This was originally posted on APC forums on 10/7/2009
Hello,
I have been using this UPS since 2005. I haven't had any problems with it until yesterday when the power suddenly cut out on the battery backup side, overload light came on, and a continuous alarm turned on. Electronics connected to the surge protection only side worked fine and didn't experience a loss of power, but CPU and monitor suddenly turned off. I turned the unit off, turned it back on, it cycled and showed normal status. I turned my monitor and CPU back on, ran smart chute, everything seemed to be okay (battery showed 100% charged, load was only around 250), ran self-test and about halfway through self-test the CPU and monitor turned off, overload light came on, and continuous alarm rang again. I turned off the UPS, switched the monitor and CPU from battery side to surge protector side (nothing else plugged in on battery side), pushed the reset button in the back, turned on the UPS, turned on the CPU and monitor, ran smartchute self test again, again around 50% the "replace battery" light turned on but no alarm sound.
Is this a bad battery needing replacement or does the entire unit need to be replaced? I always imagined battery failure would be akin to rechargeable batteries in small electronics (slowly decreasing amount of battery time) rather than sudden failure.
I know I purchased the original unit 3/05 and I think I replaced the battery before, though I can't find the receipt for the battery swap out so I'm not sure.