Is *Go-Green Fairy* shutting down my UPS?

I sometimes leave my computer running overnight while I am sleeping.

I have a small Cyberpower Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) that has been in use since October 2007.

The past few times that I left the computer running overnight, I found that it was Off when I checked it the next morning. The UPS also was off (the "on-light" was unlit).

I turned on the UPS & was able to boot the computer normally.
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QUESTION #1: What is happening? Is the UPS dying? OR - Is the UPS turning itself off because it's near the end of its life cycle? OR - Did I somehow change a computer setting such that my computer is turning stuff off? OR- is the *Go-Green Fairy* forcing me to save electricity?

QUESTION #2: How can you tell (for sure) when a UPS is dead (or dying)?

 

Your battery is at about the age that it is at the end of its life. You can test that by unplugging the UPS from the wall and see if it still runs. I would do that with a load attached, but not your PC. Something that would be ok to unplug. Ideally the UPS should work fine plugged in if there was no loss of power, but I have seen them do strange things.

 

problem is your Cyberpower unit

I had two of these, the only nice
word I can say about them is they
were both cheap and I got what I paid
for "two pieces of junk"

 

I use APC units and they are great, on the same battery for 8 years now on my first one and have a second for my Laptop for power surge protection mainly! http://www.apc.com/products/category.cfm?id=13

TH

 

It seems problem with your UPS. I am using OptiUPS for last two years without any problem.

 

SLA (sealed lead-acid) batteries only last about 3 years. It is likely yours need replacing. These are normally user replaceable.

While I prefer APC, I have used Cyberpower too with no problems.

I buy my UPS batteries from Apex, BatteryWholesale, or Batteryplex, depending on who has the best price at the time (factoring in shipping, which can be significant, but sometimes free).

 

I very much disagree. I own 2 of them and we have and we have about 20 of them at work. Most of them 2+ years old and some of them 4+ years old and we have not had a single issue with any of them. We also have a Belkin and an APC that have failed.

 

Thanks to all of you for the helpful comments. My Cyberpower UPS went totally kaput today. It had been in service for nearly 4 years, so I am satisfied with the performance of the Cyberpower brand.

To replace it I just bought an APC-650VA Battery Back-Up System-BE650MC for $49.99 from Best Buy. I would have gladly replaced my old Cyberpower with a new Cyberpower, but the APC was the best value I could find on this particular day.

Again, thanks to all.

 

650VA is not a very big UPS. In fact, using the recognized "conservative" standard power factor (PF) of 60%, to convert 650VA to Watts you use the formula of,

VA x PF = W​

So,

650 x .6 = 390 watts​

That may be plenty for the computer itself, but if also looking to protect your network hardware and monitor, you may be cutting it thin. For sure, if trying to protect your monitor too, it must be a LCD. CRT monitors consume too much power.

There is only one real way to see if your UPS will protect you, and that is yanking the UPS power cord from the wall and hope your system stays up. Of course, this is risky because if it fails to hold, or does not transfer fast enough (a problem with budget UPS, even from the major makers), your system will hard crash, and that is never good for hard drives, or the data they contain.

http://www.powerstream.com/VA-Watts.htm

 

It replaces a 550VA, which gave me nearly 4 years of service & helped me do an orderly shut-down during several power outages. I only connect my monitor (it's LCD) & desktop computer to the battery backup outlets. My other stuff is connected via the surge protection outlets.

Works for me!

 

If your 550VA sufficed, this should coast along. You might consider putting your network hardware on there. It would be rare for any home network device to need 25 watts. 10 - 15 is more typically. Perhaps a full featured, simultaneous, dual-band Wireless-N router would approach 25.

So assume the worse, a wireless router for 25 and a cable/DSL/satellite modem for 25. You still have room to spare and this way, you don't lose your DHCP IP assignments in the event of a power outage. Note if your computer is not running, your UPS will keep your network alive for a couple hours, and safe from power anomalies that no surge and spike protector can provide.

 

it doesn't work like that unfortunately. There is no standard in the ups business so that means no is testing them to see if they can put out what the manufacturers speculate they can put out.

The psu industry was in the same boat couple of years back luckily some decent sites started to test them and the bad got seperate from the avg and good.

If your ups is switching please post your full specs and your powersupply name and manufacturer.

 

Sorry, but you are sadly misinformed as that is totally incorrect. A simple Google search proves that. There are several national and international "standards" that govern UPS. See UPS Topologies and Standards and IEEE Standards for Batteries for Uninterruptible Power Supply Systems for just two of them.

No testing? Again, totally not true. Enter UPS reviews and you can see tests going back many many years.

Sorry Spooony, but that is totally incorrect as well. For over 15 years, power supplies have had the ATX Form Factor PSU Design Guide. And for years before that, there was the AT standard.

It IS true that many makers were producing shoddy (and down right dangerous) PSUs. And it is true that many sites popped up to test PSUs. But again, there have been Standards. Whether the maker complies with them is another story that takes us all back to, "caveat emptor" - let the buyer beware.