Time Capsule Powered Off, Won't Power Back On

Thanks a lot for the information and for all the notes you have published with the modifications.
First thing for me is to extract the drive (hope it is still good), put it in an enclosure and save the
files I had stored in it. Then look at doing some of the modifications you've outlined (ie. external
power and fan). If the Time Capsule had more damage than just the power supply then look into a NAS solution.

Here's the rest of the story. I went to local Apple store and explained the issue. The tech plugged in the Time Capsule and confirmed it was dead. Because I purchased a new 17 MacBook Pro the week before they were nice enough to cover the replacement cost of the Time Capsule under that warranty. Hats off to Apple and their handling of my case. This still doesn't excuse them for creating $500 piece of hardware that dies in 16-18 months. I've always been impressed by Apple's engineering prowess but this device seems to have been rushed out the door. I will be getting a small fan to blow air over the top of the unit. IMHO, the passive cooling on this device does not work so I will introduce my own active cooling. Good luck to everyone. My guess is they will have a "quiet" general recall of this device at sometime in future.

Hi Max
Your TC is covered by the Applecare on any Apple computer registered See Comprehensive coverage

The AppleCare Protection Plan covers your Mac, as well as an AirPort Extreme Card, an AirPort Express or AirPort Extreme Base Station, Time Capsule, MacBook Air SuperDrive and Apple RAM used with your Mac. Mac mini, Mac Pro and MacBook Pro customers may also register one Apple display for coverage, provided that the Mac and the display are purchased together. http://www.apple.com/uk/support/products/proplan.html
Hope this helps

LovMacsHateTC wrote:
Add one more victim of Apple's shocking poor design of their Time Capsule product.

Complete power failure of my 1TB first gen TC purchased 16 months ago.

Apple was no help. Told me to fork over $420 to replace TC AND I would have to turn in original BUT LOSE ALL MY DATA! This is the best option?

Absolutely not!! You can buy a new one cheaper... and keep the old one... even if all you do is get the hdd out and put it in a enclosure... at least that gets your files back... I am sure if enough die,,, and since the design is so poor I see no reason for them not to continue dying (like flies!!) right up to the ones they made yesterday and today and tomorrow until they repair the design flaws. Eventually people will stop buying them until Apple extend the warranty on all the faulty ones... so keep it. For a rainy day... !!

I love Apple and am a die hard but the last thing I expected was this type of failure, due to a poor design, AND to be treated like a lame PC user.

Us lame PC users would never tolerate being treated like this... sorry!! People here go and buy another TC they love Apple so much... that is unbelievable!! You are being used!!

Nice concept but I should have known better and trusted my storage and backup solution to reputable vendors with a track record.

A backup device should
1. Have two discs in mirrored raid.
2. Have easy access to replace the disks.
3. Have a power supply that is temperature controlled or easily replaceable.
4. Temperature control on the hard disks if they are stacked to extend their life. High temperature do hdds no good at all.
5. Have loads of memory like 1-2GB (memory is cheap as blazes now and NAS speed is directly proportional to how large a file it can hold in cache) and truly high speed gigabit interface.

I had a similar situation with a 500GB Time Capsule. Out of nowhere the Time Capsule would not power on. Unplugged and replugged the power adapter and still nothing. Took the Time Capsule into the nearby Apple store and luckily I had purchased an iMac recently and they used the warranty on the iMac to replace the Time Capsule. The Apple store was currently out of the product so they ordered me a new one. It came in three days later. I was very happy with Apple's customer service.

My Time Capsule also died in the same time frame and manner as described by so many on this post. And like others I was able to call support and have my time capsule replaced by attaching it to a MacBook Pro AppleCare. Sure it will die in 18 months but certainly Apple will have something shiny and new to replace it by then.

Good luck to all.

Ryan

its my time i guess ... its funny i just saw the article yesterday

http://www.engadget.com/2009/10/06/are-some-apple-time-capsules-locking-themselv es-up-for-good/

...and today i come from work and guess who is not starting up again ... my Time Capsule, out of warranty i might add of course ...

so i am a number on a big list i guess ... ??


PS bought this TC in MAy2008

"Me Too", but I did have a positive experience with Apple afterwards:

My TC died on Friday 9th October overnight suddenly. It was 18 months old, but I did still have AppleCare on my iMac. I had purchased the TC online through Apple.

