Desktop won't auto shut down when ups battery low

enchant · 22 Dec 2023

I've recently installed a new UPS and want my Win10 desktop PC to automatically shut down during a power outage once the UPS battery drops below a certain point. I've got the UPS connected to the PC and I'm seeing the battery level on my taskbar tray.

I've gone into power options and "Change plan settings" on the Balanced plan (which is selected).
From there, "Change advanced power settings".
In the Battery section, I've set the following:

Desktop won't auto shut down when ups battery low-battery.png

Once the changes are saved, I unplug the UPS and watch the battery level drop below 60% with no action happening at all.

What am I missing and how can I get it to shut down when the battery gets low?

Berton · 22 Dec 2023

I unplug the UPS

I take it that means you are unplugging the UPS from the wall outlet. If like mine the Desktop computer continues to work until the UPS charge has dropped. The main use of a UPS is to provide sufficient power to a computer to accommodate an orderly shutdown to prevent loss of data, not really much more than about 15 minutes, more or less depending upon the capacity of the battery in the UPS. Having a Notebook on the UPS is rather immaterial as its battery will last much longer than the UPS'. My use of a UPS started when having momentary power bumps, lost a motherboard to one years ago.

enchant · 22 Dec 2023

Berton said:

I take it that means you are unplugging the UPS from the wall outlet.

That's right.

Berton said:

If like mine the Desktop computer continues to work until the UPS charge has dropped. The main use of a UPS is to provide sufficient power to a computer to accommodate an orderly shutdown to prevent loss of data, not really much more than about 15 minutes, more or less depending upon the capacity of the battery in the UPS. Having a Notebook on the UPS is rather immaterial as its battery will last much longer than the UPS'. My use of a UPS started when having momentary power bumps, lost a motherboard to one years ago.

Not really sure what a notebook has to do with this. I'm talking about a desktop computer.

An additional 15 minutes of of power is really inconsequential if it's not going to take down the computer cleanly. A power loss at 12:15 is no less damaging than a power loss at 12:00.

MisterEd · 22 Dec 2023

What brand UPS do you have? Do it come with any software?

My APC UPS comes with a program called PowerChute. PowerChute can be set the to shut down my computer after a certain number of minutes after the power goes out.

enchant · 22 Dec 2023

MisterEd said:

What brand UPS do you have? Do it come with any software?

My APC UPS comes with a program called PowerChute. PowerChute can be set the to shut down my computer after a certain number of minutes after the power goes out.

It's a CyberPower ST625U. It doesn't come with software, but it suggests downloading and installing PowerPanel. If that's the only solution, then I might do it, but it'd be a last resort option. It appears that an automatic shutdown based on low battery power is already built into Windows 10 and I'd prefer to utilize it. I've been badly burned in the past by blindly installing "free" software that will supposedly solve my problems. Sometimes they do, but often they come with unwelcome extra "features".

MisterEd · 22 Dec 2023

enchant said:

It's a CyberPower ST625U. It doesn't come with software, but it suggests downloading and installing PowerPanel. If that's the only solution, then I might do it, but it'd be a last resort option. It appears that an automatic shutdown based on low battery power is already built into Windows 10 and I'd prefer to utilize it. I've been badly burned in the past by blindly installing "free" software that will supposedly solve my problems. Sometimes they do, but often they come with unwelcome extra "features".

When are running on the power from a UPS your computer thinks it is running on AC power. It has no way of knowing that the UPS has a battery. You are wasting your time looking at Windows 10 for a solution.

I looked at the description for PowerPanel. It might have the settings you need.

Berton · 22 Dec 2023

It appears that an automatic shutdown based on low battery power is already built into Windows 10 and I'd prefer to utilize it

That's exactly why I mentioned it, only Notebooks or Tablets have it, not Desktops, at least that's the way all mine are. The only battery a Desktop has is the CMOS battery that maintains power to retain the BIOS user settings, most are a CR-2032.

enchant · 22 Dec 2023

This is a piece of my desktop after I click on the battery icon. This reflects the state of my UPS battery. If I unplug the UPS from the wall, this percentage starts to drop. So Windows 10 knows about it. All of the configuration settings appear to be there similar to a laptop. The only thing that might explain it is that for some reason they've hardwired a Win10 desktop to ignore the configuration.

Desktop won't auto shut down when ups battery low-power.png

Berton · 22 Dec 2023

My USPs are 1 TrippLite and 2 APC, didn't need to install any software and don't have that feature on the computers.

MisterEd · 23 Dec 2023

Berton said:

My USPs are 1 TrippLite and 2 APC, didn't need to install any software and don't have that feature on the computers.

Not all APC UPSs can use the PowerChute software. The ones that do come with a USB data cable. PowerChute uses the data cable to monitor the state of the UPS and when there is a power fluctuation or outage.

Note only with this data can the PowerChute software know when there is power outage and shut down the computer.

I have the following APC UPS which does not come with a data cable.

APC Back-UPS BE425M

I have the following APC UPSs which do come with a data cable.

APC Back-UPS BE600M1
APC Back-UPS Pro BX850M