[Macworld]

Post your comments for Bugs & Fixes: Be wary of APC battery backups for Intel Macs running Leopard here

[RalphDaily]

I've used APC with Leopard ever since Leopard came out without any problem. I use Energy Saver since Power Chute seems unnecessary.
Ralph

[davekriss93]

I didn't know that, thanks! Any notes on what is compatible?

[adobephile]

We've used APC with Leopard on Intel Macs for years(?) with no problems. We've never used Power Chute, and we set Energy Saver sleep mode for computers and displays to "Never." We leave the machines on all the time.
No problems even with occasional brown-outs and power interruptions.
The APC UPS's are good investments.

[leicaman]

APCs reluctance to do anything about this problem shows they should most certainly be recommended against until they fix their software. How clueless can a company be, when 60 percent of the over $1,000 market for computers is Macs? Which computers are people likely to spend $500+ on a UPS? Someone with a $299 netbook that's all the range and propping up PC sales numbers right now, (only 6 percent down) or more expensive PCs where sales are dropping even faster, or Macs, where they only dropped 3 percent?

Some companies are clueless.

Now, how about a REAL article on UPSs for Macs, especially figuring out what you need for a Mac Pro with 16 gigs of RAM, four hard drives, three graphics cards, etc. (Not that mine has multiple graphics cards, but it might some day), but it's hard to know exactly which APC to get for a Mac Pro that has a 900 watt power supply, vs an iMac, vs a Mac Mini.

And what features are available in different UPCs, how software differs, etc.

Message was edited by: leicaman

[jpmm]

I use the SmartUPS 1500 for my Mac Pro (it's a pure sine wave, anything less causes the power supply to buzz when in battery power). I used to just use the Energy Saver settings and it worked fine. The particular model I own does not have the sensitivity button on the back, so I loaded Power Chute via VMWare in Windows XP :) and made the settings in there (sensitivity, turning off alarm) and exited. In the end though, I ended up unplugging the UPS from the USB port because every time I put my Mac to sleep, it ended up waking it if it went into standby mode. To me this is a great annoyance. If I forget to turn off my printer and do it after the Mac is asleep, it turns the Mac back on. (I know this is a bit off topic, but I wish the USB ports wouldn't wake the Mac from sleep). ... But, bottom line, my SmartUPS works great!

[SolonPhotos]

I use an APC UPS-ES-750 for all of my Mac Pros - running 10.5.6.

I just plug the Macs into the battery backup sockets on the APC - and I skip all of their software and cables. I have other APCs on my 15 TBs of external hard drives (DATAOPTIC sBox enclosures) - and another that powers my DSL modem and my Airport Express.

I'm out in the country and we get brief power losses here - and I keep on working through them.

APC is great - just skip the auto features. I sleep my Mac Pros at night - so I don't lose any data if the power goes off then anyway.

Dick

[Sebehk]

I guess it depends on what particular APC UPS you buy. I've been using my APC Back-UPS XS 1000 for 6 years on two different Macs (a PM G4/400 and now a Mac Pro Quad 2.66). The UPS shows up just fine in the Energy Saver Pref Pane.

[andrewrodney]

Ditto, no problems with multiple machines with APC units on Leopard. I'm not using their software, just Energy Saver Prefs.

[MacKayaker]

I take issue with the article. At best, it starts informational, but then gets very muddled. At least try to be clear - the software is incompatible - not the hardware.
I, like others, have used APC UPSes with no issue whatsoever with my Intel Macs. I don't and never have used their software, as I have no need for it.
As a full-time Mac tech person, I encourage people to make the investment in a UPS (I have four in my own work office, three are APC). And in my experience, there aren't very many reliable brands. APC is the one I have found to be very reliable among the half dozen or so brands I have tried. YMMV

[smittst]

Thanks for the heads up. I have an iMac that has been doing weird stuff and it has been plugged into an APC unit.
My issues that may or may not be attributed to the APC unit that it's attached to:
Login screen shows up blank
Network shares won't eject
reinstalled Leopard and now I have had:
iCal crash at exactly midnight
Dock Crash
Finder Crash
Going to run DiskWarrior this weekend.
Terry

[MacKayaker]

There are potential issues ONLY if you install the APC software. Since there isn't current software, it would have been foolish to do so. And the same is true for most peripherals. If there isn't 10.5 compatible software available, one should proceed with caution before installing older software.

[holzwege]

As others have noted, APC UPS systems work. It is the PowerChute software that is the problem. I never install that stuff. I am using an APC UPS in the system I am typing on now with no problems. Covers outages, brown-outs, and squirrel-cides.
I have my Airport and Cable modem plugged in to another APC UPS, and that works well also. As long as Cablevision has juice, I'm working and on-line even with an outage. The computer is using a UPS purchased for a G5 PowerMac, so the iMac can run for hours on the battery if needed. ;-)

[thinbits]

What horrible advice this articles gives. APC UPSs work just fine when plugged into an Intel Mac. Just don't install APC's old and unnecessary software.
The Energy Saver functionality of Leopard handles almost everything you would ever need from the UPS.