I visited the Apple Store in Bristol (Cabot Circus) without a Genius Bar appointment (they were all taken) and spoke to Jez about it. To cut a long story short, he confirmed it was covered (although didn't ask for my AppleCare details) and with a little pushing worked with his floor manager Jason to grant me a swap out. I needed to show my original receipt, and also had to upgrade to a 2TB device because they had no 1 TB devices in store. All of this took about an hour as the store was closing when they really could be doing something far more profitable elsewhere in the store!

The upgrade cost me £9.94!

Cons: I had to hand over my old TC and data, and I had to cajole a little to get a swap out there and then (they were pushing for a Genius Bar appointment mid week which was impossible for me)

Pros: Doubled my capacity for less than a tenner, and Jez (and James to a lesser degree) worked really hard to "solve" my problem there and then. I was really impressed by their commitment to getting this done, and I provided feedback to Apple naming them as a result.

Summary: It is wrong that a product consistently bombs after roughly 15-18 months, and there is no official response from Apple. However, my experience has shown the human side of the organisation is listening and prepared to do what it takes to fix the problem.

Thanks for listening!

My 1TB Time Capsule did the same exact thing. It died sometime in July. One morning, internet was dead and I found that the Time Capsule light was off and cold to touch. I tried plugging it back in and it would light up for a second or so, and then turn off. If I plugged it in immediately thereafter, it would not go back on. I had to leave it unplugged for a while before plugging it back in to get the light to go back on for the power light to go back on for a split second. But after a few attempts it was clear that it was not going to come back to life. Fortunately, I bought mine with a Mac which I covered with Applecare, so I was covered for a replacement.

Just got off the phone with Apple Care. Heard the same thing everyone else is regarding replacement, Apple Care, etc, which is what I expected, but I also wanted to find out what Apple was currently doing about it. According to the product specialist I talked to they had a meeting earlier in the day about it and the engineering group was looking into the issues to determine the problem. I still think there is a chance Apple ends up replacing these regardless of whether or not you have Apple Care. Would recommend every report their problem to Apple so they have a larger sample size to investigate and also to register on the Memorial website.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/timecapsule.html
http://timecapsuledead.org/

Jed Gray wrote:
Not good... I want to go buy the new generation TC but I am a little concerned after reading all this. Were you all able to get your data back off of the TC or was it all lost? Thanks

As far as I know, the newly introduced TC has an infernal (internal) power supply and the same ineffective cooling so the new TCs should have about the same Mean Time To Failure (MTBF) as the older ones.

I was able to retrieve my data by temporarily removing the HDD and putting it in an enclosure, then I re-powered it and mod'ed the cooling as per the instructions found in LaPastenague's web site.

Heh, above post should, of course, read 2008 for 2007.

Anyhow, phone support offered no other help than an appointment at the newly-opened Apple Store in my town.

Received replacement unit with no quibble. Box-fresh brand new.

Delighted.

This must be costing Apple a fortune.

kmfitz wrote:
Are the newer TCs more reliable?

In around 18 months we will know...!! Unfortunately since the problem really only showed up in large numbers a couple of months ago,, the design will have little changed from original. We know it still gets over hot.. we know components like capacitors cannot take the heat.. we know the fan still doesn't work.. we know their is no outside vent or place for the fan to pick up cooler outside air. So figure it out from there.

Rudy, please look at the postings since my previous post and you'll see that what I stated was true and that Apple is willing to make exceptions for certain serial number ranges. I have been a mac user since around '90 and have read many responses but have contributed very little because I always felt like I did not have enough knowledge. However, as time has gone by, I realize that I have acquired significant knowledge via experience and can help people. This is what I am setting out to do. Whether or not you choose to accept it is your choice.

Here is some advice I've learned over the years.

1). Instead of walking into an apple store with the prob, it's better to call as they usually have more experts and know more than the guys in the store (they only have so much staff they can utilize). They can even bump you up to a specialist if needed...can't do that in the apple store.

2). As others have stated, the time capsule does fall under the Applecare warranty of along with certain other items such as computers, etc.. Unfortunately, you cannot purchase applecare for the time capsule by itself AFAIK.

I hope this helps everyone and good luck in replacing your time capsules.

I took my dead TC (18 months old) to the Genius Bar at my local Apple Store yesterday. They told me it was out of warranty and there was nothing they could do unless I had a Protection Plan on another product, then they could replace it on that plan. I did not have an active plan. I told them how upset I was since there are over 30 pages on this topic on the forums. I also have THOUSANDS of dollars of Apple products. The guy told me he knew it was a problem but Apple has yet to acknowledge it officially. He got the store manager and she replaced mine for free with the new dual band 1TB model.