APC Back-UPS ES 700 is often slow to switch to battery mode

[Anonymous user]

Hi,

I've been through the help desk and followed the instructions for reset and all of that malarkey. The trouble seems to be that this UPS just doesn't detect certain types of power losses quickly enough, and two out of three times now it's been too late and my computer system has already gone off. This is most alarming because I have a ReadyNAS on it for which a steady power supply is critical, it has already suffered 2 SMART errors on one of the drives as a direct result of a power loss when the UPS should have been providing that safety blanket. The Mac is seamless, it never seems to even notice that the power has been off, it just boots back up as normal.

I have conducted several tests by simply turning off the supply to the UPS at the mains socket, every time it operates flawlessly, two times when it did not operate were when the mains supply has genuinely gone off, and given the current state of our country's electricity supply I expect these kind of events to become more common (the reason why I purchased the UPS in the first place).

My question is are there types of brown-outs or power losses that UPS's cannot handle? It looks to be the case that my UPS is doing exactly what it was designed to do, switch to battery when the supply is gone, but perhaps the circuit cannot handle some types of outage.

Just today there was a very strange outage which made my UPS behave in a very peculiar manner - the power went off briefly, the UPS did not kick in in time to keep my ReadyNAS running, but when the power came back on the UPS was still acting like the supply was off, the battery side of the UPS was dead but the normal mains side was working OK (I tested the battery about a week ago). I surmised that the supply was much lower than our regular 240v as a few other devices in the house would not work properly, although things such as the computer and TV worked fine, I put this down to their switching power supplies which will operate happily on anything between 110v and 240v provided there are enough amps to go around.

Now that the power levels have come back up the UPS is working fine again, the battery is showing 100% charge and my ReadyNAS estimates about 40 mins of life if running on the battery, my Mac says the same. Just tested it by switching the mains supply off to the UPS and it tripped in without even blinking.

This makes me afraid to leave my ReadyNAS on, which really should not be the case.

Any thoughts on this? I fear that if I returned the UPS that the replacement would behave in exactly the same way.

[BillP]

Sorry for delay. The previous message was not forwarded to my email, so i didn't react. I'll check the group this time.

However, the same problem repeated this morning.

The processor is Intel E6400, and with 4GB RAM. Monitor is Samsung 215TW. No other equipment is attached to a battery supported outlet. The UPS is marked as BE700-GR, with the specified Serial number. PowerChute is up and running.

And current data from PowerChute:

Model: Back-UPS ES 700
Serial number: 5B0735U08907
Firmware revision: 829.D2 .I
USB firmware revision: D2
Result of last manual self-test: Not Recorded
Last manual self-test date: Not Recorded
Last battery replacement: 8/31/2007
CPU: Intel Pentium
RAM: 2,048 MB
Free disk space: 34,994 MB
Software version: PowerChute Personal Edition 2.0
Operating system: Microsoft Windows XP (5.1.2600)

(I'm not sure why, but this data does not reflect the current configuration. The original configuration had 2GB, but there are 4 GBs now.)

Other data found in PowerChute:

- Estimated Battery Time: 35 min
- Power problem history absolutely does not record such problems. Now it displays that in last 24 weeks no problem has occured
- Current Status:
- Electrical power is being supplied by: AC Utility Power
- Remaining battery capacity: 100%
- Battery is currently: Charged
- Last transfer to battery was caused by: None Recorded
- Result of last manual self-test is: Unsupported
- Input Voltage: 238 volts

If any other data may help, please ask.

Thanks

[BillP]

Here are the data, I hope

PowerChute CurrentStatus:
* Elec.power supplied by: AC Utility Power
* Remaining battery capacity: 100%
* Battery is currently: Charged
* Last transfer to battery was caused by: None Recorded
* Result of last manual self-test: Unsupported
* Input Voltage: 240 volts
At Performance page, there are no reported events for last 24 weeks.
Estimated battery time is 35 min.
Technical Data:
* Model: Back-UPS ES 700
* Serial number: 5B0735U08907
* Firmware revision: 829.D2 .I
* USB firmware revision: D2
* Result of last manual self-test: Not Recorded
* Last manual self-test date: Not Recorded
* Last battery replacement: 8/31/2007
* CPU: Intel Pentium
* RAM: 2,048 MB
* Free disk space: 34,994 MB
* Software version: PowerChute Personal Edition 2.0
* Operating system: Microsoft Windows XP (5.1.2600)

[Techie_apc]

Jonathan,

The UPS should protect the equipment from all the types of power problems. If the input power is not normal, the UPS will transfer to battery in order to protect the equipment from power problems. The transfer time of APC Back UPS (time it takes for the unit to transfer from On Line to On Battery) can vary anywhere from 2 milliseconds to 8 milliseconds depending on the model of the UPS. APC K-base ID: 20 says that Modern computer and computer-related power supplies can "ride through" power outages as long as 10-20 milliseconds. Many, in fact, can last through a 50 millisecond gap in power.

