Time Capsule Powered Off, Won't Power Back On

That is a good summary Gior...

You could also post in mactalk as a the local mac interest website.
http://forums.mactalk.com.au/28/71270-time-capsule-dead-power-supply.html

And I have managed to fix them, just by replacing those couple of dead caps.

If you accidentally tear the rubber boot for instance and cannot return it.

Also if you do repair the caps you don't need the housing etc to recover your files. Overall it could be cheaper to repair.
I would recommend leaving off the rubber boot as it is really just for show and is a stupid idea. No heat is supposed to go out the bottom... heat rises anyway.. but it partly blocks all the ventilation holes around the bottom edges.

I have also done a fan mod... if you don't need to live with it in your bedroom and don't want to do the external power supply mod, then making the fan draw in cold air and actually cool things does amazingly good thing.
http://sites.google.com/site/lapastenague/a-deconstruction-of-routers-and-modems /apple-time-capsule-repair/apple-time-capsule-fan-mod

My faith in Apple has been (somewhat) restored. Praise be!

I thought I might share the outcome to my story for those still in the lurch...

After reading all the very helpful advice on this thread I phoned the AppleCare number on the policy document that came with my MacBook Pro purchase (December 07).

After over an hour on the phone, with their customer care/troubleshooting script finally exhausted, I was eventually told that I could keep or dispose of my original 1TB Time Capsule and that Apple would be sending me a new one today which really was the best outcome I could have hoped for.

To be honest, I wasn't exactly enthralled at the prospect of returning my old Time Capsule to Apple; the thought of posting into the void forever a complete and (probably, once outside the case) perfectly accessible backup of my entire life (my laptop drive), including my business emails, bank/credit card details and all other manner of highly sensitive personal data that every identify thief would just love to get their hands on, filled me with utter dread.

You read horror stories about refurb computer equipment turning up abroad unformatted and in this case there is supposedly no way of securely erasing the drive without cracking the Time Capsule open and thus voiding your warranty. A real catch 22 if ever there was one. However, as has been pointed out elsewhere in this thread, if you are careful, how anyone would know you had been inside to retrieve your data is quite beyond me.

It's certainly borderline just how clear Apple are in their documentation that peripherals like Time Capsules are covered by a current AppleCare agreement but I am obviously glad that it IS the case; I have the people in this thread to thank for pointing it out to me.

For anyone facing my flavour of the problem: I bought my Time Capsule (March 08) three months AFTER the purchase of my laptop and AppleCare agreement (December 07) but it WAS covered even though the warranty for the Time Capsule itself had expired.

Regardless, I am quite sure you would have a very good case via UK/EU law (the 2 year warranty thing) regarding this problem even if you don't have AppleCare, given the number of examples of unit failure you could point to in this thread and others. This would certainly have been my next port of call had the AppleCare avenue proved fruitless. The thread also demonstrates that people have clearly experienced wildly different resolutions to their own situations which could only help your argument: pick the outcome you want and cite precedent.

Anyhoo, following my call to Apple I have since stripped the drive from the Time Capsule case (using the helpful instructions given on this thread) and accessed the data using an SATA cradle:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/USB2-0-Docking-Station-Adapter-Bracket/dp/B001FEONM6/ref =sr11?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1254175244&sr=8-1

Plug and play. The drive itself was absolutely fine, just as I suspected.

I might now even have a bash at the repairs that have been posted seeing as I have a 'spare machine' to play with!

From my experience it seems as though Apple (UK at least) is unaware of this problem. The second of the four persons that I spoke to asked me to direct him to this thread and he said "...Wow, thanks. I've clearly got some reading up to do!"

Ultimately I would guess Apple will find it cheaper to take a hit with replacements on a case by case basis; far easier (and cheaper) than having a complete product recall for sure (something I wouldn't personally hold out for), so complain!

I just hope the replacement is a newer model.

Good luck all.

FYI...I called Apple Care Tech Support today. Told them my story. They put me on hold and came back saying that they would "wave" the warranty expiration and are sending me a new Time Capsule. They took a credit card number saying that I would be charged ONLY if I didn't return the defective unit. Seems like they are getting the message. Keep posting.

At least I feel better now. This is exactly what has happened to me. My time capsule had worked for one and a half year fine and just died. No led, no power, nothing. I went to genius bar just to be told that warranty got expired and it costs me almost $500 to replace with old. So I had to pull hard disk out and put it in hard disk enclosure to access my nearly 450G data. Even if I had warranty, I would not give my hard disk to apple to get new one because this is "backup" drive and you don't just want to throw it away.

Just an Update,

I called apple tech support and they are sending me a new one. They used the applecare on my macbook for the warranty on my time capsule and it's on it's way. It was a pretty painless process, no problems with customer support at all, but she did say she was not aware of the problem (which is a little worrisome), luckily what I have backed up is still on my macbook so I'm not losing any valuable data. If I had to do data retrival I would be ****** as well as if I had to pay for a new one (would just use my old extreme and back up manually). So to everyone else, flood the lines at tech support and hopefully this will be recognized as a wide spread issue.

My TC Died last week so I took the time to take it apart and remove the Power Supply ... took the Power supply yo a local shop & replace a transistor and 2 Capacitors and Im back in Business ... none of the rest of the unit was damaged ...

