Question UPS cuts power even though electricity is still running

[Draggs]

I've read some that says cheaper UPS will have trouble with APFC PSU, then some again that says modern UPS/PSU should have no trouble with the type of sine wave. I've also read from some that the only ones that care for pure sine waves are motors. There's also some that says there are just some incompatibility with some UPS & PSU brand but there's no specific list to help and such.

In any case, I just bought a new UPS (HIKVISION DS-UPS1000) in the hopes to have some time to shut my PC down when there's a power outage. I live in a place where power outage are still a thing, although only seldomly. But even when electricity is still running just fine in my home, when I'm playing a game (or when I tried to do a high load activity like a benchmark, did this to test the UPS once) the UPS just cuts the power sometime later. It's not immediate, sometimes happens after an hour of gaming. But then it defeats the purpose of the UPS. I had a better time gaming when plugging my PC through the wall since wall outlets won't cut the power to my PC like that, but then it defeats the purpose of the newly bought UPS. I know for a fact it's not overloading since the UPS also had an overload indicator and never once when it cuts power it'd have any indications (whether from LEDs or beeping). Also I only plug a monitor and my PC with this spec:

CPU: i5-9400F
CPU cooler: stock
Motherboard: MSI H310I PRO (bios 7B80v1A)
Ram: Klevv 8x2 GB DDR4 2666
SSD/HDD: Ballista ADV 2280 512GB, Seagate Barracuda 1TB
GPU: RTX 2080
PSU: Seasonic Focus Plus Gold 550w (5yo)
Chassis: Cougar QBX
OS: Win 11
Monitor: Xiaomi A27i

I'm pretty sure this spec won't even reach the rated wattage on the UPS. I've read some things again that say it might be a voltage problem, but it's beyond my limited understanding, which is why I'm seeking for help from people smarter than me. I want to ask, is there anything I can do without spending much more buying a PSW UPS? Like, maybe buy a stabilizer? Just to make sure the UPS won't cut the power to my PC when gaming, when the wall is still running fine. Or did I just waste a good amount of money buying a UPS I can't even use? I'd be pretty sad if that's the case. Maybe I should've consulted here before buying one.

 

[JohnBonhamsGhost]

i've had it happen multiple times over the years with my CyberPower UPS.

have never found any definite cause;
happens even when my PC is shutdown so it's nothing to do with PSU compatibility,
happens other times when nothing connected is powered on at all,
doesn't matter if the USB charging cables are connected or not so it actually has nothing to do with wattage or internal battery status.

i've heard from ~20 different users with different branded models running in different scenarios that claim the same or very similar happening with them.

as long as this UPS works as it should when the power goes out,
i'd just take it as a possible issue many of us have to deal with some of the time.

 

[BFG-9000]

It's not unusual for a UPS to occasionally self-test its battery by switching the load to battery while there is still line power. If this load is within the capabilities of the UPS but excessive for the condition of the battery, then it would just switch off as the battery voltage collapses below 10v without tripping any overload light. After all the only problem is the battery got exhausted.

Your DS-UPS1000 is a 1000VA UPS rated for "600w" but if you look at the specs more closely, a 300w load is only supposed to run for 2 minutes on it. Your PC uses about 400w while gaming, plus your 24w monitor and any speakers. Assuming 70% efficiency, this is a 50A load from the poor 12v 9Ah lead-acid battery in it which is more than a 5C load. 600w would be even worse, pulling about 70A out of such a tiny battery so you would expect it to drop to 10v under load almost immediately and shutoff. Lead-acid has so much internal resistance that at such loads most of the battery's energy would simply be dissipated as heat, explaining the terrible factory runtime estimate. More reputable UPS companies usually at least give you 5-7min at max load, rather than a ridiculous 2min at half-load.

So the battery in your UPS is probably grossly undersized or even defective (which sadly isn't uncommon nowadays). You could test this by replacing the included battery with a car battery--but be aware that UPS is only rated to not overheat by 2 minutes of runtime, so greatly extending this may require more airflow to avoid overheating failure.

