Secure 1000VA UPS PROBLEM

[Keanu Lorenzo]

Hi everyone, i have a secure 1000va ups and whenever the grid goes out and it changes to 'on battery', it produces a very loud noise like something is exploding or hitting something that creates the noise which is continuous until i turn it off or the power from the grid comes back. Its not the normal beep because the sound is different which im very sure. And most of the time my pc restarts without me restarting it. This is the same problem with my first unit and they replaced it with this unit and the problem still exist. And whenever I turn it off. The 'in line' led turns off but it doesn't cut the power. My monitor is still on and just displaying no signal because my pc is already off. I've tested it using a multimeter to confirm it and it does supply electricity coming from the grid. Is it the relays that are damaged or something? I can't return this again for warranty because the shop where i bought it is very very far. So im planning to fix it myself if i can. My power supply is rated at 600W, its an Aerocool Strike-X. And my monitor is rated at ~100W. But im just pulling ~400W from the grid so it is not an overload problem. Any suggestions?

[W-L]

2 minutes ago, Keanu Lorenzo said:

-SNIP-

It depends on the UPS unit but it's very possible that it's electrical noise due to discrepancies in the generated waveform when on battery but it should automatically go away when the power comes back on and the unit switches off battery backup. 

[Keanu Lorenzo]

1 minute ago, W-L said:

It depends on the UPS unit but it's very possible that it's electrical noise due to discrepancies in the generated waveform when on battery but it should automatically go away when the power comes back on and the unit switches off battery backup. 

It is an electrical noise but is very loud like hitting a metal. I remmembered when I replaced my first unit, they said that it was abnormal so they replaced it with a new one, but still it has the same problem. They let me hear the normal noise of the ups when on battery and the noise is not very loud unlike mine.

[Keanu Lorenzo]

And the voltage fluctuates when on battery. Tested it on a multimeter. And this is probably why my pc suddenly turns off without me shutting it down and then it restarts by itself.

[zMeul]

it is very possible the PSU does not accept modified sine wave, only pure sine; the UPS' tech specs lists sine wave, not pure sine wave .. kinda' foggy

 

can you test with a different PSU?

 

I've seen this before with a 1000VA PSU I bought for myself - it sounded like it would split open and would shut itself off when mains power went out

I tested on a different PC and it worked; back then I didn't knew about PSUs not accepting modified sine wave

[Keanu Lorenzo]

4 minutes ago, zMeul said:

it is very possible the PSU does not accept modified sine wave, only pure sine; the UPS' tech specs lists sine wave, not pure sine wave .. kinda' foggy

 

can you test with a different PSU?

No. When my pc is doing nothing. It can stay on when my UPS is 'on battery'. But when I start to do stuff like opening a game. The UPS will start to make that noise and will just stop when it is 'in line' or i'll turn it off. I don't have any UPS available so I cant test it.

[zMeul]

2 minutes ago, Keanu Lorenzo said:

No. When my pc is doing nothing. It can stay on when my UPS is 'on battery'. But when I start to do stuff like opening a game. The UPS will start to make that noise and will just stop when it is 'in line' or i'll turn it off. I don't have any UPS available so I cant test it.

oh ... that does sound like an overload

 

ps: when I said test it with another PSU I meant the PC's power supply, not the UPS 

[W-L]

2 minutes ago, Keanu Lorenzo said:

No. When my pc is doing nothing. It can stay on when my UPS is 'on battery'. But when I start to do stuff like opening a game. The UPS will start to make that noise and will just stop when it is 'in line' or i'll turn it off. I don't have any UPS available so I cant test it.

Hmm that sounds like your overloading your UPS if that is happening, but if you have large voltage fluctuation I'm assuming that your unit isn't very good. As mentioned also some PSU's are a bit picky about having only pure sinewave wave forms, while I've always used stepped modified units they can produce electrical noise due to the variation. 

[Keanu Lorenzo]

1 minute ago, zMeul said:

oh ... that does sound like an overload

 

ps: when I said test it with another PSU I meant the PC's power supply, not the UPS 

Sorry, i thought you said UPS. But i dont have extra PSU to test with. It isn't an overload since I am just getting 500W Max under load. My UPS is designed to produce atleast 700W.

[Keanu Lorenzo]

9 minutes ago, W-L said:

Hmm that sounds like your overloading your UPS if that is happening, but if you have large voltage fluctuation I'm assuming that your unit isn't very good. As mentioned also some PSU's are a bit picky about having only pure sinewave wave forms, while I've always used stepped modified units they can produce electrical noise due to the variation. 

Im just pulling 500W max under load. My UPS is designed to produce atleast 700W. I guess my PSU and UPS can work together since my PC can run without any problem 'on battery' when idle. So i guess it can accept the waveform my UPS is producing.

[zMeul]

16 minutes ago, Keanu Lorenzo said:

It isn't an overload since I am just getting 500W Max under load. My UPS is designed to produce atleast 700W.

that's not how it works

UPSes are designed to supply certain amount of power over a period of time, if that power spikes out of specs it shuts down

what it happens is that at desktop you pull 200W (maybe even a whole lot less), but when you go full tilt you pull 400-500W - that's more than 100% - from what I'm reading, the UPS is only rated to supply 110% over 30sec and it sounds like you go way higher than 110%

 

you can do a test: while on wall power, start a workload on the PC then cut the wall power (unplug the UPS from the wall); does it shuts down or it continues?

