Time Capsule Powered Off, Won't Power Back On

Mine too. I don't think this has anything to do with Snow Leopard.

Similar thing happened to me last night. The TC was working fine and then it just stopped working - the power supply was dead. Just got off the phone with applecare and luckily it was covered under my imac applecare plan. They were very nice about the whole thing and are sending me a refurb gratis.

I did see a thread about this that described a way to replace the power supply:
V http://forums.mactalk.com.au/28/71270-time-capsule-dead-power-supply.html>

A follow-up note.

Took my TC to the local Apple Store where they confirmed it was dead. I asked about it being covered under my multiple AppleCare contracts (multiple Macs - see below) and was told by a "Genius" that it had to be purchased with a computer which I had tried when I bought an iMac but the local store was out of TCs so had to order separately). This is wrong. The AppleCare contract clearly states that the TC only has to be used with a covered computer, and only monitors have to be purchased at the same time as the Mac to be covered. Instead of making a scene in the store I walked out and called AppleCare from outside the store and within 5 minutes had a replacement TC being shipped to my office free-of-charge. It arrived the next morning.

In my opinion, this is the way to go. Don't bother going to the store, just call AppleCare and get a replacement (and be sure to send the old one back or they will charge you the original purchase price!)...

Add one more failure to the list. Bought mine April, 2008 -- died on August, 2009 (what's that, about 16 months). My instinct is to rescue the drive, put it in a new enclosure and chalk it up to a very bad experiment on the part of the Time Capsule designers. Really, it's a case of one too many features rolled into a single enclosure, which means too many potential points of failure. A backup solution this is not...

Add one more to this growing list. I purchased a 500GB TC on March 12, 2008 and on August 31, 2009. It died. I was having trouble with a printer that was attached to it for several weeks. I wanted to check the cable connections so I power off the TC and checked the cables and it never came back up. I took it immediately to an the Apple Store and they told me they could do nothing. I purchased a new one thinking I was just unlucky, but now I see I;m one of many. Apple should make good on these defective units. It's obvious that this was a defective run of TC's.

*I love my Apple products, but the Time Capsule is a huge disappointment. Mine died too and I got the same story from the Genius Bar that I'm SOL.*

*I just took the drive out of the TimeCapsule, used a SATA dock and mounted and backed up the data, then I put it into my trusty NetGear ReadyNAS disk array. The drive married up and was integrated into the redundant array of disks without a hitch!*

*Learn from our lessons. The TimeCapsule is a waste of money! A lot of money.*

*Here are two possible alternative solutions:*

*1. Consider buying a Network Attached Storage (NAS) box which offers the safety of redundant hot-swappable disks, large capacity and expandable storage by simply inserting a new drive in the array, file security, Mac/Windows/UNIX file systems compatibility, Time Machine-compatibility, several media streaming protocols including iTunes, uPNP, TiVo, Media Center.*

*Then you just need a good wireless N router with gigabit ethernet ports.*

*This is a somewhat pricey solution, but very capable and extensible.*

*Did I mention that the NetGear offers a 5-year warranty?*
*Check it out:
ReadyNAS Duo : http://www.netgear.com/Products/Storage/ReadyNASDuo/RND2000.aspx
ReadyNAS NV+ : http://www.netgear.com/Products/Storage/ReadyNASNVPlus.aspx*



*2. The other less expensive option is a to get a good wireless N router with the capability to connect and share an external hard drive via USB. Then get one of the many inexpensive external hard drives that are on the market. Also an expandable solution by daisy chaining new hard drives. Some wireless routers may even have some of the media streaming protocols.*

*Total cost should be less than a TimeCapsule and may even perform better (TimeCapsule performance is so-so). The only drawback is having to manage multiple volumes of external disks as you expand your capacity. This is why I upgraded to a NAS solution.*

*Good luck!*

Message was edited by: DFuller

Message was edited by: DFuller

sigh

500GB Time Capsule... Purchased March 2008... Failed August 2009 (with the high-pitched noise)...

I'd already decided I wasn't going to buy another one before seeing this thread.

Tearing it open and getting the drive out is on today's to-do list.

****, mine also died. From Regent Street as well. Guess I don't have apple care for it either...
Will go there and complain, can't be it.

Whilst you have it in pieces, repairing it isn't that hard.

The board uses 5v at about 2A. And the hdd is powered directly off the supply with a standard sata power connector. The power supply is rated at 1.2A for 12v line and 3A on the 5v line.

I have done some work describing how to repair it.
See http://sites.google.com/site/lapastenague/a-deconstruction-of-routers-and-modems /apple-time-capsule-repair

There is a pdf outlining the process here.
http://sites.google.com/site/lapastenague/a-deconstruction-of-routers-and-modems

It is relatively trivial repair in the sense that the internal supply is completely replaced with an external power supply. Should have always been externally powered just like mac mini or the AEBS. A small in line power supply is no biggie really. That keeps the total watt dissipation in the box minimised. High temperature is evil for both the hard disk and the power supply electrolytic capacitors.

There are a number of different ways to do it other than what I have suggested. I am about to repair another one, and have a different method which should be neater. Will add that to the site probably next week. It will use a regulated 12v 3A power supply externally with a simple 2.5mm dc connector and then a 12v-5v dc converter internally which are readily available from hobby stores or ebay. About US$8.

The hdd could even be used externally in an esata enclosure. Simply cut a hole in TC for esata connector. Then you have easily replaceable parts.
But at least the external power supply is going to get it running again.

I have also studied the design of the cooling system and it is wrong... just plain wrong. In the notes I gave some indication of how to do it, but i will take some photos on the next repair. The fan should draw in air from underneath instead of just sitting there swirling hot air around inside.

Hope some of you will give it a go and report back.
In Australia I am thinking of offering repairs so do contact me.

I don't know if this has already been said or not but if you bought your Time Capsule with a credit card, most major credit cards extend the manufacturer warranty by one year for a total of two years. This is a service from Visa, Mastercard, etc. so if you bought it with a credit card it's worth looking into this. There's a lot of paperwork and you need all your receipts so it can take a while to go through but I haven't had a problem with it.

Here are some links with more information:
http://usa.visa.com/personal/visa-signature/benefits/warranty-manager.jsp
http://www.mastercard.com/us/personal/en/cardholderservices/guidetobenefits/
https://www.onlineclaim.americanexpress.com/

Apple won't be at MacWorld '10 so save the brick.

as for the rest, if you don't contact Apple via the AppleCare phone number or go to the Bar they won't have data to see a pattern and make it a 'known issue'. they don't read this or any other board.

Well this blows...as of last night I'm having the EXACT same problem. I bought my 1TB TC in March 2008 (18 Months ago) and now it won't power on. Like some, if I leave it unplugged for a while and plug it back in, the disks will spin up for about 20 seconds before everything turns off again.

Seems to me there is like a self destruct switch in these things.

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?

+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.

I purchased my 500GB TC in 4/4/08. Yesterday I got back from a 10 day vacation to find mine had shut down. I suspect the higher temperatures in Florida with the AC off had something to do with it. I unplugged it an tried again and it blinked yellow for a few seconds and then shut down. I then unplugged everything thinking it was toast but then decided to try again since the room was now cooler and it started up and has been working since... No doubt a thermal issue with the power supply.

+but then decided to try again since the room was now cooler and it started up and has been working since..+

Don't trust it... electronic components don't self repair.

Make sure anything important is removed and get ready to replace it if you have applecare... The very fact that it has failed indicates the capacitors are sitting on the edge... and just a bit more time will further increase their ESR to the point the power supply will be unable to work... you probably won't be able to restart it hot even now...

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