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Why would my UPS turn off while under minimal load?

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MostlyCrazy

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I have a Cyberpower UPS model BRG1500AVRLCD, 900 watts. Currently I have my desktop, monitor, and Router (TpLink AC3150, 60 watts) plugged into this. With my desktop, monitor and Router running my UPS has an estimated run time of 70 minutes. I have fiber based internet with it's own battery that lasts about 24 hours and doesn't require constant building power. Not too long ago we had a blackout that lasted several hours. My desktop and monitor were turned off and only the Router was running.

The router would run for about 20 minutes and then the UPS would shut down. The front screen said it had an estimated run time of 120 minutes, but would shut down after about 20. I could restart it and it would run fine for right at about 20-25 minutes again before shutting off. It seemed, although I didn't do actual testing, that if I was loading pages or streaming something it seemed to delay the shutdown. So it seemed like the UPS was shutting down when there was only a tiny power draw but not when it had an actual power load.

The Cyberpower web site doesn't mention anything and google only returns 20 pages of people asking why their UPS is beeping. I have the Powerpanel software installed and I don't see any settings that could effect this behavior. Any ideas why the UPS would shut off despite having plenty of power left and is there a way to stop this?
 
Check your sleep settings ... Im wondering if the UPS is **thinking** ... "well if he's not here, why should I be ? " :)
 
It probably can't detect a load that low, and shuts down to attempt to preserve the battery.
 
I know my Cyberpower UPS has two options to set. Shut off after running for XX minutes and shut off with xx minutes remaining. It's a 1000PFCLCD from about 3 years ago iirc.

What are your settings in the CyberPower PowerPanel?

I'd suggest performing some more testing too, pull the power from the wall and do a rundown test with different loads (router only, router + PC + monitor, PC + monitor). Do they all exhibit the same results that you're reporting here?

I've seen more UPSes stay on in the event of a low load with no wall power rather than turn off, unless they were configured to do so or had a circuitry or battery cell issue. Those usually exhibit different symptoms as well. I suggest starting with verifying how PowerPanel is configured and load testing via software and manually.

How old is this unit? May still be under warranty. Says 5-year warranty here: https://www.cyberpowersystems.com/product/ups/brg1500avrlcd/
 
1) Verify that everything is plugged in correctly. By that, I mean battery stuff in battery outlets and non-battery stuff into surge outlets.
2) Do you have CyberPower PowerPanel installed on the computer? If you do, it can be telling the UPS to go off after x minutes without power. By default, that's two minutes. Check its settings.
3) Most CyberPower UPSs have two separate circuits: battery which is controlled by the power switch and surge which is always on (uneffected by the power switch).
4) The time estimate is only accurate while there is no mains power and it is drawing on the battery. 20 minutes may be all the charge it's good for. Hard to say.
5) That particular UPS is a simulated square sine wave UPS. It's possible that the transformer for the router decided to turn off for some reason because of that (overheated, inadeuqate power, hard to say).
6) AFAIK that UPS doesn't have any kind of power saving sensing. Either it's on or it is off.
 
Just replace batteries, they already damaged.
 
Could be a manufacturing defect with the batteries, yeah. Usually if it is a dead cell, it's pretty consistent when it goes off relative to estimated time remaining. PowerPanel has a battery self test option if you haven't tried that yet.
 
First, kudos for using a decent UPS. I wish every user would use them.

How old is this UPS - or rather, how old are the batteries? They generally have to be replaced every 3 - 5 years. Some times, they will last longer if not heavily used frequently.

Also, get a AC Outlet Tester to ensure your outlet is properly wired and grounded. I recommend one with a GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupt) indicator as it can be used to test bathroom and kitchen outlets (outlets near water) too. These testers can be found for your type and voltage outlet, foreign or domestic, (like this one for the UK) at most home improvement stores, or even the electrical department at Wal-Mart. Use it to test all the outlets in the home and if a fault is shown, have it fixed by a qualified electrician.

Many UPS will shutdown if not properly grounded.

Also, if there is a fault in the connected components, (the PC's PSU, for example) any good UPS will shut down to protect itself, and the other connected devices.

FTR, I never, as in NEVER EVER buy replacement batteries from the UPS maker. They always cost way too much. I always shop around and buy my UPS batteries from Apex, BatteryWholesale, Battery Mart, or Batteryplex, or Amazon depending on who has the best price at the time (factoring in shipping, which can be significant, but sometimes free).

