I have about 10 APCs on site here, and over the years it seems as
though their general quality has gone down. Here is a fairly new
Back-UPS ES 500 (just out of warranty though), which was working
perfectly.. I decided to move it to another location and when I set it
up and turned it on - no power coming from the Battery Backup ports! (3
are surge protected, 3 surge protection + battery backup)... So, I took
the battery out, checked for loose connections, verified the battery
had a charge.. etc, plugged it back in and turned it on.. didn't work!
Looked into the unit a bit more, finally turned it on and it worked,
although I didn't really change anything! Amazing! Turned it off and
back on, doesn't work... So I figure the switch must be broken. Anyway,
if I turn it on and off, it manages to turn on about 20% of the time. I
turn it on when it's not plugged into the wall, and draw some current
off of it, powering a light bulb for a few minutes. Recharge it and it
works fine. So this looks to be a broken power switch to me..

Anyone have similar problems with such products? Or have an idea on how
I can fix this? Possibly a new power switch would work, but I'm pretty
new to this stuff so I thought I'd ask here first. Doesn't seem like
too difficult of a job though. I notice that the power button in their
newer units is a bit different, so possibly they noticed this problem.

Thanks!

When the batteries get old, they do not charge properly. The APC supply
checks the battery performance before allowing itself to operate. Putting in
new batteries should fix them.

We change our batteries every 3 years, to have a guaranteed performance from
our UPS's. This is about the expected lifespan of UPS batteries. Sometimes I
have seen them go longer, but not reliably.

--

Jerry G.
======


wrote in message
ups.com...
I have about 10 APCs on site here, and over the years it seems as
though their general quality has gone down. Here is a fairly new
Back-UPS ES 500 (just out of warranty though), which was working
perfectly.. I decided to move it to another location and when I set it
up and turned it on - no power coming from the Battery Backup ports! (3
are surge protected, 3 surge protection + battery backup)... So, I took
the battery out, checked for loose connections, verified the battery
had a charge.. etc, plugged it back in and turned it on.. didn't work!
Looked into the unit a bit more, finally turned it on and it worked,
although I didn't really change anything! Amazing! Turned it off and
back on, doesn't work... So I figure the switch must be broken. Anyway,
if I turn it on and off, it manages to turn on about 20% of the time. I
turn it on when it's not plugged into the wall, and draw some current
off of it, powering a light bulb for a few minutes. Recharge it and it
works fine. So this looks to be a broken power switch to me..

Anyone have similar problems with such products? Or have an idea on how
I can fix this? Possibly a new power switch would work, but I'm pretty
new to this stuff so I thought I'd ask here first. Doesn't seem like
too difficult of a job though. I notice that the power button in their
newer units is a bit different, so possibly they noticed this problem.

Thanks!

Batteries are bad. The UPS does a self check and if the batteries are
below a certain voltage during the run test, it does not power up.

Replace the batteries and the problem should be fixed for another
couple of years.