Unable to factory reset AP9617

[lhardy_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 2/13/2014

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Hi,  wondering if you can help me too.  I've followed the instructions given in this thread to the letter using the same AP9617 NMC, appropriate serial cable and an APC 2200 but all I get from hyperterminal from the card is a "NUL" response after sending CR CR repeatedly.....   Thoughts? 

[BillP]

This reply was originally posted by Angela on APC forums on 2/13/2014

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I would start by confirming you do see lights on the AP9617 because the AP9617 cannot report NULL but perhaps the UPS can. So, I am wondering if in reality you're talking to the UPS directly.

Did this card ever work? Is it used or being moved? Just wondering a little history behind it.

Also, I need to confirm the exact model of "2200" - it should be on the white sticker on the UPS itself just so I know what we're working with.

[lhardy_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 2/14/2014

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Thanks. I grealy appreciate your response.   It did light up with ethernet cable attached,  etc... I ultimately pulled it and the reset switch was fragmented on the board.....  went a head and tried a different second-hand NMC and it automatically pulled an IP from my DNS server... was able to connect to the NMC web interface but I've been unable to get my APC virtual appliance vm to talk to the NMC....   "wrong security settings" errors, etc, etc,,,,,      I tried to set the VA VM  and NMC IDs and passwords to be the same, i.e.  ID: apc  pssword: apc  and the "hidden pass phrase" to just that, but still will not communicate with the NMC when "registering"....  Wondering if I should just skip the VA VM approach altogether and try a real box running powerchute??

[lhardy_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 2/14/2014

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Also tried to upgrade the NMC firmware with the appropriate .exe app but can't get it to run on a win box without winfTP.dll errors.... tried xp, win7, and win8....  app seems to run with linux on wine and will "ping" from the app tab successfully but no go on the firmware upgrade..... 

[lhardy_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 2/14/2014

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Sorry forgot to check the serial/exact model number on the UPS.....  the NMC that I can now talk to is a AP9635 that has 4 ethernet sockets and two USB...  I'll check the UPS tonight and let you know the exact model,, its a "SMART APC 2200" with digital front panel LED lights....

[lhardy_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 2/14/2014

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WITHOUT digital panel with LED lights only....

[BillP]

This reply was originally posted by Angela on APC forums on 2/17/2014

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I branched this to a new thread because I believe you have multiple issues here.

AP9635/AP9635CH is not supported in any Smart UPS product. Also, did you purchase this AP9635 on ebay? This sounds like a batch of  AP9635's we saw on ebay that are not real because the real AP9635 looks like this (below) and does not have four ethernet ports. Could you provide us a picture please of this AP9635 you obtained?

I also need to better understand that UPS model because that will determine what management card we can or cannot use and I will help determine that and help with this AP9635 situation too and figure out what happened.

[lhardy_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 2/17/2014

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Thanks for your response.  Here are some interesting points.

1) my UPS is a DLA-2200

2)  the NMC does not look like the one you have shown above.  I'll take a photo and send to you.

3) Yes I bought it off Ebay.

4)  When the "bogus" AP9635 was installed it interesting would pull my "battery" leds down to only three lit up.... and eventually the APS simply crashed or there was a brief utility blip Friday afternoon late which took both of my ESXI servers down along with their 8 VMs running....  Needless to say I was .................!

5)  I pulled the APS batteries thinking that one had failed as I could not get the APS to even stay on with a "Test" button push....    Interesting both batteries were drained considerably and I charged them with an auto battery charger to full (one half of each one at a time @ 12 VDC), reinstalled them, turned on the APS and only had three "battery" LEDs lit still.........  Shut down the APS, pulled the "bogus" AP9635" NMC card and reinstalled the old AP9617 that I told you had a physically broken reset switch...   Powered up again and the APS had all LEDs lit to the top.   Used a different Laptop with USB/COM port adapter and immediately was able to serially connect to the AP9617.....  configured it,  was able to talk to it with the Powerchute VM appliance and configured.  Everything seems to work now....   I have my two ESXi servers set to turn off via the AP9617, and the ESXi VMs are set to suspend when that happens.  Only thing I haven't tried is pulling the 120 v APS power cord to test.....  I've got to recover mentally for a few days and I'll only have one ESXi server running with ALL VMs in suspend mode....

6) Only thing I could not get to work at this point was set the "manager" password on the AP9617...   I don't think I'll be able to because the reset button on the mother board is fragmented/broken right???

[lhardy_apc · Accepted solution]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 2/17/2014

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Here's the photo of the bogus AP9635 as shown from the EBAY listing...  So what exactly is this thing and what's the deal with it???