Time Capsule Powered Off, Won't Power Back On

Same thing here, my march 2008 500GB TimeCapsule died today 😟
Gonna take it to a certified service provider tomorrow...

Okay my wife made me run down stairs because she was hearing a high pitched noise. It was coming from my time capsule. I shut it down and it stopped and restarted it and seconds later it started. In searching for the problem I came to this forum. Now I'm sure it's the same issue, I as well purchased in Feb 2008, this is beyond anything I've seen before from Apple aside from maybe the screen issue with the Macbook Pros. I am currently transferring things off the disk while I still can. It is unacceptable that this has happened to so many people. This forum is not even a week old and look at it, it has over 600 views! People, post if you are having this problem and put the serial number of your time capsule, mine is 6F8086GJYZV. To you admins out there I will be forwarding this on to some blogs to get the word out. Unacceptable fix it! I almost feel like we've been hit by a kill switch I've never heard of a problem hitting with such accuracy before in my life, and imagine all of those people who don't know about these forums and have taken it to the Genius bar only to be turned down and told they have to purchase a new one. Outrageous, simple astounding, make yourself heard and maybe we can all get this taken care of.

what's even more amazing is the number of users experiencing this in this thread:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2091667&start=90&tstart=0

Count me in, TC died today, bought March 2008.. it cost me 499euros.. what a f waste of money.
oh and my macbook pro has also the strange vertical stripes that affects many people as well (bought june 2008).. I mean.. if Apple continues to produce faulty stuff we´re just splashing cash

Same Problem here. Purchase my TC 500GB in April 2008 from the Apple store in Regent Street. It died yesterday. Apple must address this problem...

Apple confirmed that (1) mine really won't power on; (2) that they don't open them and work on them; (3) that they will replace it (I bought it with two iMacs with Apple Care 18 months ago. My husband is worried about the disk full of data inside the dead one. I wonder if they will give it back to me???

Yes, we know if they're under an applecare warranty for another computer they will replace it. But most of us are just out of warranty because we didn't spend the extra to get it. I spent over $4,000 on two computers an apple TV and time capsule when I got this and I didn't want to spend another $500 to add on some coverage. I know now to get it through ebay or amazon but you know what they say about hindsight. However since this is obviously a specific issue effecting a lot if not the majority of time capsules produced at the beginning Apple should be replacing these regardless of warranty status. This is a design defect not a random manufacturing defect. My wife BlackBook was replaced 2 weeks after we got it because it failed to turn on that is a manufacturing defect and at this point I would be mad but not expect apple to replace it. Again design not manufacturing defect equals replacement.

FWIW if your TC is making noise you are not having the same problem as the rest of us on this discussion thread. The problem that we have described is that the TC goes completely dead - no lights, no noise, no action. Of course, that doesn't mean that your TC is not having a problem, just that it is not the same problem.

Update: My replacement unit arrived today. 24 hour shipping from Holland to Stockholm. Unfortunately it is an exact replacement (Model Number A1254, 1st generation). Was hoping that we would get a new one because: A) We have both (g) and (n) machines at home, and B) Maybe the 2nd gen models might last longer.

We'll see how it goes.

My unit actually did just die. I assumed it was going to because others noticed a noise before theirs actually dies too. At least the replacement won't be from the same batch the first ones where. It was probably produced right before the new ones came out. Oh and right before it died it through up an error saying it was over heating but unless you where there right when it died you probably wouldn't have seen that in your airport utility.

Mine, purchased early 2008 as well, died about a month ago. Although I have several Macs under AppleCare, none were purchased at the same time as the TC, so I could not get AppleCare coverage for it. I replaced it with a new TC, hope the same thing does not happen next year...

My 1TB Time Capsule died, won't power on. Took it to the Genius Bar - was told it was 14 months old so no warranty coverage. I was forced to buy something to replace it - an Airport Extreme base station was my cheapest alternative at $179. I don't think this is a good policy and lots of us have had their TCs die for some unknown reason.

Apple, please do something for us.

Mine dies after about a year and a half. It seemed like a terrible design. Why does the Airport Extreme Base Station have an external PS and the Time Capsule, which should generate even more heat, have an internal PS.

Apple should really have to replace these power supplies for free. A power supply that is placed in a hot environment needs to be designed to withstand the heat. A power supply is a very simple device and should last for many years.

Our Time Capsule was dead this morning also. It was purchased online from Apple in March, 2008.
We upgraded to Snow Leopard last night and thought that was the problem. We spent the morning unplugging and plugging everything back in. Glad I checked this forum. Will go to the Apple Store tomorrow with 2 AppleCare Agreements for our computers, and the printed postings from this forum. We'll see what happens. My husband will not buy another Time Capsule from Apple.
Not fun to buy a 18-month backup for $499.

Thanks everyone for posting.

Jason,
http://www.apple.com/support/products/proplan.html

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.


Note that displays are specifically called out as having to be purchased with the Mac. The Airport, Time Capsule, and others are not.

If you have a Mac under Applecare, the Time Capsule is covered, even if you did not buy it at the same time, otherwise the wording would be as it is for the Apple displays.

This is exactly what happened about a month ago to our office Time Capsule of about the same vintage. Because AppleCare only covers computers and we don't have the budget to buy a new one it sits on a shelf unloved until we can work out how to recover the data off it (apple amazingly don't even offer an option for this.. its a f..ing backup device! Yeah lets throw away 18 months of backups because apple went for cheap power supplies).