Question

Low Battery application popup and then server is restarting - urgent

Asked by: CoSmismgr

Hi experts,

One of my servers has been restarting itself. I check the event viewer and the correlating entry is as follows:
-----
Source: Application Popup
Category: None
Event ID: 26
Description: Application popup: Low Battery : You should change your battery or switch to outlet power immediately to keep from losing your work.
-----
There is another entry the same except it says "Critical Battery" instead of Low. This server is plugged into a UPS, but there is no software installed that monitors the UPS battery and shuts down when battery is low. It might have been installed previously but I see no signs of such a program on the system.

Can you point me in the rigth direction to troubleshooting this and solving it? It is urgent because this server is our primary domain controller / email server eeek.
Thanks

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Asked On
2009-06-01 at 13:12:10ID24454629
Topic

Windows 2000 Server

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
16

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Answers

 

by: dmarinenkoPosted on 2009-06-01 at 13:14:39ID: 24521315

You must have the UPS software installed.  It is basically shutting down because it thinks the UPS is dying.  What does the charge look like on your UPS? Is it low?  How many things are plugged into it and what kind of ups/watts is it? you may be putting on too much of a load on it.  Is the serial port or usb cable connected from the server to UPS?

 

by: dmarinenkoPosted on 2009-06-01 at 13:31:34ID: 24521485

Sorry remind me to read a little better on not having software installed,
If you look under device manager, i bet the battery backup is listed you can right click and go to properties
Also check control panel, and then power to see what it;s at.  It should be always on.
You can also look here
http://www.planetamd64.com/lofiversion/index.php?t28424.html

 

by: dariusgPosted on 2009-06-01 at 13:32:36ID: 24521498

This seems to me that you UPS is going out replace the battery. Also, I would check your RAID controller battery.

 

by: CoSmismgrPosted on 2009-06-01 at 14:19:50ID: 24521966

Under device manager, there is a device called HID UPS Battery listed under Batteries. The driver provider says Microsoft and thats about the only useful information there.
The RAID controller battery state is reporting as degraded.

I will install a new battery in the RAID controller as soon as I can after hours. Should I do anything about the HID UPS Battery listed in device manager? Also, I have never changed out the battery in a RAID controller. I don't want to wipe out my RAID configuration. Do I have anything to watch out for?

 

by: dariusgPosted on 2009-06-01 at 14:29:28ID: 24522050

If the battery is degraded you should be able just to recondition the battery through the RAID controller application.

The UPS is most likely causing the issue.

 

by: dmarinenkoPosted on 2009-06-01 at 14:30:13ID: 24522057

Did you look under the control paneland then power options?
That device should be listed and you should have an alarm tab.

As for a raid battery, i doubt thats it, but never the less it's not bad to change them once in awhile.  Not much to worry about just realize the raid card always has power going to it, so you don't wan't to ground it out by putting it on a metal table for instance or the side of the case etc.

 

by: CoSmismgrPosted on 2009-06-01 at 14:42:14ID: 24522137

dariusq,
Under battery tasks for the RAID controller battery, it says No Tasks Available. I attached a screenshot of it.

dmarinenko,
It is a Win 2k server, I don't see any Power options under the Control Panel. Should I just use Add/Remove hardware and uninstall the HID UPS Battery?

 

by: dmarinenkoPosted on 2009-06-02 at 06:48:22ID: 24526689

Thats what I would do.  Although you will probably just end up replacing the battery or ups itself in the end.   Is there a power meter on the front of the UPS?  If so is it a full charge?  One other quesion, you haven't recently started to plug extra things into the UPS have you?

 

by: dariusgPosted on 2009-06-02 at 13:46:26ID: 24531389

The battery does need to be replaced in the RAID controller. The reason for the battery is to allow for faster write speed. Also, if you have data in the RAID controllers cache and you lose power you won't lose the data in the cache. Overall I think the UPS is causing the errors though.

 

by: CoSmismgrPosted on 2009-06-02 at 16:08:23ID: 24532268

I replaced the battery in the UPS about 6 months ago with a brand new one. It is reporting a full charge and at about half load, which is why this is strange.
I did find remnants of a Powerchute installation on the server, which is some software that monitors UPS levels, etc. I got rid of that but it didn't solve the issue, so next I will get that RAID controller battery replaced.
I haven't removed the HID UPS battery from device manager yet either, I want to do it after hours incase it causes some unexpected problems.

Thanks for all your help so far, I think we're getting close.

 

by: CoSmismgrPosted on 2009-06-12 at 10:24:25ID: 24614262

Had other high priority projects to attend to, I will be getting back to this now.

 

by: dariusgPosted on 2009-06-14 at 13:48:59ID: 24625094

Just let me know.

 

by: CoSmismgrPosted on 2009-07-09 at 11:37:47ID: 24816759

Removing the battery from device manager seems to have fixed the issue!

 

by: CoSmismgrPosted on 2009-07-09 at 11:45:08ID: 24816835

Sorry, I meant to split points between dmarinenko(300) and dariusq(200) for his additional help.

 

by: CoSmismgrPosted on 2009-09-21 at 09:11:58ID: 31587562

Removing the Battery from Device Manager worked

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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