Time Capsule Powered Off, Won't Power Back On

Thanks for great description of how you got on with Apple stevekn!!

I am sure each one sharing how they got around issues is a help to the whole community and makes it interesting to see how consumer laws in different places make for different responses.

Just to add a Rudy's comment... I think the use of 6.3vw electrolytic in the first TC power supplies was a big mistake. Although I have replaced them with the same value I have also increased the cooling dramatically... which should bring them down to a reasonable working temperature. If you look in computer mobo 6.3v caps are used in the low voltage supplies to the processor.. ie 1.3v etc. You might find the newer TC using 10v caps or even more. There are also very expensive solid caps available. The failure is confined to the 5v side of the power supply... seen only one 12v cap dead so far out of about 12 dead TC I have repaired. But when will they have made the change .. since this issue is only now apparent... and there hasn't been time to change the design and feed it back to the assembly of the TC let alone design of the supply... If only they used the fan.

TO Stevekn
Put your new TC on a laptop cooler pad... nice aluminium one...
You will need to do the following...
1. Put the TC on the cooler pad and run a pencil around the outline. TC sits proud of the surface by a few mm so try and keep the pencil straight...

2. Now you need to lift the TC off the surface by 1cm (1/2") You can use any sort of gasket type material, rubber, cork, High Density Foam, etc. I used a cork tile, cut into strips.
Glue the gasket material to surface of the laptop cooler. About 2-3mm inside your outline. You could use some white silicon putty, it isn't as good as the clear stuff but is easier to handle. Now also run a thin bead around the bottom of the TC white plastic, and neatly position it on the gasket you have made. (Hence why use white silicon).

3. Power the laptop cooler from mains... don't use the TC as that just adds load to the power supply but some coolers now come with a USB hub which can be useful. If it is too noisy put a speed control or just a resistor into the line.

This is the equivalent of the fan mod I have shown for the earlier TC without needing to pull the TC apart and drill holes in it... The laptop cooler will draw air "the wrong way" usually, ie they are designed to draw air from top and extract to the bottom, as in having a hot laptop sitting on it... but it works better with the TC that way.

4. More extreme measure... remove the rubber foot (and even the bottom aluminium plate completely). Silicon the TC to the cooler. Then the laptop cooler will really work well.

Hi,

Just adding my pennysworth.

My 1TB time capsule died two days ago (18 months ago on schedule). As I am in the UK, I thought I would contact apple to see what they are saying, they initially refused as it is passed its 12 months applecare. I mentioned that I understood that the sale of goods act applied, and an 18 month life meant that it was clearly not fit for purpose as it should be. The applecare rep spoke to a project specialist, and then agreed to a replacement.

Obviously I lose my backup data, and I just hope that I have no catastrophes while this is not working. They confirmed that they would securely wipe the existing data, or destroy the hard drive.

In the end I am reasonably satisfied, however I do think that a repair extension programme should be established, as it is not fair to have a product out there that is so obviously terminally faulty.

My TC died today as well and was bought the same time as yours directly ordered from an Apple employee (so, one would hope they would get good products!). I did have Apple Care and when I told them it died they didn't have me go through any steps, just took my info and sent me a new one. Clearly they know this is a problem!! I sure hope it doesn't happen to the next one as then it might be out of Apple Care warranty! I registered mine at the site, so that they know what kind of issue they are having.

What's up with that anyway?!! Huge Apple fan, but that is crazy ridiculous that a BACKUP drive would die so quickly. Sense of security is over!!

Same problem. 1TB TC failed. I took it to the Apple Store where they confirmed the power source was dead. Ultimately Apple Care covered a replacement. They called a few days later saying no replacement was available. I then returned to the store where I signed a piece of paper and left with a new 2 way radio 1TB TC. Great deal I thought. Two days later I had a call from the Apple Store stating I need to return the old unit. Excuse me, I brought the unit in and they confirmed it was dead. They said it was an oversight and that the store was to have kept the old unit.

Not only do I have a ton of very personal/confidential material but the laptop that it backs up also contains professional work information (think HIPAA violation) that in no way will I allow to be compromised (regardless of the stated Apple Privacy policy).

