Just Bought BX1500LCD and It Fried my PSU (Sparks and Smoke)

[Anonymous user]

I just bought an APC BX1500LCD and the moment I turned it on it fried the PSU in one of my computers. I immediately turned the UPS off and then back-on again and everything seems fine now, but I still have the lingering smell of smoke. My 750watt PC Power & Cooling PSU does not seem to be damaged, but the PSU in my old computer sparked and smoked. Why would the UPS only fry the 300watt PSU in my old computer. I had been running that 300watt PSU just fine on wall power for the past year. Anybody have suggestions? I am starting to regret buying this APC unit. It just caused me more headaches.

[Erasmus_apc]

Out of curiosity, which outlets were your computer PSU's plugged into on the BX1500LCD? Surge or battery outlets? What is the environment the old computer and UPS are in? Any dust issues or extra extension cords or secondary surge protectors in use with the config.?

When online w/ good input VAC the BX1500LCD units won't output a recreated sine-wave or anything else that would "change" the power you would see coming from the wall. How old is the "old" power supply you mentioned?

If you wish, you can call our primary technical support line at 1-800-800-4272 and file an EPP claim for equipment damage.

[Anonymous user]

I had both PSU's plugged into battery outlets and both of the computers were off. The UPS was plugged into a APC Surge Arrest Professional. The failed PSU was barely a year old and the units are not subject to large amounts of dust.

[Erasmus_apc]

APC does not support the daisy chaining of multiple Surge Arrest and/or UPS units for multiple reasons:

1) It is not UL tested. Underwriters Laboratories requires Surge Protector / UPS units to be connected via their own grounded outlet to meet safety standards.

2) This does not provide any additional surge protection. Our UPS units are designed with surge suppression components built in.

3) The act of daisy-chaining increases the risk of unit malfunction, especially the risk of overload.

4) The act of daisy-chaining UPS units does not provide any additional runtime. This is unrelated to your incident but still worth mentioning for the sake of information.

If the UPS was daisy-chained to a surge protector of any kind this may have caused the issue, or at the least compromised the UPS' ability to protect against a power surge. On a side note, because of the configuration APC may not honor any EPP claim on damaged equipment.

Please reference our public Knowledgebase article #397 for more information.

[TheNotoriousKMP_apc · Accepted solution]

They'll test both the UPS and surge protector.

If you remember correctly, you can use this configuration so long as it is both an APC surge protector and an APC UPS. That way there's only one manufacturer.

But I agree, this was not an ideal configuration.