't need an ac adapter for anything?).

Just a guess, but it could be that there is some kind of weird electrical thing happening that is sounding surges through that jack and phone line?
posted by poppo at 7:26 AM on March 17, 2006

sounding sending
posted by poppo at 7:27 AM on March 17, 2006

The calls are coming from inside the house.


Seriously, Poppo is right the phone line does provide power for a phone. Unplug it.
posted by Ironmouth at 7:31 AM on March 17, 2006

No, poppo -- lilybeane said she (?) unplugged the cord from the wall. There are surely 1 or more capacitors in the phone, which could account for continuing power being supplied, but that should run out soon. Or else, time to throw that thing into Mt. Doom.
posted by TonyRobots at 7:33 AM on March 17, 2006

I used to get this in my house when we had old corded phones and there was a lightning storm nearby. The phone would make little chirpy rings, I assume because of the current that went down the line. You might want to see if

1. the power to your house is grounded, or if there's something going on electrically if there wasn't a storm nearby
2. you can get one of those surge supressors that has a thing you can plug your phone line into (phone plugs into surge protector phone jack, then surge supressor plugs in to wall)
posted by jessamyn at 7:34 AM on March 17, 2006

LOL Ironmouth.

But guys, if you notice, the poster said "Nevertheless, I unplugged the cord from the phone jack in the wall and went back to bed". (unless I'm reading that wrong)

Sorry I can't help you lilybeane. Sounds crazy!
posted by jahmoon at 7:36 AM on March 17, 2006

Does it have a mechanical ringer? If so, this or similar is a horrible possibility.
posted by duckstab at 7:37 AM on March 17, 2006

No, poppo -- lilybeane said she (?) unplugged the cord from the wall

You're right
posted by poppo at 7:38 AM on March 17, 2006

perhpas the ground referance on the twisted pair cable has a potential on it?.....there are a number of ways i think a ground loop like this could cause what you are describing. I second the "surge protector" idea...if not call the phone company.

IAAEE student...but this is still pure speculation
posted by I_am_jesus at 7:39 AM on March 17, 2006

crap. DRTFP. you unplugged the cord. my bad.
posted by I_am_jesus at 7:40 AM on March 17, 2006

There may be a backup battery, intended to preserve the contents of the phone/callerID memory while you swap out the main batteries or switch AC outlets. Maybe its voltage has dropped too low, and you're getting a warning.

If there is such a battery, it may be buried inside the guts of the phone. You might have to do a little more work with that screwdriver.
posted by Galvatron at 7:50 AM on March 17, 2006

Post the brand name and model number of the phone here and some geek will surely figure this out for you.
posted by pracowity at 7:57 AM on March 17, 2006

Is there a high voltage, cell phone or microwave transmission facility near your house? A microwave, cell phone, fish tank or florescent light near the phone?
posted by Pollomacho at 8:07 AM on March 17, 2006

It's an RCA Executive Series 25202RE3-B.

And yes, the phone was unplugged. Totally, completely unplugged. So a surge protector wouldn't help, right?

No microwave, no cell phone, no fish tank. Probably cell towers somewhere--I live in Chicago.

I'm leaning toward the Mt. Doom suggestion from TonyRobots. This could be the one phone to rule them all.
posted by lilybeane at 8:15 AM on March 17, 2006

Are you sure it's the phone that's making the noise?
posted by chrismear at 8:29 AM on March 17, 2006

Here's a link to the manual:
http://evaluezonehosting.com/docs/25202.pdf

My guess is that you've got some sort of interference from a nearby source that you're not aware of. Got a neighbor with a Ham radio?
posted by cosmicbandito at 8:54 AM on March 17, 2006

Hmm, going through through the owners manual for the 25202RE3 isn't yielding much. I do note that the product spec sheet for that also claims there are no user replaceable batteries, so I can only assume that's what the -B suffix refers to.

Looking at the general list of features, I would believe that there is a small non-user replaceable battery, which is failing and causing the chirp.

The only other possibility I can think of is induction. You aren't operating a Tokamak fusion reactor in the basement or anything, are you?
posted by tkolar at 9:16 AM on March 17, 2006

No dice--I got rid of my Tokamak fusion reactor last week.
posted by lilybeane at 9:35 AM on March 17, 2006

Since the manual says if the "Battery LOW indicator blinks or is solid: The batteries need replacing or are not installed", it seems obvious that there's some other power source in the phone - otherwise it couldn't blink or display an indicator if the batteries weren't installed.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 10:20 AM on March 17, 2006

Scratch that, I suppose it would display it if it was still on AC power.

