Back-UPS ES 550G long (10s) beep several times per day

[Anonymous user]

Hi, for the last 20-30 days, my UPS beeps (long continuous beep for 10 seconds) at least 5-6 times a day. This is very annoying as it wakes me up in the middle of the night.

I just connected power chute and see nothing out of the ordinary - isn't there some kind of logs that should tell me what the problem was?

This happens when there is no apparent interruption of power.

The LED is solid green, I see no error or warning message.

I just opened a ticket, and hope some staff will contact me asap.

In case you ask, here is what is connected to my UPS:

• Intel NUC Kit D54250WYK (master)
• Synology NAS (412+ loaded with 4 x 2TB disks) in Battery Backup + Surge Protection
• CBVG834G Netgear DSL modem in Battery Backup + Surge protection
• Telephone in Surge Protection only
• HP LaserJet CP1025nw printer in Surge Protection only
• Netgear GS108 switch in Surge Protection only

So, I don't think there is any over load or anything. The UPS has been working without a problem for the last 2.5 years. My setting and connections have not changed, so nothing explains these beeps.

[BillP]

A UPS of this type is only capable of reporting an overload when the UPS goes to battery power. It may have been that the UPS is trying to go to battery power and detects an overload but if that was the case, I'd expect the equipment to turn off which you say is not happening. Furthermore just for an FYI, we do not recommend connecting a laser print to UPSs of this type but at least it is in the surge protection only. (http://www.apc.com/support/index?page=content&country=ITB〈=en&locale=en_US&id=FA158812) 

Are you absolutely sure the piece of equipment making the noise is the UPS and not something else plugged into it?

If PowerChute is running on the computer at the time of the noise, it can detect any faults or power failures with the UPS but the PowerChute software needs to be running.

Do you know the specific model of the UPS you have? You mentioned Back-UPS 550G - is it a BE550G-UK, etc? Here is the documentation for the North American variety which should be similar: http://www.apcmedia.com/salestools/EALN-7CEQGK/EALN-7CEQGK_R1_EN.pdf?sdirect=true I don't really see anything that aligns with the behavior you described.

You can also see what technical support says since you have contacted them as well..

[Anonymous user]

Hi Angela, thanks for coming back to me quickly.

On 4/13/2015 10:37 AM, Angela said:

Are you absolutely sure the piece of equipment making the noise is the UPS and not something else plugged into it?

In that location, I have a NAS, a laser printer, my DSL ISP router and the UPS itself. When the beep occurrs, I listen very closely, and can identify that the beep is coming out of the UPS.

On 4/13/2015 10:37 AM, Angela said:

If PowerChute is running on the computer at the time of the noise, it can detect any faults or power failures with the UPS but the PowerChute software needs to be running.

I see several issues with this. First, for energy saving purposes, I always turn my PC off when I am not using it (at night), or the PC goes to sleep after a few minutes of being inactive, therefore Power Chute is not always "watching". The only way I can catch the event is if the beeps occurs while I am using the PC. This reduces the chances of catching the event.

Second, to connect to Power Chute, I need to dis-connect the USB side of the RJ45/USB data port cable from my NAS, and plug it into the PC with Power Chute installed. In this configuration, the beeps don't occur at all for some reason. I only get the beeps when the USB side of the RJ45/USB data port cable is connected to my NAS. I am in a Catch 21 situation, because if the cable is connected to my NAS, then the beeps occur but I cannot catch the event because the cable is not connected to the PC running Power Chute. More over, there is no Power Chute version for Synology NAS, that I know of.

Does not the UPS store some form of history? I see that there is a screen called Monitor System > Performance > View performance history over the last 24 weeks. Is this only for events that occured when Power Chute was up and running?

Isn't there a way to tell the UPS to, instead of making a beep, send an email detailing what the problem is, or something like that?

The UPS seems to be working fine. I also did the "lamp test", I cut off the circuit breaker for my whole house, and the UPS behaved correctly, powering the devices that are intended to be powered by the UPS.

On 4/13/2015 10:37 AM, Angela said:

Do you know the specific model of the UPS you have?

APC - BE550G-FR - Onduleur BACK-UPS ES - 550VA / 330 W

On 4/13/2015 10:37 AM, Angela said:

You can also see what technical support says since you have contacted them as well..

I got no answer from customer support yet.

[BillP]

Hi again,

You're welcome. Thanks for sharing the info.

I see several issues with this. First, for energy saving purposes, I always turn my PC off when I am not using it (at night), or the PC goes to sleep after a few minutes of being inactive, therefore Power Chute is not always "watching". The only way I can catch the event is if the beeps occurs while I am using the PC. This reduces the chances of catching the event.

Second, to connect to Power Chute, I need to dis-connect the USB side of the RJ45/USB data port cable from my NAS, and plug it into the PC with Power Chute installed. In this configuration, the beeps don't occur at all for some reason. I only get the beeps when the USB side of the RJ45/USB data port cable is connected to my NAS. I am in a Catch 21 situation, because if the cable is connected to my NAS, then the beeps occurbut I cannot catch the event because the cable is not connected to the PC running Power Chute. More over, there is no Power Chute version for Synology NAS, that I know of.

Does not the UPS store some form of history? I see that there is a screen called Monitor System > Performance > View performance history over the last 24 weeks. Is this only for events that occured when Power Chute was up and running?

Isn't there a way to tell the UPS to, instead of making a beep, send an email detailing what the problem is, or something like that?

Yes, this is a tough situation and will be difficult to catch based on what you've explained. Small UPS units like this don't keep anything on their own EEPROM. Higher end units do and there are also accessories that do this for higher end UPSs but consumer level units don't have such advanced capability. What you see in the PowerChute software for events is only from when the UPS was connected to the PC.

