Back-UPSs Clicking on and off due to electrical noise all day

[Anonymous user]

Hi, I have a couple of Back-UPSs, one for each computer here. And recently, starting this morning, they have been clicking on and off all day over electrical noise. The only thing that I know of is that we have gotten an electric fence put in yesterday and was turned on this morning. So, I am thinking that the electric fence may be causing the interference. I have tried to talk to my folks here about that, but they are insisting that it isn't the fence even though that the reason it was put in is because of a couple of horses that we just bought needed an enclosure. I have tried to turn the sensitivity down in the APC PowerChute software down to low and it still is doing this. So far, it is showing that both Back-UPSs switched to battery backup close to 100 times on each one. As for the electric fence, it is fifty feet away from the house on the opposite side of the house where the power line and phone line comes in, and I am not sure what to do to solve this problem. If anyone could help it out, please let me know as it would be appreciated.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

Hello,

What is probably happening is the electric fence has created interference on your AC input lines and there is Total Harmonic Distortion on the circuit. What model BackUPS are you using? Have you made sure the sensitivity is at Low and the voltage transfer points are at their maximum from 120V? Are the units plugged directly into the wall outlet, or are they through a separate surge strip or extension cord?
You may want to contact your electric company to check your lines for distortion, or if you have an oscilloscope handy.
Other than that, you may need to upgrade the UPS units, depending on what model you have, to a UPS that has a higher threshold for distortion, such as our Smart-UPS line.

Thanks.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

Hi, I have two different Back-UPSs which are for two different computers, one is Back-UPS ES 750 and the other is Back-UPS ES 500. I have had put the sensitivity on low, even though it says that it would allow greater voltage distortions to reach my computers. And they are plugged directly into the wall outlet, not on a surge strip or extension cord.

[Anonymous user]

Well, I got the folks to turn the fence off for at least an hour and during that time, the UPSs stopped clicking. I have also found out that the fence charger doesn't have variable voltage where you could turn the voltage down. It is something that is plugged in and has to be unplugged in order to turn it off. I have had someone suggest to me the use of a Smart-UPS, but then I have found that they are going to cost me around $700 for two of them (since I have two Back-UPS) even after a Trade-UPS and I don't have that kind of money for that suggestion. So, does anyone have any other suggestions.

[Anonymous user]

The Back-UPS ES line are not know for their tolerance of bad input voltage. Smart-UPS would be the ideal replacement, but if you are looking for something in a smaller price range, the Back-UPS RS line has the ability to adjust sensitivity to a higher standard than the ES.
The Trade-UPS program is also available for the RS line.

http://www.apc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=23

[Anonymous user]

Hi, I have a couple of Back-UPSs, one for each computer here. And recently, starting this morning, they have been clicking on and off all day over electrical noise. The only thing that I know of is that we have gotten an electric fence put in yesterday and was turned on this morning. So, I am thinking that the electric fence may be causing the interference. I have tried to talk to my folks here about that, but they are insisting that it isn't the fence even though that the reason it was put in is because of a couple of horses that we just bought needed an enclosure. I have tried to turn the sensitivity down in the APC PowerChute software down to low and it still is doing this. So far, it is showing that both Back-UPSs switched to battery backup close to 100 times on each one. As for the electric fence, it is fifty feet away from the house on the opposite side of the house where the power line and phone line comes in, and I am not sure what to do to solve this problem. If anyone could help it out, please let me know as it would be appreciated.

[Anonymous user]

I have the clicking problem when the printing business next door operates their new paper cutter. Drives me nuts! The power company will not address the fact that we really could not be on two physically separate lines with two separate meters that are accurate. An electrician advised me that the paper cutter has a three-phase converter which is like saying they installed a virtural 3-phase converter on a single-phase line. When the paper cutter initializes, about six of my APC BE750BB start clicking and a couple of PC's switch to battery power.

I'm astounded how nobody seems to take the responsibilty for this.

[Anonymous user]

If you are still having problems with the electric fencer affecting your UPS, let me suggest a couple of things.