For example, the 6 year old ( :)) old batteries I had in my APC SmartUPS I got last time from Battery Mart finally died a few weeks ago. APC wanted over $100 for the replacement cells, plus $20 for shipping. But as seen here, I was able to get 4 new cells for less than half of that. In many cases, I have peeled off the APC, Cyberpower, or Tripplite lables on the original batteries to see they are the exact same batteries as found at these outlets. APC, Cyberpower, Tripplite are UPS makers, not battery makers.

I have never been disappointed using 3rd party SLA batteries in the 25+ years I have used UPSs.
 
You might need to do the following:

1)unplug everything from the UPS and unplug the UPS
2)removing the battery
3)hold down the power button for 30 seconds.
4)re-insert the battery
5)power the UPS on with it unplugged from the wall, pay attention to the beep codes and check what they mean
6)if it's all good then plug everything back in.
 
Hey, I registered to reply here as I found this page after searching "CyberPower UPS turning off randomly" looking for an answer. Through a mix of advice, I think I've found it - so it might be nice to help people in the future who find themselves in the same position.

As the original poster, I also had the UPS connected through usb to a server running PowerPanel software for Linux. One of the configuration options on the pwrstatd service is "turn-ups-off," which is only editable directly on /etc/pwrstatd.conf and not through the command line tool. Since it is enabled by default, when there is a power event the UPS will automatically shutdown after the default threshold (10 minutes).

For example, with the default config when I installed the pwrstatd software, if there is a power failure:

1) Elapsed time: 0 seconds - pwrstatd waits 60 seconds to run the "Action for Power Failure" command
2) Elapsed time: 60 seconds - It gives a grace period for running the command (default 0 sec)
3) Elapsed time: 60 seconds - It will schedule a UPS shutdown in the amount of time set in "shutdown-sustain" (default 600s)
4) Elapsed time: 60 seconds - It will shutdown the machine running the pwrstatd software
5) Elapsed time: 11 minutes - UPS will shutdown

So in this case, even if your UPS is mostly charged after 11 mins, with the default config it would power down all.
 
pubudeux said:
So in this case, even if your UPS is mostly charged after 11 mins, with the default config it would power down all.
Click to expand...
Which actually makes sense for several reasons with most scenarios.

The key and consistent unknown in this scenario is we don't know how long the power outage will last. It could be a couple more minutes, or days.

Most rechargeable battery technologies don't like the batteries to sit unused (or stored on the shelf) in a fully charged state for long periods of time. But it typically is worse for those rechargeable batteries to sit unused for long periods fully discharged. So after 10 - 11 minutes, they would be slightly discharged - a good thing.

At the same time, and most importantly, by shutting the UPS off after 11 minutes, there will still be enough charge remaining to support a "graceful" shutdown of the computer should there be a second power failure immediately after power is restored from the initial power outage.

In other words, this avoids the scenario where an extended power outage drains the batteries, power is restored and the computer boots up and then a minute later, the power fails again. Only this time, because the batteries are still drained, there is not enough battery runtime for the UPS monitoring program to save the open files, exit running programs and the OS, and "gracefully" shut down the computer properly. The computer simply crashes - never good.
 
I agree with your points, Bill. I just think it seems to be a point of confusion with users, as I saw many reviews on Amazon and posts talking about it turning off with full power when connected to USB management software.

I just think the manual of the pwrstat command should indicate that there are more additional parameters that handle power of the UPS itself in the conf file.
 
Perhaps but then pwrstat is not Cyberpower's software. That is a 3rd party alternative. The official Cyberpower software is PowerPanel and that is the program the OP said he is using.

So two points here. (1) powerstat is not applicable to this thread and (2) if users are going to use 3rd party alternatives, the onus is on them to understand the program and on the 3rd party app developers to provide adequate documentatoin.
 
Just to clarify, the linux version of PowerPanel, when installed, the command is called pwrstat and the daemon is called pwrstatd.

www.cyberpowersystems.com

PowerPanel® Personal Linux

PowerPanel® Personal for Linux is a simple command line Linux daemon to control a UPS system attached to a Linux-based computer. It provides all the functionality of PowerPanel® software, including automatic shutdown, UPS monitoring, alert notifications, and more. PowerPanel Personal for Linux...
www.cyberpowersystems.com www.cyberpowersystems.com
 
Okay. Thanks for that. However, not sure it applies here as this thread is 2 years old, there is no indication the OP was running Linux and the OP registered on the day he made that one and only post, then never returned.

IMO, your desire to help would have better served the site had you started a new thread with your information instead of dredging up this long-dormant thread. I'm just saying.
 
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