APC says that an intermittent beep indicates the unit is working. Ok but it gets annoying after an hour going off every minute. This is the 1500 smart ups. Why. Tell me when it's not working otherwise save my ears and sanity. Any suggestions on how to silence it. Thanks going mad
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APC beep when all is good
- Thread starter garryper
- Start date
Solution
- May 29, 2013
- 38,525
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How old are the batteries? They are good for 3 to 5 years. If they are older than 3 years, they may be bad. Have you tried using the usb port and included software to see what the internal status is ?
Here is what the manufacturer says -- http://www.apc.com/us/en/faqs/FA158827/
Here is what the manufacturer says -- http://www.apc.com/us/en/faqs/FA158827/
This is a solution and fix for the "The battery in your battery backup is disconnected" problem that happens even when you replace the batteries for new ones. You will only know this if you have a PC attached and are running the APC PowerChute software. Otherwise all you get is a double-beep every other few minutes, even if apparently everything is well.
I have about 10 APC Back-UPS CS650 running for many years. Some weeks ago, two of them started that exact beeping, while lighting the red "replace battery" LED. I had other equipment attached so just assumed the battery needed replacement.
When the new batteries arrived and I replaced them, to my annoyance and surprise nothing changed.
I tested the batteries which I had bought on Amazon from a German supplier and they were OK.
And this is where my big quest for an answer started.
So, after trying everything in the book and contacting APC who want to sell me new UPSs, I found this link:
http://www.heime.org/post/17
Although it did not refer to my model APC CS-650 and the problem was different I put 1 and 1 together by reading through the many comments and came to the conclusion that electrolytic capacitors dry out over time and in these UPSs can cause significant problems.
I took my UPS apart (again, see the link above - can one not post pictures here?) and went looking for electrolytic capacitors. In the case of my board, I found the 22uF as C38 and also found a 470uF on C61. There were a couple of other smaller capacitors around the integrated circuit chips but I decided to leave those alone.
So I went and bought a 44uF, 63V, 105oCelcius (so twice the capacity and higher voltage rating) to replace the C38 and for good measure also replaced the C61 with the same 470uF 16V 105oC. A pack of five of each cost me a total of EUR1.50.
Not so easy to solder on a two sided PCB but with a good pair of reading glasses I eventually managed it and now guess what? Everything works like a charm, including with the old batteries which have a smaller capacity but enough to power my equipment for 15 to 20 minutes, i.e. they will last another year or two!
All batteries (new and old) pass the "Run self-test" in the APC PowerChute software.
Make sure before you disconnect all the cables you take a lot of pictures so you know where all the plugs go back in, although in this case the PCB has pretty good descriptions printed.
Assuming each UPS costs 100 bucks and I have 10 and they are all over 10 years old and sooner or later they will all fail, I saved myself EUR 1000 with a EUR1.5 expense!
This is a solution and fix for the "The battery in your battery backup is disconnected" problem that happens even when you replace the batteries for new ones.
Since the fault is a generic one, i.e. the electrolytic capacitors dry out and loose capacitance, it should apply to various models, maybe even to different brands.
Thanks to whoever is behind the heime.org page (Stig Vidar Hovland?).
Hope search engines get hold of this APC UPS fix and I can help as many people as possible.
I have about 10 APC Back-UPS CS650 running for many years. Some weeks ago, two of them started that exact beeping, while lighting the red "replace battery" LED. I had other equipment attached so just assumed the battery needed replacement.
When the new batteries arrived and I replaced them, to my annoyance and surprise nothing changed.
I tested the batteries which I had bought on Amazon from a German supplier and they were OK.
And this is where my big quest for an answer started.
So, after trying everything in the book and contacting APC who want to sell me new UPSs, I found this link:
http://www.heime.org/post/17
Although it did not refer to my model APC CS-650 and the problem was different I put 1 and 1 together by reading through the many comments and came to the conclusion that electrolytic capacitors dry out over time and in these UPSs can cause significant problems.
I took my UPS apart (again, see the link above - can one not post pictures here?) and went looking for electrolytic capacitors. In the case of my board, I found the 22uF as C38 and also found a 470uF on C61. There were a couple of other smaller capacitors around the integrated circuit chips but I decided to leave those alone.
So I went and bought a 44uF, 63V, 105oCelcius (so twice the capacity and higher voltage rating) to replace the C38 and for good measure also replaced the C61 with the same 470uF 16V 105oC. A pack of five of each cost me a total of EUR1.50.
Not so easy to solder on a two sided PCB but with a good pair of reading glasses I eventually managed it and now guess what? Everything works like a charm, including with the old batteries which have a smaller capacity but enough to power my equipment for 15 to 20 minutes, i.e. they will last another year or two!
All batteries (new and old) pass the "Run self-test" in the APC PowerChute software.
Make sure before you disconnect all the cables you take a lot of pictures so you know where all the plugs go back in, although in this case the PCB has pretty good descriptions printed.
Assuming each UPS costs 100 bucks and I have 10 and they are all over 10 years old and sooner or later they will all fail, I saved myself EUR 1000 with a EUR1.5 expense!
This is a solution and fix for the "The battery in your battery backup is disconnected" problem that happens even when you replace the batteries for new ones.
Since the fault is a generic one, i.e. the electrolytic capacitors dry out and loose capacitance, it should apply to various models, maybe even to different brands.
Thanks to whoever is behind the heime.org page (Stig Vidar Hovland?).
Hope search engines get hold of this APC UPS fix and I can help as many people as possible.
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