BE750BB - Continuous beep and no power, then fine?

[Anonymous user]

A BE750BB while under A/C power produced a continous beep and ceased to supply power to the load.  After it was power cycled, it seemed to return to normal function.

I could find no diagnostic tests in the on-line documentation or on this discussion database, so this is what I tried for a test:

It was on A/C power and a non-critical 30 watt load overnight.  In the morning I removed A/C power and it started alarming with the slow beep.  After about 15 minutes, it changed to a faster beep (about 2 per second).  Eventually the battery failed.

That seems normal to me.

What does the continuous beep indicate?

Can I trust this unit to sustain a critically required load? - If so, are there other diagnostic tests that will assure me of this?

Thank you in advance for your time and your advice!

[Anonymous user]

A BE750BB while under A/C power produced a continous beep and ceased to supply power to the load.  After it was power cycled, it seemed to return to normal function.

I could find no diagnostic tests in the on-line documentation or on this discussion database, so this is what I tried for a test:

It was on A/C power and a non-critical 30 watt load overnight.  In the morning I removed A/C power and it started alarming with the slow beep.  After about 15 minutes, it changed to a faster beep (about 2 per second).  Eventually the battery failed.

That seems normal to me.

What does the continuous beep indicate?

Can I trust this unit to sustain a critically required load? - If so, are there other diagnostic tests that will assure me of this?

Thank you in advance for your time and your advice!

[BillP]

The condition you saw sounds like an overload. Did you see any lights flashing at this time too? What was plugged into the battery back up outlets during that scenario? Could anything have momentarily overloaded the unit i.e. computer under heavy processing load? Maybe it briefly tried to switch to battery because of electrical noise or another reason besides blackout and was overloaded.

The test you did also sounds normal to me. Four beeps every 30 seconds indicates on battery and then the continuous beep you heard for a few minutes was low battery until it turned off.

Lastly, here is the user's guide for this unit - http://www.apcmedia.com/salestools/ASTE-6Z7V5J/ASTE-6Z7V5J_R0_EN.pdf - is that what you started with?

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

Thank you for the information, Angela N.

Angela N. wrote:
Did you see any lights flashing at this time too? What was plugged into the battery back up outlets during that scenario? Could anything have momentarily overloaded the unit i.e. computer under heavy processing load?

I wasn't able to examine the unit while it was alarming.  I was in another building when I got the call, so I heard the alarm over the phone, but could not see the unit.  I told the end user she could switch it off to stop the noise until I got there.  I would not have expected it would overload, but maybe 750 volt-amps is insufficient for the load.  I'll investigate that.

Angela N. wrote:
Maybe it briefly tried to switch to battery because of electrical noise or another reason besides blackout and was overloaded. 

Maybe, but there was no other indicators of electrical issues in the building at that time.

Angela N. wrote:
The test you did also sounds normal to me. Four beeps every 30 seconds indicates on battery and then the continuous beep you heard for a few minutes was low battery until it turned off.

So it should be trust-worthy then.  Thank you for that assurance.

Angela N. wrote:
Lastly, here is the user's guide for this unit - http://www.apcmedia.com/salestools/ASTE-6Z7V5J/ASTE-6Z7V5J_R0_EN.pdf - is that what you started with?

That does look familiar, but I'm sure the many occurences of the words, "Constant tone," were invisible at the time.

Thank you again.