asterisk users - Sep 2004 - Static noise and server locked when using two 4FXO tdm400p pci cards

Hello all
We have tested for a mounth or two an asterisk PBX using one T1 channel 
bank with 24 fxs and one TDM400P digium card with 4 FXO modules.
This worked with minor problems, the most notorious being some sporadic 
static noice or failure in the first FXO module on the wildcard.
Now we have a client with 12 pstn lines and 48 extensions and we are 
trying to deploy an Asterisk PBX server using two(x24)channel banks 
(Access Bank 1) an three TDM400P pci cards with 4 FXO each.
But when we use more that one TDM400P card, after some random number of 
calls, one of the cards starts to give a loud static noise when calling 
from inside in all their channels and if we keep trying to use the lines 
the server gets frozen.
Restarting Asterisk don't solves the problem and the only way of 
recovering the channels is to reload the zaptel modules (if the system 
is not locked yet).

We have seen some similar problems reports in the list, and some people 
telling they asked to digium support, but not a real solution.

Does anybody knows if is this a major hardware problem with Digium TDM 
cards and zaptel driver or if there is some way of fixing this?

Thanks very much
Luis

Luis Vazquez wrote:
> Hello all
> We have tested for a mounth or two an asterisk PBX using one T1 channel 
> bank with 24 fxs and one TDM400P digium card with 4 FXO modules.
> This worked with minor problems, the most notorious being some sporadic 
> static noice or failure in the first FXO module on the wildcard.
> Now we have a client with 12 pstn lines and 48 extensions and we are 
> trying to deploy an Asterisk PBX server using two(x24)channel banks 
> (Access Bank 1) an three TDM400P pci cards with 4 FXO each.
> But when we use more that one TDM400P card, after some random number of 
> calls, one of the cards starts to give a loud static noise when calling 
> from inside in all their channels and if we keep trying to use the lines 
> the server gets frozen.
> Restarting Asterisk don't solves the problem and the only way of 
> recovering the channels is to reload the zaptel modules (if the system 
> is not locked yet).
Sometimes that does not work and a full reboot is required.
> We have seen some similar problems reports in the list, and some people 
> telling they asked to digium support, but not a real solution.
> 
> Does anybody knows if is this a major hardware problem with Digium TDM 
> cards and zaptel driver or if there is some way of fixing this?
> 
I am not sure if it hardware or software related. I have a box which had 
  2 x X100P and 2 x TDM400 (8 x FXS), all on unique IRQs,  which was 
relatively reliable until recently when the 2 x X100Ps were replaced by 
1 x TDM400 (2 x FXO) and I have seen the static and freezes a number of 
times - reliability has dropped.

The TDM FXO card has the "jumper modification" so I believe it is the 
latest available hardware.

Regards,

Richard