The ABB Drive Fault Field Guide

Most fault codes are not the drive failing. They are the drive telling you the plant is failing, and doing it early enough that you still have a choice.

That is the frame worth carrying to every tripped ABB drive, whether it is a big ACS880 in a pump house, an ACS580 on a cabinet wall, or a compact ACS380 bolted to a machine skid. The 3 drives look different and get sold into different jobs, but they speak one fault language. A tech who learns that language once can walk up to any of the 3, read what it is saying, and know inside a minute whether this is a 2 minute reset or a 2 day teardown.

This guide covers the faults that actually show up in the plant, in the order they actually show up. For each one: what the code means, the cause that is true most of the time, the fix in the order you should work it, where the 880, 580, and 380 differ, and the line where you stop turning it back on and start looking harder.

A note before the codes. Firmware revisions shift the details, so parameter numbers, aux codes, and a handful of code numbers move between control program versions, and a few codes exist on only 1 or 2 of the 3 drives rather than all of them. Everything here matches the current general purpose and primary control programs, but the drive’s own firmware manual is the final word. Read the code, then confirm the parameter reference against the manual for that unit.

One fault language, 3 drives

ABB standardized the fault numbering across the modern ACS line, and that is the single most useful thing to understand before you read a code. Overcurrent is 2310 on all 3. DC link overvoltage is 3210 on all 3. The number means the same thing whether you are standing in front of a 250 kW ACS880 cabinet or a palm sized ACS380, with the caveat that each control program carries a few codes the others do not.

Where they differ is not the code, it is the context around it.

The ACS380 is the machinery drive. Compact, often embedded in an OEM machine, controlled over embedded fieldbus on an EIA-485 pair. When it faults, the machine stops, and the operator staring at you did not build the drive and does not know its parameters. Expect embedded fieldbus faults here that you will rarely see on the other 2.

The ACS580 is the general purpose drive. Wall mount or cabinet, HVAC and pumps and general motor loads, usually running close to a factory default parameter set. When it faults, it is usually the application talking: a load that changed, a supply that sagged, a cable that aged. The 580 is the one where the fix is most often out in the plant, not in the drive.

The ACS880 is the industrial drive. Modular, DTC control, the most configuration and the most protection. It faults with more precision and more codes, because it is watching more, and that precision works in both directions, since an 880 will catch a developing problem the smaller drives ride through and will also trip on a parameter or safety condition the others never check.

How ABB tells you something is wrong

There are 2 categories, and the difference decides how fast you move.

A warning is the drive raising its hand. Yellow, the drive keeps running, and the code carries an A prefix and its own number, as in A2B1, A3A1, or A780. A warning is a fault you still have time to prevent, and it is worth treating that way.

A fault is the drive protecting itself. Solid red, the output trips, the motor coasts, and the code is the numeric fault such as 2310, 3210, or 7121. By the time you read it, the drive has already made its decision.

The auxiliary code is a separate field, and it is not the A prefix. It is the number the drive prints alongside the fault or warning to narrow down which branch of that fault it took, and on a fault with several possible internal causes it is often the only thing that tells you which one happened. Write it down before you reset, because the reset clears the active display and the aux code is what you will want in an hour.

Most faults have a warning cousin. Overcurrent warning A2B1 rides ahead of overcurrent fault 2310. If you are catching warnings in the event log and treating them as noise, you are throwing away the early notice the drive paid to give you.

There are 3 ways to clear a fault once you have actually fixed the cause: the Reset key on the panel, a configured digital input where the reset source is set by parameter 31.11 Fault reset selection in the fault function group, or a reset bit over fieldbus from the PLC. Resetting without fixing the cause is not a repair, because the condition that tripped the drive is still sitting out there waiting.

Before you read any code, there are 2 questions that narrow the field faster than the code does.

The Fault Details

Overcurrent (2310)

What it means. Output current crossed the drive’s hard internal limit. The drive did not throttle, it tripped, because the current arrived faster than any ramp could account for.

