APC Pro 700 & Personal Powerchute - Disable hibernate/shutdown?

[Anonymous user]

We have a unique set up that requires our Dell Optiplex Windows 10 computers to auto start when there is a power failure. This allows the system to restore itself and come back online when the power is restored. 

We have these PC's at many sites that are in older buildings and the electric tends to go out a lot. We have finally been able to get funds to install APC Pro 700 UPS units at each site. 

We have found the powerchute software useful with the reporting information it provides. And the idea of the computer shutting down gracefully before the battery depletes is nice. But we've come to realize that once the power is restored, the PC will not auto start. The Dell BIOS will only auto start for a dirty or unexpected shutdown. 

So, two questions. 

1. Is there a way to somehow have the PC power itself back on after it has been gracefully shut down and the Power has been restored without manual intervention? 

2. Can we somehow disable the automatic shutdown/hibernation setting so that we do have a dirty shutdown? The hardware will take the hit but the Dell BIOS will auto start the system when power is restored. I know we could probably just uninstall the software but we like the information it provides. 

[BillP]

Have you checked that the BIOS is set to turn on with AC recovery and not return to last state?

You can check this by turning the pc off, unplugging the power cable for 10 seconds and plugging it back in, this should cause the PC to boot, if not your settings are wrong.

-Gavan

[BillP]

Hi,

1 - As Gavan wrote, to have the PC reboot when AC is restored you need to configure the BIOS properly. 

The option are 

ALWAYS ON: When power is cycled on, the computer will automatically turn on and boot up.

ALWAYS OFF: When power is cycled on, the computer will stay off until the user manually hits the On/Off soft switch.

LAST STATE: When power is cycled on, the computer will either come on or stay off depending on whether it was On or Off when the power was lost.

I recommend always on. When PowerChute start the OS shutdown process it sends a signal to the UPS to power off. The UPS will wait 2 minutes and then power off. If AC is restored during this time the UPS will power off wait a few seconds and then power back on. This allow the BIOS to see that AC has been removed and restored for auto start. If AC is not restored during the shutdown process the UPS will power off and wait for AC to be restored and then will energize the Battery/Surge outlets. 

2 - As for hibernate, you can disable hibernation by opening a command prompt as an administrator and entering the command powercfg.exe -h off

[Anonymous user]

Correct, it is already set for Always On. But like I was saying, the powerchute software does a clean shutdown when it depletes the battery power. When AC power is restored, the PC will not auto power on because of the clean shutdown. 
This BIOS setting apparently only works with an unexpected/dirty shutdown. 

[Anonymous user]

Bill,

Like I was telling Gavan... Correct, it is already set for Always On. But like I was saying, the powerchute software does a clean shutdown when it depletes the battery power. When AC power is restored, the PC will not auto power on because of the clean shutdown. 
This BIOS setting apparently only works with an unexpected/dirty shutdown. 

We already do have the hibernation disabled. 

So essentially, I'm looking for a way to disable the powerchute auto shutdown/hibernate. 

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

Alright, I figured out a work around. Through local security policy > local policies > user rights assignment > shutdown the system. I'm able to remove group/user rights the ability to shutdown the computer. 

When the system switches to battery power and the battery has depleted and reached its minimum level, the powerchute software will attempt to shutdown the computer. It even indicates that it is attempting to shutdown the computer with a loading window and everything. But after that completes, the system will not shut down. PERFECT! 

The Battery runs out, the PC shuts down and takes the hit but now when AC power is restored, the PC starts itself back up and everything else is automated from there to start back up. 

[BillP]

Hi David,

If that works for you then that's all good but that behaviour does sound more like the BIOS is set to restore previous state. Have you tried the unplug test I suggested earlier, shutdown the computer, unplug the power cable to the pc, wait 30 seconds and plug it back in. If you do that and the computer does not boot up then either the BIOS is not set right or there is a BIOS issue.

-Gavan