This was originally posted on APC forums on 8/21/2014
Hello!
I have a Back-UPS Pro 1500 for my home office. It was purchased to provide backup power for my desktop computer, phone system (a small Ooma), and internet router/cable modem. All my phone service goes through the Ooma, which goes through router/cable modem (it's an all-in-one device, for better or for worse.)
What I'm trying to do is this: If the power goes out, I want to gracefully shut down the computer. I have a laptop and can work from the battery on that, if need be, but the computer sucks a lot of juice that wouldn't be necessary in a battery-powered scenario. However, I need my phone to work as long as possible, which requires the Ooma and cable modem/router to have battery power as long as the UPS can sustain it.
The problem I'm encountering is that if my computer is set to shut down via the PowerChute PE software, that automatically shuts down the UPS a couple minutes later: everything goes dead, which is absolutely unacceptable (and an unexpected behavior!) A little digging and this is apparently a "feature" where I don't get to use my battery to keep things on, unless I want to keep everything on. Is there any way to set this up so that I can shut down the computer but keep the battery running? I don't want to leave the computer on; I get about 40 minutes of battery runtime with the computer on, but 150 with it off.
Or... did I buy the wrong product and I should just return it and look for a solution from a different company?
Thank you!