What It Means When your APC UPS is Beeping
Investing in technology goes hand in hand with investing in methods to protect it. To keep my Mac mini and assorted computing gear safe from brown-outs, power surges, and power outages, I use an APC XS1300 uninterruptible power supply (UPS). As its name suggests, a UPS will provide battery back-up power to your devices in the event of a power outage, giving you time to save your work and safely shut your devices down.
Many UPSs use replaceable lead batteries. After about two years or so, the battery will need to be replaced. When my APC XS1300’s battery runs low, it squawks a repeating pattern of two pulsing beeps, followed by a one second pause. While the warning is helpful, there is nothing in the way of a hardware switch on this device that will let the user suppress the beeping noise. (Pressing the mute button on the front of the XS1300 will only mute the beeping temporarily.)
While I understand the intent of this approach, I personally think that the lack of a hardware mute button on the UPS is annoying.
As of this writing, I’ve ordered a replacement battery, but it will take a few days to arrive. Meanwhile, the APC UPS continued its squawking, to the point where I couldn’t concentrate on my work. After a few days of enduring the madness, I came upon a workaround: remove the old batteries. Doing this eliminated the beeps altogether. (Incidentally, while removing the old batteries, I noticed that one of the terminal leads was fully singed.)
While this means that my devices can’t rely on battery backup power during this time, I can get back to work without having to hear the constant beeping noise from my APC UPS. My sanity is preserved, and that’s a win in my books.
-Krishna
GJB
May 6, 2019 at 7:45 amI stopped doing APC UPSes and switched to CyberPower.
Better designed units with more features and better Mac support for the money. I like how with the CyberPower I can track how much power my Mac Pro has consumed over the years.
Krishna
May 12, 2019 at 11:47 amAwesome. I’ve been aware of CyberPower for years now (owned a unit about 20 years back). Will have to check ’em out.
Matt Strieby
May 9, 2019 at 4:43 pmGood to know. I use a CyberPower UPS myself, but I suspect it may behave similarly in the future. It’s a little over a year and a half old. A UPS is a good idea anywhere you live, even here in western Washington State where we average only about 2-3 thunderstorms a year. We still get wind and ice events. The UPS hasn’t had to deploy often, but I’m thankful when it does.
David Abbey
May 21, 2019 at 2:44 amNice I m aware of cyber-power a little bit, but this post really increased my knowledge graph. Keep sharing new informative posts.