Are faulty APC UPS's easy repairs or is it throw in the trash?

Hi, I have two faulty APC BackUPS CS500's each with a different fault.

The first unit will switch to battery when there is a power cut. However, when the power is restored, it will not switch back to mains power, it remains on the battery till it goes flat.

The 2nd one will not power up when pressing the on/off button on the front of the unit.

I have a third working identicial UPS and I have tried the battery out of this one in the two faulty units and its NOT the battery.

Are these likely to be an easy repair or shall I flog them on Ebay for spares?

Stephen

Reply to
Stephen
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Hmmm... that shouldn't be too difficult. Is there a relay that does the switching on the CS 500? If so, see if it's working, or if the contacts are fried.

Bad ribbon cable connection on the insulation displacement connector going to the main board.

No. They're a PITA to repair. There are some schematics at:

but I couldn't find anything on the CS500. I've done some seat of the pants fixes on various APC UPS's but it was more luck than knowledge that resulted in a repair. Mostly, what I found are bad crimps on the spade lugs, bad insulation displacement ribbon connector "crimps" to the front panel, and fried electrolytics when run in backup mode for too long (high ripple current).

The CS500 sells for $85 to $120, so putting more than about 1-2 hrs into this is problematic. Google find some vendors that offer APC UPS repair services, but I have no experience with any of these.

Incidentally, the local recycler constantly complains about the large number of UPS's that he gets. He has to remove the battery from the UPS, which burns his time. If you do decide to recycle, please remove the battery and recycle it separately.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

I've never found it worthwhile to fix a UPS, but the first one may have some hope. Is there a bad relay?

Reply to
Cydrome Leader

I "fixed" 3 APC 250 simply by replacing the battery.

-- Boris

Reply to
Boris Mohar

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I replaced the battery in my ES350 unit after 10 years and it works fine until I connect the serial bus to the computer, then the computer is told there is a power failure and shuts down after two minutes. So now I just run the APC without the serial bus, I figure if power fails while I am using the computer I will know it and can shut it down manuallly. I don't run the computer except when I am actually there so I don't need the automatic shutdown enabled anyway.

Reply to
hrhofmann

The APC BackUPS ES350 has a USB port, not a serial port. I don't know if a USB to serial adapter will work. Probably not.

Once installed, the associated PowerChute software does like to have the USB cable moved from one USB port to another on the computah. Your descriptions sounds more like a loss of communications than an ES350 failure. APC may have fixed this in later versions of PowerChute. Try the latest from:

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

It might. APC used to provide one on request.

My APC BackUPS works under Windows 2000 Pro simply by plugging it into a UPS port. PowerChute is not needed.

Reply to
William Sommerwerck

The Windoze built in UPS software is rather crude. It's been a while since I tried using it so things may have improved. It will correctly shut down the computah after a fixed interval if the power fails. However, it only recognizes serial port interfaces, not USB.

I've also seen some odd problems where the UPS continues to run with no load after the computah is shut down. The APC SmartUPS has a "soft shutown" command to prevent running the battery into the ground:

The BackUPS is tricky. It won't run without a load. So, when the computah is turned off by the software, the load allegedly disappears, causing the BackUPS to shut down. However, if you plug anything else into the "protected" outlets, this trick won't work.

On XP SP3, it's in: Control Panel -> Power Options -> UPS It says "Developed by APC for Microsoft" with a link to:

for an upgrade to PowerChute.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

I double-checked after my previous post. The APC unit /is/ plugged into a mainboard USB port. You need a cable with an RJ-type connector on one end.

Reply to
William Sommerwerck

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The CS500 and CS350 units were part of a recall (overheat/fire hazard) The recall has ended, and the notice has been removed from apc's site, it seems.

Affected Model#: BK350, BK500, BK500BLK

Only units where the first six (6) characters of the serial number fall within the following ranges are affected.

AB0048 through AB0251 BB0104 through BB0251 JB0125 through JB0251

Any units with an "R" at the end of the serial number are not part of the recall.

Reply to
Kevin .

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