1. Make sure the fencer has a GOOD ground. Electric fencers will put out up to 9,000 volts, depending on the model. For horses, I doubt that you have one that puts out much over half of that. Gallagher (http://www.gallagherusa.com) reccomends three six foot galvanized rods driven into the ground, and tied together with galvanized wire. It is amazing the difference that a good ground will make, not only in animal control, but also AM radio interference, AND other RF problems like you are having with your UPS. If you don't want to go to all the trouble of putting in this much of a ground system, make sure you have at least a two foot ground rod driven into the soil, insure there is a very good (clamped) connection between the ground rod and ground wire to the fencer, then let your garden hose run for a couple of hours in the area around the ground rod. Try this for a couple of days, and if the ground circuit is the problem, after a couple of days and a couple of hose runs, you should notice a big difference in the UPS and AM radio reception problems.

2. Don't use an electrical conduit for the ground point, since the metal conduit may only extend a foot below ground level. Likewise don't use the same ground rod that your house or barn electrical system uses. You will just inject more problems onto the 110 Volt system.

Good Luck!

[Anonymous user]

Yes, I'm sorry I forgot to mention that earlier - I changed the setting to Low on Monday & it hasn't made a difference.

[Anonymous user]

The electricians will be out here again today. I'll let you know what they try & hopefully something will work soon. Thanks for your quick responses.

[Javik_apc]

After reading through this whole thread, the problem is that your power is too unreliable for a low-grade consumer UPS. What you need is an "on-line" UPS that is basically on battery all the time.

Line-interactives like the Back-UPS are cheap because the AC to DC charger is tiny, and just slowly trickle-charges the battery. Meanwhile the DC to AC inverter is tiny because it only has to run for a few minutes until the battery is exhausted.

Every time an interactive UPS "clicks" it temporarily uses the battery, and the charger is so low-capacity that if the UPS clicks many times a day the battery can drain faster than it can be recharged.

,

On-line UPS's have a huge AC to DC converter which is capable of running at high power all the time, which feeds directly into a huge DC to AC inverter that also runs all the time. And oh there's a battery in there too.

If the load drops, the battery instantly picks up with no clicking or transfer time. They handle unreliable power much better than line-interactives, and can also usually work to clean up the unstable output from small portable generators.

,

Alas APC doesn't sell low-cost on-line UPS's. Everything is line-interactive up to about a thousand bucks (US), and then on-line becomes available for servers and datacenters.

If your budget is small you're going to have to go to some other company to find a low cost online UPS. Here are the lowest-cost "online UPS" models I can find:

MINUTEMAN - CPE1000 1000VA/700 Watt On-Line UPS -- $282
Tripp Lite - SU750XL Smart Online 750VA UPS with Extended Runtime -- $362
HP - T1000 G3 1000 VA Online UPS -- $389
CyberPower - OL1000RMXL2U UPS Online Dual Conv 2U RM/T -- $411
Rocpower - Prestige 1000VA-700W Intelligent On-line UPS Tower -- $475
Opti-Plus - Durable Series 1000B-RM Online Dual Conv 2U RM -- $499
Liebert - UPStation GXT1000MT-120 -- $514
Leviton - UPS 1000VA Pure Sine Wave -- $669
APC - Smart-UPS RT 2200VA Dual Conv On-Line -- $1189

,

So if you want APC you'll need deep pockets for really good power glitch handling.

Message was edited by: Javik

[Anonymous user]

Thanks for the list Javik, I might look into those when mine gives up.

But the unreliability of the power is clearly not the issue here. The units that experience this problem are similar models, and all of them worked fine until one day all of a sudden they start switching to battery when they shouldn't. Even if you move the UPS to another outlet, another house, another city, the problem persists and gets worse over time. This switching occurs more and more often, until a) the battery runs out because it has no chance to recharge, or b) the user lowers the sensitivity setting, which can only be done 2 times and will only solve the problem for a while, so it's more of a workaround than a solution.

