"Jethro_uk" wrote in message
...
Hi all,

we have a telephone service from Telewest (Birmingham). The Master socket
has an extension taken off it with wires 2,3 and 5. This feeds 4 phones,
all of which work perfectly.

Acquired a s/h Brother Fax-920 at the weekend, and went to plug it into
the socket which is last in the chain (#4). Doing this caused Phone #2 to
ring continuously. I swapped 2+5 at socket #4, and the ringing went.

Now, however phones #2 and #3 don't ring (#1 and #4 - the fax machine -
do). Also, when I plug the BT "Relate 1000" back into socket #4, then
phone #2 rings continously. So either way the socket is wired, causes a
problem with phone #2, depending on which phone is being used.

I have checked the continuity of wire 3 through the circuit, and it's OK.

I tried swapping phone #2 out with another, but it didn't ring either. As
son as the fax machine was unplugged it rang !

Next step is to try at a friends house - see if the fax is kaput, but I
got it from work, where it worked on Thursday.

If anyone has any ideas, I'd be grateful ...

regards


It sounds as though you have wires crossed on terminals 2 & 5 on one or more
sockets, the correct order should be as follows with the dominant colour
being the first.

blue/white on 2
white/blue on 5
orange/white on 3