BK650I: Use UPS only for correct shutdown/startup of Windows 7

[Anonymous user]

Hello,

I have installed a APC xxx UPS inline with a PC and want to reach the following functionality;

When power swichtes on, PC should boot and run, if power fails PC should shut down immediately. When power switches on again the PC should boot up.

Through the PowerChute software I was able to have the PC shutdown (hibernation switched off in Win7). The minimum time for this seems to be a minute. Is it possible to reduce this to 'immediate' or x seconds?

When the PC switches off, a dialog is offered. Users are able to abort the shutdown, Can I disable this?

When the power is back, the PC should boot again. Before (without UPS) we reached this by setting the option 'Boot After power failure' in the Intel Bios to [power on]. Unfortunatly with the UPS installed, when it switches off the PC, the power is not taken away from the outlet. Hence the motherboard does not sense that the power has been away and does not reboot after the power has been put back to the UPS. Is there a known workaround for this?


My current system configuration:
APC BK650I
Motherboard Intel DH55HC
Windows 7 professional 6.1.7600
Powerchute personal edition 2.2

Best regards,
Matthijs Tinholt

[Anonymous user]

Hi JonPro,

Thanks for your quick reply! I can understand a little bit better now how the process is hung together.

I did a little test and indeed the timeout of the UPS seemed to be what I missed in the first tests. I can see that after a while the 'On line' and the 'overload' LED start blinking and after a few seconds the UPS is completely shut down and power is removed from its outlets (I should have been more patience with my first tests ;-). If I apply power to the UPS after the power down, the PC starts booting also because it sensed the blackout.

Only problem would now be that the timeout of the UPS is much longer than it takes (my) windows 7 machine to shut down. Is there a way to tweak this time? Problem is that we like to tell people to reset everything by turning the mains power off and on, but with the long timeout the results of this are unpredictable.

BTW: I have solved the 'problem' that the minimum setting for 'Keep my computer on as long as possible/remaining battery runtime' couldn't be set bigger than 8 minutes by changing the border values in the registry.. hope this is ok with you.

Regards!
Matthijs

[BillP]

Matt,

I haven't tried that registry hack and we do not allow our techs to make changes on the customers registry to avoid any issue that might arise. The usual shutdown delay is 2 minutes, did you set your PCPE to Keep my Computer on?

[Anonymous user]

Hi JonPro!

Indeed I'm using the 'Keep my computer on as long as possible' setting with the time set to a pretty high value (to have the PC switch off quickly after a power failure).

But then remains the problem that it takes the UPS quit some time longer than the PC to power down. And this setting can't be changed. T

We use the personal edition of the Powerchute software, is there also a professional edition that has some more settings including the ones I need?

Best regards,
Matthijs Tinholt

[BillP]

Have you tried using Preserve Battery power option? There's also a 2 minute delay before the UPS sleeps, this is to prevent any unexpected shutdown. Regarding the professional edition, we have PowerChute Business Edition and PowerChute Network Shutdown. These software would not work with BackUPS product lines, these are designed for Smart-UPS and larger UPS's and the Network Shutdown requires you to purchase/have a network management card.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

Hello,

I have installed a APC xxx UPS inline with a PC and want to reach the following functionality;

When power swichtes on, PC should boot and run, if power fails PC should shut down immediately. When power switches on again the PC should boot up.

Through the PowerChute software I was able to have the PC shutdown (hibernation switched off in Win7). The minimum time for this seems to be a minute. Is it possible to reduce this to 'immediate' or x seconds?

When the PC switches off, a dialog is offered. Users are able to abort the shutdown, Can I disable this?

When the power is back, the PC should boot again. Before (without UPS) we reached this by setting the option 'Boot After power failure' in the Intel Bios to [power on]. Unfortunatly with the UPS installed, when it switches off the PC, the power is not taken away from the outlet. Hence the motherboard does not sense that the power has been away and does not reboot after the power has been put back to the UPS. Is there a known workaround for this?


My current system configuration:
APC BK650I
Motherboard Intel DH55HC
Windows 7 professional 6.1.7600
Powerchute personal edition 2.2

Best regards,
Matthijs Tinholt