Time Capsule Powered Off, Won't Power Back On

My experience has been that if you repair the TC, your Time Machine backups will be available as individual backups. You can move the HD to any other SATA case (available from many vendors such as OWC or MacMall, etc) but it must be powered externally. I bought one from MacSales.com (OWC) for $30, works fine & has both firewire 400 and USB 2.0 connectors. Not sure if backups accessed by this method show up in Time Machine format.

IMHO, unless the TC particularly suits you... ie you really want an all in one product for both wireless router and NAS, don't buy it...

You can get a refurbished.. (mostly likely brand new but remaindered AEBS ie previous model) for $169 at the Apple store.
http://store.apple.com/au/product/FB763X/A?mco=MTA4MjczMDM

And a suitable USB holder for hdd, for $40 or so... look at ASTONE which are very neat boxes. And then add a 2TB drive... or even cheaper 2x1TB drives.
You can also get a proper raid NAS like netgear models which work with Time Machine... and give you full access to the disks.

Whichever you do, puts you ahead in every way except maybe style... and power boards. And you don't spend the next 18months with a backup device you cannot trust... IMHO a backup device has to be trusted... hence a mirrored raid. Or two different drives.

The mactalk site in Aus has a fair bit on external drives.
http://forums.mactalk.com.au/28/28163-merged-recommendations-external-hard-drive .html

You should maybe ask to speak to somebody at a higher level, or ask the applecare rep to do this. It was after a conversation with a product specialist that the applecare rep agreed to the replacement. The other thing is there may be a specific range of serial numbers that they are agreeing to at the moment.

I think persistence should pay off, but the inconsistency from apple is no good.

If you go to the store you need to make an appointment, you can do this online.

After applying some pressure on the dealer (here in Germany you have a 2 year dealership warranty, but have to evidence that the trouble was already there when the product was bought) by pointing to this and other threads and by warning that I was willing to take this to court, the dealer called today to inform me that they had agreed with Apple to share the repair costs for my 1TB TC of more than € 200. I just hope they put in a new, improved powersupply, so that I will not be having the same issue again in 18 months.

Anyway, the morale is - don't give up - Apple have a problem and they know it.

Well, add me to this ever growing list- Mine died tonight, 500G 1st Gen.

Same as a lot of other folks, except I noticed an exclamation point in the TM clock this evening and neither mine nor my wife's Mac could mount our back-up volume's. I tried using Disk Utility to scope it out, and I tried soft reboots using the Airport Utility to no avail, so I powered the TC down by the only means possible. And when I plugged it back in, NOTHING! After about 15 mins, I plugged it back in and got a pretty lil' amber light and a nice high pitched noise for about 15 secs before it went completely dead again.

Owell! Hopefully, and if the what's been posted is true, since my TC was purchased with my wife's MB, Apple will warranty my new paperweight. Otherwise, I'm not so sure I'll get another.

I suggest if you haven't already, you file some Feedback on the Time Capsule with Apple. I've done mine-
http://www.apple.com/feedback/timecapsule.html

Get on the horn with Apple Customer Service, quote Serial # of TC & hope they might replace unit. If you have another computer under AppleCare, they will replace.

If you get no satisfaction, look here for repair options:

http://sites.google.com/site/lapastenague/a-deconstruction-of-routers-and-modems /apple-time-capsule-repairers

Also, go back a few pages on this forum to see what others have suggested and/or accomplished. You are not alone with this problem (among at least a thousand, offhand!).

And another one. 18 months of no problems, died this morning without a sign.

Just called Apple (Netherlands) and got a new one for free (1TB).

The only thing that worries me: will it be the same one with the same flaw?

DShadow99 wrote:
Add mine to the list. Bought in March 2008, died December 11, 2009. Called the local shop and they told me not to believe everything you read on the internet! I guess thousands of people all over the world are somehow conspiring against Apple.

That was the same crock I was told when I took mine in. The caps on mine were swollen. Maybe they weren't bad and were simply pregnant?

Apple is being totally inconsistent in handling this reliability issue they've foisted on us.

Add me to the list. My 19 month old 500GB Time Capsule died yesterday. Thanks to the posts here and other places, I was prepared and pulled all important data (except for the backups) off the drive.

Called Apple and they were very good about it. I have AppleCare on a couple of computers in the house so they simply applied the Time Capsule to one of them. They are shipping the replacement today via overnight FedEx.

I'm quite pleased with Apple support. They took care of me. I'm not happy with the Time Capsule however. I hope they addressed this issue in the new version of the Time Capsule.

Update: Just found out that if one purchases Applecare with a portable, it covers Airport express or TC bought up to two years before purchase of the Mac, the RAM, adapter and display purchased with the Mac.

My 500GB time capsule died on Christmas day - it made it 20 months.

I am not covered by applecare on any of my current computers (my macbook just ran out two weeks ago). I just called Apple Canada this morning and they are shipping me a replacement. There weren't any issues despite being out of warranty and not covered by applecare. They said it should be here in 5 to 10 days, but may be a bit longer due to the holidays.

Just an update to my TC which died on Sunday night. Phoned Apple on Monday AM in the UK, long hold then explained I had Applecare. Put me through to 'Senior Tech' in Cork, Ireland who immediately offered me a replacement. I queried if it was new and he said it would be a 500gb refurb held in stock in the UK.
Perhaps if I'd asked to collect from a shop I would have got a 1Tb model. Anyway replacement arrived today by courier. 500Gb but dual band and supports guest networking when I assume my old one bought in March 2008 was single?
So downtime from Sunday evening to up and running again Wednesday afternoon is pretty good and an upgrade of sorts.
Not happy that this problem has occurred but if it is dealt with quickly and without fuss as was my case then I'm happier than I might have been.

Hi Kottkrig,

Welcome to the forums. You will have to be persistent. My suggestion is call again and do not take no for an answer. Tell them this is happening all over the world etc. there is a website http://www.timecapsuledead.org which you can tell them to see and that there are people there reporting they are getting a replacement even out of warranty and without Apple care. Like I said, be persistent, get yourself bumped up the hierarchy and get to talk to supervisor or manager level. You might be rewarded. Best of luck.

Hi Kottkrig,

Welcome to the forums. You will have to be persistent. My suggestion is call again and do not take no for an answer. Tell them this is happening all over the world etc. there is a website http://www.timecapsuledead.org or this discussion forums, and you can tell them to see and that there are people there reporting they are getting a replacement even out of warranty and without Apple care. Like I said, be persistent, get yourself bumped up the hierarchy and get to talk to supervisor or manager level. You might be rewarded. Best of luck.

The 'known' serial range is definitely known to Apple. Mine was pre ordered the day these things became available, so I would guess I had one of the first batches.

I won't get to keep my Time Capsule, and I didn't put up a fight about this at all. I was so happy that I didn't have to beg in order to get a replacement, that I didn't want to push my luck. I don't need any of the data off the device, but I would have liked to have wiped it a few times before sending it in. I'll just have to put my faith in Apple that they properly wipe or destroy the hard disks.