"Unable to communicate with your battery backup" Error

[Anonymous user]

I just built a new computer at home and am powering it off an APC Back-UPS ES 450 device with PowerChute 3.0.2 software installed. I never had any problems with my previous computer, but with this machine I'm I frequently get the error message that the computer is "Unable to communicate with your battery backup". The window usually pops up as a windows dialog box in the lower right corner and disappears. Normally, opening the PowerChute application does show that it's able to see the UPS. On one occasion, opening the application did lead to no data being shown but a reboot fixed that issue.

I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the PowerChute software to no avail. I've tried moving the USB cord going into the computer to different UPS ports thinking that a bad USB port might be causing the problem (I am plugging direct from the APC to the back of the machine - no hubs are involved), but that also didn't make a difference.

If I remove the PowerChute software, windows is able to see the UPS just fine as a HID USB device. I'm at a loss as to what to check next or what the problem might be. Any thoughts?

[BillP]

It is nice to hear that everything works well on your end.

[BillP · Accepted solution]

Arthur,

Have you tried using a different computer already? If not, I suggest that we try that as well. Can you please let us know what is being detected on the Device Manager whenever you plug in the UPS through the USB slot and what Operating Systems were you using?

[Anonymous user]

JonPro,

There was my an older computer connected to the APC before this one that didn't seem to have this issue. I only noticed it with this newer machine.

According to the device manager, under "Batteries" it shows "APC UPS". I'm running Windows 7 (64-bit version).

I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the USB drivers for the motherboard (it has all USB 3.0 ports based off a VIA chipset). I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the PowerChute 3.0.2 software to no avail. I've moved the physical USB connection around on the back of the computer to try different ports, but it doesn't seem to help.

On my old machine (also running Windows 7 64-bit), it seemed to work just fine so I'm hesitant to say it's fault with the UPS/software per se. Then again, all of my other USB devices on this computer (of which there are... 6 total) are working without any issues except for the UPS, so there is something unique to the way this computer is talking to that device.

Let me know if I can provide any other information that might help.

Thanks!

[BillP]

One thing that I saw from your post is USB 3.0, is there a possibility that we can set this to a lower version? Our BackUPS uses USB 1.0 which has a slower speed than the USB 3.0. Another thing is removing all of your USB devices and then keep the UPS connected, this way the USB communication is solely owned by the UPS. If you have high speed USB devices chances are it causes the UPS communication to drop since it is based on a much more slower speed which could cause intermittent communication.

Hope this helps.

[Anonymous user]

I don't think I want to slow those ports down in case I do start using USB 3.0 devices. But I did find an old USB PCI bracket that lets me plug into some open USB headers on the motherboard giving me two more USB 2.0 ports (and Intel based ones at that).

I'll have to let it run for a while to see if I continue to see the problems that I was seeing before. I'll report back in a couple of days. Thanks!

[BillP]

Let's hope for the best and do keep us posted with the results.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

Well, I haven't seen that error message since. So the problem was seemingly caused by having the APC plugged into those USB 3.0 ports.

Thank you, JonPro, for your help!