UPS no longer works when power goes out but no warnings about it failing?!

[JEDI]

Cyberpower 1000VA ups

bought it 5yrs ago.
2yrs ago it gave a warning about the batteries so I bought 2 new batteries for it.

worked fine earlier this year.
last week power went out for snow storm and my computer instantly died. ups battery did not kick in.

no warning what so ever from the UPS that it's failing.

power came back on.
maybe it was a fluke so I tested it a couple of days later. the only thing on was my DSL modem.
unplugged the ups from the wall. dsl modem died.

so i'm assuming its not the batteries but something else more fundamental is wrong w/it?

Just buy a new UPS and throw old one away?

 

[noacess]

If you have a multimeter you could test the batteries. Might be time for a new UPS though.

 

[vailr]

Most UPS were designed before the current model computer power supplies that include the "Active PFC" feature. The more up-to-date UPS are designed specifically to better work with "Active PFC" computer power supplies.
So: junk the old UPS and carefully select a newer model, because most UPS's currently sold are still the old design type, and tend to wear out the storage batteries much quicker than if the correctly matched UPS were used.
One example: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16842102132

 

[mfenn]

Most UPS were designed before the current model computer power supplies that include the "Active PFC" feature. The more up-to-date UPS are designed specifically to better work with "Active PFC" computer power supplies.
So: junk the old UPS and carefully select a newer model, because most UPS's currently sold are still the old design type, and tend to wear out the storage batteries much quicker than if the correctly matched UPS were used.
One example: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16842102132

I don't think this really has anything do to with it. The OP tested with just a DSL modem.

OP, try unplugging the batteries and seeing if it gives you a warning.

 

[Cerb]

On top of what mfenn said:

If you don't have a multimeter, buy one. You can usually find one somewhere other than auto parts stores for $10 or less. If you have a Harbor Freight nearby, you can usually get one for <$5 (I had to buy one during a car emergency situation at Advance, FI, for $20, and I'd swear it's the same multimeter as I got from harbor Freight, except for being black!).

Let it sit for several hours, plugged in. Check the battery voltages.
Put them back in, and test the UPS itself. Now check the battery voltages.

The batteries should read >12V, removed from the unit but fully charged, with no load.

You should easily be able to tell if you have one or more bad batteries, or if the UPS itself is the problem.

If the batteries are the problem, and they are generic (Werker, UB, etc.), you might want to jump for batteries from a company that manufactures them, like Panasonic.

I've now encountered 3 UPS failures like the OP's, with nothing wrong but the batteries, at work, including a big tower-sized APC unit.