UPS ES 350 not protecting desktop

[Anonymous user]

I had a couple power outs and the whole computer shut down, I've lost 2 sata ports on the mobo as a result and another one just occured. To make things worse, when I power on the PC, it powers on, then almost shuts back down the fully powers on. Like a spike or something in my power supply.

I'm scared to use my desktop at this point, I have a quad 6600 at 3.6 with a 8800gt.

When I check the UPS software it says everything is fine, estimate 66 minutes remaining and so forth but it doesn't protect anything at all, what's the problem with this?

[BillP]

to begin, this unit is probably severely undersized for your computer. a 350VA UPS provides about 180 watts of power and I am sure your processor alone has the capability to pull that, nevermind when you are using it for a lot of processing, playing games, etc

what size is your power supply? it sounds like the UPS is going to battery and there is a high load on the UPS so it just turns off because it cant provide runtime. the 66 minutes runtime when the UPS is online is an estimate and probably not that accurate..it should be relatively accurate but sometimes its not if its never gotten the chance to go battery and sort of calibrate itself.

you probably want to find out the wattage of all the devices plugged into this UPS because as I mentioned before, it sounds severely undersized for what you are using. unfortunately, this model does not have the capability to tell us the power draw on your equipment as some of the other models do.

have you heard any noises from the UPS?

[Anonymous user]

cosair 620.

The APC battery says everything is fine but it beeps often.

I will assume my pc is too powerful for this APC.

Please advise on what APC I should use to go with my system.

The battery seems dead, it says I need to replace but then it works fine again.

[BillP]

okay, so is this 620 watts?

we need to find out the power draw of everything you want to plug into this then take into account how much on battery runtime you need. to begin, i'd probably start looking a minimum of something like a BR900 or a BX1300LCD to start but can't be sure till we find out how much your actual power draw is. assuming the max the system can pull is 620 watts, you probably have a monitor and a couple of other things?

usually the power draw is stamped on the devices or you can find them on the manufacturers website some place.

[Anonymous user]

Even not knowing exectly how much power his computer draws from the UPS, it's very clear to me that his UPS is overload or about to get to.

When just suffing the net, writting an e-mail or something like that, won't make the computer draw too much power, but when you run a game, encode a video or something like that, I'm almost certain it will go past 180W.

The behavior described is typical of an overloaded UPS. When you turn on electronics, like computers, TVs, etc. there is a current peak also know as inrush current. When the UPS is overloaded it is not abble to release the amount of power the PSU requires and an undervoltage happens at the UPS output and your equipment kinda shuts off, then it turns back on again because now the PSU is partially energized and the peak current required is not that big. This kind of behaviour is not healthy for your equipment, a I advise you buying a bigger unit, like the 1300LCD or thr 1500LCD to be abble to plug or your equipment on it.

Message was edited by: rau

Message was edited by: rau

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

The only thing plugged into my UPS is the desktop, monitor, printer are plugged into a common surge protector.