00_DotNetWarrior wrote:
I have been using APC products at least for 6-7 years and I have 10 of their
products in the office and I am happy with them UNTIL recently. I have one
of my regular desktops I left it on all the time protected by APC Back-Ups
Office 500 VA, I went out for 2 hours and came back. The computer was off
and the whole room got burning smell. I found that my APC was not working,
So I examined my computer, monitor everything were fine when plugged
directly to the elec outlet.

Now, I opened up the APC, Look at the photos!!

http://portal.aidmas.com/Temp/Customer/98712/1.jpg
http://portal.aidmas.com/Temp/Customer/98712/2.jpg
http://portal.aidmas.com/Temp/Customer/98712/3.jpg
http://portal.aidmas.com/Temp/Customer/98712/4.jpg

The unit was not overloaded, and I checked my log file from other APCs
software, there wasn't any surge during the day.

Now, the questions a

1. What caused this? anyone had similar experience?

2. If I am using APC for my servers (I do have several servers running
1000VA series), I am SO WORRIED this will happen and shut down by itself
like this. How can I prevent this and WHAT'S THE POINT of having a backup
when APC can't even function by itself?

3. See the photos? The burning is pretty bad, it can actually cause fire. I
should think about APC product if I were to buy again.


Alex




And how many pieces of electronic equipment do you own that will never
and can never fail? Was the UPS supplying a computer controlling, for
example, your life support system?

I'd say that if the UPS failing didn't damage your computer, and given
that the UPS in question is about the cheapest model that APC makes,
things worked out pretty well all things considered. By all means, go
and buy some other manufacturer's UPS if it makes you happy but if you
continue to buy from the bottom rung you probably shouldn't expect any
better experience and may well do far worse.

--
John McGaw
[Knoxville, TN, USA]
http://johnmcgaw.com