Time Capsule Powered Off, Won't Power Back On

I got my Time Capsule in April 2008, and two days ago it suddenly won't power on.

I visited Apple Store today, after checking the serial number, they give me a replacement without any questions.

Just got off the phone with tech support, no longer disappointed, they did a great job! They are replacing it.

Just got off the phone with Apple Care and they are sending a replacement!

My TC died after 21-22 months. Looks like a dead PSU too. Luckily, it's covered under Applecare. Still, doesn't exactly give me much confidence in it as a backup solution...

My Time Capsule (500GB), after my wife reported hearing a high pitched noise coming from the device, powered off and will not come back on.

Apple Inc. doesn't provide Applecare for individually bought TC so I bought another TC (1TB).

If it wasn't for AppleInsider's note about this problem being pervasive I would have continued to think I had got a lemon.

Let this not be Apple's Xbox!

I had not picked up on this problem until this morning, but my TC (500; mid-2008) packed up two week ago. Brought it to the Apple reseller, who opened it and said it was the power supply. I had to buy a new TC (1TB), because my business cannot afford to be without backup. Not good though, only 14 months of life out of a pricey piece of equipment.

My 16 month old Time Capsule 500GB just died one week ago. It's the same issue which have been described in this thread. Seems to be a power supply problem.
I went to the Apple Store and they told me only that such **** happens. The offered me a Time Capsule 500 GB with only 90 days warranty for CHF 369.- in exchange for the old one. But since the new Time Capsule 1 GB is only CHF 379.- I didn't go with that lously deal.

Usually Apple stands for quality, but this **** should really not happen!!

@Steve.. do something! You owe us that!

+Does anyone know if this problem effects the new TC's? I was planning on just buying a new one before I read this forum. Thoughts?+

This is completely unknown and un-knowable until the current batch reaches 18months. Infact of course we cannot be sure what percentage of the older model are going to be effected for another year or so.. if it was simply a bad batch of capacitors in one lot of power supplies, or a general design fault.

But IMHO with them dying all over the world at this same 18month point... that is too unlikely for bad components. It points to a basic fundamental flaw. Interesting that in their reviews of the TC CNET said it runs too hot. Heat is very bad for the HDD and capacitors in the power supply. Near the highest temp capacitor lifespan about doubles for every 10degC drop in temp. So you keep things cool and they last much longer.
Bad components by their very nature are more random than that... and in a warm climate like here in Aus should die before your cooler US climate areas. Or even differences between North and South in USA. It is too much of a co-incidence that the fault was hardly heard of even 2 months ago.. and now suddenly there are heaps of them... reports on forums will only be the tip of the iceberg.

I would suggest over the next few months as each monthly batch reaches the 18month point they are going to similarly die..
The good point of this, Apple will finally do something.

The bad point is, Apple have only now discovered their faulty Engineering... and so any replacement box will still have the issue until they redesign it.
Better cooling... external power supply... simple basic engineering.
Oh BTW, I am a chemical engineer. Heat transfer is what we do... electronics is just a hobby.

Died again - couldn't recover anything - tried taking it to a Apple Authorized repair place and even they said it would void warranty if THEY opened it. According to them, there are no parts available for the time capsule, just a the entire device as a "part", which means you cannot order a replacement power supply if you want to DIY or get your repair guy to fix it so you can save your data.

Yesterday I went to the local Apple store to see a genius. He got the same results I did, told me how rare this problem is (yeah right), I pointed out to him the hundreds of posts in Apple's own forum describing this problem. He said I shouldn't trust what I read in this forum because many people that don't own the Apple products like to come on-line and say negative things about the Apple products. What unmitigated gall.

For such a "rare" problem, he quickly gave me a rote and apparently well rehearsed answer, which I summarize below:

"It is out of warranty. We can fix it for $499, and Apple will destroy/erase the drive. Or you can buy a new Capsule for $299 and keep the old Capsule, then you can remove the drive and put it in a disk enclosure and use it."

It really makes no sense. The out of warranty repair is $499 and it is really a swap and you don't even get your files back or have any certainty that critical information is safeguarded (banking, tax returns, etc.), or buy a new one for $200 less? Well, I certainly won't buy another one and suffer through this again 18 months later.

They tout the Capsule as using a "server grade" drive. The implication being that the mean time before failure should be something like one million hours, 18 months of actual operation is not acceptable.

Apple has set up no data recovery service for users of failed capsules to retrieve their data (backups and other files you may have stored there). Furthermore they are not owning up to the fact that it is a flawed design and hundreds if not thousands of them are failing prematurely. They could have put the power supply externally and cut down on the temperature rise, or improve the cooling and air flow. It's a case of aesthetics before robustness.

I have been a Mac user since the old SE and have championed the Mac inside my company, fighting the Windoze oriented IT department. I have even recommended the Time Capsule to others. I feel Apple has let us down on this product and they are doing nothing to correct it.

I like the network backup concept so if I put my 1 TB drive in an enclosure with USB output I'll lose that. I can try to rebuild the power as has been documented in this forum, is there another way to keep network backup capability with Time Machine, without a Capsule or an Extreme?

Message was edited by: Rudy(CA)