If possible, could you please provide me the Maximum power draw of the ReadyNAS Power Supply and its input specifications? Does the UPS cut the power to the ReadyNAS power supply or reboot the ReadyNAS power supply during power failure? Could you please let us know the exact model number of the UPS? You can find it on a white bar code sticker at the rear of the unit.

[Anonymous user]

Hi Techie, thanks for your reply.

The ReadyNAS power brick:
Input: 100 - 240V 1.5A 150VA
Output: 12V 5A

I have run this and the computer at the same time off the UPS battery for a good 40 mins and watched the battery drain slowly and steadily so surely it cannot be an overload thing. The iMac draws about 21W under typical load (I have measured it using one of those power readout plugs, this matches what others have said about the power consumption of this iMac model).

When I intentionally cut the supply to the UPS it switches to battery and the ReadyNAS is none the wiser power-wise, I have the ReadyNAS plugged into the UPS USB and set it to shut down when there is about 10% battery remaining. This works fine.

When the supply has gone off, on two occasions the ReadyNAS has gone off with it straight away (along with the computer) and THEN I hear the click of the UPS as the battery comes on, this all happened very quickly but there was a definite sequence to it. The computer is, as you say, usually very good at riding brief outages, it has survived when the lights have briefly gone off for a good second in the past, but not on these two occasions while on the UPS.

Numbers underneath my UPS:
BE700-UK
5B0904T46831

This is a UK spec UPS, I don't know whether you are in the US or what but the instructions that the help desk gave me for resetting the unit were obviously not for this particular model (the descriptions didn't match my unit, but I fuddled my way through it anyway).

[Techie_apc]

Jonathan,

My suspicious is that the UPS is going to battery frequently enough that the unit has not had enough time to recharge. Eventually, then, the UPS will shutdown the connected equipment when there is no battery charge. Please note that while normal power may seem to exist, many power problems are transparent or invisible to a user. These unforeseen power problems, such as voltage wave shape distortion, Harmonic Distortion, and frequency variances, will cause the UPS to go to battery.

[Techie_apc]

Are you still facing the same problem with the UPS? Could you please check the UPS battery charge level and runtime when this issue occurs? Could you please let me know whether the UPS hard shutdown the PC or gracefully shutdown the PC by the PCPE software?

Secondly, you may go for a Smart UPS which uses Smart Signaling and has got Automatic Voltage Regulator(AVR) boost and trim feature to proect the System in question. APC Smart UPS ships with Power Chute Business Edition which gives advanced monitoring of the UPS status. Moreever, Smart UPS SUAXX output waveform is pure sine wave on battery mode.The PCBE records event and data logs even at 1 sec interval. If you have any one of the Smart UPSs in your office, then I would recommend you to try connecting to the System in question and check if it supports fine.

[Anonymous user]

An interesting thought, but I think the audible alarm would have woken me up (I am a light sleeper). I have heard the unit click occasionally but when it's on battery it makes sure I know about it.

[BillP]

I have similar problems with my ES700 (s/n: 5B0735U08907). In some occasions it shuts the power off with no obvious reasons (without any general blackout, no overload and full batteries). On the other side, absolutely each of the manually performed tests resulted in successful battery takeover. The behavior on real power blackouts was mostly correct, with few correctly handled events and only one without battery takeover.

As the strange power offs significantly outnumber the correct behavior, I'm in a real dilemma to stop using the device.

[Anonymous user]

Techie wrote:
Are you still facing the same problem with the UPS? Could you please check the UPS battery charge level and runtime when this issue occurs? Could you please let me know whether the UPS hard shutdown the PC or gracefully shutdown the PC by the PCPE software?

I'm using the Mac OS X built-in UPS software to monitor power levels and control shutdown, and only using the ReadyNAS when I am present, it now gets switched off at night and when I leave home for the day. I no longer trust the APC UPS to leave it unattended with my ReadyNAS switched on, however I'm sure it will serve it's purpose for regular power outages (i.e. ones that are not man-made by someone accidentally shorting Earth to Live or Neutral when doing some wiring in another part of the building. This is the event that twice the UPS has not detected fast enough to prevent the attached devices from losing power).

[Techie_apc · Accepted solution]

Hello Sasa,

I would like to gather some more information to provide you assistance to resolve the problem. What is the exact Model number of the UPS? You can find the UPS model number on a white bar code sticker at the bottom of the unit. What are the equipment you have attached to the battery backup outlets? Do you have Power Chute Software installed to monitor the UPS? If so, what is the UPS runtime showing on PCPE software? Are the equipment attached to the UPS directly or through Power Strip/extension cord?