PowerChute Personal 3.0.2 - "Battery in the UPS is disconnected" ?

[Anonymous user]

That phrase has recently begun appearing consistently at the lower left corner of the app (in the bottom boundary edge of the frame below the "Help and Support" block), despite reflecting upwards of 45 minutes in battery time remaining on a Back-UPS XS 1500 which I've had for a few years in good working order.  So, I know the battery WAS connected (did that when the unit was first purchased and installed), but if that somehow is no longer the case then it must indicate some major internal dysfunction or failure has occurred.  The workstation which it serves still functions okay, and PowerChute indicates the last time it intervened was earlier this month.

I can find no information in the Knowledge Base on such an error message (if indeed it is something indicative of a battery failure.  The "Run a Self-Test" button is now greyed out (last manual self-test was run in late May), so something undesirable is going on -- the UPS unit is located where I'll need to engage in some serious moving about of other stuff to shut down and disconnect the workstation, then extract the UPS unit and ascertain further what the issue(s) might be.

Any insight into the circumstances described is certainly welcome.

[Anonymous user]

I should also have included this information -- there is a faint "double-chirp" which is being issued every few seconds by the UPS.  Again, there's no explicit reference to such a pattern in the knowledge base for such a feature that I've found, but I'm guessing it's an indication of some sort of internal fault.  I just returned after being gone a few hours, and discovered that workstation to have shut down in the interim, requiring a manual power-on of the UPS before I could power up the CPU.

Is this chirping pattern likely to indicate a shorted-out battery, or some type of electrical wiring fault in the UPS circuits?

[BillP · Accepted solution]

Majority of the time, this is trying to tell you that the UPS cannot "see" the battery and it is likely physically disconnected. If you have verified no connections have come loose, then it could be a problem with the UPS "seeing" the battery which sometimes happens when it is older and the voltage is teetering or below the detectable threshold (so a old/bad battery/battery that has been sitting on the shelf and is discharged). It can also be just a plain old fault with detecting the battery within the UPS and the UPS would be to blame.

How old is the battery and/or UPS? If you got it, I'd let the battery charge for 24 hours and see if this goes away. If it's older, I usually suggest (with a non critical load) pulling the UPS from the wall to see if the UPS actually can use the battery and provide battery back up or if the entire UPS turns off which can help us make a decision on what to do next.