APC SmartUPS 1500 Self-Test Shutdown

[Anonymous user]

Hi All,
After working for the past 4 years, my APC SmartUPS 1500 was showing full battery lights and then suddenly turned off - crashing everything attached. It continued to do this every day until I logged in and told it to stop doing self-tests routinely and turned them on only at startup.

I replaced the battery thinking that the battery was dead and all was well again.

Today, about a week after installing new batteries, the power went out and the UPS functioned as expected for 40 minutes. When the power came back on the UPS decided to do its self-test (as configured) which turned off the power - crashing everything attached. Clearly the battery works but something is funky with the self-test.

What could be the problem? Do I need to discard the APC 1500?

Until I sort out a solution, I have disabled the self-test at startup.

Regards,
Jordan.

Message was edited by: JordanH, forgot to mention it was SmartUPS *1500*

[Anonymous user]

Prior to the drop, the lights shown are:
Load: 1 of 5 green
On Battery: Orange
Battery charge: 5 of 5 green falling to 2 of 5 green during the power outage

When the power turned back on:
Load: 1 of 5 green
Online: Green
Battery charge: 2 of 5 green (because the power had been out for a while)

I can't say what was showing at the exact moment of failure as it took me by surprise and I wasn't in the same room.

I have disabled the self-test completely and it handled another power outage correctly.

This has answered my question and that the resolution is a replacement unit.

Thank you for your help.
Jordan.

[BillP]

are you using a Network Management Card or PowerChute to manage the UPS? i ask because we could review the log files. if you have one of these, i can tell you how to get the logs too.

[Anonymous user]

This device does not have a card installed, although I do have a couple on the shelf that I could install at some point to help diagnose the problem.

I have one headless Linux box, cable modem and wifi router plugged into the SmartUPS 1500. Therefore I use Powerchute on a separate, independent Windows 7 laptop to configure the device. (Not powered by the 1500).

The logs were not viewable as the laptop was not connected to the device at the time of the failure. I could force this issue, but I'd prefer not to take down the Linux machine any more than is absolutely necessary.

[BillP · Accepted solution]

hello. i did some research here and i do believe it is an internal UPS fault of some type.

since it won't necessarily be clear in the logs, can you confirm or deny that when this failure occurs, if any LEDs are flashing after the load drop (or even before)?

either way, we'd have to suggest a replacement - either under warranty or out.