My somewhat new house (2007) had a built-in security system installed when it was built. I never have bothered to have it activated with a service. I had a land line installed at one point, but dropped that a couple of years ago.
Anyway, the system only has the “ding-ding” sound whenever a door or window is opened.
Last night, right at midnight, the whole system went apeshit. All the alarms started going off at once. It was disorienting, and took a moment to realize what was happening.
I looked at the little wall thing (for the system), and it said something to the effect that “7 checkpoints had been activated”, or words to that effect. It was midnight, so I’m not totally clear. Dogs were barking, alarm screaming, husband yelling, etc.
I figured out that I could shut the thing up by hitting the “bypass” button as it scrolled through the breached checkpoints. Now there is no longer the “ding-ding” when I open a door.
Sorry for the wordy post, but my question is, what happened? And what can I do to keep it from happening again?
When we bought our place in 2006, the alarm system used to beep beep when doors & windows were opened. We received a few solicitations from the alarm company to set up an account with them, which we dodged by not answering their calls. Finally after about a year they got a hold of us and asked point blank if we ever intended to set up an account and we said no. Next day the system went dead. No more beep beeps, no more lighting up of the alarm panels.
The only WAG I could make would be if you have a completely wireless system and the wireless board failed or was corrupted so that it thought all the zones were tripped.
If you don’t have the manuals, you might be able to find them on the internet. You’ll have to look in the alarm box to see what make and model you have. This might help.
It sounds like the system somehow got “armed” and then the various sensors which were tripped at the moment it armed, caused the alarms to sound. How it got that way, I have no clue. You definitely will need to get hold of a manual to find out how to set it so it does not do such things, or shut it down completely. I usually can find these via Google if I don’t have one to hand. If you are not using it, the best idea is to deactivate it completely – pulling the power is the best bet.
The ding ding when the door is opened sounds like you have the “chime” setting turned on. All that does is alert you when a door is opened. It’s a nice to have feature if you have small kids and it alerts you that someone has opened a door.
You can turn that feature on or off by putting in your code and then hitting the chime button. Doing the code + chime again will toggle it on or off.
Do you set the alarm at night, meaning do you arm it?
If the # 7 popped up when you looked at the screen as the alarm was going off, that indicates that Zone # 7 is what was faulted to trigger your alarm. If that’s the case, you need to figure out what zone #7 is and determine what faulted it.
Most of the manuals for alarm systems can be downloaded off the internet, if you don’t have yours. The panel should indicate the manufacturer and the model.
Could its battery backup have run down? I like my security system, pay for the monitoring, etc. But when the battery runs down, say during prolonged power failure, it beeps and tells me o, it doesn’t go shape-it. Just a thing to check.
Sounds like yours was a leased system and they deactivated it. That’s normally cheaper than coming in and ripping out all of the hardware. The hardware itself is and older model and has no value to the alarm company outside of your house.
If your reasonably comfortable with electronics I’d find its power connection to your house’s electric and just disconnect it. There should be a metal control box in your basement, most likely near your circuit breaker box, containing the alarm system’s power supply & battery backup. Although it probably won’t have a simple ‘off’ switch, it may have a fuse you can pull out or breaker you can flip.
If you’re not comfortable doing this and it keeps going off I’d just call a local alarm company (there’s probably a phone number on the metal control box) and pay for a service call to either disconnect it or fix it. They’ll certainly try and sell you a monthly monitoring package blah blah blah, but you may not *have *to have that for it to work.
Thank you all for your help. Hail Ants–your comment about the alarm system’s power supply got me thinking. While I have no basement, there is a panel in the laundry room that cable installers, etc. have used to easily set up electronics in the house. It’s called a “Smart Connection Center” & says ‘GE Security’ on the door. It has lots of wires in it (I’m so pitiful!), and I did see a large battery that says replace every 3-5 years. Well, it’s been 4 1/2 years. Could that be all I need to do?
OK–I’m answering my last post. That HAS to be the problem–the battery is on Amazon for $15, and $32.99 @ the battery store down the street. I think I’ll go ahead and splurge on the $32.99, since I can’t take another midnight wake up like that! Again, thank you Dopers. Sometimes I need a push to implement my minimal problem-solving skills!
If the backup battery was bad, there should be an indication on the keypad or some chime. Before buying a new one try disconnecting one of the battery poles and see what happens.
IMHO it wasn’t the battery. Since the alarm went off while disarmed, probably a 24 hour zone got triggered, maybe the tamper zone. Is it possible that somebody tried to disconnect a perimeter sensor or the external bell housing when the alarm went off?
Thanks! I built this house from the ground up (not personally!), so I know that the system has never been armed since installation. I changed the battery, so I’ll just wait & see. Thanks again for your input.