Campus phones overload

No April fools' joke; hyperactive internal clock the source of a 'wacko day'

Published 4/16/98

Point Park College received an April Fools' joke on April 1, only it wasn't in the form of a whoopee cushion or a hand buzzer.

It was with an overactive phone system.

Point Park's phone systems overloaded, making phone calls from outside or within the college next to impossible. Physical Plant Supervisor Bill Cameron said the problem started in the morning and lasted throughout most of the day. "We had on-and-off problems for about eight hours," he said.

Throughout the day, Cameron and company were trying to figure out what could be causing the malfunction. "We were banging our heads against the wall trying to find out what the problem was," he said. Eventually, Point Park called its telephone contractor WilTel Communications, to fix the problem. After WilTel dispatched a crew to Point Park, it was discovered that the college's telephone systems' internal clock was malfunctioning.

"The internal clock on the phone system was racing," Cameron said.

An internal clock keeps track of time within the telephone and regulates the time someone has to dial after they pick up a phone. Internal clocks can be found in other electronic devices as well, such as computers.

When someone picks up a telephone, the internal clock gives them a certain amount of time to dial before it shuts off. On April 1, the clock was running so fast Cameron said when someone would pick up the phone, the clock would automatically shut off the telephone.

"It was running so fast that if you picked it up Monday, the clock thought it was Tuesday," Cameron said.

This caused problems for Point Park faculty and students, who were unable to call in-house or outside of the college.

After the internal clock was determined to be the problem, it was rebooted free of charge and phone usage was available again.

When John Leahey, journalism and communications assistant professor, first heard of the phone's problemse, he suspected foul play, recalling earlier practical jokes that Point Park students have done in the past.

"It was one wacko day," he said.

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