Most likely cause. A short somewhere on the output side, or a mechanical event the motor could not absorb: a jam, a seized bearing, a load that slammed instead of settled. Second most likely is acceleration set faster than the inertia can follow.

The fix, in order. Lock out the supply, wait the discharge time printed on the drive, and verify with a meter that the DC bus terminals are actually at zero before you open anything, because the bus holds a lethal charge after the display goes dark. Then disconnect the motor leads at the drive and megger the cable and motor together, each phase to ground, at 1000 V DC. Under 1 megohm is a fail, 1 to 10 megohm means go find out why, and over 10 megohm is healthy with the 3 readings close to each other. Ring out the windings phase to phase for resistance balance rather than meggering across them, since a wye motor with a tied neutral reads near zero and tells you nothing. Turn the shaft by hand and feel for a bind. If the motor and load are both clean, extend the acceleration time in group 23 and confirm the motor nameplate data and ID run were done, because a drive working from wrong motor data will command current that reality cannot supply.

Per drive. On the ACS880 with DTC, a missed or stale motor ID run shows up as overcurrent more readily than on the 580 or 380, because DTC leans harder on an accurate motor model, so running the ID is the first parameter level thing to check there.

When to stop. If the motor and cable megger clean, the load turns free, and it still trips on overcurrent at the first current the moment it enables, the fault is in the power stage. That is an IGBT or gate driver, and it is bench work, not a panel reset.

Short circuit (2340)

What it means. The drive detected a dead short on the output before it could even ramp. This is the hard version of overcurrent, caught faster.

Most likely cause. A shorted motor cable, a failed motor winding, or a wiring error after someone was in the terminal box: 2 phases touching, a strand bridging, a delta wired where star belonged.

The fix, in order. Kill power, lock it out, and verify the bus is discharged. Inspect the motor terminal box and both ends of the cable before you meter anything, because eyes find the obvious short faster than a meter does. Verify the connection matches the nameplate, star or delta. Megger and ring out the cable phase to phase and phase to ground. Only after the cable and motor are proven do you suspect the drive.

Per drive. Identical logic across all 3. The 2340 trip is fast and unforgiving by design, so the work is finding the copper rather than arguing with the protection.

When to stop. A short circuit that persists with the motor cable fully disconnected at the drive terminals is an output stage failure, and no number of resets will change that.

Earth leakage (2330) and output wiring or earth fault (3181)

What it means. On 2330 the drive measured a current imbalance across the output phases, which means current is escaping to ground somewhere it should not. 3181 is the related installation fault, where the drive detects that the supply and motor cables have been landed on the wrong terminals, and it is the code that catches a line and load swap before anyone energizes into it.

Most likely cause. For 2330, motor or cable insulation breaking down, with moisture in the terminal box after a washdown or a humid night being the classic on outdoor and food plant installations. Long motor cables and drives without output chokes can also throw nuisance earth leakage from cable capacitance. For 3181, it is almost always exactly what it says, which is a wiring error at the drive terminals.

The fix, in order. Megger the motor and cable phase to ground, cold, at 1000 V DC. Open the motor terminal box and look for moisture, corrosion, or tracking. If the insulation is good and the fault only appears on a long cable run at speed, the cause is capacitive leakage, and the answer is a properly sized output choke or du/dt filter rather than a new motor. ABB is also direct about this one: no power factor correction capacitors and no surge absorbers in the motor cable. On a 3181, go verify which conductors landed on U1 V1 W1 and which landed on U2 V2 W2 before anything else.

Per drive. The ACS880 earth fault detection is more sensitive and more configurable, since the fault function parameters let you set its response, so on long cable installations an 880 may flag earth leakage that a 580 or 380 lets pass. That is the drive doing its job rather than a false alarm, but it does mean asking whether the install needs a filter.

When to stop. Motor and cable megger clean, terminal box is dry, no long cable capacitance story, and it still faults to ground: the earth fault sensing circuit inside the drive needs service.

