Reset

We had a ShoreTel SG90BRI switch that was brand new and failed to boot. It always tried to request a DHCP address and it looked like it get's no answer from DHCP first. This was wrong as the network is clean and working properly. It is just the operating system of ShoreTel that is broken and not updating it's DHCP settings after moving the switch from one network to another.

Symptom:

The switch boots up and shows you this in an endless loop:

Searching for active link Found active link on port 1 ENET Speed is 100 Mbps - FULL duplex connection DHCP broadcast 1 DHCP broadcast 2 DHCP broadcast 3 DHCP broadcast 4 DHCP broadcast 5

Sometimes you may be in the situation that a ShoreTel phone may be unresponsive or does not connect to the headquarter server. You may receive messages on phone display like No service or Cannot connect to... or the phone completely hangs (and power off/on does not solve your issue) or similar issues. This could happen because of reboot failures or firmware loading issues if you may have unplugged the phone while it have booted up and such issues or if there are firmware bugs. Often it helps to power-cycle the phone again, but if this does not help you can reset the device. We have seen this in rare situations, but here is a way how to solve this issue.

Follow this step-by-step instruction and the phone is starting from scratch: