Random Reboots on CS500

[Anonymous user]

We have a number of CS500s backing up production systems. Yesterday I swapped out an office UPS unit for one on the floor because of a battery issue with the floor UPS. The office unit was working fine before the swap. The office unit is between 3 and 5 years old.

The plant floor computer it is now connected to goes through random re-boots throughout the day. I checked a number of other things before replacing it with another brand new office unit, including verifying there was no issue with the power source. The last replacement cleared the issue so I am confident it is the UPS.

The unit had an Allen Bradley industrial computer plugged in to the backup side and a cabinet vent fan hooked up to the power side.

On one of the restarts I got a battery low alarm, so I am assuming the battery has little backup capacity left (replacement batteries are on the way).

I did not think that a low battery would affect performance while mains power was available. Is it possible that there is another issue with this unit?

Thanks.
Fred

[Techie_apc]

Fred,

What lights are on the front of the UPS when it is plugged in? What was the light lit in the front of the UPS when it was rebooting the Computer? Was there any beep from the UPS when this occured?

[BillP]

Fred,

To add on what Techie had asked, do you have any APC Software (PowerChute Personal Edition) installed on your computer that monitors the UPS?

[Anonymous user]

Thanks for the replies.

We do not have any monitoring software running. I have never been at the station during a reboot. I usually get called after the fact. When I arrive, there are no alarms and the green online light is the only thing lit.

It is a somewhat noisy environment, and the backup units are in an enclosure so it is hard to hear the alarms unless the enclosure happens to be open.

The unit in question has now been running since Thursday at one of the IT desks without incident.

Is it possible that this is heat related? I have never tried to measure the temperature inside the enclosure, but it has to be 10 degrees (or more) warmer inside the cabinet. Plant temps are probably running in the low 70s at the moment.

[Techie_apc]

I do not think that this issue is related with heat. If possible, could you please stimulate a Power failure by unplugging the UPS from the wall and see if it supports the equipment which you mentioned?

[Anonymous user]

OK, I finally got a chance to simulate a power failure and it did not switch to backup. I presume that means there is no power in the battery. This was on an office computer as I could not leave it out on the floor with intermittant failures.

I don't quite see how that relates to my situation though, as there were no power failures, so it should have been on mains power only. Maybe I don't understand how these units work.

Replacement batteries came this evening, so I swapped out the battery. I will let it charge over the weekend and do another simulation on Monday to see how that goes. If everything seems fine, I will put it back out on the floor to test.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

Disregard the last post, that was the wrong UPS. We have a few units with failing batteries at the moment.

The unit in question has been connected to a backup office pc in the IT room for a few days without issue. I tried unplugging it several times to see what would happen and it worked fine. Also tried booting the computer while it was unplugged and had no issues.

I plugged in a second computer and that machine would not boot properly (kept cycling half way through bootup). Looking at the product selector, thats probably too much load for the UPS. Interestingly it did not push the UPS into overload.

Replacement batteries came this evening, so I swapped out the battery. I will let it charge over the weekend and do another simulation on Monday to see how that goes and how long it lasts when unplugged.