That same capacitive leakage is what trips a GFCI on a drive circuit, and the code has started to acknowledge it. Why drives trip GFCIs follows that current and covers the high frequency device rating.

DC link overvoltage (3210)

What it means. The voltage on the DC bus climbed past the trip ceiling. The most common way that happens is a motor being driven by its own load, feeding energy backward into the bus faster than the drive can bleed it off.

Most likely cause. Deceleration set too fast for a high inertia load. A spinning fan or a loaded conveyor becomes a generator when you tell it to stop quickly, and that regenerated energy has to go somewhere. If there is a brake chopper and resistor, a failed or disconnected resistor removes the only path that energy had. Incoming supply riding high above nominal is the other cause.

The fix, in order. Extend the deceleration time in group 23 and see if it clears, because that is free and it confirms the diagnosis. If the application genuinely needs fast stops, verify the brake resistor: connections tight, resistor not open, chopper firing. Measure the incoming supply and confirm it sits within 10 percent of nominal. Check that the supply voltage setting in parameter 95.01 matches the actual line.

Per drive. The ACS880 is available as a regenerative and low harmonic unit that returns braking energy to the line instead of burning it in a resistor, and on those a 3210 points at the supply unit or the line side rather than a resistor that may not exist. Know which 880 you are standing in front of before you go looking for a brake resistor.

When to stop. Decel is long, the resistor and chopper are proven, the supply is in range, and it still overvolts on stop: measure the bus directly and suspect the voltage sensing or the chopper control.

DC link undervoltage (3220)

What it means. The DC bus sagged below the operating minimum. The drive cannot make clean output from a bus that is not there.

Most likely cause. Supply side. A power dip, a blown input fuse, a loose incoming terminal, a failing contactor, or a soft utility. On older drives, degraded DC bus capacitors that no longer hold charge, or a rectifier diode that has failed and dropped the bus.

The fix, in order. Measure the incoming supply under load rather than at rest, because a connection that meters fine cold will collapse the moment current flows through it. Torque check every power terminal from the disconnect through to the drive input. If the supply is solid and stable and the bus still sags, the rectifier or the DC capacitors are the suspects, and that is drive service.

Per drive. On a multidrive ACS880 lineup sharing a common DC bus, a 3220 on one inverter can originate at the shared supply unit rather than that inverter, so check the supply section before you condemn the drive that threw the code.

When to stop. Supply proven good and steady, terminals tight, and the bus still will not hold: internal power section.

Input phase loss (3130)

What it means. The drive lost 1 of its 3 incoming supply phases, or the phases are unbalanced enough to look lost.

Most likely cause. A blown input fuse, a failed contactor pole, a loose incoming terminal, or genuine utility phase imbalance. Excessive ripple on the DC bus from a missing phase is what the drive is actually sensing.

The fix, in order. Meter all 3 incoming phases at the drive input, phase to phase. Check input fuses and the incoming contactor or disconnect for a dead pole. Torque the incoming terminals. Confirm the imbalance is not coming from upstream in the plant distribution.

Per drive. Same across the line, with one exception worth confirming first, which is that a single phase 380 or 580 does not carry 3 phase phase loss logic, so check the drive’s supply configuration before chasing a phase that was never there.

When to stop. All 3 phases confirmed present and balanced at the drive input, and it still reports phase loss: the input sensing circuit.

Output and motor phase loss (3381)

What it means. The drive lost a phase between itself and the motor.

Most likely cause. A loose or broken motor lead, an open motor winding, or an output contactor pole that did not close.

The fix, in order. Meter the 3 output phases at the drive terminals with the drive enabled. Check the motor leads at both ends and any output contactor. Megger the motor windings for an open phase.

Per drive. If there is an output contactor between drive and motor, its sequencing matters most on the 880, where the control program can be told to expect it, and a contactor opening mid run reads as output phase loss.

When to stop. All 3 output phases present at the drive terminals and the motor windings continuous, yet it still faults: output sensing.

