This can't be right

[Anonymous user]

This is now the third time I've had an APC SmartUPS 1500 say it's time to get a new battery. This in itself wouldn't be a problem. But every time this happens, ALL power to my computers is cut and I lose all of my work. This seems like the opposite of what a decent UPS should do. Also, after rebooting, my desktop was sending me messages every two seconds saying I needed to shut down immediately because the battery was at a critical level. Even if that was true, why would it not assume I could still use AC power? Those messages finally stopped after about 15 minutes and I notice the UPS seems to be slowly recharging. I really hope that something on my end is misconfigured because this can't be the way it's supposed to work.

[Anonymous user]

This is now the third time I've had an APC SmartUPS 1500 say it's time to get a new battery. This in itself wouldn't be a problem. But every time this happens, ALL power to my computers is cut and I lose all of my work. This seems like the opposite of what a decent UPS should do. Also, after rebooting, my desktop was sending me messages every two seconds saying I needed to shut down immediately because the battery was at a critical level. Even if that was true, why would it not assume I could still use AC power? Those messages finally stopped after about 15 minutes and I notice the UPS seems to be slowly recharging. I really hope that something on my end is misconfigured because this can't be the way it's supposed to work.

[BillP]

you're right - it shouldnt happen like this.

Can you give us the exact model of UPS? We have several Smart UPS 1500 - this information should be on the back of the UPS on the white sticker i.e. SUA1500.

Are you using an APC Network Management Card (where you see these messages) or PowerChute Business Edition (PCBE)? If PCBE, is it via a serial or USB cable? It'd also be helpful to see the event log from either the Network Management Card or PCBE. Based on your description, I am thinking this is PowerChute Business Edition but I just want to verify.

How much runtime on the UPS is reported? I am wondering if the software is configured to shutdown based on low runtime (which can be caused by battery issues) or something else is configured to cause a shutdown or warn you but we need to know what you're working with first to help.

[Anonymous user]

It is in fact an SUA1500. I don't see any APC software on my machine but I'm using the USB port. I'm not sure how to access any of the things you mention, such as the event log and runtime. It's a pretty minimal setup from what I recall.

[BillP]

What Operating System is on your computer? Perhaps you are utilizing the Native OS support although I did not think that could indicate it was type for a replacement battery. Can you provide any screenshots or anything so we can figure out where those alerts are coming from? I am not sure if that is possible if there are no more alerts popping up but where you see the battery is charging may be helpful and give me the answer. Depending on where they are coming from, then you may or may not be able to see the rest of that information I asked for.

[Anonymous user]

I'm running XP Professional, Service Pack 3. There haven't been any messages on my screen since the incident took place and the UPS shows 5 green lights under "battery charge" but the red light for "replace battery" is on. The messages I had been getting were coming from XP and were urging me to turn off my computer because the battery was critical (it was basically acting like a laptop which was strange behavior for a desktop that's plugged in). Under "power options" in my Control Panel, I've since disabled the "low battery alarm" and the "critical battery alarm" that were sending the warnings at power levels of 10% and 3% respectively. If I check "power status" I see the "current power source" is AC and the "total battery power remaining" is 100%. When this happened, that number was at or near zero. While the computer didn't turn off while all of the warnings were flashing, it did turn off at the moment the red light came on on the UPS. I hope this information proves helpful. Thanks for looking into this.

[BillP]

OK, thanks.

So there was no apparent power outage during the time the messages came up? I can only guess at what happened but it sounds like it is also time for a replacement UPS battery indicated by the solid replace battery LED. Perhaps your UPS did a self test while you were using your computer (and the battery needs replacing) so the messages came up because the battery is getting older and can't support the UPS load too well anymore. This would cause the charge to drop rapidly as you saw and potentially cause the percentage to do a drastic drop from 100% to 0-10% within a few seconds. A UPS self test, for reference, puts the UPS on battery for 15-30 seconds typically to ensure everything is within spec. If the test fails, then the replace battery LED is illuminated like it sounds like happened to you. This is designed to help verify battery operation so the self test did its job it appears.

[Anonymous user]

Yes, but the part that concerns me (and which has happened before) is that power is cut to my computer when this event occurs, which seems to me to be the opposite of what a UPS should do. I expect if the battery reaches the point where the "replace" light comes on, or even if it were to fail, that I would still have access to AC power.

[BillP · Accepted solution]

A UPS is designed to a do a self test bi-weekly by default to test battery operation. If the battery needs replacing for one reason or another, this could happen depending on the failure of the lead acid battery. Typically, this does not happen though. Because the self test happens every two weeks, it should catch the failure earlier than this so that this behavior does not happen. Depending on the battery's chemical characteristics, environment, etc this does happen once in a while though.

I understand what you're saying though as well.