USB UPS Human Interface Device

UPS HID Compliant USB Interface

HID, an anacronym for “Human Interface Device”, usually intended for devices like your computer mouse or keyboard, but is the standard for “plug and play” devices that operate over your computer USB port. A USB HID allows the UPS to become a plug and play device without the need for installing additional software.

Our range of VFI, TX-D, VIX3000+ and VIS1500G models now have UPS HID compliance built in as standard. This means that when connected to a desktop, the operating system recognises the UPS is connected and you can set your operating system to act accordingly on UPS events. In effect, it makes your desktop behave similar to a laptop.

Plugging the USB into a Windows 10 PC, the system recognises and installs the device. In the taskbar, the UPS status icon is now present. Hovering over this gives the UPS status and now allows you to customise the power plan.

Choose a plan and click on “Change plan settings”.

Click on “Change advanced power settings”.

From here you can configure the options you want. You can set the low battery level, critical battery level and what to do on these events. In the case above we’re telling the operating system to shut down the computer in the event of UPS low battery.

Warnings

Do not choose Sleep. You might not know this but sleep puts the computer into a low power mode. It still requires power. So if / when the UPS switches off, any data on the computer will be lost. Hibernate is the best option to choose in our opinion, as it will preserve the status of the PC along with all open applications.

If you need more control of the UPS, or different actions to perform, you will need to install the ViewPower software provided and disable the UPS HID.

Addendum

  • We’ve tested this on MAC OS/X 10.something (a MacMini) and it also works as expected.
  • If you’re not given the option of “hibernate”, this may be because your hardware isn’t configurable or hasn’t been configured. This is the workaround from ChatGPT:

Windows 11 UPS Hibernate Guide

Why Hibernate isn’t showing

On many desktop systems, Windows hides the Hibernate option unless:

  • Hibernation is enabled.
  • It’s allowed in the active power plan’s settings.

Also, some UPS drivers (including HID-class ones) don’t expose the full power options properly — they rely on Windows’ own power policy, which may default to hiding Hibernate for “low battery” events.

Step-by-Step Fix

1. Enable Hibernation in Windows

Open Command Prompt (Admin) or PowerShell (Admin) and run:

powercfg /hibernate on

Then check it’s enabled:

powercfg /a

You should see something like:

The following sleep states are available on this system:
Standby (S3)
Hibernate
Hybrid Sleep

If Hibernate isn’t listed, check BIOS/UEFI settings (it must allow ACPI sleep states, especially S4).

2. Ensure Hibernate shows up in the Power Options

In an elevated Command Prompt, run:

control /name Microsoft.PowerOptions

Then:

  1. Click Change plan settings for your active plan.
  2. Click Change advanced power settings.
  3. Expand Battery → Low battery action.

If Hibernate still isn’t listed, continue below.

3. Manually enable Hibernate in the power policy

Run these commands in an elevated Command Prompt:

powercfg /setdcvalueindex SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_BATTERY BATACTIONCRIT 3
powercfg /setdcvalueindex SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_BATTERY BATACTIONLOW 3
powercfg /setactive SCHEME_CURRENT

The 3 value corresponds to Hibernate. Other values are:

  • 0 = Do nothing
  • 1 = Sleep
  • 2 = Shut down
  • 3 = Hibernate

Now reopen Power Options — “Hibernate” should appear for both Low battery and Critical battery actions.

4. (Optional) Ensure UPS signals properly

Sometimes HID-class UPS devices only trigger “Critical battery” notifications, skipping “Low battery.” You can verify this:

  • Go to Control Panel → Power Options → UPS (if available)
  • Check if “Low battery” and “Critical battery” levels are configurable

If not, the UPS driver doesn’t expose them — hibernation will still trigger when critical is reached.

5. Test it

You can test hibernation works:

shutdown /h

If it hibernates successfully, your UPS-triggered shutdowns will hibernate as configured.