If you need the parts that faile on mine I can send more details

Bought 1TB TC May 2008, died end of Sep 2009. I took it in to Yorkdale Apple store in Toronto. They phoned me next day and said power supply is dead. Though outside warrant, they said they would make an exception because it's not far outside warranty, and said they would replace the power supply for free. I said ok. Got a call a few days later saying it's ready, but it's a new TC (1st gen though), as they couldn't (wouldn't?) fix it. I said ok. As I didn't have anything sensitive on my TC or anything I didn't already have elsewhere, I had not data issues. However, it is troubling that they didn't say anything about what they were going to do with my old TC or my data on that TC.

maxmin wrote:
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.

Those are the classic symptoms of the power supply problem that plague the TCs.

Same here - Late April 2008; 500Gb unit - died. Disk could be unix-dd-ed off just fine; and attaching a couple of lab powersupplies (do they really need that many voltages?!) made all work again.

Two caps where visible bust (overheated/vented) one seems a bit odd. Replaced all four (warning - they do carry a serious residual voltage) - much along the lines of the old grey Apple Airports. Note that you either need to find the same (rareish) voltages or have to puzzle to get it physically fit - as normal higher voltage electrolytes are (much) bigger.

That fixed it.

Bit sad that Apple does not honor normal EU consumer warranty on this - guess this needs someone to mount that fight.

Dw.

Message was edited by: dirkx

Well I took my 18 month dead Time Capsule into the Regent Street store in London this evening.

I have no Applecare at present.

As soon as I placed the item on the desk the Genius told me that it wouldn't power up etc. Surprised at this he then proceeded to get a replacement for me without any request from me at all.

So I now have swapped out my Time Capsule and I've just started backing up 400GB to it.

I wasn't able to get access to the original hard disk so have had to take them on their word that the old Time Capsule would be shipped bak to the factory and the hard disk erased etc.

I was told it was a brand new 1TB Time Capsule I've been given but I'm not convinced. However, I am very happy that I've a replacement out of warranty without any hassle at all.

So a thumbs up to Apple, but I really wish I could have kept my old hard disk.

90 day warranty on the new model and not convinced that I won't have another problem in the months ahead.

The Genius said that about a dozen had been returned to this store and that some people were exaggerating the problem. Also said that the components are updated all the time and that this was limited to an early batch.

I didn't believe a word of that but left with my replacement and a smile which I didn't have a few days ago.

Some Dutch news, TC died yesterday, purchased march 2008 in USA. Went to Apple Reseller but they told me to throw the thing away because repair would be too expensive and that it's out of warranty. Called Apple Netherlands and after pushing 1st line support a bit I was connected to 2nd line and she immediately offered a free replacement (into a new and 1TB TC). Seems they do know there is something wrong... Only data on it is impossible to retrieve unfortunately.

Good luck to everyone with this problem.

PZS wrote:
Hi all,

Someone earlier had mentioned that Apple has recently noticed a problem with a specific range of serial numbers. Mine has not died, but I do have a time capsule within the problem range. I bought my time capsule May 10, 2008. On Nov. 10th, it will be exactly 18mo's old.

I was also told that only a small fraction of folks within this problem range fail, so not all fail. Nonetheless, if your TC has failed and you fall within that range, warranty or not, you should be able to get a replacement.

Hope this helps.


PS I am getting a new TC 1tb because I do believe it is an indispensable product and it does work very well for me. It would be wise for all of us to have a back-up of our back-up just in case calamity happens.

I seriously doubt that the problem is serial number related. As long as the airflow cooling is non-existent and the internal power dissipation is too high for the cooling, it will get too hot inside and lead to premature failure. The electrolytic capacitors in the internal power supply being the weak link will fail first. It is as simple as that. Getting a replacement TC with the design design issues will just push the problem out in time another 18 months or so.

Check this other thread: To view the full topic, visit: <http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2091667>

The conclusion reached about dead TCs: nag Apple Customer Service. If you have AppleCare on a computer, they will replace Time Capsule, taking your data with it. If all is OK, good but if you need your backup, open TC, remove HDD to a new ext. case and restore.

Some quality router PS are available online but some electronic repair skills are called for.

Fan mod and repair of the capacitors is easier than replacing with external power supply although the problem will definitely come up again.
See http://sites.google.com/site/lapastenague/a-deconstruction-of-routers-and-modems /apple-time-capsule-repair/apple-time-capsule-repair-type2 (Thanks to Ray from Australia!)

My 500GB time capsule bought March 2008 died Saturday 7th November. I was gutted, I think it's an awesome product and it was with a mixture of hope and (further) dismay when I found this topic.

I called Apple support here in the UK this morning and after an initial wrangling with the guy who gave me the usual 'out of warranty, nothing we can do' story, I told him about this thread and persisted in telling him I thought they should do something about it. He put me on hold for a few minutes and when he came back he gave me a reference number and told me to take it to my local apple store for a replacement. Good customer service even though I think apple should really acknowledge this problem properly with a recall. I'll report back tomorrow about my experience in store.

NB: I have to bring in my dead time capsule in exchange for a replacement, I presume I won't have an opportunity to recover any data so I will ask what will happen to the hard drive in my dead unit. This isn't a particular problem for me but I'm sure it will be a big problem for many. Apple; are you going to resolve this in the right and proper way?

my time capsule ( April 2008 ) died two days ago
brought it to Genius Bar here in San Diego ( UTC )
and was told it was out of warranty ..
i was told by the genius that on my unit
(and others from the time frame mine was produced)
that apple was quote " extending the warranty " because of known issues with this model / time frame

my time capsule was replaced
the replacement carrying a 90 warranty ..

i was also told that there wasn't a way for them to get my old data off
but that wasn't a big deal for me .. ( back up your back ups ! )

hope this helps others with the same problem
best of luck to you all