This is **** poor engineering that caused the problem and now thousands of people are being required to expose personal / confidential data by returning functional drives to Apple. Incredible.

I am very thankful they replaced the defective product. I am, however, a long standing apple product user starting with the original Apple with multiple desktops & laptops purchased along the way, multiple family iPods and even 3 iPhones. Now this.

Sorry Apple. You now threaten to bill me for the new machine. I will gladly give you the old TC IF you pull the hard drive out in my presence and return it to me. Beyond that we are at an impasse.

And another one. My 1TB Time Capsule bought in March 2008 just died after 20 months. Called Apple Care, they said it was out of warranty nothing can be done. Quoted this discussion thread to them, got escalated to Level 2 support and they agreed to send me a free replacement. Need to send the old one back.

Now just need to figure out how to get the data off my old one.

My 1T TC died yesterday also pre-ordered it from apple and received it on 3/22/07 according to Apple tech I spoke too this morning, I don't have apple care on any of my Imac but my 24 Inch Imac I bought in April was still under warrant. The tech made an appointment for me at my local Apple Store for today at 5:45pm.

I got to the Apple store and it was a mad house well the whole mall was crazy but inside the apple store it was like they were giving away stuff for free. I had to wait like 1.5 hours to see the tech who after reading the notes on my case went into the back for like 5-10 minutes and then came out and said I got good news for you. We don't have anymore of the older models in stock right now we ran out yesterday and manager told me to just replace your 1T TC with new dual band 1T TC at no cost to you. I asked if I could pay the difference between 1T and 2T and he said I should not push my luck considering I got lucky and the "Nice Service Manager" was the one on here right now and other service manager earlier today refused to upgrade another client TC for a new model this morning. Told the other customers they will call him when more refurbish come in as Apple being sending tons of customers to get their TC replaced and normally they have refurbish ones in stock but it seems cause of the thanksgiving they got low on supply and tons of people have been coming in for replaces last few days. He said they get between 2-4 a people lately coming to get older TC replaced.

Btw I am in Los Angeles if that makes a difference. Not sure how many managers are just swapping out older models TC for new models when they are out of stock or I just very lucky.

Apparently you are lucky, since I took my 500GB TC from March 2008 that died Nov 30, 2009 03:00 (roughly) into the Genius Bar here in Tempe, AZ and he was going to have to order the replacement unit. I went ahead and called Apple Care and he wouldn't "authorize" an exception for me to open it up and get the data off, but he did say that if you do it, it is on you, just don't break anything internally and they wouldn't have grounds to refuse the replacement. (I'm paraphrasing there and lumping together multiple statements, since we went round and round as to what I could do to get my data back off.) He claims they have noted my criticisms of 'having a marketed "server class" backup solution that you couldn't get your data off of after it won't power on and that it gave no warning before dieing so I could try to get my data off' and they will be forwarded up the chain.

They are sending me another 500GB unit, so I'm expecting to have to go through this in 18 months again. The really sucky thing is this replacement only has a 90 day warranty, unless you still have Apple Care available on some mac in your house.

I went ahead and opened it up last night and extracted the sparse bundle for my wifes Time Machine backup and then wiped that partition, with 0's. 🙂

I was so hoping to get the dual band version.

You are probably getting a refurbished TC. You will have 30 days most likely to send broken unit back before your credit card will be charged. The TC can be opened (carefully), the HD extracted, exchanged with the refurb drive (or whatever to recover data). If you only have Time Machine backups and are not concerned about privacy, skip all this nonsense and just return broken unit. Apple swears on a stack of warrantees, to wipe data from all returns.

If you are concerned about YOUR data, see info here about recovery: http://sites.google.com/site/lapastenague/a-deconstruction-of-routers-and-modems /apple-time-capsule-repair/apple-time-capsule-fan-mod

BTW, the warranty on refurbs is 90 days AFAIK

My 500 GB Time Capsule died last night. It was purchased on May 3, 2008. I just spoke to AppleCare and a new, not refurbished, Time Capsule is being shipped to me. The customer service agent was very pleasant. Hopefully the new unit has a better power supply.

