computer

[amezri]

I noticed when I switched out my lamp (and had to fiddle and unplug my UPS for the computer), that when running on battery power, the UPS will cause the PSU to make a buzzing sound. APC says this is normal... but that seems, not good?

In any case, just to see, I've switched the cord on my tower to a surge strip and plugged that directly into the wall. No power back up, yeah, but I want to run it for a couple days and see what happens. I have no idea if that would be causing the problem, but if it is at least it's not a major operation to replace it.

Of course, there could be a power surge in my house that kills my machine. Or it doesn't help at all. Then I'll look at replacing the power supply, I guess.

Comments

[tirgaya.livejournal.com]

OK... So did you ever do the "unplug the UPS test" I suggested like a week ago?

I really think you have a power issue. It really sounds like your UPS is a bit under rated for your system.

Your PSU may be part of the issue as well.

[amezri.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I never did the unplug the UPS test because it was a huge pain to move like 3 pieces of furniture to get to the plug. I know. Lazy. BUT, I'm doing it now :P

I read online something about sine waves and square waves and how the UPS is sending square waves, so the hum is the power supply filtering it. I don't know.

As of right now, the tower is plugged into a surge strip, which is plugged in to the wall. Hopefully the power doesn't go out unexpectedly.... If this runs proper for the next week, then I guess I'm going to have to look into forking out money for a new UPS.

[tirgaya.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I can save you some effort.

Go out now and get an APC RS series UPS. They are usually beige. IIRC you have a 650VA UPS. Get a 1000VA unit. That will probably cost you $100 or so. You always want overkill with UPS units.

Plugging into a power strip probably will not help you. I can't tell for sure, but I think that the power from the wall itself is the problem, and that your current UPS didn't filter those issues. The power strip won't do any better, and may be worse.

I might have mentioned "power conditioning" which is jargon for leveling out minor differences in the wall power supply. The RS series does it, the ES series does not.

The culprit in terms of power is probably something else "big" on the same circuit turning on at night. Maybe a heater or some other appliance.

[amezri.livejournal.com]

Well, looks like Best Buy has this one?

The soonest I can go is tomorrow after the snow storm. What do you suggest I do for now? The power strip it's plugged in to at least has some surge protection. Should I plug it back in to the UPS and just deal for freezing for another day or what? Or maybe just plug it in to the surge side and not worry about battery backup?

[tirgaya.livejournal.com]

That 900VA UPS is probably fine.

I forgot that the XS series had AVR, which is particularly bad because my UPS is a beige XS series. (That particular unit was part of the RS series when I did my research, in 2005. APC changed it right around when I bought it, but I never remember.)

If you can stretch the budget and get the next unit up, the 1300VA XS UPS you'll probably be doing yourself a service in the long term. I know you probably don't care about run time... I sure don't care past about 10 minutes. What you are really buying in this case is the UPS's capability to handle peak load.

As far as your current UPS goes... it probably isn't bad, you're just asking a bit too much. Unplug it and leave it on, let it run completely down. Then recharge it, and put it back in service elswhere. Power issues are the number one cause of "issues" with consumer electronics. Router resets, as an example, are often caused by power issues- a router is just a purpose built computer after all.

I keep all my external hard drives on a separate 350VA UPS from the computer. My oldest UPS, a 500VA unit, powers my FIOS router, cable box and entertainment devices. (DVD player, PS2, Xbox 360 and PS3.) I even have an old 350VA UPS I use for my alarm clock and charging portable gadgets, like my phone.

[amezri.livejournal.com]

The only things I ever keep plugged in to the back-up are the tower and the monitor. I never had a problem with the old UPS except for the fact that my runtime was about 5 minutes. I'm wondering if maybe this one is faulty because of the freezing and, now that I think about it, after I bought the new UPS, my old machine died and I had to do a rebuild.

The wiring fault light on the back is lit. Which probably means that is what's been killing my computers? Though I've always had machines in my room (for like, 15 years) and this issue is only just coming up in the last year or two. So I don't know.

Whatever. I bought the 900VA and it's charging now, so we'll see how that works.