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Rick King

Q: airport utility not finding time capsule

in the past two days I've lost contact with time capsule.

 

Have restarted it several times and reset it and restored to factory.  Connection is still intermittent.

 

Several hours spent yesterday troubleshooting and cycling power, etc.  First thing this morning the connection was lost again.

 

Airport Utility says no configured wireless device available.  I restart the time capsule and it appears.

 

This will make me crazy.  What can I do?

iMac (21.5-inch Late 2009), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3), 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2Duo 16GB 1067

Posted on Jul 2, 2013 6:35 AM

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Q: airport utility not finding time capsule

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  • by LaPastenague,

    LaPastenague LaPastenague Jul 2, 2013 5:08 PM in response to Rick King
    Level 9 (52,645 points)
    Wireless
    Jul 2, 2013 5:08 PM in response to Rick King

    How old is the TC?

    Please post the A1xxx model number from the base of the TC.. on the label or moulded into the rubber.

     

    What firmware is it running?

     

    If you are using 6.3 utility on the Mac ie the latest (but less than greatest) version, have you turned on ipv6 local link??

     

    See belated document on the issue from Apple.

     

    http://support.apple.com/kb/TS4597

  • by Rick King,

    Rick King Rick King Jul 2, 2013 6:23 PM in response to LaPastenague
    Level 1 (6 points)
    Jul 2, 2013 6:23 PM in response to LaPastenague

    C86G314ADM75

     

    That's stamped on the box and shows up on airport utility, but it's not recognized by apple so far...

     

     

    Airport utility says version 7.6.3

     

    Bought in SEP 2011.  Guess I'm screwed...

  • by LaPastenague,

    LaPastenague LaPastenague Jul 2, 2013 7:01 PM in response to Rick King
    Level 9 (52,645 points)
    Wireless
    Jul 2, 2013 7:01 PM in response to Rick King

    Bought in SEP 2011.  Guess I'm screwed...

     

    Not yet.

     

    Not all the serial numbers show up.. I don't want the serial number .. I want the part or model number.

     

    It should be MD032 (or MD033 and some letter for region, LL/A for US) or A1409 being part and model number respectively.

     

    Anyhow you should do the following.

     

    Plug the TC into a computer with ethernet. Turn off wireless in the computer.

     

    Now open the airport utility.. can you find the TC? If so reduce its firmware to 7.6.1 or 7.5.2 (if it is 7.6.3. which is lousy).

    Simply hold down the option key when you select version.

    firmwareupgradeau6.png

     

     

     

    You may need ipv6 turned on to local-link to do it.

     

    After you download and install the new firmware.. do a factory reset of the TC.

     

    With the TC powered off.. Hold down the reset button.. and power on the TC.. whilst still holding in the reset.. and keep holding for around 10sec until the front LED flashes rapidly.

     

    Redo the setup of the TC using all short names, (10-20characters is plenty) with no spaces and pure alphanumeric. Same for any passwords but wireless one can be longer.

     

    Use wpa2 personal security only.

     

    If the TC keeps having trouble.. it is probably faulty.. it is 2years old and will be covered if you have applecare on a computer.. or even if you buy a computer.. up to 2years between purchases should still cover the TC.

     

    Otherwise it has one of a number of faults which i have yet to explore in Gen4... but it can be bad capacitors on the board and fairly difficult to fix.

  • by LaPastenague,

    LaPastenague LaPastenague Jul 2, 2013 7:03 PM in response to LaPastenague
    Level 9 (52,645 points)
    Wireless
    Jul 2, 2013 7:03 PM in response to LaPastenague

    On the older model you can also use 5.6 utility which is IMHO still a lot better than v6.. for anything except auto setups.

     

    How to load 5.6 into ML.

     

    1. Download 5.6 for Lion.

    http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1482

    Click to open the dmg but do not attempt to install the pkg.. it won't work anyway.

     

     

    2. Download and install unpkg.

    http://www.timdoug.com/unpkg/

     

     

    Run unpkg on the desktop.. it is very simple.. drag the AirPortUtility56.pkg file over to unpkg.. and it will create a new directory of the same name on the desktop.. drill down.. applications utilities .. there lo and behold is Airport utility 5.6 .. drag it to your main utilities directory or just run it from current location.

     

     

    You cannot uninstall version 6 (now 6.3 if you updated) so don't try.. and you cannot or should not run them both at the same time.. so just ignore the toyland version.. the plastic hammer.. and start using 5.6.. a real tool.

     

    For screen shots see this post.

    https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4668746?tstart=0

  • by Rick King,

    Rick King Rick King Jul 3, 2013 5:03 PM in response to LaPastenague
    Level 1 (6 points)
    Jul 3, 2013 5:03 PM in response to LaPastenague

    Thanks for the great info!  The TC is working right now so I'm a little afraid to mess with it.  When it takes another dive I'll dive into that solution.

     

    Much thanks again.

     

    rick