I asked one of my colleagues more familiar with the unit. He suggested that because the unit is 2.5 years old, it could be that the UPS temporarily is seeing the battery as "disconnected" because it could be older and voltage is dropping below the voltage detection point. The only other thing he mentioned would be the overload feedback I gave you before and he suggested trying to pull the plug on the UPS to see if it supports the load. You may want to try that with a non critical load when you have a second as to not potentially crash some of your critical equipment. I tend to lean more towards the battery because if it is indeed an overload, your equipment should also be turning off. And plus, you haven't changed anything you said previously.

My best guess would be looking into a new battery. Depending on when you purchased this, this may have a 3 year warranty so a battery would be covered. Here is what the warranty says for this unit: Standard Warranty - 2 years repair or replace, 3 years repair or replace for European Union countries

Sometimes these units are so simple that they are difficult to troubleshoot - to me anyway. 

[Anonymous user]

On 4/13/2015 3:13 PM, Angela said:

he only other thing he mentioned would be the overload feedback I gave you before and he suggested trying to pull the plug on the UPS to see if it supports the load.

As edited in my previous post, the "lamp test" works fine, eg. opening the circuit breaker for my whole house makes the UPS behave correctly and deliver power to the connected devices. I see nothing wrong with the battery.

On 4/13/2015 3:13 PM, Angela said:

because the unit is 2.5 years old, it could be that the UPS temporarily is seeing the battery as "disconnected" because it could be older and voltage is dropping below the voltage detection point

If it was the battery seen by the UPS as micro-disconnecting, then I should get the beeps, even if the RJ45/USB cable was connected to the PC with Power Chute. Which is not the case, I do not get beeps in this configuration.

So it must be something else, and I cannot think of a way to trouble shoot the issue.

[Anonymous user]

On 4/13/2015 3:20 PM, pp said:

If it was the battery seen by the UPS as micro-disconnecting, then I should get the beeps, even if the RJ45/USB cable was connected to the PC with Power Chute. Which is not the case, I do not get beeps in this configuration.

So it must be something else, and I cannot think of a way to trouble shoot the issue.

Well, actually not, after few days of running Power Chute and preventing my PC to go to sleep, I could finally catch the beep with Power Chute. The reason reported is a disconnected battery.

So, as not to wake me up again in the middle of the night, I selected "Disable the battery backup alarm at all times", hoping the beep will go away.

I bought it in June 2012, so still under 3 year warranty, I asked the vendor on Amazon to replace the battery. Instead of replacing the battery (which seems to works OK and still gives 30 minutes of backup time), is there anything else I can do, eg. tighten a screw to avoid battery disconnection?

I now plugged the data cable back into my Synology DS412+ NAS. It is really annoying not to receive alarms when events such as battery being disconnected happen. Can APC improve this and pass this information through the data cable to the Synology NAS? Alternatively, can you provide a version of the PowerChute app for Synology DSM operating system?

[Anonymous user]

On 4/18/2015 5:46 AM, pp said:

So, as not to wake me up again in the middle of the night, I selected "Disable the battery backup alarm at all times", hoping the beep will go away.

Bad news, despite selecting "Disable the battery backup alarm at all times", I still get the beeps waking me up in the middle of the night. This is driving me nuts. Isn't there a way to turn off the beeps for good?

[Terry_Kennedy_apc]

I believe that the "disconnected battery" is a fault condition separate from the "low battery" and similar conditions, so the alarm you turned off may not be the one that the UPS is generating for this condition. I know that the NMC (Smart-UPS option) reports separately for battery fault, battery charger fault, and battery not connected properly. Of course, the Smart-UPS is "smarter" than the Back-UPS.

In any event, if it is reporting a disconnected battery, there is something wrong, either with the battery pack or somewhere else in the UPS. The battery connections on most of the smaller APC models are push-on, not screw-down, so there's usually nothing to tighten. I wouldn't suggest doing anything more than that on a UPS that is still in warranty - my first step would be to contact the seller, and if they couldn't help, to contact APC support in your country. This link should give you that information.

Synology provides their own software for talking to the APC UPS via USB, which you appear to be using. There seem to be user-contributed packages for apcupsd and nut, but I don't know if they are supported on current versions of Synology DSM or if they support your particular UPS. Normally, all the DSM needs to know is "is the power going to run out soon", which is handled by the built-in DSM tools. Another solution would be to connect the UPS to a PC running PowerChute, and use the external script function to send UPS power event notifications to the DSM. However, that would involve leaving the PC on all the time, which you don't currently do.

[Anonymous user]

Terry, thanks, very good post laying out all my options. I agree with everything you write. I will work with the Amazon vendor to get a new unit.

[Anonymous user]

On 4/19/2015 2:58 AM, Terry said:

my first step would be to contact the seller, and if they couldn't help, to contact APC support in your country.

I contacted the seller, not very helpful. The help line rings but no one answer. They told me by email that the UPS needs to be sent for repair. This is not acceptable for me, as the UPS is the key component in my IT system, and I cannot run it without the UPS.

So, I sent a message to APC support and wait for them to get back to me.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

On 4/20/2015 11:36 AM, pp said:

So, I sent a message to APC support and wait for them to get back to me.

APC support asked me to perform a brain dead, which I did:

- disconnect the load
- disconnect the UPS from the wall plug
- disconnect the battery
- press the "On" button for 5 seconds
- reconnect the battery
- connect the UPS to the wall socket
- turn the UPS on

This did not help, I still get the beeps and errors. I hope that APC support can now provide me a functional UPS in lieu of my faulty one.

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