The problem must lie in the input voltage detection circuit of these units. There's something there that degrades over time and starts believing that the line voltage is lower than it really is, causing the UPS to misfire. This could be an analog-digital converter, or something as simple as a capacitor.

I like this UPS. I would gladly keep it if I could have it running again like it did all these years. After all, the battery is almost new and the software is already set up, tried and tested. Surely it would be easier and cheaper to replace the failing part than to replace the whole UPS?

[BillP]

If that is the case, separating the circuit of the punching machine would be the best option.

[Anonymous user]

My UPS (back-ups xs 900) started doing this about a week ago and after reading through all the posts I guess I need to start looking at a different one. One thing I have found on mine that I havent seen posted is that mine only does it when there is little load on the system. I have my computer, lcd monitor, cable modem, speakers, power for USB hub, and printer plugged into mine. As long as my computer is on everything is fine. As soon as I shut it down (still has minimal power draw) then it starts clicking and going to battery then back to ac every 1-5 minutes. Very annoying since its in my bedroom. Once I turn the computer back on it will continue to do it (every few seconds) for a few minutes then stop all together until I turn the computer off again.

PowerChute reports that the battery transfers are being caused by "blackout". My sensitivity has always been set to high and voltage set to 136/104. I just set it to medium but left the voltage where it is and will see what that does. There have been no changes as far as power requirements that I know of around my area. When it first started happening I thought maybe it was batteries since they are old. I've had it about 4.5 yrs and never replaced the batteries. Even after clicking back and forth all night PowerChute still reports 100% battery charge and it passes the self tests with no problem.

Oh yea, PowerChute is reporting 162 watts of power load when everything is turned on.

[Anonymous user]

I hate to pile-on... But after a brown-out which killed an unprotected PC and a plasma TV, I began buying UPS's to protect my home gear. I too have multiple UPS's (five are APC, three are another brand) and I too have several "clicks" coming from all of the UPS's (at the same time) randomly, each day. I have silenced the beeper/horn, but we can still hear the clicks as the UPS cycles from AC power to battery, then back to AC power.
What I've done:
1) I called the utility company who installed a recorder for a couple of days (yes there were clicks over this time period), but they said that their recording meter found "no problems".
2) I have removed the X10 light switches that "broadcast" over the AC wiring (because I was told that they could be perceived as noise by the UPS’s).
3) I have set the sensitivity on the PowerChute to LOW and set the Upper and Lower voltage setting to their min/max settings. The problems still occurs with (as far as I can tell) the same frequency.
I don't have access to an oscilloscope, but since this is happening to all of the UPS's at the same time, I think I can safety assume that there is in fact electrical noise.
Is there anything else I could do? It was suggested (by the utility company) that UPS’s themselves may be causing the noise and it may be like a domino-effect, when one UPS trips, the electrical noise from the cycling causes the other UPS’s to trip…?
Any thoughts?

[BillP]

an issue that we see could also be caused by "pings" from the power company. see my attached screenshot for what these look like on the oscilloscope. this is referred to as TWACS i believe. this might be similar to what the broadcasts you have from the X10 lights look like or are perceived by on the UPS.

unfortunately, if you lower the sensitivity, and it still does it, there is nothing else that can be be done on the UPS. UPSs of this size dont generally cause too much noise on the line that would be this noticeable and constant.

[Anonymous user]

In my opinion this problem might no be an issue regarding electrical noise nor "pings" from the power company, it might just be the way the voltage regulator is set inside the UPS and it doesn't matter if you select the high, medium or lown sensitivity This configuration has nothing to do with the voltage regulation side. At least for the Back-UPS line.

