I can't find what this means. Lots of places talk about a flashing red light, but mine is flashing green. It's a BackUps ES 500. I've powered everything down and am operating on my laptop. Do I need to head to Fry's and get another?

could be a bad battery. What does the manual say? Check the APC website for a .pdf maybe?

Finally found something regarding the green flashing light. You're right Racer, it's a bad battery. I suppose it's possible as I purchased it new in November of '03.

[nam-en.apc.com]

I'll bet the manual states a continuous tone (rather than "beeping" is an overload condition.

well, if the battery state is permanently low as a result of the battery being end of life, it IS an overload condition, isn't it.

Not necessarily.
Overload condition can exist in a non-back-up state.
(mine flashes the red wiring fault LED when the battery is tired).

I have several Tripp-Lites that have AVR via inverters. Low battery capacity will cause an overload condition.

But constant tone is almost an industry standard for the battery being bad.

Agree w/ RX & others that constant tone is almost an industry standard for the battery being bad and that low battery capacity will cause an overload condition, but additionally at this time of year (summer in the northern hemisphere), the power sucks in a lot of places due to increased demand, and bad power wreaks havoc on AVR's, so the very same UPS may not be as temperamental if supplied w/ good, clean power. The end result is the same; time for a new battery and to test the unit before putting it back online, as even getting a whole new unit is cheaper than supplying good, clean power if it isn't there in the first place...

FWIW, my TrippLites have a battery check button. It will actually load test the battery for 10 seconds and tell you if the battery is still good.

The APC's are supposed to have that too, though automatic. As I read a little deeper into the APC website, it seems that sometimes this check warning can go off for no reason and a 10 sec. reset of the whole unit will refresh it. That's what was happening to me.

I also busted out the kill-a-watt to see exactly how much current was being pulled through the thing. With three desktops and one laptop charging, as well as all the network gear, telephones and one desk light, it was pulling over 650watts. Time for a new one anyway. Now, granted, not all of this is on the battery back-up side, so it should be alright, but all the computers are. Not only would it drain nearly immediately on a power failure, but if all are booted at once (like an atomic flush in high school), it's overdrawn.

I picked up the larger 550ES for $60 at Fry's a couple hours ago. I'm now running both it and the 500ES with the computers split up between them. Also got two of those four foot power strips with 12 outlets for $20/ea. Good deal!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/2007 02:10PM by blusubaru.

Here's an APC ES 500
that has five lights.

Bad battery is continuoius short beeps with red replace battery light.
Overload is continuous tone with red overload light.

PDF from APC:
[www.apcmedia.com]


All my APC XS 1000 (Ihave 28 of them) ( 4 lights)
Continuous tone = overload

Beeping: on battery . four beeps avery thirty seconds / beeps faster as battery depletes

Chirping : failed battery test - replace battery

Bill, what about what I linked from APC website in my 2nd post in this thread?

"If the battery fails the self-test, the Power on LED will flash and the unit will emit a constant tone. This is a WARNING that the battery may be near the end of its life, replacement is typically recommended within 2-4 weeks."

I think with APC you have to be really careful that the model number and instructions are the same.
Also be absolutely certain that they're not using the same model number on different units.
(as in: a 2004 ES500 and a 2006 ES500 can be two completely different animals)

Battery life "expectancies" are a generality.
I've seen 8 year old UPSes that never switched to battery with "good" batteries.
I've seen batteries "wear out" in 9 months fromconsant switching.


Is your ES 500 rated for 500 vA or 500 watts ?
If it is rated for 500vA, then ( VA*PF=watts )[ PF=60%] 500vA = 300watts.
60% is a safe PF to use without knowing the exact rating of the transformer in the ES500.


I never like to use more than one PC per UPS.
With multiple desktops on a UPS you risk a major surge in one tower's power supply taking out the others.
You don't have MOV protection on individual sockets.

Good to know. At this point I'm fairly certain that it was a battery issue because a reset of the unit seems to have fixed things.

As for the number of machines on a UPS, only once a week for a few hours are all three desktops and laptop running off them at the same time.

Thanks for your help!

be es500 circa 2002 or so. constant tone when switch on whether connected to ac or unplugged....battery light green is on as is on line green during these scenarios. changed out fresh battery same situation. materials seem to suggest overload situation but these scenarios take place with nothing connected. what happened. how to reset? switching on off button on unit immediately gives off constant tone "eeeeeee"