*goes to the soda machine for some much-needed caffeine*
posted by mr_crash_davis at 10:22 AM on March 17, 2006

Have you taken the phone to Chicago's chinatown for answers? You didn't buy it down there did you?

Is there any reason you can think of that the NSA/FBI/DHS might suspect you of being a terrorist, smuggler or child pornographer?
posted by Pollomacho at 10:56 AM on March 17, 2006

Toss in some batteries, see what happens.
posted by IronLizard at 11:07 AM on March 17, 2006

Does it have a mechanical ringer? If so, this or similar is a horrible possibility.

Speaking of that, duckstab, I lent a highschool friend an old bellsouth cordless with it's base for a few weeks. He lived in pretty much repulsive conditions and when I got the phone back the case was crawling with roaches, large and small. On unscrewing the case, they exploded out of the phone.
posted by IronLizard at 11:12 AM on March 17, 2006

No clue, but don't worry. You have seven days to figure this out.
posted by emelenjr at 11:18 AM on March 17, 2006

Wow. I have gotten no good leads from this post but at least five laugh-out-loud episodes. What MeFites lack in the ability to solve unsolvable problems, they certainly make up for in dry wit.

No, not a mechanical ringer. No, I'm not a terrorist, smuggler, or child pornographer. But I am a Democrat. Is that enough to draw ire, suspicion, and a wire tapping from the federal government?

(On preview, six laugh-out-loud moments. Thanks, emelenjr.)
posted by lilybeane at 11:22 AM on March 17, 2006

I'm with chrismear. Are you absolutely, 100% positive, that it's the phone that is making the ring. I had a similar problem with some sort of gadjit that was beeping occassionally, and it turned out that it was another device making the noise.
posted by helvetica at 11:50 AM on March 17, 2006

Yeah, it's the phone. I'm certain.
posted by lilybeane at 11:55 AM on March 17, 2006

Try putting batteries in it to see if that fixes it. If not, hook it back up, try making a call. If it's still ringing, call the phone itself. Try pushing all the buttons.

Or try one of the following:
Give it to a paranoid friend, ebay the haunted phone, get an old priest and a young priest, try making another call this time to the psychic hotline, embed it in concrete and toss it into the Chicago River.
posted by borkencode at 12:07 PM on March 17, 2006

I had a phone like this once. It sat there, unused, unplugged, unconnected, battery-less, and every so often, "bip." So you're not nuts. Unfortunately, I have no recollection if/how I resolved the issue.

I assumed my phone was operating on a reserve-power battery warning of some sort and warning me of something. Try putting in fresh batteries as suggested above to override the warning. If that doesn't work, stick it deep in a closet and forget about it.
posted by werty at 12:43 PM on March 17, 2006

Like werty, I had a phone years ago that did something similiar. I decided it was "haunted" and threw it away.

I've had nothing but bad luck ever since.
posted by shoepal at 1:33 PM on March 17, 2006

Maybe some capacitors are getting screwy. I'd just throw it out and get a different phone.
posted by cellphone at 2:24 PM on March 17, 2006

Stick it in the freezer. It can ring all it likes and you won't have to hear it.
posted by Ken McE at 3:22 PM on March 17, 2006

I got nothing.

1. Did you put batteries in the phone, plug it in, etc, then unplug the whole mess again?
Write the manufactuer, I'm sure they'll take the phone back, just to find out why!

2. Sell it on ebay. For 20 times what it's worth. Buy a new phone.
posted by defcom1 at 4:24 PM on March 17, 2006

Has it been near water? Short-circuit?
posted by divabat at 5:06 PM on March 17, 2006

i agree... you should totally sell it on ebay as a haunted phone. take the money and buy a new phone.
posted by trishthedish at 8:53 PM on March 17, 2006

Pop that sucker open. Take pictures of both sides of the circuit board and post a link. We must get to the bottom of this, damnit!
posted by Rhomboid at 1:52 AM on March 18, 2006

If it were a computer, I'd sacrifice a hamster over the keyboard.
My guess would involve a big honking capacitor of some kind, and possibly a warning noise of some kind. FWIW, we used to have one phone in the house which would go "ding" every evening about the same time. (We called it the nine o'clock ding.) I blamed it on the telco doing some perverted experiment that threw a few extra volts on the line, and that particular phone just having a sensitive ringer. That doesn't apply here because of the phone cord being disco'd, but it may sort of point to some electrical disturbance thing, or inductance from someplace. Does it do it in a different place?
Inquiring minds want to know! (Anybody remember the house with the funny noise and they had a party and got like 50 people to look for it? Good times.)
posted by unrepentanthippie at 7:58 AM on March 18, 2006