We bought the best available at the time, 6-7 years ago. This last year, it's been whining.
It's the kind of UPS that came with software to save open docs, close any programs running, and safely shut down the computer with the battery when that's necessary, while beeping madly to call attention to the phenomenon in case you want to do something else.
It was tested to see if it had enough juice to run the puder briefly with power off. It did have enough juice. However, the puder does shut down on a regular (but unpredictable) basis and, sometimes, is unwilling to restart when asked until the UPS, apparently, has had a good long rest; then the puder will mysteriously restart itself and boot up at a time of its choosing.
The puder itself has been thoroughly bench-tested and found to be fine.
Our tech suspected various puder problems and replaced those-- expensively I might add-- but the shutdowns have continued sporadically and I BLAME THE UNIVERSAL POWER SUPPLY!
OK, that's the background.
NOW the newest wrinkle is that the UPS will start beepig madly, and NOT shut anything down. (It doesn't need to: the house power is fine when this happens. How do I know? The TV and lights don't even flicker or dim AT ALL. I would know-- we have a few clocks that are very sensitive to power flux and they are not reacting at all.)
After awhile it stops beeping. After 6-8 panicked runs to the puder from the kitchen where I will have been up to my elbows in something, only to find absolutely nothing happening with the puder itself-- I've begun to simply ignore it.
Does this mean that my UPS is now merely a glorified outlet strip, which I should replace when I can? Or does it mean my puder is going to blow up any time now if I don't replace it or shut down NOW?
Replies in simplest terms, PLEASE. It's not that I'm dumb, but my brain lacks RAM at the moment.