APC Back-UPS XS1500

[Geonovast]

The owner of the company I work for has been cleaning out some old storage, and has been throwing stuff my way if he thinks I can use it. Most of it's junk, but..

Today he gave me an APC Back-UPS XS1500. It had stopped being used because the server got bigger and needed a bigger UPS. I don't know how long exactly it's been sitting, but I imagine at least 3-4 years.

I plugged it in at work, and it took a few seconds for the fan to get going (with an oscillating whir). Once it got going though, it was steady. The online and overload lights were blinking alternately. After looking up the manual, it told me that that was sleep mode, as initiated by the software.

When I got it home, I plugged it in again, except now it's beeping, the online light flashes once, I can hear a relay click, then the On Battery light comes on for maybe a second and a half, then it restarts. It will not turn on at all when it's not plugged in.

Frankly I'm a little nervous to just tear into it unguided, as I haven't worked on any UPS devices and I don't know what sort of storage voltages could be waiting for me when I open the case.

Anyone have any thoughts?

 

[hevans1944]

This device contains a sealed lead-acid battery. After 3-4 years of non-use the battery will be dead. It may not accept a charge and, if so, will need to be replaced. You should download a copy of the user manual from this web site for troubleshooting if you haven't done so already..

 

[shrtrnd]

UPS batteries are notorious for failure (and they're the most expensive thing to replace).
hevans1944 suggestion to check the user manual will probably point you in the right direction to verify that the batteries need to be replaced.

 

[Geonovast]

Alright, I put new batteries in it. It's not doing the alternating flashing anymore, but now it's sitting with the On Battery light on, and beeping 4 times about every 30 seconds. According to the manual, this just means it's running on battery. It IS supplying power to the outlets.

Problem is, it's always running on battery. When I plug it into an outlet, sometimes it'll blink the OnLine light, click a relay, then go back to On Battery. I downloaded the software for it, but the cable I ordered will not be here for a few days.

 

[hevans1944]

Sounds like you are making progress! When you plug it into a live outlet (normal operation) it probably wants to "phone home" to its software before it will switch out of the "On Battery" mode. How else would it know that the computer was active, so it could issue a "shut down" command prior to running out of battery power? Please let us know if the cable solved your problems.

 

[Gryd3]

Once you get that cable, Install the software for it as well.
If you have issues with the stock software, you can use a program called 'APCUPSD' , It will provide you with all the details about the current operation which may help you figure it out.
(Things like current configured switching voltage, the reason for the last switch, the last self-test, etc)

 

[funflyer]

Not that it will help you now, but I've had success about 50% of the time reviving SLA batteries. Most failures are due to the battery going dry in a cell or two. Even though they called sealed, there is a path for the gas to escape from each cell. The cover can be carefully removed exposing the caps to add water. They just need enough water to rehydrate the mats, not too much as they need to sit in any position and not leak. Youtube has plenty of videos on this subject.

 

[Geonovast]

I'm a little confused.

My cable got delivered this morning (of course I found what I believe to be the original cable while rooting through a storage cabinet at work today), and I just hooked it up a bit ago. As it had been, the UPS just sat running on battery. Software said it was on battery, gave me percentage remaining and all that, but wouldn't run on AC. It knew it was there, though, since it was actually giving me a live reading for the AC input. (117-123)

No difference after changing some settings, I shut it off, and decide to plug something into it. Nothing happened as I expected, so I turned the UPS on. It came on, on battery, and so did what I plugged into it. For about a minute. Then it clicked onto running on AC, charging the battery. I still don't know why, but it seems to be stable for now. I'm gonna let it sit overnight before I move it to its permanent location. I'm always a little leery of stuff that just starts working when I haven't done anything.

On a side note, I downloaded APCUPSD when the stock software wasn't telling me anything, but I couldn't get anything out of it. It would run, and show up in the task manager, but that was it.

 

[Gryd3]

I'm a little confused.

My cable got delivered this morning (of course I found what I believe to be the original cable while rooting through a storage cabinet at work today), and I just hooked it up a bit ago. As it had been, the UPS just sat running on battery. Software said it was on battery, gave me percentage remaining and all that, but wouldn't run on AC. It knew it was there, though, since it was actually giving me a live reading for the AC input. (117-123)

No difference after changing some settings, I shut it off, and decide to plug something into it. Nothing happened as I expected, so I turned the UPS on. It came on, on battery, and so did what I plugged into it. For about a minute. Then it clicked onto running on AC, charging the battery. I still don't know why, but it seems to be stable for now. I'm gonna let it sit overnight before I move it to its permanent location. I'm always a little leery of stuff that just starts working when I haven't done anything.

On a side note, I downloaded APCUPSD when the stock software wasn't telling me anything, but I couldn't get anything out of it. It would run, and show up in the task manager, but that was it.

Well, good to hear it's working at least.
As far as APCUPSD is concerned, it was developed to work with multiple different types of APC backups. It can pull details over a network, USB, serial, or Smart Cable*. It should be pretty automatic in windows, but requires that you install a slightly different driver for it.
Instructions for this is in C:\apcupsd\drivers\install.txt
If you are installing in linux, you will need to take a look at the config file to make the required changes to use it.
Once setup correctly, you should see: