Back-UPS 1350 - Battery disconnected and overloaded, new battery new unit

[colincwilliams1_apc]

Hi folks!

I'm having a strange problem with my UPS and while I'm also working with APC technical support, I want to see about getting some extra ideas for what might be happening.

Model (from PowerChute): Back-UPS NS 1350M2

Sporadically (with the original unit it varied from once a week to a few times in a single day), PowerChute is popping the following warnings: battery disconnected; unit overloaded; and device malfunction, I should contact APC for a replacement. When this occurs, the unit starts beeping as if the power has been disconnected, the time remaining drops incredibly rapidly and then it hibernates my computer. Shortly after that, the unit power cycles, resulting in everything connected to the battery briefly losing power. After that everything returns to normal.

The original UPS was roughly 6-8 months old when this started, so I reached out for warranty support. Working with them I received a replacement battery and reset the unit (disconnect battery, hold down power button) multiple times, but the issue kept happening. They then sent me a full warranty replacement, for the whole unit (including another new battery), and this morning the issue happened once again, about a week after I received and installed the replacement unit.

When I caught it this morning, I was able to confirm that the other plug on the same outlet seemed to be working fine. I was able to turn on a lamp and charge my phone without issue.

I'm now wondering if something connected to the UPS is causing the problem and the UPS is responding in a terrible fashion. Is it possible for those error messages to be caused by a connected device misbehaving? Looking back through email history, it seems (though I can't confirm) that this started happening around the same time I installed a PCIe USB expansion card in my computer. Perhaps that's related?

Thanks!

Colin

[colincwilliams1_apc]

Thinking this through more, it actually can't be my computer that's causing it. While I was waiting for the replacement unit to arrive, I moved my critical components (computer, router, modem) off of battery backup (to the surge-only plugs). I then had to unplug the USB connection since my computer was still hibernating when the issue occurred.

So it's still possible something plugged in is a problem, but that eliminates the largest and most complex power draw.

[colincwilliams1_apc · Accepted solution]

Following up on this, a full 2.5 years later, and my UPS has been working without issue for years now! The fix: unplugging the USB cable connecting the UPS to my computer. For whatever reason, that USB connection was causing the reset behavior I was seeing.

It's unfortunate as it means my computer can't be cleanly shut down in the case of a power outage that lasts longer than the UPS, but thankfully those sorts of outages are quite rare in my area. The UPS is still working great to clean up the power during brownouts and has been keeping me running during short, sporadic outages that happen.

[JonPro]

Hi @colincwilliams1_apc 

It is also possible that the USB port or an app/hardware is sending a signal into the UPS causing this.  Since they've sent a replacement UPS, have you tried the two USB cables that came with the UPSs?

[colincwilliams1_apc]

Good question! I don't remember if I tried that before, though I don't think so. I was pretty frustrated with the whole situation at the time since it's so disruptive when the UPS flakes out, don't mind not good for my computer (ironically).

I'll take a poke around and see if I still have both USB cables, though no guarantees on that.

[JonPro]

Thanks @colincwilliams1_apc , do let us know once you have an update.

[Skypickle]

Sometimes the gremlins in a pc can be fixed with

sfc /scannow 

typed into a command window opened with admin priva

does that help?

[colincwilliams1_apc]

Well, I only have one USB cable. Knowing me I'm guessing I sent the original USB cable back with the original unit and this is the replacement, but I have no way to confirm that. Regardless, I definitely experienced the issue with the USB cable I have, so I have no way of trying another one without being sent one.

I do want to emphasize at this point that I'm not planning on putting much effort into this. Multiple years of flawless execution without the USB cable means getting the USB cable working is pretty low on my priority list in life. 😀 Especially when combined with how disruptive it is to reproduce the issue, don't mind bad for my computer.

[colincwilliams1_apc]

Thanks for the suggestion! As I noted in my reply to JonPro, though, I'm really not too interested at this point in finding a solution to getting the USB cable working. I wanted a solution to stopping the power from being pulled from my computer regularly, and removing the USB cable did that.

Worth noting that everything else on my computer is working flawlessly, including all of the following USB devices being worked simultaneously: 2 webcams, audio interface, macro controller, keyboard, mouse, and HDMI capture card. And they have been since the start of COVID.

It's not impossible it's something to do with my setup, but it sure does seem unlikely.

[RMZahn]

I have a similar problem with my UPS SMV1500

from time to time the computer shuts down to standby - sometimes i see for a second a message with the word 'battery', but too short time to read it.
No beeping from the UPS and no further message(s) after reboot.

As in your description the problem disappeared since i disconnected the USB-Cable...

Weird: when the last power-outage happened, the UPS was also immediately off and therefor no power supply for the PV anymore !?!