 

[Draggs]

It's not unusual for a UPS to occasionally self-test its battery by switching the load to battery while there is still line power. If this load is within the capabilities of the UPS but excessive for the condition of the battery, then it would just switch off as the battery voltage collapses below 10v without tripping any overload light. After all the only problem is the battery got exhausted.

Your DS-UPS1000 is a 1000VA UPS rated for "600w" but if you look at the specs more closely, a 300w load is only supposed to run for 2 minutes on it. Your PC uses about 400w while gaming, plus your 24w monitor and any speakers. Assuming 70% efficiency, this is a 50A load from the poor 12v 9Ah lead-acid battery in it which is more than a 5C load. 600w would be even worse, pulling about 70A out of such a tiny battery so you would expect it to drop to 10v under load almost immediately and shutoff. Lead-acid has so much internal resistance that at such loads most of the battery's energy would simply be dissipated as heat, explaining the terrible factory runtime estimate. More reputable UPS companies usually at least give you 5-7min at max load, rather than a ridiculous 2min at half-load.

So the battery in your UPS is probably grossly undersized or even defective (which sadly isn't uncommon nowadays). You could test this by replacing the included battery with a car battery--but be aware that UPS is only rated to not overheat by 2 minutes of runtime, so greatly extending this may require more airflow to avoid overheating failure.

If I'm understanding you correctly, the problem comes from the battery not being as honestly advertised and it should work if I change it to a car battery? Sorry, I'm still new to this. Is there something to look for when swapping the battery out? or the type of the car battery I should look for?

I've talked to the seller (since it's still under warranty) and they told me they'd bring this up with HQ, so I'm still waiting updates from them for now.

 

[BFG-9000]

The Hikvision UPS is intended for their DVR camera systems and not something like a gaming PC despite their claimed specs which suggest it might work.

To give you an idea of how undersized its battery is, APC brand UPSes use a 12v 9Ah battery in up to their 650VA/400w models and any reasonable actual 1000VA UPS will instead use two 12v lead-acid batteries in series for a 24v system so the amperage draw can be cut in half to not stress the battery so badly. A car battery will be more like 100Ah, so 50A would only be a 0.5C load and the battery wouldn't even get warm. But if they cheaped out on the battery, what else did they skimp on?

With a good new factory battery, your UPS should be good for a 150w load for 15 minutes or a 200w load for 11 minutes. If you can return it, do so because it's not sized correctly for your PC. If you wanted to bodge together a car battery setup then it only makes sense to get a used brand-name UPS locally with a dead battery since they are so heavy that they are difficult to sell online and their resale value is very low. I am still using old pure sinewave 3000VA APC UPSes that I bought used for US$12.50 each 20 years ago. They weigh 56kg which is more than 10x as much as your lightweight unit but are only rated for 3x the output. But then they really can supply their rated output.

 

[bill001g]

It all depends if the UPS is actually running on the battery.

Most UPS will only use the battery when there is no wall power. Some slightly better ones will use some battery power to boost the power if the voltage drops low but there is still power coming into the house. I do not think your UPS has this feature.

There are issues with some power supplies running them on a non pure sine wave UPS. This though many times causes the power supply to turn off not the UPS. This likely does not apply because when you are running normally the power is being passed through from the wall and is pure sine wave. Only when it switches to battery do you get the simulated sine wave.

If you manually test it by unplugging it does it at last a minute or two. It should be more than just a few seconds you are seeing.

If it fails almost immediately that is a indicator of a defective battery.

You have to be careful about connecting other larger batteries. Of course this will void and warranty. The main issue is the circuits used to charge the batteries and the ones used to create the AC voltages are not really designed to support more battery capacity. The issue is the electronic parts get hotter when they are operating. They may only be able to run for a certain number of minutes without taking damage. When you have more battery they might exceed this limit.