Anyone use APC PowerChute Plus version 5.2 with Win2K?

[dcdomain]

I have this sucker installed, and just went through some power outages. I wasn't present, but from the looks of it, it never shut down my computer like it was suppose to. Has anyone used it with Win2K before? I'm using the Office UPS... I have APM turned off for an unrelated reason. Do I need to enable that?

 

[luv2chill]

dcdomain

PowerChute is set up to shut your computer down only after a certain percentage of the battery life remains. That way if the power comes back on a few minutes later, it will be as if nothing ever happened. The vast majority of power outages last for a very short period of time.

However, you can alter this behavior within PowerChute if you want to.

I don't know your entire situation though. How long were the outages? Did the UPS battery totally deplete (therefore just dropping power to the computer)? What UPS model is it?

l2c

 

[luv2chill]

I see you say you have the Office UPS... I'm not sure what model, but the only one I've seen was just a glorified surge protector w/ a small battery backup. In order for the shutdown feature to work, the computer must have some way of knowing that it's running on battery power, and it can only do so if you connect a cable from the UPS to the computer (usually a serial or USB port). Do you have that cable connected?

l2c

 

[dcdomain]

Sup Luv2Chill... thanks for answering,

I do in fact have the cable connected to my comp port and to the power supply. In both situations where the power died, the battery was depleted. However when I came back and booted up, Win2K checked the harddrives which meant that they weren't shut down correctly.

I have my APM disabled, which means after shutting down Win2K, you still have to go and physically press the button down to shut down the computer. Should I change that? I remember in Win98SE, the program would run in the taskbar. I have it placed in my STARTUP folder now under Win2K and I can't get it to minimize itself into the task bar. I can only get it to minimize to the toolbar.

I checked the log files, and it's just a bunch of Started, Communication established, and when I shut down, Stopped. I never see it log anything else which I figure it should do in the event of a power loss.

In the main window, it states: Monitoring: DCDOMAIN-RES (my computer name on the school network, it's annoying that the powerchute folder shows up when you look at my computer from another computer on the network... even though I never shared the folder). The status states that it's ONLINE.

Under the Diagnostics menu in the toolbar, all the options are grayed out, I can't even simulate a power failure. Under the Configuration menu, I have UPS Communications set at Simple Signalling and at COM1. If I try any other com port or Smart Signalling, no communication is established.
... Great, I just tried messing with the COM ports, and now even at COM1, there is no communication.

Can someone (Luv2Chill =)) walk me through this? I sent an email to APC, and they weren't of much help.

 

[luv2chill]

Hey dcdomain,

What exact model is your BackUPS Office?

Also, Win2k has built-in support for APC UPSs. In the Power control panel, there should be a UPS tab. In there you can set the parameters for when the UPS shuts down. Try setting those, and then physically test it by pulling the plug of the UPS from the wall (I always get a kick from doing this and then watching the computer continue as if nothing happened). Then just let the battery deplete and see if Win2k signals the UPS properly.

The problem could also exist in your signaling cable, serial port, or the UPS could be defective. Do you have another computer and/or another UPS you could use to test?

l2c

 

[fkloster]

I have that powerchute crap and could never get it to work either. Damn it all to hell...

 

[dcdomain]

Thanks for replying so quickly Luv2Chill,

The model I use is the APC Back-UPS Office 350. Under my Power Options in the Control Panel, I don't see anything listed for UPS. I have Power Schemes, Advanced, Hibernate and APM. I just turned APM on again, but before shutting down, I'm going to make sure to backup everything first.

One weird thing though, I mentioned that the PWRCHUTE folder could be seen on the network. While I was messinga round with the COM ports before and having it tell me the UPS lost the signal, apparently everyone else on the network running Win2K received the message too. Did you have any similar experiences? Seems freaky... like a security leak.

I just checked APC's site again, and apparently version 5.2.1 is out, not sure what was fixed, but since I'm not having luck with this version, I'm going to uninstall it and install the new version.

 

[SiliconVandal]

The rig's ive setup at work have APC's (cheaper) and they are all running Win2k Pro or Win2k Adv.Server. They have worked great so far....using 5.2 with Office UPS thingy too.

 

[dcdomain]

Silicon, can you go through exactly how you configured it? What settings?

 

[Marm]

I am using version 5.2.1, you can get it off of APC web site, and aa Samrt-UPS 420 and have not had any trouble with it shutting my system down with a power outage. You can go in and do a test to make sure that you have everything set up corectly.

To do any of test just go to diagnostics and try them out, note if you start a simulate a power failure you have to stop the failure my manual or it will not reconnect back up to power.

The only way I figured out my setting was to read the help manual that came with the software I downloaded.