I have two brazilian APC UPSes, one is the Back-UPS BE600-BR that works at 120V and 220V and puts out 110-120V and the other is the BE600-LM whic is a "mono-volt" model and works only at 120V. This one is hooked to a stepdown transformer since here the voltage is 220V, but both of them have a peculiarity and i think it happens to many other models. On the 220V model, when the input voltage reaches 216V it selects one voltage regulation transformer step, then when the voltage drops to let's say, 212V, the unit selects the previous voltage regulation output, if the volage fluctuares between 212 and 216V all the time, which is not very uncommon here, the unit will click all the time. On the 120V version the same thing happens but it is worse. When the voltage reaches about 121V, the voltage regulatior selects one step down (it puts out 110V when the input is at 120V), but as soon as the voltage drops to 118-119V, it gets back to the previous state. So, if in your house there is these small and insignificant voltage fluctuations, which is very common anywhere in the world, and if it happens to happen right at this threshold where the voltage regulator selects one step up and one step down, it will keep cliking all the time as the voltage goes up 2 volts and down 2 volts again.

To me this is a flaw of many voltage regulators, they kick in too soon since and all modern power supplies can cope with very wide fluctuations. The voltage regulator goes back to its prior state to soon as well, causing this kind of annoying behaviour: "Click, 5 volts down... Click, 5 volts up...Click, 5 volts down, Click, 5 volts up..." This is not a good thing, since clicking relays can cause electrical noise as well at the UPS output and the PSU's receive all these noises. The good thing is that PSU's usually come with good input filters, but there are cases that the relays can cause small voltage surges as well since it is conducting current and it has to mechanically change from "on" to "off" and "off" to "on" and sometime a paralell relay has to kick in, this in turn can create small voltage arcs and injection of noise to the power wave at the output side.

If there were UPSes without voltage regulation built-in sold in my country, I would go for them since most PSU now a days is full range and those that are not, can still cope with a good voltage fluctuation margin.

[BillP]

I think PrimeMover has come to the right conclusion - the UPSs all agree that there is some kind of momentary disruption which triggers a transfer to battery.

As far as rau's comments, I don't believe anyone in this thread owns a line-interactive UPS with voltage regulation, so these clicks are all transfers to battery by stand-by UPSs.

I don't think that the UPSs themselves could be contributing to the issue, since if these are all stand-by topology systems, the UPSs aren't doing anything to the power that a normal surge strip would do 99.999% of the time. Only when they sense something wrong with input AC will they do the one thing they can to help - go to battery.

[Anonymous user]

The clicking is annoying, but as the other poster wrote, I am aware that my gear is being protected when these clicks occur; that's why I use the UPS's.

The BIGGER problem is that the frequent and repetitive transfers (to battery and back to utility power) drains the batteries and causes them to have a shortened lifespan. I have had to replace the batteries in all but the two newest UPS's. On some days when we have very frequent clicks, the battery charge gets so low that the attached computers perform an unwanted shutdown, commanded by PowerChute due to battery level. This all happens during transfers to and from utility power in the shortest allowed times of the UPS's (1 to 2 seconds).

Also, in a perfect world, I would like to go back to using the X10 devices (which were ruled out as the causes of noise). One thing I left out from my original posting is that the X10 transmitting switches "lock-up" and require a reset (pulling, waiting and pushing back in the little "main" switch just to the right of the Toggle). This is frustrating and I have come to the conclusion that the electrical noise is what is causing them to lock up. They are fine (operational) until we hear a click from all of the UPS's...then they're locked up.

The forum speculation is great, and I can live without the X10 automation (there are other methods and systems...like Insteon). But what I was hoping for, was/is a recommendation to an effective alternative... ala, does APC or anyone else make a UPS that would perform better in this type of "dirty power" situation?

[Anonymous user]

I'm having the same problem. To the point where my battery is at 53% or so. I was thinking I need to replace my battery, however, why is it switching to battery in the first place? And now, it no longer supplies power, to where I've had to plug my computer directly into the wall.........z

[Anonymous user]

Lately the clicking has gotten a lot worse, fwiw.....z

[BillP]

Well the other posters pointed out they knew why it was going to battery, they were just trying to figure out how to stop it. Since we don't know anything about your setup (or, as in the original poster's case, about the presence of an electric fence that may be interfering) or even what UPS you're using, we can't really tell you why it's happening. One can only assume it has to do with noise on the line. If you install the software, you may get a better idea as to why it's happening.

