Time Capsule Powered Off, Won't Power Back On

I had the same problem, the posts on here are very useful re the issue, The product seems to burn out its power supply. I'm not sure what apple intended with the design of the heat disipation, possibly they felt it would convect through the plastic without the need for air circulation but it does seem that the bottom line is the earlier models are proving to have an unacceptable failure rate. As a note, I had mine sat on its side on a surface (the light faced forwards and was near the top) which would mean all the heat would gather and be focused on a small area at the top which might have made things worse but to be fait, there's nothing in the instructions which say you can't sit in on it side plus there is a wall mount bracket which would do the same. Anyway, like you I'm an Apple lifer but persisted with my complaint and in the end they replaced mine with a brand new full 12 G'tee 2 gig model. That said, I've not even opened the box as I'm still in 2 minds about using it and whilst my complaint was being dealt with I set up a lacie drive and separatre wifi which work fine and give me greater confidence. So my message to you is persist with your complaint.

August 2009 1TB RIP

I was really annoyed at apple about this but no-one in the store wanted to know. I made an appointment with a apple (patronising) genius who said they could replace the whole unit for £260, this would be an old 1TB unit, not a 2TB unit that is actually.. guess what… £260, they could not fix it "Hard drives do fail now and again" said the Genius… it turned out the HDD was fine, I put it in another box.

I called customer support on the phone they said they couldn't change it as the offer had expired it was out of there hands. I had to take out the HDD and throw away the whole (originally £329) unit in a bin bag! If this is apple's way of reducing its environmental impact I think they may need to have a re-think.

There was no way of fixing this power pack failure, they only replaced the units until August 2011, which makes me even more angry as It shows they know there is a problem but have given the problem a cut off date 5 MONTHS AGO!

Apple, you should be ashamed of yourself on this one… a known problem even you admit that can not be replaced.. I will NOT be replacing my apple Time Capsule or purchasing anything from apple i do not need anymore

Hello Carlo TD,

A good design that runs cool will keep operating for a very long time. The major failure of electronics is heat. The second major failure is excessive voltage and that could be from something as simple as static electricity not even touching the circuitry but creating an excessive field. In completed and built circuits that though is very unusual. A voltage spike will usually punch through very thin silicon substrates, if they have not been adequately protected and this again comes down to good design.

If components are run up against their maximum operating temperatures than they will have a known and predictable lifespan. For example the PSU in the TC is designed to be air cooled. Internal component temperatures exceed the design constraints for maximum operating life, so what happens? The lifetime is shortened and premature failure results.

"All electronic items have a limited lifespan" is an acceptance of a marketing man's dream. We have all come to accept 'built in obsolesence' and seem to expect that electronics will somehow 'wear out'. Electronics, if correctly designed, will work for any calculated period of time including beyond a human lifetime.

You are wrong about the number one failure being dust. Please think this through. Dust in the environment will naturally settle wherever gravity will pull it. If there is a flow of air, the dust will travel with that and settle onto whatever is in its path. If air is used as the fluid medium to draw away excessive heat and the surface of the heated items are coated with environmental dust, it is not the dust that causes the failure of the hot item, it is heat. The heat cannot escape. Dust is wonderful at clogging filters and blocking the flow of cooling air.

The components used inside the TC are very good and with the correct cooling will not fail as they have been doing. Take them beyond their design spec and not surprisingly they will fall over.

The failure of the TC - IS A DESIGN PROBLEM. It should not be accepted as it has been. Confusion in the Apple community is all that is needed for the problem to persist and your unhelpful 'get over it' comment makes me think you have sorted out the problem in your own mind. You are accepting a bad design. You are advocating acceptance to an understandably irritated Apple TC owner, who quite rightly wants more from a long term back up device that a couple of years +.

The design problem is a simple gaff made by the physical placement of the fan, inside the TC case...

and there are 3x things that are FUNDAMENTALLY WRONG and have REMAINED UNCORRECTED.

1. The fan is not turned on. Other than fleetingly at power on.

2. It points the wrong way by 90°. It blows onto the side of one bit of the hard drive - not through the PSU.

3. There is no air inlet hole to allow cool outside air to be drawn into the fan and blown through the hot PSU.

It is nothing to do with dust.

It is nothing to do with poor components.

It is nothing to do with operation of the TC (other than peripherally).

It IS to do with the HEAT NOT BEING REMOVED.

Ray Haverfield (LaPastenague) advocates the simple method of removing the PSU from inside the case. At a stroke this alters the physical design and makes it more robust.

On the other hand, I advocate correcting the DESIGN FLAW within the case and making it run cool by using the fan as intended. Cool running electronics last longer than hot running electronics. Cold running electronics last longer than even cool running. Electronics in deep space, running in a hard vacuum and at temperatures wonderfully close to absolute zero, will most likely last for as long as they receive a working voltage.

The choices are many and various. Apple will not voluntarily accept anything that will cost them money on such a minority interest item as the TC. A redesign would not be worth the effort, as it is far cheaper to let an accepting public allow things to fail; even when they should not.

Apples main defence of their position with respect to longevity of TCs is... SILENCE.

There is no dust causing failure of the TC.. the simple fact is without the fan turning on they are almost totally free of dust.. even the fan blades seldom have dust because it never turns on.. The issue as freddietheone has pointed out is overheat of the most sensitive components.. electrolytic capacitors.. to the point it is beyond the manufacturers recommended max operating temperature for the whole power supply.

If it was designed correctly for natural convection cooling the entire case should have been aluminium with nice finned top.. some other arrangement would have to be made for wireless to work.. a small plastic window as per imac design. But using thick abs plastic and rubber sheets.. the end result is too small to survive the temperature rise required to expend the heat.

Hello tomfromchicago,

Apple have made no substantial changes to the TC design. The PSU has been beefed up 'slightly', the internal fan (apparently) turns on now and is proportional to the internal heat (so I have been advised). The fan still points to the side, not the PSU. So air is merely stirred around inside the case. There is still no air inlet hole.

Another option is to repair the internal PSUs that have cooked themselves to death. A repaired unit may last almost as long as the original (that is: not very long at all) but will last substantially longer if the case is modified and the fan turned round. My own TCs have been running continuously for more than 2 years now and do not run hot, they have not failed and are reliably boring.

Ray's method of removing the PSU from the case, at a stroke, alters the TC to a cool design. I know it works well because that is what I did to start with! We should all be very thankful to Ray - for TC work, he is the pioneer.

I subsequently modified the case to allow air in and it ran as cool as a decent design would allow. Apple will never do this, I suspect. It is too much of a redesign. I have had no units fail with this modification, as a result of overheating. I have had some hard-drives die because they were rubbishy builds but that is another story... :-)

Regards,

Chris Fackrell, (freddietheone), YORK, UK.

Still more and more stuff which is irreplaceable is in the form of electronic files only.. that is scary.. all those photos of weddings and kids and important events.. all gone with a tiny fault.. 2 capacitors in a power supply.

Ray... I have not seen one HDD that has died as a result of the TC PSU cooking itself to death.

HOWEVER, I have seen EVERY HDD become inaccessible as a result of the TC PSU cooking itself to death.

The TC dies and the HDD becomes trapped in an expensive (but beuatifully scuplted) paperweight... etc etc.

When my first TC died, and left me high and dry, I too created a secondary backup of a 2TB WD external hard drive being copied to, daily, with SuperDuper. A tertiary backup I use for critical stuff (almost everything really) are nice cheap SD cards, into a USB card reader. These are kept safe, away from the house.

Cheers,

Chris F. YORK, UK

www.fackrell.me.uk