Warning

 

Close
Confirm Action

Are you sure you wish to do this?

Cancel Confirm
AR15.COM
1/31/2013 4:52:22 PM EDT
APC Back-Ups 650ES, about three years young.

Has developed an issue where it will beep (as if the power just died and its running on battery) and then *all* outlets shut off.  It lasts 1/2 second, long enough to dump my computer, and then all is well in the world again.

Clock radio in the room is not affected.  I don't think its a brownout and the batter is just dead.  Something in the unit is tripping and all power drops for a split second accompanied by an alarm.  Its happened twice, and it happens so fast that I can't look at the LEDs to see if there is a visual to accompany the alarm.

Ideas?
1/31/2013 11:49:59 PM EDT
[#1]
Many UPSs occasionally switch over to battery to test it.  Pull the battery out and test it, if it is dead, replace the battery.
1/31/2013 11:53:50 PM EDT
[#2]
Quoted:
Many UPSs occasionally switch over to battery to test it.  Pull the battery out and test it, if it is dead, replace the battery.


Battery is bad or going bad, usually the norm is 20-24months if they are taking care of.  Here at the data Center we have 1500 of them and we change them every six months.

Had the exact UPS under my desk attached to my computers, the battery lasted 21months.
2/1/2013 7:09:28 AM EDT
[#3]
battery life is one of the reasons I switched to cyber power for home use.
apc warranty is only 1 year, cyber power is 3.
2/1/2013 12:28:22 PM EDT
[#4]
Quoted:
APC Back-Ups 650ES, about three years young.

Has developed an issue where it will beep (as if the power just died and its running on battery) and then *all* outlets shut off.  It lasts 1/2 second, long enough to dump my computer, and then all is well in the world again.

Clock radio in the room is not affected.  I don't think its a brownout and the batter is just dead.  Something in the unit is tripping and all power drops for a split second accompanied by an alarm.  Its happened twice, and it happens so fast that I can't look at the LEDs to see if there is a visual to accompany the alarm.

Ideas?


If the light on it goes red, and the alarm sound is constant, the problem is not the battery.

APC units have a little fan inside of them that cools a heatsink attached to the inverter circuit.

This fan dies and stops spinning, which trips the alarm and powers the unit off.

It's a stupid design IMO because you bought the thing to keep the computers running, and it shuts them off.

The good news is, you can fix it. Ebay vendors sell the fans, and you can get an upgraded model that fits
perfectly and is a double ball bearing design that will last much longer than the original for about $14.

Google around for "APC UPS Fan" and you'll see threads and instructions on how to go about it.

I've fixed more than 1 unit using this method.

Good luck.

ps. You can verify if this is the problem before you buy the part, buy taking the cover off the unit, plugging an incandescent light bulb / lamp into the unit, powering it up, and then pulling the UPS power cord out of the wall. You can see if the fan is spinning or not.
2/2/2013 6:22:57 PM EDT
[#5]
It's got to be the battery.
2/4/2013 6:46:07 AM EDT
[#6]
Quoted:
Quoted:
Many UPSs occasionally switch over to battery to test it.  Pull the battery out and test it, if it is dead, replace the battery.


Battery is bad or going bad, usually the norm is 20-24months if they are taking care of.  Here at the data Center we have 1500 of them and we change them every six months.

Had the exact UPS under my desk attached to my computers, the battery lasted 21months.


If you're getting <= 2 years, either you're getting bad batteries from the start, the unit is keeping the batteries too hot, or has a bad float voltage.

I change my batteries at 3 years, because at that point, we've still seen virtually zero failures as long as we've bought good quality batteries.
2/4/2013 12:39:03 PM EDT
[#7]
its failing its self test.

replace the batteries.
2/4/2013 3:32:36 PM EDT
[#8]
No ideas but our APC UPS has a similar problem, the batteries are dying (or already dead) it beeped and then died.

It will not stay up regardless of which live outlet we plug it into.

I hesitate to replace the batteries if it's going to act like this.

All the other APC devices I've worked with will beep (annoying) when the batts are dead (you can disable the beeps) but they wouldn't power down on a live AC line.

2/5/2013 12:33:56 PM EDT
[#9]
I wonder if this would be an application where a capacitor bank like the one that guy was using for his car in lieu of a battery would be feasible?
2/8/2013 10:38:05 AM EDT
[#10]
Is the outlet the UPS on connected to a switch that enables you to turn off power to the outlet via a light switch?  Sounds weird but I had a UPS do the same thing when i connected it to outlet wired like that.
2/9/2013 5:03:42 PM EDT
[#11]
Replacing the battery should fix it.  A UPS can do weird shit like that when a cell craps out.