Smart-UPS 1500 emitting constant high-pitch tone?

iroc409

[H]ard|Gawd
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A few days ago my APC Smart-UPS 1500 starting emitting a fairly annoying, high-pitched screech. I thought I had some logs on screen or dmesg on my server that was saying something about full storage or unable to contact the UPS, but I restarted everything.

I'm running NUT on a rPi, and everything seems normal. When I ask for status, I don't see anything out of range. The UPS self-tests OK when using the front panel button, and has no lights on it indicating battery, etc. I shut everything down, turned off and unplugged the UPS and it still makes the noise (because of the batteries I assume).

It either has to be an alarm, or a piece of equipment inside the unit is making the noise. Has anyone had this happen before?

The unit is one I bought off eBay used, and put new batteries into it. I'm guessing the next step is I have to take the batteries out, but I've just been avoiding it--mostly because I have been doing a lot of photography lately and wanted to make sure the server backups run (such as they are).
 
Well if it's not the alarm beep (which you should be familiar with by now) - my next guess would be coil whine from the power electronics inside. Probably means a filtering cap has gone out.
 
Something like that is my thought as well. The problem is the tone is very close to the unit's alarm/beeps, but slightly off. And, as I recall the beeps still sound when doing a self-test and so forth, which it probably shouldn't have any discernible sound when it's testing if it's an alarm. Time for a new one I guess, maybe this time I'll get the newer one with the LCD screen and dead batteries, as these still should be in pretty good shape--they're only maybe a year old or a little more.
 
I had 4 of the Smart-UPS 1500 units and they ALL died that way... a high-pitched whine followed by sparks and smoke not too long after the noise manifested itself. The units were 6 to 10 years old. I never bothered to replace them since I was shutting down the PC farm and only needed one big unit for 2 or 3 computers and a small one for my networking hardware. Ended up going with a CyberPower PR series 2200va unit and a small APC unit.
 
Sparks and smoke? Yikes, I was afraid of that, and was unplugging my server regularly because of it, but have left it on the past few days since "well, hurr, it runs." When they failed, did they take anything with them or potentially cause a fire? Gotta think of the dog, man!

Alright, better shut it down and pull the batteries, to at least salvage those. If that's the case, I don't know if it's worth getting another used unit of just buying a new one, but lessor model. Not something I wanted to do at midnight before work.

The load meter on this thing is pretty much zero on the front panel even with my server running, so I can probably get away with something smaller. I just wanted to have it work with NUT since I have my router and may eventually have another machine or two running off of it.
 
Interesting. What type of batteries did you use? Was a genuine apc kit or just some batteries? I've seen ours squeal before, but only when they were completely dead/zonked and needed a battery replacement. And then they were normal after getting a new battery.
 
The batteries came from Batteries Plus locally. The unit ran fine for about a year or so I think, before it started to freak out. I think the store sells Energizer everything, but I can't remember. I think the labels in the pack are facing each other so I can't see it without disassembling the battery pack.

ETA: I bought it April 4th of last year off eBay.
 
I'd be curious what an actual APC pack would do. Might not change a thing at this point, but I wonder if it might have prevented the issue in the first place.
 
I wouldn't think it would make a difference, but I guess you don't know. With these, I would not have expected any sort of electronics in the battery that would make a difference. There's no communication means to the UPS unit that I can see, and I just doubt they are that sophisticated.

That being said, I was in there playing with my file server this morning, and it looked like one of the batteries might be ever so slightly leaking on top. Hard to say. Maybe that had something to do with it?
 
It's not a matter of technology with the batteries, but manufacturing. And yes, if it's leaking, that's not good as the eletrolyte will boil out and then you've got a dead cell in the battery.
 
Could be the UPS is supplying too much voltage to the batteries during the float charge. The batteries are toast. Check the voltage with a meter. Be careful one of the terminals may be line voltage.
 
Forgot about this thread. The batteries will swell before they actually start leaking. None of the units that failed took out anything while they died. The last one that died on me was just plugged by itself with nothing attached to it and the battery was about a year old. I had it where I keep my networking equipment and was about to use it to back up that stuff. It was at night and dark and lit up the whole room with a blue glow when it blew. I buy my batteries from American Battery Corporation. They were the original OEM for APC before they switched to another manufacturer and they have a more generous 2-year warranty. With shipping they are about the same cost as Batteries +. I've bought Batteries+ batteries in a pinch but they don't seem to last as long as the ABC ones. They are standard lead acid batteries like the sealed ones in your car so their life is about as long as a cheap battery ( Wal*Mart, Autozone, etc. ) in your car... about 2 to 4 years.
 
I buy the APC branded batteries and in the one test I did with a compatible--well, the APC is still working today and the BTI battery died a little after a year. I also buy AGM batteries for all my cars from brands like Braille and never have trouble with those either. You still get what you pay for with batteries in my experience. ;)
 
I buy the APC branded batteries and in the one test I did with a compatible--well, the APC is still working today and the BTI battery died a little after a year. I also buy AGM batteries for all my cars from brands like Braille and never have trouble with those either. You still get what you pay for with batteries in my experience. ;)


Pretty much this ^. I bought a non apc battery and it never worked right in my xs1500.
 
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