[Anonymous user]

Update on mine. Dropping the sensitivity to medium seems to have worked for now. I've only heard it switch once while the system was off since doing that. That could have been an actual power problem, I dont know. Not uncommon for us to get power bumps. Hopefully it doesnt get any worse but I'm not holding my breath.

[Anonymous user]

I too am experiencing the unwanted switching between supply and battery, this time with a CS350. Even using the lowest sensitivity setting the UPS occasionally (but, it seems, always when it matters!!) switches to battery and back again, and again, and again, until eventually it closes my PC down just when I don't want it to. At this time all the other computer equipment plugged into the same mains supply circuit is working perfectly, the house lights aren't flickering, and if I measure the mains voltage with a Fluke meter it is spot on.

In the UK we don't have brown-outs, only occasional total loss of supply when a tree comes down on a line or something, and that's all I want to protect against, not some unnecessarily sensitive measurement of EMC or THD. I am tempted to get inside the unit and work out what is going on, but I would much prefer APC to come up with properly engineered solution. Frankly the unit is a liability at present, not a benefit, as at present as it causes PC failures more often then I would expereince them without it. I could not recommend this product as I find it.

Does anyone have a handle on how to fix the problem, or should I buy an alrenative product, perhaps more suitable for the European market.

[Anonymous user]

Mine just started this last night (along with a much louder 'transformer hum' too).
I use mine as a back up to TV, satellite system and VCR/DVD recorder etc and coincident with this clicking is a horrendous screeching through the TV audio circuits.
As a result we had to immediately remove the unit from our system as it made TV unwatchable. Now plugged in on its own in a coner with no load and the clicking seems to have gone away (doubtless only till used again).

Does this offer anything new to this thread? Everyone else seems to be concerned with computers.

[Anonymous user]

We just recently started having this problem in our office (2 days ago). It appears to be brought on by a new punch machine we just brought online in our shop (it seems to only cause problems when the machine is punching not when it is just loading material). I have 8 ups repeatedly clicking back and forth between wall power & battery while 5 other backups don't have any problem. The PowerChute software says it is electrical noise. The electricians have tested & the voltage only fluxuates between 119.8-120.8.

A little more information: we do have 2 seperate electric meters & it seems that the 5 without problems are on the other meter than the 8 having problems & the new punch machine. The 8 also are on the same concrete slab as the punch machine - that section being the latest addition to the building. We've considered possible slab vibrations & have placed rubber flooring under the backups with no luck. I've also considered it could be the age of the ups but they range from a few years to 2 weeks old. Right now the electrician is suggesting a different brand of backup - I'm willing to try to just see but I've used APC for as long as I can remember & haven't had any problems before.

The backups range from model ES350-ES650. I can try to find out any other information that might be useful to solve this issue.

[BillP]

Stacy,

Have you tried changing the sensitivity of the UPS's using the PowerChute software? Another thing that you can try only if it is possible is providing a different circuit for that punching machine. Although the voltage is acceptable there is a possibility that it causes an interference or variation with the frequency. The normal frequency in the US is 60Hz it could be that during those times that you are using the machine it jumps above or below 60Hz which in turn would be seen by the UPS as a dirty source.

JonPro

[BillP]

Hi Stacy, any development with your problem?

[Anonymous user]

Well, not completely but we are closer to a solution. It seems that when the machine is punching or simulating punching in high speed is when we experience the problem.

Since our building is not in the city limits it seems that when it was built the electrical wasn't wired to commerical code but to residential code. We have run a new heavier gauge wire on a 20amp breaker to test. If this works then we might have to rewire some of the plugs. They've been loading new tooling into the machine the last couple of days & haven't been able to dry run it for me yet.

[BillP]

Thanks for giving us the update. I do hope that something can be done on your end to correct the issue.

