I got myself a Microtek 800VA UPS (MDP800+) a couple of weeks ago to save my PS3 from the frequent power outages that we are seeing in Hyderabad but the purpose was rather lost when I found that it worked fine only till the mains power was on. As soon as there was an outage, it couldn’t stop the PS3 from an abrupt shut down. I ran around the pathetic Microtek customer service for days and they finally sent an “engineer” down to my place (after a week) to diagnose the issue and he couldn’t say anything more than that the UPS is meant for a PC and nothing else. All logical discussions to tell him that PS3 is essentially a PC but in a different form were kind of like pouring water on a well-oiled rock and hoping it would stick.

Kind of disappointed, I had a hunch which solved it for me though today :). When I tried to read the output voltage from the output ports on the UPS, it showed me 225–230V when main supply was on. As soon as it was switched off, the output dropped to around 160V. On connecting the PS3, it went up a bit (to around 180V). Now, the load should not have been an issue because a PS3 requires 180–350W I think, which can easily be given by even a 500VA UPS. So far, all suggestions given to me were to remove everything else from the UPS except the PS3, but that was actually my setup in the very first place.

The weird idea that I had was that the problem is, in fact, that the PS3 is not enough load for it. Call me crazy but as soon as I connected my TV also to the UPS, it started working just fine and dandy. No trip ups now, and I can even cold-boot my PS3 and TV from the UPS backup alone.

Now, I ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed when it comes to electrical stuff (in fact this was one of my most dreaded subjects during my graduation). So, if anyone can give me a sound reasoning behind what I just saw would be very much appreciated. Or is this a real fault with the unit that I got, or maybe it is a defect in all the Microtek UPS’s? Anyways, I ain’t complaining till it’s working for me :) and if you are seeing the same issues you could try the same as well.