Uninterruptible power supply

Kimitar

Kimitar

New member
I bought a UPS a while ago for the express purpose of protecting my computer from power failures, and for the first time today, my PC was running when a power failure occurred. I have it plugged into my UPS, but it did not prevent the computer from being turned off. As far as I could tell, it seemed to go into its battery mode about a second after the power was cut, thus not actually preventing the PC from switching off, as intended.

Is this normal? Have I wasted my money here, or is there something I'm missing?

Any help is appreciated.
 
Cheap UPSs sometimes aren't fast enough. Or if you bought one that is too small then it can't supply enough power.

The quality of the PSU also seems to be a factor...the high end ones can gloss over more sketchy things.

What UPS is it?
 
Ask them to swop it for this:

http://www.incredible.co.za/product/79021/meissner-1200va-ups/

plus a voucher for the price difference. Its a smaller unit...but a better brand imo. And seeing how the current one is a dud any change is progress imo.

Be sure to get the required cables and software too - very NB for UPSs since you want your PC to communicate with it and shut down cleanly if the UPS is about to die.

Be polite and friendly with IC staff - this is not their fault - but be insistent that this swop is happening. And throw a (loud public) tantrum if things are not going well. (NB this assumes you bought the unit recently - if you bought it long ago then throwing a tantrum would be a d1ck move).

And for future reference...don't buy from IC. Unless you know what you're doing you're at a serious risk of getting screwed over. Rather go for online shops like wootware, prophecy or rebeltech...they come with their own challenges...but at least their pricing isn't aimed directly at screwing over clueless customers.
 
HavocXphere said:
Ask them to swop it for this:

http://www.incredible.co.za/product/79021/meissner-1200va-ups/

plus a voucher for the price difference. Its a smaller unit...but a better brand imo. And seeing how the current one is a dud any change is progress imo.

Be sure to get the required cables and software too - very NB for UPSs since you want your PC to communicate with it and shut down cleanly if the UPS is about to die.

Be polite and friendly with IC staff - this is not their fault - but be insistent that this swop is happening. And throw a (loud public) tantrum if things are not going well. (NB this assumes you bought the unit recently - if you bought it long ago then throwing a tantrum would be a d1ck move).

And for future reference...don't buy from IC. Unless you know what you're doing you're at a serious risk of getting screwed over. Rather go for online shops like wootware, prophecy or rebeltech...they come with their own challenges...but at least their pricing isn't aimed directly at screwing over clueless customers.
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Thank you for the assistance!

I'm not terribly bothered about writing the current one off as a loss.

Could you possibly link me to a good UPS I could buy online (price isn't an issue, so I'm willing to pay for quality)? I really am completely clueless about this stuff! :)
 
Kimitar said:
Thank you for the assistance!

I'm not terribly bothered about writing the current one off as a loss.

Could you possibly link me to a good UPS I could buy online (price isn't an issue, so I'm willing to pay for quality)? I really am completely clueless about this stuff! :)
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APC brand is generally best respected.

If you can get a UPS that is "online"/"double-conversion" that would be ideal...(as opposed to line-interactive type)...thats really big money though. As in really hectic $$$.

For home use I think thats overkill...a high quality line-interactive one is a good trade-off for home use.

Seeing how you seem a little lost on this...I'd suggest aim for a 1000+VA line-interactice APC unit. Online shops - wootware, prophecy and rebeltech have decent track records. Personally I'd deal with wootware.
 
Thanks, I was looking at this one: http://www.wootware.co.za/apc-back-ups-rs-br1500gi.html

Is 1500 VA enough to handle my PC + modem?

Specs are as follows (copy+paste, not sure if it's everything etc.):

Antec 1000 80+ Platinum 1000W Fully Modular PSU
Intel Core i7-4930K Overclocked to 4.5GHz Six Core CPU
Thermaltake Water 3.0 Ultimate Performance Fans
MSI X79 XPOWER II LGA 2011 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0
32GB DDR3 1866Mhz High Performance Quad Channel RAM
2 x MSI GTX 980 Gaming 4GB 256bit Cards In SLI
2 x 512GB (1024GB) SSDs In Raid 0 Upto 900MB/s+ Speed
3TB WD 7200RPM SATA3 6.0Gb/s 64 Cache HDD
Integrated 8 Channel HD Audio
24x Dual Layer DVD +/- Writer
 
Easily yes, though I think its overkill.

Pretty sure you can save yourself 2 grand and go for this:

http://www.wootware.co.za/apc-back-ups-rs-br900gi.html

That can support 540W...and I suspect your PC will be below that even under full load - just because the PSU can support 1000W doesn't mean its actually drawing 1000W. You can buy one of those energy measuring plug things to make sure how much it draws (specifically when gaming):

http://efergy.com/uk/products/electricity-monitors/energy-monitoring-socket

300 bucks and its a snazzy toy anyway.
 
Also, check your plugs going into the ups.

Some have surge protection only plugs on one side, other side is surge + battery.
 
..and if you're in pretoria, get one that can feed your telephone/LAN cable through also, surge protection against lightning is a big deal in this area :). My APC got this, not sure if it's a standard thing, but losing PCs/Modems due to lightning seems to be far more common than power outages (well in the past anyway).

It's this feature , listed on the APC units mentioned in this thread:
Data Line Protection Analog phone line for phone/fax/modem/DSL (RJ-11 connector),Network line - 10/100/1000 Base-T Ethernet (RJ-45 connector)
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HavocXphere said:
APC brand is generally best respected.
Click to expand...

LOL, no. We bought a bunch of APC UPSes for the office when our normal supplier was out of stock and several of them failed epically. No thanks, won't be touching those again if we can help it. They also promised to replace them, but never managed to deliver the items to us.
 
Wyzak said:
LOL, no. We bought a bunch of APC UPSes for the office when our normal supplier was out of stock and several of them failed epically. No thanks, won't be touching those again if we can help it. They also promised to replace them, but never managed to deliver the items to us.
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Feel free to suggest something else? Pretty much every IT office has issues with whatever brand they pick (duh).
 
So I got the new UPS, but its battery is empty and it's emitting an annoying beep, so I need to charge it. My question is, does it need to be on in order to charge, or just connected to a wall socket (while off)?

Thanks.
 
Try to avoid running it down to empty.

Beep - if you bought a decent one you can connect it to the PC and disable the beep. Thats the idea anyway...UPS connected to PC with software installed so that when it runs down it'll shut down the PC. i.e. its intended as a permanent part of the PC setup.

You keep it connected as you normally would overnight...the second power is back it'll start charging the battery even if the PC is still running. Most charge faster if the PC is off though. And no - you never switch off the UPS...just keep it on.

I couldn't get the software to work on mine (cheap one) so I ended up opening it and physically removing the beeper thingy. Thats really not recommended though - and quite dangerous since even disconnected that thing can still throw a wicked electric shock.
 
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Turns out I had to turn the battery over inside the case to get it to actually work, for some reason. Thanks though ^
 
Hi guys,

Can anyone please give me some advice.

We would like to get a UPS at the office but i'm clueless in this regard.
We would like to power our DSL router and our PABX and if possible our 4 ISDN lines(they each have a battery box connected to the line that requires power.)

Could you please recommend a UPS that we can use that will last for a few hours until the power comes back up.

We currently us a genny when the power goes out but our server rack is in the office blocks basement and it is about 30m from the office if not more. so we usually put the genny near the basement and then run one cable to the server rack and the other one to the office but the extensions are always out in the open.
 
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