[Anonymous user]

I am having the same issue the UPS will keep making a clicking noise all the time, I have it in "low" sensitivity, if I put it in medium it will switch rapidly back and forth between battery and power or high sensitivity it stays on battery all the time. When I first got the unit some years ago I ran it on high then I started having problems with it in that mode so then I ran it on medium setting well about year ago the unit would start switching back and forth between battery and power so I put it on lower sensitivity and now the unit is starting to do it on low. I just replaced the battery too because it just went bad and it didn't help fix it either. I did a hard reboot also by removing battery and disconnection unit from wall and holding in "on" button for 5 seconds, still didn't help. I also have the problem with input voltage and current voltage reading spiking from time to time in powerchute in the million volt range. I am running the new powerchute too 2.2 in vista.

I have 2 cyberpower UPS in the house and neither of them switch to battery like this thing only when there is an actual power outage do they. House is only 6 years old so it isn't old wiring.

[Anonymous user]

Yes, I moved the voltage parameters all the way to the max on the high end and low end. My UPS is a Back UPS 800 XS, I have tried both directly into the wall at a different location and on a power strip(it is not a surge strip) the UPS still acts up. One thing I do have running in the house now(had since Jan 2010) is a Cisco EoP system(Ethernet over power) I am not sure if that would cause issues, you can't run that through a surge protector or a UPS. What I find strange is if was power company or the EoP system causing issues the Cyberpower UPS don't seem to be bothered by it. The one Cyberpower UPS even runs on the same power strip as the APC one.

What causes the insane voltage spike readings at random in the powerchute software? I have seen others have the problem too...

[Anonymous user]

The random strange voltage spikes is caused by USB or corrupt USB driver? I don't have a USB hub between them and don't have any issues running other devices on my USB ports. This leads me to believe it's more like bad programming on the powerchute software.

But the clicking I think the UPS has just progressively gone bad over time as I have had to go from high, to medium and now to low (which no longer works on sensitivity) over time. I returned the batteries for full refund and junked the Back UPS XS 800 and bought a new Cyberpower one as I seem to have less problems with them. Tired of messing around with the stupid thing and sick of it clicking. Thanks for the help. 🙂

Message was edited by: Rentier

[Anonymous user]

My APC UPS - RS800 (bought in India) started clicking after 5 years. As of this writing it's with APC for servicing.
Now read this: It was connected to a good voltage stabilizer for about 4.6 years. I removed the voltage stabilizer thinking that the UPS itself has a built-in stabilizer. The UPS started clicking a month ago. It would click a lot sometimes (like once in 15-30 seconds) and click little (like once in 30 mins). I had replaced the batteries about 8 months ago. The APC service guy dropped in and didn't really have a clue. He kept stressing that if the sensitivity is set to low it wouldn't click. I had a hard time convincing him that the UPS must not click with default (factory) setting. I have another new APC UPS (RS1000) which doesn't click at all (regardless of the sensitivity setting).

After doing hours of reading on this issue, I finally concluded that the APC UPS need a good voltage stabilizer. If you don't protect it with a good stabilizer over a period of time (perhaps 4-8 months) the solid state circuitry inside the UPS starts acting up. It just starts malfunctioning.

I strongly suggest you have the APC service take the UPS to their service center and fix it. OR if you think buying a new UPS is cheaper go for it.

Do not use the clicking UPS. The voltage coming out of a clicking UPS could fail your costly electronic gadgets/components/computers/etc., I checked the voltage with the multimeter on my clicking UPS and it was quite high indicating that it's a major problem. I suggest you use a multimeter and check the output voltage at different times on your clicking UPS.

One of my routers stopped working, just went dead. And my mind tells me that it was because of the clicking UPS. Hope all you guys find my detailed feedback on this issue helpful.

All the best.

[Anonymous user]

I have read through this post and frankly, now I am discusted. These are comsumer products and we should be able to use them with ease. They should last several years without failing and without starting to act up on their own for no good reason.

We have three of these units in use at our home and the one with just a cable modem and VoIP phone adapter is doing it again. We have been through five replacements - due to the clicking noise. The guys at Staples do not know what they are talking about, because each time we complain about it they just talk us into buying a new one. It seems that this type of UPS start clicking it after about a year of use - for no good reason. That is unacceptable.

