UPS1000 alarms every fortnight

[Anonymous user]

Our SmartUPS 1000 fails every fortnight. The alarm sounds and the output fails. It switches over to battery, which drops immediately and the attached equipment powers off. Photos taken at the time show The overload and replace battery indicators lit - see attached.

The ups power needs to be unplugged. When plugged back in the equipment powers up and the battery recharges in a few hours.

I understand my predecessor replaced the battery within the last year.

A manual test does not cause this issue.

Can anyone advise me the way to resolve this please?

[BillP]

Hi Malcolm - 

that LED indicates an Overload. What do you have connected to the UPS? How many LED's are normally lit on the left hand side column?

[Anonymous user]

Hi Liam,

From what I can see the load is a “small” HP server (+ monitor that is usually off), BT broadband modem, router and a couple of network switches.

 I can’t remember the lights. I will check when I am next on site which will be Monday and post then.

M

[Anonymous user]

Hi,

 I just spoke to the office. In normal operation none of the lights on the left are lit.

M

[Malvineous_apc]

When the batteries were dead in one of my older APC units, it would drop the load every fortnight when it went to do the self test.  Quite annoying because the UPS caused more outages than it prevented.  I was able to work around the problem by changing the settings to disable the self test, but of course the batteries were still dead so in a power outage everything switched off immediately.  But at least it stopped the extra outages until I was able to replace the batteries!

As the batteries were dying though, it got to the point where they could sustain a small load like a light bulb, but they'd switch off when powering anything bigger, owing to the fact that the apparent capacity of lead acid batteries reduces as you draw more current.  So my guess is that your batteries are about to die.

If you are sure they were only replaced a year ago (check the battery replacement date in the UPS config) then they could have just been a bad/cheap batch, or new old stock.  If you bought from a reputable supplier maybe you will have warranty options you can explore, but warranties around one year or longer aren't common for batteries, going to show just how long they are expected to last for!

[Anonymous user]

In the office during normal (mains powered) operation none of the left hand lights are lit. 

The user guide seemed to suggest they only light when the ups is providing power, so I briefly turned off the mains power (I didn’t want the server to go down). None of the left hand lights lit then either.

[Malvineous_apc]

What happens if you run a calibration (this is different to a self test.)  It will run off batteries until they are nearly flat then switch back to mains to more accurately calculate the runtime, so it won't power off your load (unless there's a fault of course.)

It sounds like you have bad batteries so I would expect the calibration to fail or complete in only a minute or two, indicating minimal battery capacity available.

[Anonymous user]

Thanks for the suggestion, Adam.

At the moment there is no data connection to the ups and it doesn’t have lcd screen.

I can find no trace of any original cables or software. I guess I’ll see if I can find a usb cable , download the powerchute software and have a go. That will be next week.

[Anonymous user]

Well, I tried USB cable to my Win10 laptop. The UPS driver seemed to install OK.

Tried Powerchute but it refuses to find the UPS.

[BillP]

Hi,

What is the exact model and serial numbers of the Smart-UPS? you will find them on the bar code sticker on the back of the unit.

6cT7T06MeP%2BLLovs5KBM%2FA%3D%3D.png

As for PowerChute, when you attached the USB cable did the laptop report it found new hardware? If so, when the cable is connected what drivers are displaced. You will find the drivers in the control panel - device manager - battery and under human interface devices. 

See Schneider Electric FAQ FA310907 for assistance with the drivers. 

[Anonymous user]

Hi Bill,

Model: SUA1000I

Serial: AS0709330154

The Device Manager has installed drivers showing in

Batteries as 'HID UPS Battery'

and

Human Interface Devices as 'American Power Conversion USB UPS'

Driver details are shown the attached pics.

I have the .sys files but not the .inf

Regards

Malcolm

[BillP]

Hi,

Switch the driver HID UPS Battery to APC UPS. See Schneider Electric FAQ FA164514 for assistance with changing the driver. After changing the driver run the PowerChute installer again.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

On 1/24/2018 12:56 PM, Bill said:

Switch the driver HID UPS Battery to APC UPS

Hi,
I tried the steps to update the drivers.

Driver update does not find the APC driver on my laptop (windows 10 pro).

It insists the HID one is the only one.

I can't find anywhere to download the APC driver from.

The battery fail light is illuminated all the time, so I'm going to get a new battery.