Older Back-UPS XS 1500 Beige problems

[gixxer_25_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 4/8/2011

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Hello all!

I want to say thank you for taking the time to read this!

Well I have had this UPS for quite some time and have had no isses with it. Ran an old Athlon processor single core, printers, monitors, speakers, and a mini-mac off it for years..and I mean years with absolutely ZERO issues. I moved from Phoenix, Az to Columbus, Oh (dont ask me why please...I'm still doing the same!) and it was dead when we got here and got unpacked. After I plugged it in my light indicator to replace the battery came on and after a series of several beeps, very annoying..wish I could turn it off or down, I tried to recondition the battery to no avail. "All good", I thought since this battery has lasted probably close to 7 yrs with no issues. Sooooo, I got a replacement from Newegg and everything was ok for about a week.

After a really good thunder storm with several power bumps the unit started to switch between the green "ON LINE" light and orange "ON BATTERY" light while making a weird buzzing and humming noise with a bunch of beeps. The beeps arent a regular beep either. sometimes it will give me 3 beeps..sometimes 2..occasssionally 1, etc etc etc. Now since this is so old I knew the warranty was bad and I pulled it apart to see if there was any popped caps, loose connections, burn/scorch marks on the board and to my eyes there arent any.

Anyone have any good ideas?

Again, thank you 🙂

[BillP]

This reply was originally posted by Angela on APC forums on 4/8/2011

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so, if you turn it on with no load attached, what exactly does it to? the random beeping and then what exactly are the LEDs doing - alternating? and specifically, flashing or solid?

sometimes this indicates a fault condition so i'd like to be sure so i can research.

[R2_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 4/8/2011

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Hi gixxer_25, the beeping and humming noises are pretty typical for the unit running on battery (I.E. their will be more noise when the inverter is on and the batteries are discharging). However the reason for the unit constantly clicking on and off battery is the more concerning issue. If there are a lot of power problems (or the quality of power is not good) where the unit is located at then it could exhibit behavior such as you have described. One easy setting you can try to change is the unit's sensitivity. First make sure the unit is turned OFF and plugged into the wall (AC Power). Next press and hold the on button for a full 10 seconds. All of the leds lights on the front panel will flash, now release the on button. The unit will now display the current sensitivity level by either showing one, two or three leds flashing in unison. Now press the ON button once to change the unit to next available sensitivity setting. Cycle through until the desired sensitivity level is reached. For our purposes, I would recommend setting the unit to the lowest sensitivity for now to see if that alleviates the issue. Hope this helps.

[gixxer_25_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 4/14/2011

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Thx for the reply winna.

When I turn it on, with nothing plugged in, it goes through it's normal start-up sequence and after that it does what I described above. the LED's are solid..even if only lit for 1 sec. keeps switching with loud clicks back and forth from Line to Battery.

[gixxer_25_apc]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 4/15/2011

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Thanks for responding R2 I tried this method and here are the results:

Setting 1 LED lit: constant clicking about 10 clicks a second....sounded like a cheap plastic gear being stripped out or a card in the spokes of a bicycle. so I shut it down and tried setting 2.

Setting 2 LEDs lit: clicked back and forth between LIne and Battery. Same humming and clicking sound as original post. Consistant switching back and forth about 3 1/2 seconds between each.

Setting 3 LEDs lit: same as setting 2 but infrequent and inconsistant switching. sometimes it would stay on Line for 2 seconds before switching to Battery for 3 seconds then swap back over for a second.

soooo I tried the setting 1 LED again and it sat on the green light Line for about 15 min. Afterwards it gave 3 beeps and said I need a new battery....which the battery is only 2 months old and when I was diagnosing before took 2 computers with monitors over 15 minutes to draw the juice all the way down. I dont think the battery has issues.

Also the diagram you attached says not for computer use so while I tested all the LED settings I had no load and nothing plugged into the unit. I took the case of the unit apart and can here the clicking sound coming from a white plastic covered box component (switch maybe?) it sounds like it spins up then clicks off...spins back up and clicks off...etc etc

Any more ideas?

[R2_apc · Accepted solution]

This was originally posted on APC forums on 4/18/2011

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Hi gixxer_25, unfortunately it sounds like the ups is trying to switch back and for to and from battery (most likely it is the relay making the clicking noise and the inverter making the humming sound). This is usually independent of the battery condition and is most likely an issue with the unit. The only last bit of troubleshooting you could would be to bring the unit to another location and see if it reacts the same (essentially making sure that this issue is not being caused by voltage fluctuations at your current location). In my experience, i would say the UPS will most likely have to be replaced. I'm sorry I didn't have better news for you 😕