UPS - only 300W battery

rudeboymcc · 22 Aug 2006 at 11:15

Hi. I just bought a Belkin UPS + surge protector not reading the full specs. turns out it only powers upto 300W when running off its battery.

I'm trying to power my comptuer and a lcd monitor.

my compter has a 450W power supply in it. My question is do power supplies always draw the amount they are rated at or do they only draw as much as they need?

if they draw all of the power they can handle then i can simply buy a 300W power supply, but if they draw how much they need then a 300W power supply won't be enough.

ANy help is appreciated!

titchard · 22 Aug 2006 at 11:16

Hey,

As far as I am aware, a PSU will only draw what it needs (i.e. a 400W will only pump out 250W if thats all the system needs).

I think you should be ok!

Rich

rudeboymcc · 22 Aug 2006 at 12:11

that's the problem i've already bought it and it seems like it overloads.

i've left hte battery to charge and then i try to power on the computer just from the battery (to avoid cutting the power while it's on) and the battery just cuts out.

i've tried on an older computer and it works fine, managed to load windows and then shut down 10 minutes later so it's nearly definately too much pwoer being drawn in my pc.

does a 9800 Pro take a lot of power? i'm thining of changing it over for a smaller card i don't play any games.

Floyd · 22 Aug 2006 at 12:31

Its Probably cutting out due to the high power draw thats needed on startup. Try setting it up with the machine on and pulling the plug out / turning it off.

rudeboymcc · 22 Aug 2006 at 14:13

thought of that, did it once and the same thing happens.

will it make a difference if i take out a tv card? (i've got two but only ever use one)?

and also does RAID use a lot of power or will it be the same if i had two seperate drives?

Floyd · 22 Aug 2006 at 15:16

You could try removing the card, they dont draw a lot of power though.

Hard drives use the same power regardless of their setup. (assuming they have not spun down)

Whats your PC's Specs?

I run a Athlon XP 3200+, Nvidia 6800 GS, 1 Gig or Ram and a Hard disk on my 250watt shuttle no problem

your screen is probably pulling a good 60 watts which you have to take into account

VeNT · 22 Aug 2006 at 16:27

mums old 3500, 1gig ram 3 hard drives x700pro jobbie only used 250-300W in use (checked on ups)

thats inc a 19'' tft

rudeboymcc · 4 Sep 2006 at 17:55

Well I connected just the computer (not the monitor) ot the UPS and disconnectd all the hard drives and all the cd drives. tried turning it on, turns on for a second and hten turns off. the battery is definately charged and works fine.

is there a chance that the power supply is going into some protection mode? it's an Antec treu power i htink but it's not a cheap one. but surely all power supplies are designed to work with UPS?