One advantage of the software could be when you have power failure and the computer is sitting there running - the software turns the computer off. Without the software the ups battery eventually reaches 80% charge and the ups shuts off, crashing your computer. Which sometimes creates problems.

Windows XP comes with a 'service, "Uninterruptible Power Supply" that I have never tried but it may be smart enough to see the ups and save files and shut down windows.

Open up notepad, type Mary wrote a little lamb story until a power failure erased it. - Hook up the computer to ups wire and set that service to automatic, and then pull the ups cord? see what happens. Did mary's story disappear ?

I have never gotten my UPS software to work. I use XP.
You don't need the software for the UPS to work.

Here is what happens:
The power goes out but your computer is plugged into the UPS.
Therefore your computer will stay on until the UPS battery
reaches a certain state of discharge. Usually this is
enough time for you to save your work and shut down normally.
If you have the software installed it is supposed to recieve
a signal from the UPS telling it to do an auto shutdown.
If you don't have the software installed then you have to shut it down manually.
If you are not at your computer to do the normal shutdown,
when the UPS shuts off then the computer will go off just as
it would have had it not been plugged into the UPS.

Like I said, I have never gotten the software to work.
So I just do a manual shutdown when the power goes off.

Pooh Bear

That's all well and good, but it doesn't help folks who aren't at home to do a manual shutdown when the power goes off.

Ah but a UPS does protect you Lindsey. It protects against power surges and drops all the time so if a surge came through your hydro it would take care of it. Of course, if there were a power failure it would shut down after the battery was drained but the computer would still be workable once you re-booted.

owbist,
That answer brings about what is probably a dumb question...As U said it shuts down after the battery is drained.. does the battery build backup when the lites come on or is it done for?
Is there protection as soon as the lites are back on? There is so much about this machine I don't understand..
Dar

I had to buy a new battery back up due to hubby not turning the thing off when a storm hit , the battery was activated and ran out till it is now dead. I replaced it with a new battery backup that came with a power monitoring program. It was this program that alerted me to the problem I had with my CPU fan failure.

UPS's constantly monitor the battery and have a small charger built into them to keep the battery juiced perfect.
They charge up their batteries after they run down, unless of course the battery has reached its end of life cycle. Some battery types are good for two years, some for longer. Its not a real fast charger, just a little trickle job. The UPS offers surge protection even with a near dead battery.

Mine beep like the dickens when their batteries get about 5 years old and one cell dies, as a reminder to go buy some new ones.
At power failure every few seconds they beep here - I have several.. its funny - a beep from here where my laptop ac adapter is,, a beep over there on a desktop server, others from behind a door, still another from the router area. Almost like synchronized music that drives me nutty Power failure in the dark of nite - there's so many flashing lights you dont need to worry about bumping into walls.

Where my UPS really helps is with the power 'blinks' we
have here so often. The power goes off for about 5 seconds
and with the UPS it doesn't affect my computer.

Then there are those rare times when the power goes off for
several hours and I am not here to shut down the computer.
I would rather that not happen but sometimes it can't be helped.

I plan on adding more battery capacity to my system.

Pooh Bear

I wish I had smaller ups - the smallest ups here uses 30 watts each with nothing plugged into them. So if I do my math half way correctly - just those alone cost me about $8.50 per month on my power bill.

That doesn't sound like much but all the little stuff cumulatively add up when smaller ones could do fine most of the time for 3 minutes rather than an hour plus run time.

Plus battery replacements arent cheap at around $25e x2 batteries per unit every five years.

I just want to let everyone know I got the software installed.. it was very simple so don't know why I was fearful of doing it.. we must have had a bleep in power last nite as a popup was there saying so. It wasn't long enough to effect the clock without batteries.

Mikie, I don't know what wattage it is but my electric is including in the rent. I don't take advantage of that though.

Thanks everyone for the answers.. U people are GREAT!

BTW I got my FTP installed without asking for help :)
Isn't putting computers back together after a crash fun.. NOT.. at least I think I am about done.
Dar