APC UPS acting crazy

[ShaQ.Blogs]

I have a UPS to which I have connected PC and AMP and using quite a while now. of late have been facing issues. UPS is APC RS 1500, 230V
I replaced my battery 3 months ago (I think it was refurbished batteries). Last week the battery was dead again. As soon as ac was cut off, the ups would shut off.

I now have got new batteries. But the UPS behaves really weird. Here is what i have observed.

1. PowerChute does not give an estimate of "Time Until Shutdown". It looks like it is around zero!
2. As soon as i switch to battery, it displays a message and PC hibernates/shuts down. I tried to cancell it once, and then i got another message and it tried to hibernate. (Message - "Your battery charge is very low and your pc will hibernate very shortly"). I aborted this too. Then i found My PC was on battery for 45 minutes and going good. Yet when i switched off the ac, it tried to shut down my pc immediately.
It is over 45 minutes on battery now and it still shows my battery is at 100% charge.
3. With more load on UPS - PC and amplifier, and with a voltage drop or sumtimes just like that. Within a minute of going to battery, it would shut down everything abruptly and then i had one of the red lights come on (overload). Couple of times it had the overload light come on. It was not on overload!! This is my usual load. I hadnt even turned on the volume yet on my amp!!!!

I am not able to connect both my amp and PC at the same time. What on earth is happening? How do i fix this?
I tried to reinstalled PowerChute. Now I tried to reset the UPS, but no damn reset button.

Seriously??? Who designs these crappy stuff? Even a more complex PC has a darn reset button! A microprocessor reset is a basic necessity on any darn microoprocessor device. Yet they have pretty much blocked this from being accessible for a consumer.
How on earth is a consumer supposed to reset a device? I am techinically capable, but a normal consumer, i can imaging their plight.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

I haven't used Windows for quite a while, and would only use Windows/Powerchute to do something I could not do with Linux software. Maybe this is one example: when you replace the batteries in the UPS, somewhere in Powerchute is a button to press to tell the machine that you have done so. This is your "reset."

There is no need for any other reset, because, apart from what is accessible from Powerchute, the machine will forget all when powered down. There is lots of microprocessor equipment without a reset button. The reset button on a PC would be more correctly named as reboot: the real reset button or jumper, which will clear all the stuff you see if you boot into the BIOS settings, is there on the motherboard, hidden away from people who don't understand the consequences of using it. Not really a "consumer" function at all. Modems, etc, have a reset button because they are passworded: again, resetting a modem/router to factory settings is for those who know how to set it up again. So don't mind too much that the UPS has no reset button! Oh, wait... I think it does have one for overload.

The RS1500 is certainly a low-end, domestic UPS, but it is not crappy. It's higher-end brothers are much more expensive. I now have the 1000 (since smoke came out of my 1500 --- no they are not perfect!) but if I remember right, full load for the RS1500 would be about 800W but it would only run my PC, drawing 160W, for about 15 minutes. Adding the external battery pack extends this to a couple of hours.

Unless you really know about batteries and the UPS internals, I suggest that you get only genuine APC batteries.

PS... I think there is a 2-year warranty on these things, and APC are pretty good. I've had new batteries under warranty when they died within a year. How old is yours?

 

[ShaQ.Blogs]

Its over two years. No warranty. Already replaced battery couple of times. My load is around 100W of PC + 700W of amp (max is 700, average usually hovers around 100 - 200 for my use).
Powerchute came along with the APC ups. So Just needed to install it.

I Just read a few articles which mention of how to reset the microprocessor on APC. For that i need some software named Hyper"Something". It is available only in Windows NT and earlier. For this i would need to get an outdated OS, install it just to use that software, and a special cable to connect my UPS.

when you replace the batteries in the UPS, somewhere in Powerchute is a button to press to tell the machine that you have done so. This is your "reset."

Thanks. Will go home and explore this reset option on powerchute. (But still, the same reset as a button on the UPS wouldnt it make sense??)
This wasnt on manual. I searched around on google and didnt come across this until now.

