BackUPS 500 constant beep with replace battery and overload lights on solid

[Anonymous user]

We have a remote office where the users came in to a beeping BackUPS 500 with the overload and battery lights on solid, the PC connected to the device was off and there was no power outage at the time. The user reset the UPS and everything came back on and functioned normally for a couple of days but now we have the same issue again. Is this an indicator of the batteries being bad or is the unit itself in need of replacement? I know the unit is about 12 years old and am not sure when the batteries were last replaced.

[BillP]

Hi Chris,

Do you know the exact model number of the UPS from the back or bottom of it on a white sticker? Something like BE500U or similar? I need to know it to double check the LED indicators for the particular model and we have several "Back-UPS 500" variants unfortunately.

[Anonymous user]

I am not at the location where the faulty Back-UPS is so I am relying on the user on site to relay information to me. Is BK500 a valid model number?

[BillP · Accepted solution]

Yes it is 

You can see it here -> http://www.apc.com/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BK500 

I think this could be a fault condition based on my experience. I can't find an LED chart for this one showing this pattern. If it was an overload or bad battery, those respective LEDs should light up to tell you that. 

My recommendation would be to consider looking into trading the UPS in and/or replacing it. I think a new battery will be a waste. The cost of a new battery in a 12 year old UPS is probably not worth it either as the batteries can be expensive. Plus, this doesn't sound like a battery issue. We have a trade in program where even though its broken, you can get a discount a new UPS and we give you a return label to recycle the old, failing one. All the new UPSs come with a 3 year warranty on both UPS and battery.

If you're interested in something like that, take a look here -> apc.com/recycle and look for Trade-UPS.