Overtemperature: IGBT (4210), cooling (4290), control board (4110)

What it means. The drive is running hotter than it is allowed to. 4210 is the power semiconductors, 4290 is the module cooling, and 4110 is the control electronics. Different sensors, same root story, which is that heat is not leaving fast enough.

Most likely cause. A failed or blocked cooling fan. A heatsink packed with dust, lint, or in a mill or feed plant, product. Ambient temperature above the drive’s rating, usually because the enclosure has no real ventilation or the room air conditioning failed. On the 4210 specifically, a drive undersized for the actual load runs its IGBTs hot even with perfect cooling, and a carrier frequency somebody raised to quiet the motor does the same thing.

The fix, in order. Check the cooling fan first, every time, because it is the most common single cause and the easiest to confirm. Clean the heatsink fins. Measure the air at the drive intake with the panel closed rather than measuring the room, since a closed panel can run 10 to 20 degrees C hotter than the space around it, and confirm the drive has its required clearances. Verify the drive is sized for the motor and the duty. A drive that overtemps under normal load in a clean, ventilated, correctly sized install is telling you its thermal interface or a temperature sensor is failing.

Per drive. The ACS380 has the least thermal mass and the smallest fan, so it is the least tolerant of a dirty install and a hot cabinet and it is the one that overtemps first. The ACS880 gives you the most granular thermal data through Drive Composer, including per module temperatures on multimodule units, so use that data to find which section is running hot rather than guessing.

When to stop. Fan running, heatsink clean, ambient in range, drive correctly sized, and it still overtemps: sensor or thermal joint failure inside the module.

Motor overtemperature: external sensor (4981) and the thermal model

What it means. The motor, not the drive, is too hot. There are 2 separate protections behind that statement and they are worth keeping apart. 4981 External temperature 1 is the drive reporting that a measured temperature on its external sensor channel crossed the fault limit, which is what you get when a thermistor, PTC, or Pt100 is actually wired to the drive. The thermal model is the other protection, where the drive estimates winding temperature from current, time, and the motor data it was given, and it carries its own fault and warning response set in group 35. The 2 are configured differently and the code you see tells you which one tripped.

Most likely cause. An overloaded or under cooled motor: a blocked motor fan, clogged cooling fins, ambient too high, or sustained load above rating. On a drive relying on the thermal model instead of a real sensor, wrong motor data makes the model wrong, so the protection fires on a motor that is fine or stays quiet on a motor that is not.

The fix, in order. If a thermistor or PTC is wired in, confirm the sensor circuit and the measured value against parameter 35.02, then go check the motor’s own cooling: fan, fins, ambient. If the drive is estimating, confirm the motor nameplate parameters and the thermal protection settings in parameters 35.51 through 35.56 match the actual motor. Then look at the mechanical load that is heating the motor in the first place, since a correct protection firing on a real overload is not a parameter problem.

Per drive. All 3 support both approaches and both live in group 35, with the 880 offering the most options for real sensor input modules. In a classified area the thermal model is not a substitute for a certified thermistor function, and that distinction is worth reading up on before anybody specifies one.

When to stop. Motor cooling verified, load reasonable, sensor confirmed good, and it still reads hot: the sensor or its input circuit.

Motor stall (7121)

What it means. The drive commanded torque and the motor did not turn, or turned far below command, for longer than the stall protection allows. The drive is pushing current into a shaft that will not move.

Most likely cause. A mechanical jam: a seized bearing, a locked load, a closed valve on a pump, a jammed conveyor. Or a motor asked for more breakaway torque than it can make, often from wrong motor data or a skipped ID run.

The fix, in order. Go to the machine before you go to the drive, turn the load by hand, and find the bind. If it turns free, confirm the motor parameters and run the motor ID. Then review the stall protection settings in group 31 against what this load actually needs at breakaway.

Per drive. DTC on the ACS880 makes high torque at low and zero speed better than the smaller drives, so an 880 stall usually means a real mechanical problem rather than a control limitation. On the 580 and 380, confirm the control mode and motor data first, because a scalar setup with wrong data stalls loads a properly tuned drive would break loose.