No - Our power did not magically get noisy on one outlet. That is not a realistic answer. If we switch them around, the oldest one starts clicking the next day. This is clearly an age issue and a product quality issue.

We are bringing all three of these back to staples tonight and we will seek another product.

[Anonymous user]

rand.reed, this is why I switched to Cyberpower the two that I had bought about the same time as the APC are still running fine (have had to replace batteries once). Have had nothing but progressively worse clicking problems with the APC for the last 1.5 - 2 years.

[Anonymous user]

I have been using a Back-UPS RS 800 for roughly 5 years. It routinely clicked and switched to battery for a few seconds about once every 2 days. The manual stated that was a self-test and considered normal behavior. Worked fine like that for 4 years.

Early this year the battery failed and had to be replaced, after that it worked fine for months.

Now, all of a sudden, it started clicking and switching to battery for a few seconds every 10-15 minutes. The software (apcupsd, been using it since I bought the UPS) reports that these switchings are due to "Low line voltage".

As has been pointed out in this thread, lowering the sensitivity seems to prevent this, but it only gets worse with time. I always had it set on High, tried Medium when the clicking started, but now I have to keep it on Low, otherwise the UPS clicks and switches to battery every 2-3 seconds rendering it useless.

I wonder how long it will be before it starts acting up one last time. Is there something I can do to fix it?

[Anonymous user]

Campus, no you can't basically it's going bad and will only get worse. Mine did the same thing, it will get to the point where it will exhibit the same behavior even on the lowest setting...driving you nuts with all the clicking noise.

[upsguy_apc]

I know the clicking may be annoying but remember what UPS's are for. They prevent harmful surges/sags/freq variations/noise from reaching your equipment. Don't just dull there settings to avoid hearing a clicking noise.

[Anonymous user]

My LS700 and ES650 units are doing the same thing since last week, and no, we don't have an electric fence. They are plugged into the same outlet. I hooked up my Fluke o'scope and saw NOTHING even resembling electrical noise as they continue clicking away due to "electrical noise" as per parachute's current status. I checked the lugs on the outlet just to rule out a loose connection.

[Anonymous user]

I started having the clicking problem yesterday with a BN600 UPS. Today that was accompanied by the UPS dropping power. I am not aware of any noise problems on the power line and nothing has changed in my home. Right now the UPS is unusable due to the unexpected power failure.

Manfred Deckert

[TheNotoriousKMP_apc]

Have either of you adjusted the sensitivity to low through the software? If it's at low, and still doing this, there's either an electrical problem, or a problem with the UPS seeing incoming line voltage. Electrical noise is usually the number 1 cause of problems like this, so I would try a different location as well.

Also, I wouldn't place the UPS's, regardless of size, on the same circuit. That just introduces an added point of failure.

[Anonymous user]

We have had the same issue. We have found that certain brands of laser printers cause line noise. Kyocera and Brother cause line noise while we have yet to see any of our HP printers cause the problem.

[prince213_apc]

Cheap way to avoid frequent on/off of ups unit you should lower the line voltage say 170 V range using a semi automatic voltage stabilizer so that ups can provide AVR boost to 230 V +/- 10% from 150 V ~ 190 V range, so the ups unit will not toggle frequently as 230 +/- 10% is an acceptable line fluctuation.

If you still have problem then use an online ups or some constant voltage transformer or servo stabilizer which can correct line fluctuation under +/- 1%.

[Anonymous user]

I appreciate the response to this strange problem, but I was uncomfortable with the Caution Message about allowing greater electrical variations to enter my computer, as the parachute interface warns when selecting the "Low" sensitivity setting. That's why I did not consider it before reaching out for help. It has always been set to Medium. Lowering the sensitivity when these symptoms were not exhibited until now is not the solution. And it does not explain why I see absolutely nothing resembling noise on my scope. I'll keep looking for a loose ground or something somewhere in this branch circuit and let you know what I find.