PowerChute PE does not shut down WHS 2011

[Anonymous user]

I just purchased a BE550G. I've installed PowerChute Personal Edition 3.0.2 on my Windows Home Server 2011 box and the UPS is plugged in via USB.

I have set PCPE to "preserve battery power" and shut down after 4 minutes.

When I run a test by unplugging the UPS, the "time until shutdown" counts down appropriately from 4 minutes to 1 minute. Then it goes to "<1 minute" and stays there. I ran a stopwatch and it sat there at "<1 minute" for 5 minutes without doing anything. Total time on battery was almost 10 minutes before I plugged the UPS back in.

What's going on here?

[Anonymous user]

We actually just had a blackout, and it looks like my PC went into sleep mode 4 minutes after the power went down. I assume the fact that I was logged in via RDP prevented it from going to sleep.

I don't want it to go to sleep though. I want it to actually shut down. I don't see an option for that in PCPE.

[BillP]

This thread might help - http://forums.apc.com/spaces/4/back-ups-surge-protectors/forums/general/4171/940-0272a-as-rs232/1#24...

[Anonymous user]

Ahh I think I see. I disabled hibernation using "powercfg -h off" and will see if that solves the problem. I'll update tonight when I get home. Thank you.

[Anonymous user]

Looks like that worked! Thanks.

Now I'm puzzling over how the UPS turns the PC back on after regaining power.

[voidstar_apc]

>
My BIOS is set up to bring the PC back to the last power state upon power restoration.

That shouldn't come into play though. PowerChute initiates a complete shutdown, bringing the power state of the PC to off. The UPS maintains power to the plug continuously. So when the UPS is plugged back in, how does the PC get turned on?
>

The UPS will cycle the output power off and then on to turn the computer back on.

It will only do this after PowerChute tells the UPS that it is shutting down the computer, and after the computer has had enough time to safely shut down.

If you unplug the USB cable, PowerChute will not shut down the computer and the UPS will stay on until the battery is depleted.

>
The PC did in fact turn back on when I plugged the UPS back into the wall, despite the fact that the UPS had plenty of battery left and the PC was fully shut down.
>

Sounds like the system worked.

[Anonymous user]

Ah, I didn't realize the UPS will cycle the power. It makes sense now.

Yes, the system is working to my satisfaction now. Thank you.

[BillP]

You'll need to setup your computer BIOS to wake up the PC when power gets restored. You can view an article from our FAQ/KBase to learn more about it, I have posted the link below. Once you are on the FAQ page, search for FA159550.

[APC FAQ|www.apc.com/site/support/index.cfm/faq/]

[Anonymous user]

My BIOS is set up to bring the PC back to the last power state upon power restoration.

That shouldn't come into play though. PowerChute initiates a complete shutdown, bringing the power state of the PC to off. The UPS maintains power to the plug continuously. So when the UPS is plugged back in, how does the PC get turned on?

Note that I expected the PC to stay off when I plugged the UPS back in After all, how would the PC even know? The PSU sees continuous power throughout the whole process. Maybe it powers on via USB? I'll have to check the BIOS settings to see if there's something about that.

The PC did in fact turn back on when I plugged the UPS back into the wall, despite the fact that the UPS had plenty of battery left and the PC was fully shut down.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

Any ideas?