Beeping and clicking everywhere - 3 of 4 units with same issue at same time

[Anonymous user]

Yesterday my son called me at work and said "the computers are beeping all over the house." My wife called me on the way home an hour later and said "the phones and the Internet connection are down."

When I got home I found that 3 of my 4 APC UPS units (Backups 550 x2, Backups 350 and Backups ES 350) were beeping and clicking like crazy. Only the older Backups ES 350 was not beeping. Looking at the log for one of the computers I saw that the computer thought that AC power was going away and coming back about every second. This was happening on 3 of the four APC UPS units scattered in different rooms in the house. This problem had been going on for over an hour. I asked my wife and son if any of the lights in the house and been flickering or doing anything strange at all and they told me "no." I checked power line voltage and frequency and found them to be fine while the UPS units were still acting up. Batteries in all units were replaced 6 months ago.

My best guess as to what went on was that there was some sort of power line noise or other AC power line anomaly that managed to get the UPS units into a bad state. I suspect a software defect in the UPS units allowed them to stay in this bad state after the initial power line problem was no longer an issue. Even if the power line quality had still been a problem, the cycling back and forth between AC and battery didn't make any sense.

These units had all worked fine for five years before this without any issue. Since this problem I've sent sensitivity from "high" to "medium." I doubt the issue will happen again anytime soon, but I am afraid I've lost confidence in the APC UPS units now. I'm concerned because these units back up telephone, alarm system, Internet, etc. Has anyone ever seen anything like this happen before?

[BillP]

When you mention the log, do you mean our software? powerchute personal edition? It is possible the UPS saw some sort of power issue such as line noise, distortion, dirty power etc that could cause this to happen. The ups is capable of seeing these issues without you knowing about it(light flickers etc) Unfortunately, the best course of action is to change the sensitivity(which you have already done) and to monitor and see if it happens again. During this time, were you aware of any power issue/work being on done etc?

[Anonymous user]

This was seen using apcupsd on my server. I looked at the apcupsd source and there is no unique event available to be logged for noise or distortion on the AC input. I have Powerchute installed on a workstation PC, but that PC wasn't turned on at the time. I wasn't aware of any work being done on the power lines. I've had powerline noise before, but it never has lasted for more than a few seconds at a time. All the UPS units were still clicking and beeping when I returned home several hours later.

Apr 17 15:56:27 gator apcupsd[3804]: Power failure.
Apr 17 15:56:28 gator apcupsd[3804]: Power is back. UPS running on mains.
Apr 17 15:56:29 gator apcupsd[3804]: Power failure.
Apr 17 15:56:30 gator apcupsd[3804]: Power is back. UPS running on mains.
Apr 17 15:56:31 gator apcupsd[3804]: Power failure.
Apr 17 15:56:32 gator apcupsd[3804]: Power is back. UPS running on mains.
(above sequence repeats until)
Apr 17 16:10:34 gator apcupsd[3804]: Power failure.
Apr 17 16:10:35 gator apcupsd[3804]: Power is back. UPS running on mains.
Apr 17 16:10:35 gator apcupsd[3804]: Power failure.
Apr 17 16:10:36 gator apcupsd[3804]: Reached remaining time percentage limit on batteries.
Apr 17 16:10:36 gator apcupsd[3804]: Initiating system shutdown!
Apr 17 16:10:36 gator apcupsd[3804]: User logins prohibited
Apr 17 16:10:36 gator wall[9124]: wall: user root broadcasted 1 lines (39 chars)
Apr 17 16:10:36 gator wall[9121]: wall: user root broadcasted 1 lines (69 chars)
Apr 17 16:10:36 gator shutdown[9127]: shutting down for system halt

[BillP · Accepted solution]

Dirty power, distortion, line noise are not things the UPS can report as it's something the UPS senses with the incoming power. These are unfortunately the smallest, most basic units we make so the info seen is limited. I would recommend contacting tech support to see if there is anything they can do(such as an RMA etc)