When to stop. This one rarely ends at the drive, since a stall almost always means the plant rather than the electronics. If the load is genuinely free and the motor data is right and it still stalls, then look at the motor’s torque capability against the application.

Motor overload (7122)

What it means. The motor drew more current than its overload protection permits, for long enough to threaten it. This is the drive acting as the motor’s overload relay.

Most likely cause. The load grew: a fouled impeller, a dragging conveyor, a process that changed, a motor doing more work than the day it was commissioned. Sometimes it is protection set too tight for the real duty.

The fix, in order. Investigate the machine and the process first, because a rising overload trend over weeks is the machine degrading and the drive caught it. Confirm the overload protection parameters in 35.51 through 35.56 match the motor’s real service factor and duty. Do not widen the limit to make the fault go away, since that setting is what stands between a warm motor and a burned one.

Per drive. Identical protection logic across all 3, same parameter group, and the only difference is how much surrounding process data the 880 can log alongside it.

When to stop. There is no drive teardown here. Overload is a plant answer, and the only questions are whether the protection is set right and whether the load is what it should be.

Overspeed (7310)

What it means. The motor turned faster than the allowed maximum, past the speed limits plus the overspeed margin.

Most likely cause. An overhauling load driving the motor faster than commanded, a speed reference or scaling error, or on closed loop drives, an encoder fault feeding back wrong speed.

The fix, in order. Check whether the load can drive the motor, as a descending hoist or an overhauling fan will. Verify the speed reference source and scaling. On encoder feedback systems, confirm the encoder and its wiring, because bad feedback is a common overspeed source.

Per drive. Most relevant on ACS880 in closed loop and high performance applications where an encoder is in the loop. The 580 and 380 in open loop rarely see genuine overspeed unless the load itself is driving the motor.

When to stop. Load and reference confirmed sane, encoder proven: sensing or scaling in the control.

Control panel loss (7081)

What it means. The drive lost communication with its control panel, and it was configured to treat the panel as a required control or reference source.

Most likely cause. A loose or unseated panel cable, bent connector pins, a firmware mismatch between panel and drive, or a genuinely failed panel.

The fix, in order. Reseat the panel cable at both ends and check the connector pins. Try a known good panel. Confirm panel and drive firmware are compatible. If the panel is only being used as a monitor and not as a control source, reconsider whether it should be able to fault the drive at all, since the loss response is set in the panel port communication group, parameter 49.05 Communication loss action.

Per drive. The ACS380 often runs with no panel at all, controlled entirely over fieldbus, so a panel loss fault there usually means someone plugged in a panel and made it a control source. On the 580 and 880 the panel is more commonly the local control, so its loss matters more.

When to stop. Cable good, pins good, known good panel, firmware matched, and it still drops: the panel port on the control board.

Fieldbus and embedded fieldbus loss (7510, 6681)

What it means. The drive stopped getting cyclic communication from its master. 7510 is a plug in fieldbus adapter, meaning PROFIBUS, PROFINET, EtherNet/IP, and the like. 6681 EFB comm loss is the embedded fieldbus, which is usually Modbus RTU on the EIA-485 terminals.

Most likely cause. A cable or connector problem, a failed or offline PLC master, wrong communication parameters, or termination and biasing issues on an RS-485 run.

The fix, in order. Confirm the master is actually online and scanning. Check the physical layer, meaning cable, connectors, and on 485 the termination resistors at the first and last device on the segment and nowhere else. For a plug in adapter, verify the communication parameters in groups 50 through 53 against the master: address, baud, data format. For the embedded bus, those settings live in group 58 instead, so check protocol enable, node address, baud rate, and parity there, then check the EIA-485 terminal wiring and A and B polarity.

Per drive. The ACS380 lives on fieldbus more than the other 2, so embedded fieldbus faults are a bread and butter 380 issue, and most of them are physical layer rather than drive, which makes RS-485 termination and polarity worth being fluent in. The plug in adapter fault 7510 applies across all 3 when an FBA module is fitted.

