On 2/21/2011 9:56 AM, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In ,
Smitty wrote:
I have a cordless phone / answering machine system at home that's
started giving trouble of late. It's a Panasonic, model KX-TG5433. 5.8
gHz. It came with 3 handsets, which I like because I can always find one
of them and at least one always has a full battery charge. I'd guess
it's about 5-8 years old.

Problem is, two of the handsets have stopped reliably communicating with
the base. I often can't get a dialtone to call out, nor answer an
incoming call. Error message sometimes comes up on the handset display,
saying I'm out of range.

First thing I'd check is the batteries. 8 years is a very good life for
rechargeable types. Swap from the good handset to a faulty one to prove
this hypothesis.

+1

And, if each handset tends to be charged in a *particular*
charging base, try changing those as well (i.e., charge
handset #1 in cradle #2, etc.). We have four interchangeable
handsets that routinely get circulated among the 4 charging
stations (just as a consequence of our usage patterns).
I rarely see a *particular* handset giving me problems.

I've found many mysterious cordless phone problems
are battery related (low state of charge, etc.). The
phones themselves tend to be pretty lousy at reporting
their real "state".