Engloid? For a list of Time Capsule repairers, see here: http://sites.google.com/site/lapastenague/a-deconstruction-of-routers-and-modems /apple-time-capsule-repairers

Chris Fackrell is in York and does great work.

Thanks rdalem,

I'd already read this article.

Thankfully Apple did recognize the problem and offered a free of charge replacement and I will start the process next Monday morning (I don't know if the new one is going to present the same problems though in the next months...)

Anyway, if the process doesn't happen as expected, I'll consider one of these 3 solutions.

Best
Marcelo

I see new members popping up all the time here with the same problems. It is hard to go back and re-read past posts to glean nuggets of helpful information. So, every now and then I like to inject some helpful tidbits:

1. The Time Capsule can be opened easily and in a non-destructive fashion, if you are careful and do your homework first.

2. The HD can be accessed and or exchanged for data retrieval. This may require another HD and/or an external case.

3. There are some experienced repairers and some detailed instructions available here: from Ray Haverfield and Chris Fackrell http://sites.google.com/site/lapastenague/a-deconstruction-of-routers-and-modems /apple-time-capsule-repairers

Also a very clear set of instructions on opening the TC: http://www.applefritter.com/node/23907

Try Apple's Customer Service first but if you are not happy with an exchange, just remember there are other solutions, especially when your data is more important than a shiny new router.

Hello Colin,

I normally am on one of the other TC forums 'Time Capsule dead?' and have just dipped into this one. I see you have followed the very wise route favoured by Ray Haverfield, done the fan mod and THEN have your capacitors die. Sadly, this was a bit predictable. The cooling would have extended their working life by a few weeks, possibly months but the damage had already been done. Gradually as the capacitors cook, their ESR will rise to 'an Ohm or two' and then they are on the road of no recovery. They will fail, time will tell; sadly as it did for you.

If the new capacitors you have put in are good make, high temperature units and the fan +has been made to blow through the PSU+, you should never have trouble again.

Messing around with the fan; turning it over, covering the inside opening with tape, shortening the rubber legs, making it run at half-speed, blah blah... is a real pain BUT it does make the PSU, as seen from outside the case top, run some 10 degrees C cooler. Rule of thumb suggests a doubling of the capacitor life. I think FROM NEW running cool, it will be over 5 years. The only possible irritant is the susurration of the fan. To be honest I think that is a small price to pay.

If you have not either cut the side of the fan open, towards the PSU OR turned it over so it will naturally blow through the PSU, do so now and your TC will have a long and happy life. 🙂

Only when we see the LATEST version of TC from Apple with a nod towards the PSU cooling, will we know it has received some real regard to its longevity. No air input? No change in design - the PSU will fail - it runs too hot for a long life and this is a FACT.

Well done, BTW, for having the heart to carve up your TC to fix it.

Regards,
Chris Fackrell
YORK,
UK.

My understanding is that replacement has to do with serial numbers. If your machine has a serial number within the parameters of that "bad batch" made in China, you would be covered. Meaning, from what I understand, a replacement FOC.
What the range of those serial numbers is, I haven't a clue. But it does seem that Apple is very forthcoming on this. Albeit a bit tardy. I'd call them. Either the on-line Store or AppleCare if you're still covered. Get the true skinny and go from there. Good Luck.

As per the rest of this thread - mine randomly powered off and wouldn't power back on... didn't mention the supposed 'bad batch' when I rang Apple customer service, but they replaced it for free anyway (though they did want to know whether I had Apple Care for my macbook, which I do). Not bad for a 2 year old, out of warranty item!

However there is some sentimental stuff on there that I would quite like to recover. I have received the replacement but have to send the old one back in order to not get charged - does anyone know how easy it might be to recover the data? Apple told me they couldn't over the phone, could it be different if I went into a store? If I go elsewhere to try and recover some of the data, will apple know that I've opened it up and not like that when it comes to me returning it? (Sorry if this is answered previously in the thread - if it is I'll wade through it but would appreciate some advice if you can give it)