When to stop. Master confirmed online, cabling and termination proven, parameters matched, and it still drops comms: the adapter module or the drive’s comm interface.

Safe torque off (5091 and 5090, with the STO warning A5A0)

What it means. The Safe Torque Off safety circuit opened, and the drive removed torque producing power to the motor through a hardware safety path exactly as it is designed to. 5091, and the A5A0 warning that describes the same condition, means both STO channels opened together, which is a normal safe stop. If only 1 channel opens while the other stays closed, you get 5090 STO hardware failure instead, and that is the serious one, because 2 channels disagreeing means the redundancy has already lost half of itself. On the ACS880 and ACS580 the drive declares the discrepancy when the channels stay in different states longer than 200 ms. The ABB specific walkthrough is in A5A0 on an ABB drive.

Most likely cause. A real safety demand such as an e-stop, a guard door, or a safety relay. A broken or loose STO wire. Factory jumpers that came out during wiring on a machine that never had a safety circuit to begin with. Or the 2 STO input channels reading differently because of a wiring fault or a failed contact.

The fix, in order. This is a safety system, so treat it as one. Confirm whether an actual safety device tripped before you touch anything. Check the STO wiring and both channels for a genuine open or a channel mismatch, starting at the connection between the safety relay output and the STO terminal. Verify the STO annunciation configuration, since parameter 31.22 STO indication run and stop decides whether the drive reports the open circuit as an indication, as a fault on a start attempt, or both, and that setting is why 2 identical drives in the same plant behave differently when a gate opens. Do not bypass, jumper, or defeat an STO input to clear a fault. Ever.

Per drive. STO is standard hardware on all 3 and the 2 channel architecture is the same, with the most detailed diagnostics on the 880. Whatever the drive, the STO circuit is a rated safety function, so any repair to it gets verified and, where the process requires, validated per the machine’s safety documentation.

When to stop. No repair to an STO circuit is a casual reset. If the cause is not an obvious external safety demand and clean wiring, bring in whoever owns the machine’s functional safety before the drive runs again.

Brake resistor, BR excess temperature (7183)

What it means. The brake resistor temperature crossed the fault limit set by parameter 43.11. The drive is burning more braking energy in the resistor than the resistor can shed.

Most likely cause. Braking too often or too hard for the resistor’s rating, an undersized resistor for the real duty cycle, or blocked cooling around the resistor. Sometimes it is a resistor thermal switch wired into the fault.

The fix, in order. Let it cool, then look at how often and how hard the application brakes. Confirm the resistor is sized for the actual braking duty rather than the nameplate best case. Check the resistor’s ventilation and any thermal switch wiring, and confirm 43.11 was set for the resistor that is actually installed.

Per drive. Applies wherever a brake chopper and resistor are fitted, most often on 580 and 880 units doing repetitive high inertia stops. If the braking duty is genuinely heavy and repetitive, the honest fix may be a regenerative ACS880 that returns the energy to the line rather than a bigger resistor to burn it.

When to stop. Resistor correctly sized, cooling clear, and it still overtemps on normal duty: the resistor or its thermal sensing.

The faults you prevent are the ones you never read

Walk back through that list and a pattern shows itself. Overcurrent, short circuit, and earth leakage are insulation and copper. Overtemperature is fans and dust. Stall and overload are the machine loading up. Undervoltage and phase loss are the supply and the terminals. Very little of it is the drive failing on its own, and most of it is the plant aging with the drive naming the aging before it becomes a burned motor or a dropped line.

That is the reliability angle, and it is worth more than any single fix. The warning codes are the drive spending its own diagnostics to give you lead time. An A2B1 overcurrent warning sitting in the log weeks before a 2310 trip is a gift. A creeping motor overload trend is the machine telling you which bearing to change on your schedule instead of its schedule. A drive that overtemps every August is a cooling problem you can fix in the spring.

