UPS shut down in the night but then seems ok

[Anonymous user]

I have an APC Back UPS 650 Pro that's been sitting in storage for a couple of years. The battery was still charged when I checked with a meter, and the ups powered up right away. I plugged my computer into it with just the CPU tower on the battery backed-up outlet, and my other peripherals on the surge suppressed outlets (cpu is 2008 era 8-core Mac Pro).

Everything seemed fine. The machine stayed on overnight while it was completing a download, but in the morning the machine was off, without power. On the ups, both the power and the battery lights were blinking.

I was able to turn the ups on again with no trouble, and the computer powered up just fine. Since then I've looked at the PDF of the ups's manual and it suggests this was an "internal fault."

Any thoughts? The idea was to have uninteruptable power, not auto-interrupting power!

Thanks for any help.

[Anonymous user]

So ... should I consider this thing a doorstop, or is there any troubleshooting I should perform?

[BillP]

you could braindead the unit to start and see if it comes back. to do that, turn off and remove any load and disconnect the battery. hold down the power button for 5-10 seconds and then reconnect everything. if it still does it, then i'd have to assume there is an internal fault.

not sure if we will be able to specifically tell what the issue is - perhaps a relay weld or something while transferring between on battery and online in the middle of the night?

is the exact model (on the back or bottom of the UPS) BP650S or something else? please let us know that as well. thanks!

[Anonymous user]

Thanks, I'll take a look and try that when I get home.

[Anonymous user]

Ok, so the thing stayed on all day without issues. Still for good measure I "brain deaded" it according to your instructions. It came online again fine.

But then I tested it by unplugging the apc from wall. In the past when I've done this it's chirped and kicked into batter backup as expected. This time it just removed power from the computer. No alarm, nothing. Upon plugging back in, it made a shrill, repetitive beeping sound with the power and battery lights blinking yellow. During this cacaphony, a lamp that I had plugged into a protected outlet flashed on and off (I'm glad the computer had powered down at this point.

Pushing the power button restored the apc to normal looking operation, but there's still no backup power.

The model number is
bp6505

And the serial is
fb9835004039

Right now I have nothing plugged into the "protected" outlets. I'm using it as a glorified surge suppressor until I can either get it working or move it to door-stop duty.

[voidstar_apc]

>
I have an APC Back UPS 650 Pro that's been sitting in storage for a couple of years.
>

Would I be correct in guessing that it wasn't plugged in while in storage, and the battery was inside the UPS? If so, the battery is almost certainly dead.

[Anonymous user]

It wasn't plugged in. I measured about 13 volts on the battery's terminals after taking it out of storage.

The battery has since had over 24 hours to fully charge. Could it still be dead?

And could the symptoms I described be attributed to a dead battery? Wouldn't the unit just alert me specifically to a battery problem?

Dead battery would be great news ... that's easy to fix. But I don't want to buy a new battery to put into a dead UPS.

[voidstar_apc]

>
And could the symptoms I described be attributed to a dead battery? Wouldn't the unit just alert me specifically to a battery problem?
>

Based on the "internal fault" indicator, you're probably right that it's more than just the battery.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

Anyone?