I was sitting at my desk yesterday during a storm when there was a
split-second power outage. Despite the fact that my battery shows all 5
lights lit, the computer died.

Is there a better brand to use than APC? Can the battery be sub-par
even though the test lights say it is OK? What have others of you chosen?

Thanks
Ken K

kenk wrote:
> I was sitting at my desk yesterday during a storm when there was a
> split-second power outage. Despite the fact that my battery shows all 5
> lights lit, the computer died.
>
> Is there a better brand to use than APC? Can the battery be sub-par
> even though the test lights say it is OK? What have others of you chosen?

I've tried so many different UPSes that I've given up on them. None of
them last long, and none of them are guaranteed to save you from a power
outage. Worthless pieces of garbage, they are.

Yousuf Khan

On or about Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:52:39 -0400 did Yousuf Khan
<(E-Mail Removed)> dribble thusly:

>kenk wrote:
>> I was sitting at my desk yesterday during a storm when there was a
>> split-second power outage. Despite the fact that my battery shows all 5
>> lights lit, the computer died.
>>
>> Is there a better brand to use than APC? Can the battery be sub-par
>> even though the test lights say it is OK? What have others of you chosen?
>
>I've tried so many different UPSes that I've given up on them. None of
>them last long, and none of them are guaranteed to save you from a power
>outage. Worthless pieces of garbage, they are.

If you spend nothing on them, that's certainly true. Don't fault the
technology if you can't spec out the appropriate unit. I have everything
sensitive on a UPS, including my computers, external drives, and even my TiVo.

Power outages of less than several minutes don't affect me. I generally shut
things down after about three minutes, because in my area, that usually means
the power will be out for a couple of hours (typically because some idiot
driving in the rain took out a power pole).

You probably bought cheap, undersized units, which is why you've come to your
erroneous conclusion.

On or about Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:41:55 -0700 did kenk <(E-Mail Removed)>
dribble thusly:

>I was sitting at my desk yesterday during a storm when there was a
>split-second power outage. Despite the fact that my battery shows all 5
>lights lit, the computer died.
>
>Is there a better brand to use than APC? Can the battery be sub-par
>even though the test lights say it is OK? What have others of you chosen?

Your "died" is pretty vague. It's possible there was a surge that exceeded
the suppression ability of the UPS. It's also possible that your computer's
power requirements exceed the capacity of the UPS. The value varies, but
typically the number of watts the unit can supply is 60% of the VA value.

On 2009-10-14, kenk <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
> I was sitting at my desk yesterday during a storm when there was a
> split-second power outage. Despite the fact that my battery shows all 5
> lights lit, the computer died.

APC is pretty much the cream of the crop, but of course you have to match
the capabilities and capacity to your requirements. Also bear in mind that
batteries typically last only a few years at best, you have to change them
or buy a new UPS at regular intervals. (And of course every manufacturer
will have the occasional "lemon.")

--
Roger Blake
(Subtract 10s for email. "Google Groups" messages killfiled due to spam.)
"Obama dozed while people froze."

Ian D wrote
> kenk <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote

>> I was sitting at my desk yesterday during a storm when there was a split-second power outage. Despite the fact that
>> my battery shows all 5 lights lit, the computer died.

>> Is there a better brand to use than APC? Can the battery be sub-par
>> even though the test lights say it is OK? What have others of you chosen?

> I would be looking at your PC's power supply. There is a very
> brief delay between the loss of power, and the UPS switchover
> to battery power.

Not with continuous UPSs, there is no delay at all with those.

Essentially the PC is running off the UPS output all the time and
the only thing that changes with the mains failure is that the UPS
isnt being charged anymore and runs off the battery instead.

> The PC power supply should hold during
> this period. Before I had a UPS, a split-second power outage
> would cause clocks to lose their time, etc., sometimes, even
> my monitor would blink, but the computer would hold without
> a glitch. If you want to test your UPS, pull the power cord with
> a load on the UPS.

Hi!

Yousuf Khan wrote:
> kenk wrote:
>>
>> Is there a better brand to use than APC? Can the battery be sub-par
>> even though the test lights say it is OK? What have others of you
>> chosen?
>
> I've tried so many different UPSes that I've given up on them. None of
> them last long, and none of them are guaranteed to save you from a power
> outage. Worthless pieces of garbage, they are.

Next time you want to press the "send" button, please, re-read and
re-think again.

With best regards,

Iggy

Hi!

kenk wrote:
> I was sitting at my desk yesterday during a storm when there was a
> split-second power outage. Despite the fact that my battery shows all 5
> lights lit, the computer died.

There might be several problems which can be the reason of that behaviour.

> Is there a better brand to use than APC? Can the battery be sub-par
> even though the test lights say it is OK? What have others of you chosen?

APC is OK brand. I would not call it the best, and also, you probably
have line-interactive UPS. The problem is that such a UPS can not
eliminate all of the problems, and also, some power supplies are not
working well with that king of UPS (I've heard about problems with
certain Chieftek PSs).

Best regards,

Iggy

On Oct 15, 12:41*am, Mike Ruskai
<BUTthann...@DONTearthlinkLIKE.netSPAM> wrote:
> You probably bought cheap, undersized units, which is why you've come to your
> erroneous conclusion.

Is not being able to hold a charge after only one year considered
junky enough? I bought a power supply appropriate for a home
environment, if I could afford to build a computer room with an AC/UPS
with alarm monitoring system in it, I would've done so, but not within
my budget, nor most people's budgets.

Yousuf Khan

Ian D wrote
> Rod Speed <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote
>> Ian D wrote
>>> kenk <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote

>>>> I was sitting at my desk yesterday during a storm when there was a
>>>> split-second power outage. Despite the fact that my battery shows
>>>> all 5 lights lit, the computer died.

>>>> Is there a better brand to use than APC? Can the battery be
>>>> sub-par even though the test lights say it is OK? What have
>>>> others of you chosen?

>>> I would be looking at your PC's power supply. There is a very
>>> brief delay between the loss of power, and the UPS switchover
>>> to battery power.

>> Not with continuous UPSs, there is no delay at all with those.

>> Essentially the PC is running off the UPS output all the time and
>> the only thing that changes with the mains failure is that the UPS
>> isnt being charged anymore and runs off the battery instead.

> That's correct, and those units are the ones with true sine wave output,

Nope, the type of output is an entirely separate issue.

> and are relatively expensive.

Not anymore with continuous or online UPSs.

> I was assuming that the OP was using a regular, run of the mill APC UPS.

There's plenty of continuous/online consumer grade UPSs now.

>>> The PC power supply should hold during
>>> this period. Before I had a UPS, a split-second power outage
>>> would cause clocks to lose their time, etc., sometimes, even
>>> my monitor would blink, but the computer would hold without
>>> a glitch. If you want to test your UPS, pull the power cord with
>>> a load on the UPS.