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!