Hibernation

[seekermeister]

This may sound like a Windows question, but I don't believe that it is. My old APC XS1000 UPS is supposed to be able to store data in a power loss, via a USB connection. This did seem to work at first, but a couple of years ago, it failed. When a new USB cable did not fix it, I assumed that the problem was internal to the APC, and simply forgot about it, and continued to use it just for it's battery backup function.

However, when I ran a diagnostic yesterday on the power settings, it said that only S1 and S3 were available, and that the firmware didn't support hibernation (hibernation is of course required for the APC to store data). I'm assuming that firmware is the motherboard's not the APCs, and that the problem's root cause is not in Windows either.

Yet the fact that it did once work, seems to imply that the motherboard did support hibernation previously. Since this initially failed, I have upgraded the motherboard, so if it were a defective board, that should have cured it, but it didn't.

Somehow, I can't seem to cross all of the dots...can someone else?

EDIT: BTW, the power settings in the BIOS are S1 only, S3 only and automatic, and it is now set at the latter.

 

[Brink]

Hi mate,

Double check to make sure that you have hibernate enabled in Windows 7. I have my BIOS set with S3 only and hibernate works with it, so you might give it a try to see if it will for you as well.

 

[seekermeister]

Thanks, I'll try that after I dig through my junk box and find the APC backup cable. It has been there for a long time now, so I'm unsure what condition that it is in. However, if the problem is only the power settings, why would it say that hibernate is not supported by the firmware?

 

[Brink]

I found a copy of your APC XS1000 UPS manual in case it may help any.

Which motherboard is this for?

Some other items to check:

• APC PowerChute software is installed.
• APC data cable connected.
• Might see if a newer BIOS firmware may be available for your motherboard that may add hibernate if not already supported.

 

[seekermeister]

I finally got around to digging in the junk box, and found the cable, but it was of no use. Powerchute complains that it can't find the UPS and to check that the cable is connected. I guess that my original estimate of the problem was correct, and that something is wrong inside the UPS. I wish that PowerChute would still have installed, because it is useful for monitoring purposes.

 

[Brink]

Yeah, without the PowerChute software installed and data cable, the UPS is not going to backup.

 

[seekermeister]

Hah! I had given up too quickly. I reseated the USB cable into the same slot as before, but this time Windows recognized it and installed the driver, and afterward PowerChute did install. I ran the self-test, and at first it failed, saying that the battery needed to be replaced. I pushed the button on the front of the UPS to mute the racket made by the alarm signal, and shortly afterward, Powerchute then said that it had passed the test successfully. It leaves one guessing as to which test result to believe.

 

[Brink]

That's great news. You might let the battery charge and condition for a while, then run the self-test again to see if it still fails.

 

[seekermeister]

I figure that the battery is fully charged, because it has been plugged in for a very long time. I noticed that the figure for estimated battery time is as high as it ever was, and considering that there is more hardware to run now than before, I'm assuming that is an indirect indication of the batteries health. In any case, if feels good to have it back up and running.

 

[Brink]

That's sounds good then. I guess the only one way to make sure that the battery is good in this case is to unplug the UPS and see how it does running on battery power.

 

[seekermeister]

I really don't think that the battery charge is a problem, because PowerChute says that it is fully charged at 100%. However, something may be quirky with the installation anyway, because I just had to reboot for other reasons, and reaching desktop again, It displayed a rather cryptic message about it loading what appeared to be the APC driver again. I thought that I had a screenshot of it, but I failed to pasted it into paint before rebooting once more, after Windows did say that it had installed the driver and that a reboot was required. Since the driver had already been installed, I don't understand why it had to do that again, but at least Powerchute is now running again also. I guess that I will just have to wait and see if a problem persists.