dickmccle's Full Review: APC Back-UPS XS900 (BX900) UPS System
[Bought to replace MGE Ellipse because or RFI whine on AM radio approx 10 feet away.]
The APC BX900 is relatively inexpensive $100 unit after OfficeMax $20 in-store discount.
Easy to setup and has worked well to date. Has line interactive which automatically switches internal transformer windings one setting up or down to compensate for low or high line voltage. Thus, UPS does not normally run producing its backup square wave AC unless the line voltage is absent or considerably out of range. This is a good feature as it means the unit's inverter is not normally running to potentially produce radio interference.
Output is only a square wave which is less tolerant to non-computer equipment. [MGE Ellipse has a much more versatile trapezoidal wave. However, the MGE Ellipse produces objectionable radio interference on an AM receiver 10-feet away (but no FM interference)]. The APC BX900 produced no discernable RFI interference, AM or FM, on a receiver a few feet away.
At least compared to MGE, the APC Power Chute Personal Edition is pretty brain dead. The present line voltage and output are buried on different screens. The APC software details the last incident but only has a prior incident count. The APC software has no real incident log even though that would be far more helpful and have taken only a few hours to program! It does, however, have the ability to change the line interactive trip points.
Also, APC has an objectionable flash screen on startup. (Found out on the net how to change the registry to eliminate. Under the registry HKLM\SOFTWARE\APC\APC PowerChute Personal Edition\1.05.000\Settings there's an entry called EnableSplashScreen. Set this to 0 to disable the APC splash screen)
Installation automatically changes XP setting to hibernate which added another gig of disk virtual memory use. You can however redisable hibernate. My main point is that the installation should have told the user that the software installation had made this change as all users may not have wanted to allow hibernation.
Customer service leaves something to be desired as illustrated below:
E-Mail to APC:
Why are you not able to disable the splash screen in Version 1.5?? Not everyone in the world likes to see splash screens or is dumb enough to need them, there is an icon in the tray that tells you it is running anyway!!!
Also, how to get rid of the icon in the system tray. I like to keep the tray for items I really need.
Although I got rid of an MGE Ellipse because of objectionable RFI at 1320 kHZ, one thing they had is an intelligent graphic history. Simply a total of the number of events leaves a lot to be desired. Your software really should have a graph, or at least a log. How complicated can it be to make a log file!!!!!
Also, on installation you should have had a notify screen that the hibernate setting was changed if you enabled a disabled setting. Sincerely,
APC Unuseful Response:
We appreciate you taking the time to provide us with your feedback. Because you have made us aware of your concerns, we can reevaluate and improve our products and services that we offer to our customers. Your comments will be directed to the appropriate team here at APC for further investigation.
Thank you again for your constructive input and thank you for continuing to use APC products and services.
Protect your equipment and your hard work from surges, spikes and power outages. Battery backup outlets let you save and power down in a power outage....More at Office Depot
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