[W-L]

Just now, Keanu Lorenzo said:

Im just pulling 500W max under load. My UPS is designed to produce atleast 700W. I guess my PSU and UPS can work together since my PC can run without any problem 'on battery' and just idle. So i guess it can accept the waveform my UPS is producing.

Is your UPS this unit here, while I haven't heard of the brand before a quick look at the specs seems pretty decent and is a pure sinewave unit. The only thing I could guess is the voltage drop on the UPS is causing the problem making the PSU think it's receiving bad power and cutting out. Most UPS's voltage output even at full load shouldn't vary more than a few percent.

 

https://www.securepower.co.uk/secure-power-ups-sp201.html

[Keanu Lorenzo]

2 minutes ago, zMeul said:

that's not how it works

UPSes are designed to supply certain amount of power over a period of time, if that power spikes out of specs it shuts down

what it happens is that at desktop you pull 200W, but when you go full tilt you pull 400-500W - that's more than 100% - from what I'm reading, the UPS is only rated to supply 110% over 30sec and it sounds like you go way higher than 110%

My UPS doesn't shut down, but my pc does.

[zMeul]

Just now, Keanu Lorenzo said:

My UPS doesn't shut down, but my pc does.

UPS doesn't need to shut down to cut power to one outlet

 

see my updated post with a test you can do

[Keanu Lorenzo]

7 minutes ago, W-L said:

Is your UPS this unit here, while I haven't heard of the brand before a quick look at the specs seems pretty decent and is a pure sinewave unit. The only thing I could guess is the voltage drop on the UPS is causing the problem making the PSU think it's receiving bad power and cutting out. Most UPS's voltage output even at full load shouldn't vary more than a few percent.

 

https://www.securepower.co.uk/secure-power-ups-sp201.html

Thats not it. This https://dynaquestpc.com/product/secure-ups-1000va/ is my product.

[Keanu Lorenzo]

4 minutes ago, zMeul said:

UPS doesn't need to shut down to cut power to one outlet

 

see my updated post with a test you can do

It continues for about 10 seconds then my pc restarted. While booting up it restarted again.

[zMeul]

2 minutes ago, Keanu Lorenzo said:

It continues for about 10 seconds then my pc restarted. While booting up it restarted again.

before RMAing once more - get / borrow a different PSU and test it with

[W-L]

3 minutes ago, Keanu Lorenzo said:

It continues for about 10 seconds then my pc restarted. While booting up it restarted again.

Can you use your multmeter on another one of the battery backup power ports to see what happens to the voltage when that occurs, if it drops more than 10% it's very possible the UPS is out of spec. As mentioned trying another PSU is a good way to rule out possible compatibility issues. 

[Keanu Lorenzo]

1 minute ago, zMeul said:

before RMAing once more - get / borrow a different PSU and test it with

I have here a PSU but it's a cheap one. I'll swap it up now. Wait for a while

[Keanu Lorenzo]

2 minutes ago, W-L said:

Can you use your multmeter on another one of the battery backup power ports to see what happens to the voltage when that occurs, if it drops more than 10% it's very possible the UPS is out of spec. As mentioned trying another PSU is a good way to rule out possible compatibility issues. 

That what I did earlier. Tested the output voltage of the UPS and its spiking from 230V to 190V and back to 230V everytime that loud noise occur.

[Keanu Lorenzo]

8 minutes ago, zMeul said:

before RMAing once more - get / borrow a different PSU and test it with

Okay. Now i've tested it again. Under load, i've disconnected the UPS outlet from the wall socket, the PC restarted suddenly after disconnecting it and displays an error during POST and it says that the power is unstable.

[W-L]

Just now, Keanu Lorenzo said:

That what I did earlier. Tested the output voltage of the UPS and its spiking from 230V to 190V and back to 230V everytime that loud noise occur.

That would be ~30V out of spec... the unit is rated for -6% at load where the lowest voltage shouldn't go below, 216V AC when on battery backup. If the system shutdown but UPS stayed on that would make sense where the PSU is trying to protect itself thinking it's receiving bad power. 

[Keanu Lorenzo]

2 minutes ago, W-L said:

That would be ~30V out of spec... the unit is rated for -6% at load where the lowest voltage shouldn't go below, 216V AC when on battery backup. If the system shutdown but UPS stayed on that would make sense where the PSU is trying to protect itself thinking it's receiving bad power. 

Is there a way to fix this?

[W-L]

1 minute ago, Keanu Lorenzo said:

Is there a way to fix this?

Well seeing that the last test pretty much confirmed the problem and it being out of spec I would suggest to RMA it or if you can return it and get another unit since this would be the second time something like this has occurred, instead get something like an APC, Cyberpower, or Tripplite unit those are all trustworthy brands. 

[Keanu Lorenzo]

3 minutes ago, W-L said:

Well seeing that the last test pretty much confirmed the problem and it being out of spec I would suggest to RMA it or if you can return it and get another unit since this would be the second time something like this has occurred, instead get something like an APC, Cyberpower, or Tripplite unit those are all trustworthy brands. 

Okay... I believe Cyberpower and Tripplite brands aren't available here. So what APC model should I get?

 

And just like what ive said earlier. I can't return my product for warranty because I need to go there by plane and i dont have any time for that. So theres no way fixing it?