There are 3 habits that catch most of it before it trips. Read the event log rather than only the active fault, because the log holds the warnings the drive already tried to hand you. Trend the real signals with Drive Composer, motor current and drive temperature especially, because a slope tells you more than a snapshot. And torque the power terminals on a schedule, because loose connections cause undervoltage, phase loss, and overtemperature faults that read like drive failures and are not.

Those habits are teachable, and they transfer faster standing at a live drive than reading about them. That is what the on-site VFD training does, in your plant, on the drives your crew already runs.

Reading and clearing faults

Every one of these drives shows the active fault in plain text in its diagnostics menu, and the newer panels print a QR code that links straight to ABB’s fault page for that specific code, which is faster than a manual in your pocket.

Drive Composer, the PC tool, is the same across all 3 over USB or fieldbus. It pulls the full fault and event log, the aux codes, and the data logger, which is how you see what the drive was doing in the seconds before it tripped instead of guessing after. For any fault that is intermittent or that you cannot reproduce on demand, the data logger is the difference between finding the cause and swapping parts until it stops.

Reset 3 ways once the cause is actually fixed: the panel Reset key, a configured digital input, or a fieldbus reset bit from the PLC. The order that matters is not how you reset. It is that you fixed the cause first.

A drive that keeps faulting after a clean reset has already told you the plant has a problem, and it will keep saying so until someone listens. Read the code, work it in order, and know the line where the reset stops and the real work starts.

For the fault categories across every manufacturer, and the reset decision framework, see the VFD Troubleshooting Guide.

If the panel in front of you is Allen-Bradley rather than ABB, the same treatment for that platform is in the PowerFlex 525 Fault Field Guide, which covers the 525 and the 523 together and carries the auto-reset rules that decide how hard to worry before you have measured anything. For Yaskawa, the Yaskawa Fault Field Guide covers the V1000 and the GA500, including the alarm tier that keeps the motor running while you still have time to act.

Fault codes, parameter references, and behavior described on this page are drawn from ABB published drive documentation. Firmware revisions move parameter numbers and some code details, so confirm against the firmware manual matching the drive and control program in front of you before relying on any figure here. ABB, ACS880, ACS580, and ACS380 are trademarks of ABB, used here for identification.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between an ABB warning and an ABB fault?

A warning carries an A prefix and its own code, such as A2B1, and the drive keeps running while it displays one. A fault is a numeric code such as 2310, and the drive has already tripped the output and let the motor coast. Most faults have a warning cousin that arrives first, so a warning in the event log is the lead time the drive is trying to give you.

Are ABB fault codes the same on the ACS880, ACS580, and ACS380?

For the common faults, yes. Overcurrent is 2310 and DC link overvoltage is 3210 on all 3. Each control program also carries a few codes the others do not, and firmware revisions move some details, so confirm against the firmware manual for the unit in front of you.

What is the auxiliary code on an ABB drive?

It is a separate number printed alongside the fault or warning that narrows down which internal branch of that fault occurred. It is not the A prefix. Write it down before you reset, because the reset clears the active display and the aux code is often the only thing that distinguishes 2 different causes of the same code.

What is the difference between ABB 5090 and 5091?

5091, along with the A5A0 warning, means both Safe Torque Off channels are open, which is the safety system working normally. 5090 STO hardware failure means only 1 channel is open while the other stayed closed. On the ACS880 and ACS580 the drive declares that discrepancy when the channels stay in different states longer than 200 ms, and it should be treated as a defect in the safety circuit rather than a nuisance to reset.

Why does my ABB drive keep tripping on 3210 overvoltage when it stops?

Because the load is driving the motor during deceleration and the regenerated energy has nowhere to go. Extend the deceleration time in group 23 first, since that is free and confirms the diagnosis. If the process needs a fast stop, the energy needs a path, which means verifying the brake chopper and resistor, or on a regenerative ACS880, looking at the supply unit instead.

How do I clear an ABB fault?

Three ways, once the cause is actually fixed: the Reset key on the panel, a digital input configured as the reset source in parameter 31.11, or a reset bit over fieldbus from the PLC. Clearing the code without fixing the condition that caused it leaves the condition in place.