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[jereboam]

Not mine.  My aunt's phone line has started ticking.  Been going on for a few months and would be driving her bonkers if she wasn't 90% bonkers already.  She's asked various people what can be causing the problem, but I've got no idea who and no idea what they told her.  The only thing I can get out of her is that someone told her there was too much electricity in the flat, and she told them that she didn't have anything different from what she had when she moved in 12 years ago.  This piece of dialogue has been repeated on every (ticking) phone call we've had over the last few months.

It sounds to me a bit like the timing tick you used to sometimes hear on long-distance calls, each tick meaning that you got charged another unit, but I'm sure it's not that, as you get it phoning in as well as out. 

I'm going up there tomorrow.  Can anyone suggest any tests I can do to try and determine the cause?

[Omegadoha, Desert Member]

These days anything 'ticking' usually is not a good sign. For example if I received a package and it was ticking.............

[Kevin Wood]

Take a known good phone with you to try for a start...

If still a problem with your phone...

Take off the front panel of the master socket and plug the known good phone directly into the line, isolating any extension wiring.

If it's still ticking get BT in. :-/

I assume the ticking is only heard while you're in a call?

Kevin

[Plomien]

could be a couple of issues but if its ticking while dialling out she has switched the phone to pulse dialling instead of tone and is normally just a case of flick the switch back 

[jereboam]

Not practical to get BT in, as I'm only going to be there for a couple of hours.  If they were to come while I wasn't there, I'd never find out what happened.  All well and good if the problem's fixed, but not a lot of help if it isn't.  Anyway, she says BT have already been and they told her it was "too much electricity".

But I'll definitely try taking a working phone with to test the master socket.

[jereboam]

could be a couple of issues but if its ticking while dialling out she has switched the phone to pulse dialling instead of tone and is normally just a case of flick the switch back 

No, you can hear it quite clearly during a call.  On the last call, the frequency was about 2 seconds I'd guess.

[STMO999]

The speaking clock may have lost it's voice.

[Plomien]

could be a couple of issues but if its ticking while dialling out she has switched the phone to pulse dialling instead of tone and is normally just a case of flick the switch back 

No, you can hear it quite clearly during a call.  On the last call, the frequency was about 2 seconds I'd guess.

sounds like a crossed wire in the phone, a new phone should sort it but if its still happening on a corded line with no other equipment plugged in it will be BT's responsibility to resolve as equipment has been eliminated

[STMO999]

If you cure it, she will miss it and want it back please.

[jereboam]

She's got two corded phones in the same room - she's not very mobile, and can't get out of her chair quickly enough to answer before 1571 cuts in and answers for her. 

I suppose it couldn't be 1571 trying to tell her there's a message waiting, could it?

I think I'll check the wiring for the second phone.  I think my cousin put extension wiring in (at my suggestion) after an experiment with a cordless phone proved to be a disaster.  Auntie is not very good with any technology much later than a wind-up gramophone.

[jereboam]

If you cure it, she will miss it and want it back please.

You must be my cousin, since you know her so well.  The more you help her, the worse it gets.

[STMO999]

If you cure it, she will miss it and want it back please.

You must be my cousin, since you know her so well.  The more you help her, the worse it gets.

My mum is not quite this bad yet, but is getting there. I have to phone her daily to make sure she hasn't given all her money to the poor man who wrote this very sad letter.

[jereboam]

If you cure it, she will miss it and want it back please.

You must be my cousin, since you know her so well.  The more you help her, the worse it gets.

My mum is not quite this bad yet, but is getting there. I have to phone her daily to make sure she hasn't given all her money to the poor man who wrote this very sad letter.

Auntie is 92, virtually blind, very deaf and crippled by arthritis which she's had since she was 27.  She lives in North London, about 90 miles from me.  She has managed to alienate all of my cousins who live nearer than I do, so I have to be first support these days.  If I give up, there's one more cousin in Suffolk, 30 miles further away, after which she'll have to rely on my brother.  He lives in Edinburgh.

[Chris_H]

Kevin's suggestion was the best IMHO.  If you can plug a passive phone in (one that doesn't use mains power) on its own to each socket in turn and see if that is quiet.

It may be that one of her phones has gone mad.

My mum's house went to ~100volts the other day for several hours and her Lifeline unit (red emergency button round the neck) turned itself into a woodpecker on the phone line.  It has battery backup and it couldn't make up its mind whether to use battery or mains!

[Lizzie_Zoom]

Kevin's suggestion was the best IMHO.  If you can plug a passive phone in (one that doesn't use mains power) on its own to each socket in turn and see if that is quiet.

It may be that one of her phones has gone mad.

My mum's house went to ~100volts the other day for several hours and her Lifeline unit (red emergency button round the neck) turned itself into a woodpecker on the phone line.  It has battery backup and it couldn't make up its mind whether to use battery or mains!

Yes, it thinks it has a crocodile wrapped round it!