Building Wiring Fault Dimly Lit Issue

[Markc1973]

Hello all.. I have had an issue the past few days that has had me dumbfounded, and I cannot for the life of me figure out what is causing this.. To start, yes, I do live in a very old building with old outlets that have been upgraded from 2 prong to 3 prong, however, it was done by someone else years ago.. Also, I have checked every outlet in my small apartment (and I mean very small) with an outlet tester, and I am not getting anything unusual, with one hiccup being the outlet on the wall next to where all of my electronics are plugged into my Back UPS 1350.. I noticed that the tester will go from normal to open ground depending on how the tester is moved around when plugged into the outlet.. This is because the inside of the prong for ground is broken, so it is not always making solid connection.. Anyway, on to the issue I have been noticing.. About 3 days ago, I started to notice that the Building Wiring Fault red light is on at all times now, but is is BARELY ON, like very dimly lit.. Almost to where I would not notice it, had I not been down messing around by it the other day.. It will go out when I unplug the unit from the wall, but that is about it.. I have done a hard reset on the unit, but nothing.. I cannot find any information about why this light would be barely lit like this.. Could the unit be going bad? I know it has not always been on like this, because I always make it a habit of checking my equipment for out of the ordinary things like this, especially living in places that have old wiring.. There are a couple of GFCI outlets installed, 2 being in the kitchen area, and 1 in the tiny bathroom, but that’s it.. The bar area does have an outlet that has one 3 prong outlet with the other outlet under it having been converted to a light switch that operates the smalll light installed over the bar built into the wall.. When that outlet is tested, it does give me an “open ground” reading.. I am by no means experienced in this stuff, but I do know a little.. If anyone can help point me in some sort of direction as to what I should look for next, I would appreciate it.. I would say something to my landlord about it, but her husband revelry passed away, and he was in charge of everything, and she has already mentioned something of selling the place before, because she doesn’t want to really deal with it with him being gone.. I begged and pleaded with her not to, because I have nowhere, nor the money to move anytime soon.. I am scared to mention anything to her about anything that could cost her a lot of money to fix right now, for fear of her talking about selling again.. Please, someone help me out..Thanks!

[Teken]

As you stated there is a broken ground pin on the outlet present and thus the UPS is alerting you to a wiring fault. This needs to be corrected for human safety, electrical compliance, and for the UPS to operate safely. The Earth Ground in the building provides several things which is to trip the breaker if their is a ground fault.

The ground wire also helps to reduce EMI / RFI on shielded cable and the UPS itself.

This seems like a very easy fix whereby replacing the broken outlet would solve the entire issue.