 

[ShaQ.Blogs]

Just spoke to couple of APC techincians after numerous esclations. Apparently this has the signs of a board problem.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Well, yes, a physical battery-replaced button would make sense. I suppose it would cost more than doing it in software.

I Just read a few articles which mention of how to reset the microprocessor on APC. For that i need some software named Hyper"Something".

That's interesting. Not very practical, though ...but if you could get the NT, you could try it in a Virtual Machine.

Have a look, also, for calibrating the battery. IIRC, it takes a full discharge/recharge cycle to do this.

<<Crossposted>>

Just spoke to couple of APC techincians after numerous esclations. Apparently this has the signs of a board problem.
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In which case it may be better economics to get a new one. New box, new electronics, new batteries, new warranty.

 

[ShaQ.Blogs]

Have a look, also, for calibrating the battery. IIRC, it takes a full discharge/recharge cycle to do this.

will check this out

In which case it may be better economics to get a new one. New box, new electronics, new batteries, new warranty.

would prefer to repair anyday than use and throw in 2 years.
My PC ups of about 700W has lasted over a decade with just one time battery replacement.

for those who might face same issues, here are the links i came across for "Manually Resetting an APC Smart-UPS Battery Constant After New Battery Replacement"
APC UPS Discharge problem reset / fix - YouTube
Manually Resetting an APC Smart-UPS Battery Constant After New Battery Replacement

 

[ShaQ.Blogs]

Have a look, also, for calibrating the battery. IIRC, it takes a full discharge/recharge cycle to do this.

I did some reading and searching on this. Some people have faced this. And when i look back at my problem, at least one part of my problem should be fixed by this (Points #1 & #2)......unless something is screwed up in the hardware.

Will check it out

links for reference:
Back-UPS RS 1500 - New Battery is Seemingly Bad? | APC Community
BE750G: estimated battery runtime with load not... | APC Community
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH0YeuqniCw

 

[sarith]

I was thinking of buying APC but instead I bought V-guard 1kv ups. It's going okay and I get around 15-20 minutes back-up (If I switch my monitor off while downloading, it will last upto 30+ minutes).

But if a fluctuation happens, my mouse hangs up for 3-4 seconds. This UPS is only few months old. Last ups was an HP 800V which I used for almost 4 years replacing batteries 4-5 times. I think using a inverter would be better

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

would prefer to repair anyday than use and throw in 2 years.

Frankly, I think that two years might be the lifetime of this product!

The cable and reset thing looks quite complex. One of the problems with APC is this stupid non-standard coms cabling that they insist on getting a few more cents out of the customer with.

 

[ShaQ.Blogs]

The cable and reset thing looks quite complex. One of the problems with APC is this stupid non-standard coms cabling that they insist on getting a few more cents out of the customer with.

Looks like "By design" to me.
As a typical non technical end user, one would just sell this and get a new one than jump though hula hoops.

See this thread...reply #1
The way it is supposed be calibrated, is to let the UPS drain down to zero on a resistive load which is greater than 30% ups capacity. And then recharge to full. Now its re-calibrated.
But, if during a power outage, the ups happens to drain to zero and then recharges, it accidentally re-calibrates itself incorrectly (load is dynamic now) without the user even triggering this process. Wow!!!

And they go through such great lengths, for what? To let the user know what the estimated backup time is. But, in the process, the actual backup time of the UPS is actually reduced, since the UPS fires shutdown events to the connected PC, long before the backup event has drained it considerably. lol

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Put like that, the situation is very unimpressive.

These models are supposed to be made appropriately for Indian conditions, and, of course, in many places here power cuts are not an if, but a when, and a regular when at that. The UPS I had in the office, in London, was unlucky if it saw one unplanned power outage in a year: the one I have here has, over longish periods, been fully discharged every day. I have been loyal to APC brand for past eight years, but now wonder if it was a mistake.

 

[ShaQ.Blogs]

Any specific UPS that you would recommend over APC?

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Partly thinking of other contributions on this forum, Liebert comes to mind. I also worked with a big, room-sized, 3-phase one once. Don't know about you, but I suspect it is a brand outside my budget.

Otherwise we should see which are the best rated of the Indian makes.