new Smart-UPS SC420 all same problem - clicking over to battery all day

[BillP]

I have five brand new APC Smart-UPS SC420 units and two locations. All of them installed at the same time. Each of them has one brand new HP PC and a Monitor installed. All of them have the newest powerchute installed and running. At the first location there are two units on different breakers on seperate phases from the same panel. Both units will click loudly every few minutes and the on-battery light will flash on and then off during the click. Powerchute does not ever report that any event occured. The input voltage according to powerchute is steady between 118 and 114 volts. Powerchute does not record any events during the time the click happens and does not show any drop in voltage. This happens with the sensitivity setting set on any of the three levels. The transfer voltage is set to 127 and 106. The graph and a volt meter confirm that it never gets that high or low during the click event. They always click at the same time as each other.

The second location has 3 of the same setups that are all one one dedicated circuit. There is also a smart ups 1500 on the same circuit with a new HP server. All 4 computers have powercute installed. The three SC420 units do the same thing, clicking at the same time. The 1500 does nothing. It is silent. All 4 copies of powerchute record the same voltages and show no events before, during, or after the clicks. The clicking only lasts half a second at the most.

My customer has has several qualified electricians check out the wiring and had the power company confirm the power to the building is good.

So, my question is what do i do next? Has anyone here ever experienced anything like this? My customer is going crazy listening to the clicking all day.

[Anonymous user]

Hi Karl,

I'd like to know if they have other UPS aside from SC units that is doing the same problem?

[BillP]

Yes, there are other APC units. There is a Smart-UPS 1500 plugged into the same outlet as one of the sc420 that is not doing anything. THere are also several other APC ups units (backup-ups) plugged in that are not doing anything either.

Message was edited by: kbystrak

[BillP]

you might want to try checking via the APC powerchute business edition agent software to see if the UPS gives any indication of why it thinks it should be transferring to battery. if all of your UPSs are different models, they may have different settings and/or thresholds on certain things or there could actually be a problem with the unit.

[BillP]

As I said in the origional post, the powerchute software is loaded on all 5 units and the SMART-UPS 1500. All 5 of the SC units don't show any events in power chute. THey do not show a drop in voltage or a transfer to battery. The SmartUPS 1500 also does not show anything in powerchute, but then again, it is also not switching to battery like the SC units. Also, as i said, the SC units all have their sensitivity setting set as low as possible. The BackUps units don't support powerchute business edition and they are using the home edition. THey also do not show any battery events or power failures. They may be switching to battery and i am unable to hear them. They don't look like they are switching as their lights never change.

[BillP]

sorry, my fault for not reading.

well beyond what you just summarized because i didn't read the first post fully, i was going to say trying them in a different location but you said they are in different phases on different panels.

i dont have any other ideas then so if in warranty, you may want to pursue tech support and a potential replacement after you tell them what is on the post or refer them to your post.

[BillP · Accepted solution]

bump