i found it necessary to replace one of my old APC 1000VA backups with a new one recently. a new BX1000M arrived a couple of days ago, and was working well in my home office until about 2 hours ago when it threw an "F02" alarm. the manual said that meant there was a dead short on one of the things plugged in and i should start trying to figure out what it was. i was just starting to go through the procedure when the alarm changed to F06 which means "call tech support". i tried unplugging it from the wall, disconnecting the battery and reconnecting, but it still alarmed and threw an F06 after 10 seconds of normal running with no load connected at all.
i went to their online chat. the tech rep asked about power fluctuations and i advised him that we'd had a snow storm, so maybe but i hadn't seen any clear symptoms. he gave me a reset procedure which i applied; no change in behavior. he then advised me that i should wait until the fluctuations were over, to which i replied, roughly:
1) i never said there were fluctuations, only that there might be and i'd seen no evidence
2) what the hell good is a UPS that that throws a "call tech support" alarm in response to power fluctuations
3) i have owned many APC UPS units in my time and this would be the first one to ever behave this way.
so he has issued an RMA and i'll have to go without a UPS for maybe as much as a week before the replacement shows up.
