I have this UPS configured with six (yes, six) expansion battery packs. All batteries are fresh and test good. The connected load is very low (under 100 watts typical). Using their monitoring software, everything appears to be in order for it to run for 1,483 minutes, or roughly 24 hours. When I use the the run time calculator, where it actually runs on batteries, everything behaves as it should. I've gotten about 7 hours of run time before I canceled the test with plenty of battery capacity still showing.

The problem is that when there's a real power outage, it only runs for about ten minutes and then shuts down hard. No warning, no nothing. I know that there are several settings to allow the shutdown of connected equipment via RS232 command. I've suspected that one of these settings is what's causing this shutdown, and it has nothing to do with battery capacity left. I can't figure out which one it is. Yes, I know that this equipment is old and yes, I know that the PowerChute software is antiquated. Still, it's good equipment and works perfectly otherwise. Any ideas?

Oh, and yes, I have contacted APC, well now it's Schneider Electric. All they want to do, in their most pleasant forced sales pitch voice from a three-ring binder, is to sell me their latest and greatest. They offer no actual technical support whatsoever.

Ed Vaughn, MBSWWYPBX