Amp's CCIE Quest On a quest for the digits…

Resetting Cisco 7961 IP Phones…

I don't have a lab at home so I rely on rack rentals from the great gang over at IPExpert and Proctor Labs. I knew coming into this that financially I didn't have the capital that is needed to build a complete voice rack so I did what I thought was the smart thing to do and use remote racks with some hardware here at the cave. So I have a 2611XM router, 3550 POE Switch, 3 x 7960 IP phones, and 2 x 7961 IP phones. The 7961 phones are new to the equation (bought used off of eBay). Well during my lab session today I decided to break out the fancy smancy 7961 phones so I could practice some SIP crap when I found that the phones needed to be reset to factory default. ARGH!!! X-(

Being that I have never had to do this I did what any self respecting engineer would do; hit Cisco.com and searched for the procedure to do it. I would be lying if I said that finding the information on Cisco.com was painless, as with most things you search for on their awesome website, it was downright a pain in my john-brown hind parts. Well anyway, I found the procedure and tried it out. Seems like it worked so well I decided that I would let all of you know what to do if you ever need to reset one of these phones back to factory default. It's a pretty painless process with the exception of having to upgrade the firmware on the stupid phone. Anyway here you go.

1. Unplug the power cable from the phone, and then plug in the cable again.

   The phone begins its power up cycle.

2. Immediately press and hold # and while the Headset, Mute, and Speaker buttons begin to flash in sequence, release #.

   The line buttons flash in sequence in order to indicate that the phone waits for you to enter the key sequence for the reset.

3. Press 123456789*0# within 60 seconds after the Headset, Mute, and Speaker buttons begin to flash.

   If you repeat a key within the sequence, for example, if you press 1223456789*0#, the sequence is still accepted and the phone resets.

   If you do not complete this key sequence or do not press any keys, after 60 seconds the Headset, Mute, and Speaker buttons no longer flash, and the phone continues with its normal startup process. The phone does not reset.

   If you enter an invalid key sequence, the buttons no longer flash, and the phone continues with its normal startup process. The phone does not reset.

   If you enter this key sequence correctly, the phone displays this prompt:

   upgrading

Hope that helps...