ES750 is triggering off (often) with tone for no noticeable reason

[Anonymous user]

I have an ES750 in an equipment closet in my basement with a connected dsl modem, an Airport Extreme router, a DirecTV dvr and a Synology NAS connected.  For awhile now it has been triggering approx weekly turning off with the tone.  I know to look when I lose internet and, as I head to the basement, I hear the tone.  I hit the power button and everything fires back up.  This was happening weekly but now it seems to be happening multiple times in a day.  It's frustrating and is tempting me to just plug everything into a regular ol' power strip.  Is my 750 gone?

[BillP]

Hi,

What is the serial number of the ES750 and what type of tone are you hearing? Is the tone constant or is the unit beeping?

[Anonymous user]

Serial number is 3B0803X49229.  The tone is constant.  It's fairly loud.  I hear it when I first open the basement door and it is downstairs, around the back and in a closet.

[BillP]

Hi,

A constant tone indicates an over load. A ES750 can only handle a maximum of 450 watt load. What might be happening is when the DVR and or the NAS spins up the draw on the UPS is to great and causes an overload. I recommend decreasing the load and keeping it below 80% capacity. While determining the 80% load you should be sure to take into account the maximum draw of anything attached. DVRs and NAS may draw X wattage while running but quite often draw more when drives are spinning up.

[Anonymous user]

I really hadn't considered that I might be overloading it with only a few devices connected.  Thank you - I will disconnect the dvr and plug it in elsewhere and report back in a week or so.

[Anonymous user]

I researched the draw for each of the devices connected to the ES750 and it doesn't appear that the total doesn't come anywhere near the 450 watts.  I have:

- Synology DS1812+ NAS with 4 3TB Western Digital Red drives installed.

- Directv HR21 DVR

- 1 external AcomData 1TB eSata external hard drive connected to the DVR

- Apple Airport Extreme 5th generation router

- Actiontec DSL modem

- REI HDMI switch

- Canon MP970 multi-function printer

- D-Link 8port gigabit ethernet switch

If all were active at once the draw should be no more than about half the 450 rating.

[Anonymous user]

Since the 24th I left the NAS turned off.  Because it hadn't happened in four days I figured it may have something to do with it.  Today it triggered again.  Constant tone and everything was off except the modem.  Do I have a defective unit?  For most of these items I just need it to work like a surge protector. 

[BillP]

How did you verify you're not overloading the unit? That sounds like a lot of stuff. I'll assume you added up the wattage draw?

What this does sound like is an overload shutdown especially if you can turn the unit back on and it passes its self test and operates normally. What I mean by overload shutdown is the UPS tries to go to battery potentially and cannot because its overloaded.

Is it possible to try and simulate this yourself by having this load connected (or a very similar non critical load) and pull the plug on the UPS?

Another idea is to connect the APC USB cable and via PowerChute Personal Edition, verify what the wattage draw is according to the unit and see if anything else of interest appears. This could also help you identify your typical wattage draw and see how close it is to 450 because perhaps periodic increases in load from attached devices are putting it over the edge.

Lastly, I was thinking - how old is the battery - perhaps the UPS is also unable to support the load when the UPS goes on battery. If you can give me the first 6 characters of your UPS serial number, that will tell us the age of the battery/unit assuming the battery is original. If not, let me know when you replaced the battery.

I honestly sometimes find these types of UPSs so simple that it makes it difficult!

[Anonymous user]

I suspect the unit is becoming overloaded - I just don't think it should.  Yes - there are a lot of items plugged in but the 750 has the outlets so I assume the expectation is that you would have that many plugged in.  I don't really need the UPS for much.

I did add up the wattage draws and it doesn't get anywhere near 450. 

For most of these items - I just need it to operate like a surge protector.  It shouldn't be shutting down so regularly.  It was fine until the last couple of months and I've not plugged anything else into it.

BTW - when it shuts down it continues to run the dsl modem, but only that.

[BillP · Accepted solution]

And the DSL modem is connected to a Battery Backup + surge outlet vs. surge only?

Any feedback on my other questions - using PowerChute, battery/UPS serial number?