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Re: Strange UPS behavior



I had 3 identical UPS (by Best) that failed withing 6 months of each
other.
I had these for about 4-5 years, so they last about as long as
my also lead-acid car batteries.
Over two months, as those UPS failed, I saw the destruction of
several attached computer devices:
1. On the first UPS, a $300 DSL router was destroyed,
   and 2 webcams were destroyed.
2. On the second UPS in another room, 
   a $1200 postscript networked inkjet printer was destroyed.

I gather that as UPS batteries fail, the batteries can even switch their
polarity.
I concluded that an UPS will save electrical equipment in the short term,
but if you don't change your UPS batteries every 4-5 years, 
then YOUR UPS ITSELF WILL DESTROY ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT IN THE LONG TERM.

I ordered a new pair of batteries from my UPS manufacturer,
then noticed that they used a new brand of batteries by Panasonic (same
size), so I became willing to use compatable batteries in my UPS.
My second and third set of UPS batteries I got for about $15 each at
   http://www.gotbatteries.com/cross_ref/slabattery/SLACross.htm
which has a cross reference for batteries 
(look at the label on the battery in your case). 
You might also be able to look up your UPS battery in their table
   http://www.gotbatteries.com/products/upsbackups/UPSModel.htm
but actually looking at your battery is more assuring.

You can also see a cross reference of batteries at
   http://www.batteriesplus.com/crossups.html

The following Finnish website rather thoroughly covers "Electrical
Wiring Surge Protection",
    http://www.hut.fi/Misc/Electronics/surge




On Wed, May 07, 2003 at 08:31:23PM -0500, ZephyrQ wrote:
> 
> 	For the past few months, my UPS has 'blinked out' on me.  The rest of
> the power in the house was fine, but the items plugged into the UPS have
> tripped, causing the usual confusion and 20+ minute boot up sequence (12
> partitions, 90+ Gigs of hda/b including manually running fsck on my /var
> partition).
> 
> 	Can anyone help me figure out whether to buy a new UPS or not?  This
> problem is fairly recent as I have had the UPS for about 3 years.  
> 
> 	Also, my XFree86 (ver. 4.2.1) acts strange after these 'episodes'. 
> When I 'startx' after the above sequence, the computer locks up--causing
> another manual hardboot and the above (lather, rinse, repeat).  This
> includes re-running xf86config, restoring previous config files, etc.  
> 
> 	The only way it *does* work is if I let the machine sit 24+ hours. 
> Then everything is peachy.
> 
> 	What is going on?  And why do I have to *always* fix /var manually?
> 
> 	--running Woody 3.0 (not the latest...slow connection and all).
> 

-- 
Jameson C. Burt, NJ9L   Fairfax, Virginia, USA
jameson@coost.com       http://www.coost.com

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