UPS and UPS battery Buying Advice? Plz. Help

[rajivkumar3000]

I have a Wipro emerge UPS (300Watt) (Model: WeP BNT 500-A) (it has two outputs, one for the PC & second for the monitor) , which came with my PC (Pentium-4) (Model: LG MyPC), which I bought few years back. Now it's gone crazy. It doesn't provide enough battery backup. Whenever there's a power-cut, backup is around only few seconds, so it's almost impossible to save data & properly shutdown the PC. What may be the reason? Is it battery issue or something else?
Pictures of my UPS (Got them by googling:smile-

http://images.naaptol.com/usr/local/csp/staticContent/EnlgImg250x250/computer-cpmponent-WeP500VA-1.jpg

http://whitesindia.com/shoppe/images/wep500va.jpg

(1) If it's the battery problem, where can I get the battery replaced? At any "battery-wallah" shop or somewhere else:confuse:?
(2) How much would be the cost of the battery in my case?
(3) Of which company & rating battery should I buy? Can I buy battery from APC (I prefer APC But if there is better option tell me plz.) OR I have to go for wipro:confuse:?
(4) Can I go for the higher rating of battery (At backside of my UPS is written "300W" I don't know about AV rating, I think it should be 500VA).
(5) Soon I am going to upgrade the DDR-1 RAM to at-least one GB OR at-most two GB:confuse:. Do they draw the more power? & will it affect the UPS? (AT top of the SMPS (Power Unit) is printed "200W")
(6) What is the battery rating, model etc. of my WeP UPS? (I don't have manual etc.) (If anyone else has the same UPS plz. help)

If I go for a new UPS (I prefer APC But if there is better option tell me plz.):

(1) Which Model (& of what rating) should I buy? would 500VA-600VA be enough OR at-least 1KVA?
(2) What is the starting price for "online UPSes"?, since I've heard that they are better than their offline counterparts but are very expensive too. So what should I choose online OR offline?
(3) Do cheap "offline" UPSes provide the option to connect to PC via USB etc. to automatically shutdown the PC whenever there is not enough power?
(4) Do cheap offline UPSes have "AVR (automatic voltage regulator)", surge protection, EMI/RFI suppression, Telephone / Modem Surge Protection etc.:confuse:
(5) If I go for a new UPS would I have to buy new power cables:confuse:, cause my current UPS has IEC connector (IEC connector - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) variation so I have two cables (one to connect with the PC & the other one to connect with the my CRT monitor) which have C13 (IEC connector - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) at one end (to connect to PC & monitor) at one end (to connect to PC & monitor) and C14 at another end (to connect with the UPS), So my UPS has C13 output socket not the Indian standard socket but most of the UPSes available in market have Indian standard output sockets. [My output sockets look like this File:UPSRearView.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia this picture has three sockets but mine has two.]

Here is another question though Not related with this but concerned with this issue:

(1) Is there any software which can show the power consumption in WATTs of the PC in real time? in BIOS I can only know about volts but can't understand it, So I need a solution to calculate the power consumption in WATTs, cause at different times we use different peripherals running like- CD burner while burning a disc.:confuse:

Please reply my queries in details, thanks.

 

[Sushubh]

UPS batteries hardly last for more than 1-2 years so I guess it has served its purpose. you can get the batteries replaced. if you are lucky, it might work for you for another couple of years. i had personally suggest APC but i have found their cheaper models to be rather pathetic. i am using the 1KW model which has worked fine for me. but it's battery has also started degrading and it is not even one year old! cheaper UPS models does not usually offer software to show you the load on the UPS. the APC model i have shows it fine. it also shows the estimated battery backup time.

 

[rohit567]

i hav luminous ups...for how much can i get the battery replaced...pc shuts down when power cut

 

[Sushubh]

well it is hard to tell a price. batteries are pretty expensive. so be prepared to pay around 60=70% of a new UPS. this is the reason why i tend to go for a new UPS because you can never tell if the replacement guy puts in a good quality battery. for the APC however, the good thing is that you can get official company branded batteries which are specifically designed for their UPS models. the model i have also have an additional battery option that i can attach to my existing unit for additional backup. i might go for it before replacing the core battery.

 

[cyberwiz]

battery usually used in UPS's ie SMF 12V 7Ah battery costs abt 700-800 bucks..UPS's with longer backup time may have 2 of these or a higher capacity battery

 

[xyx2000]

Exide chloride ups battery is available in delhi at many inverter dealers for 550 - 600 , they also give Rs 50 to 100 discount for the old battery.

 

[rohit567]

is it good...i think its cheap