Hi,
I was awoken this morning by a super high pitched continuous screaming of my computer UPS. We did not have a power outage.
What does it mean? I’ve tried Googling this and got different and unhelp answers, except one possibility that the battery is low and I need a new UPS.
I didn’t know how to stop the screaming except by turning off the UPS, which I did. But that shut off my computer which shut down all the programs that were open! With no power outage, why would the computer shut down? Turning the UPS off shouldn’t take away the regular house power from the computer, should it? That’s a bad design.
Why does it seem to be working now, after turning it back on? It’s not screaming anymore and it appears to be on.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Rick
The life expectancy for most UPC batteries runs 3-5 years. Yours is beyond that. Its probably a factor of the charging of the batteries that are end of life. That unit is $59 on amazon and that seems pretty cheap to just replace. You could also replace the batteries if ;you are handy with this type of task. HTH…doc
Thanks, that’s what I was thinking - just replace it.
Any idea, though, why my computer shut down when there was house power? The whole point of a UPS is to avoid that, so it’s a bummer that that happens when the UPS battery gets low, even when there isn’t a power outage.
Thanks for your input.
A UPS often has two types of plugs - one set just filtered, but not on the battery and the other which is on the battery. There are a couple different versions of “on”, but most often the power is actually coming from the battery. So, yes, shut off the battery and down goes the computer. The idea of the UPS is to give you time to nicely shut down the computer when the line power has gone,
No clue on the screaming, but I’ll bet it is end of life. Turning it off gave it a little rest, but expect it to happen again. You might ask the manufacturer … and some of them will take back the battery for recycling.
So all day long, 24/7 for years, the power for my computer is coming from the UPS battery? It seems like the battery would die in no time in that case! I thought the battery power kicked in only in a power outage, to give me time to shut down my computer manually.
That is the point of a UPS, so it seems like there should be a way to silence the screaming noise without turning off the UPS and thus shutting down the computer, which is what the UPS is supposed to avoid!
Have you read the manual? My UBS in its default settings has an audio alert when the wall power is off. It has an alert when the battery is bad - it has enough smarts to test the battery periodically and tell me the battery is near its end of life. (My brands is APC and when it says battery is near end of life, believe it.)
Any UPS that that lists at $59 in my opinion is too small - it will not power both my computer and my screen for even 15 minutes. I don’t believe if being penny wise and pound foolish. I have also learned getting an off brand should be viewed with serious caution. Do look at the cost of and availabilty of replacement batteries. The battery is the most expensive part of the system - often over 50%.
Right. There are “standby” UPSes and “line interactive” ones. Only the line interactive type have the UPS battery powering the computer all the time. Since yours is a “standby” model, it doesn’t do that. Amazon sells both types which can be seen at your link.
I’ve had this Amazon one for 6 years and it has worked fine. I just ordered another one. The 600 seems big enough for me. My wife’s 400 one is NOT big enough, so I need to get her one also.
I’ll study the manual when I get the new one. I have a bad habit of not really reading manuals!
OK, so mine is NOT of the type that is powered by the battery at all times. Good. I think. So I’m still wondering why my computer went down when I shut the UPS off.
I ordered a new one and will study the manual this time!
The screaming is an alarm. I’m supposing a warning that the battery is getting very low. It is 6 years old afterall. From what I can tell, the Amazon one I bought is rated for 3 years, so I got a lot out of this one!
This cut the power TO THE UPS BOX. Without any power coming in, and the battery down, of course the computer had no power.
It might be interesting to experiment. Since it is now working, or pretending to, with nothing of importance running on the computer, you might unplug the UPS from the wall and see what happens. Will it keep the computer up? For how long?
If you an experiment keep in mind a computer uses less power doing nothing than when saving documents, reading files, etc.
I the real world generally the power goes off for the whole house - so if you happen to have the UPS and your computer both on the same circuit, just flip that breaker.
If connected to the Controlled outlet on the UPS, it normally uses the incoming AC, but there is a second cable, likely connected to a USB port on your computer, that triggers a graceful shutdown of your computer, with the UPS providing AC power from it’s battery & inverter to hold it up as long as it can, it’s a relay/switch in the UPS that does it. If your PC wasn’t plugged in the Controlled port, it will not be held up by the battery, and just collapse… Some systems can show the charge status of the UPS battery, let you set the time until shutdown… I’ve replaced the battery on my UPS, it’s simply an unplug, the +/- leads, plug in the new one…
This is what it looks like on my Mac, & my wife’s iMac… Hard to seem but it’s a 5 minute setting here…
I did your experiment just now, after the UPS started the high pitched noise again.
I unplugged the UPS and the computer just shut down. Is that because the UPS battery is too low?
When I get my new UPS, I’ll try it then. The computer should NOT shut down, right? That’s the whole point of it. Unplugging the UPS is like simulating a power outage, in which case the UPS should keep the computer running until I can shut it down manually after closing the programs. Right?
OR, the computer isn’t plugged in the right ‘Master’ or ‘Controlled’ outlet on the UPS… I’ve used these 750s a long time, replaced the battery in one a couple years ago…
Mine seems to just have two types of outlets: battery backup/surge protection and just surge protection. I don’t see a “master”. Unless it’s just not labeled as such.
What is the difference w/the “master” outlet?
The Master outlet, I believe, have to look at the manual, is for the primary computer where the data cable from the UPS is connected, the Controlled outlets are for peripheral items you want to stay up in a power failure, like external drives, router, etc… All the others aren’t protected… Outages they just drop, but the Master & Controlled should stay up as long as the battery is able to keep the inverter running… While in that AC fail mode the alarm is whining, so when we do have a middle of the night power failure I have to go to each UPS, and shut it down to kill the beeping… But by that time the system has shut down, as I leave my computers on 24/7, normally… Haven’t lost any data yet, or computers…
Big TV I just have a Monster, line conditioner on it, protecting it from pikes, low voltages… No need for a UPS…
I’ll have to look at the manual when I get my replacement UPS. It doesn’t say “Master” on any of the outlets, but maybe it’s just not labelled.
We have a whole house generator, so my UPS is just to keep the computer from shutting down during the few seconds it takes for the power to switch over from PGE to the generator.
