Time Capsule Powered Off, Won't Power Back On

Death in Dublin.

18mth old 1TB. €270

So is it fit for nothing but the recycle bin??

Billyhunt wrote:

Death in Dublin.

18mth old 1TB. €270

So is it fit for nothing but the recycle bin??

If you don't have AppleCare on any existing Mac computer which will then cover the TC it can be repaired more than likely as the issue tends to be the power supply even on the later models. Just yesterday someone with a 6month old brand new one rang me that it overheated and died. This means the power supply is actually faulty not just worn out, and of course is still in warranty so Apple replaced it. In your case determine if you have the skills to do the job.. if not contact a repairer.. which has to be outside of official Apple repair centres as they are "sealed units" without spare parts.

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

Well, my 1 TB Simultaneous Dual-Band (purchased June 2009) died yesterday, so just under a 23 month lifespan; better than some, especially considering the size and frequency of my backups.

(Model A1302, s/n **917****** if anyone happens to be keeping tabs). Luckily the AppleCare I'd purchased with my MacBook Pro a few months prior to buying the TC is still in effect, so I'll be dropping this off for a replacement.

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---> Just something to keep in mind if you think your time capsule is about to fail, or is in the process of failing:

Timeline:

-Morning, Noticed the Wi-Fi wasn't broadcasting because my iPod Touch couldn't connect, but my MacBook Pro could still connect to the internet since it was operating off an Airport Express that was connected via: Ethernet cable to make a roaming network. Didn't have time to mess with anything so I left for the day.

-Got back around 3pm, nothing could connect to the Internet; Opened Airport Utility --> TC appeared as having green-light status. Told the TC to restart from the utility; TC Re-Appeared, but never went past the amber indicator in the utility.

-I went to unplug both the TC and the Modem to see if things would come back up; TC stays at flashing amber stage; could only access it in Airport Utility via: Direct Ethernet connection now. I thought maybe something had been corrupted, so I opted to re-load the firmware. TC shut off (Status Light Goes Blank, Despite being plugged in). I unplugged and then replugged the TC in, Doing a Hard-Reset in the process after waiting about a minute.

-TC appears normally in Airport Utility, back at factory defaults, for a short time, then abruptly powers off again. Each time it power cycled, it would stay on between 30 secs - 2 mins; Gave up, left the unit unplugged and went to look up a solution.

-Several hours later, on the phone with AppleCare asking about a replacement; they ask about basic troubleshooting and ask me to go try some things on it first. I plug it back in so I could describe to the rep. what happened each time, but nothing: Brick. Not even the power on, then random shut-off. No lights, Drive Spin-Up, etc. ever came on after this point.

---------> Now, the relevance to this being that while I knew the unit might be done for when I first tried trouble-shooting, I knew I could still access it and the disk via: Airport Utility, etc.... But as I said, when I came back after it had been unplugged for several hours:

Permanent Brick. Needing the backups isn't my concern; I have all the essentials on my laptop, but rather that I now need to return my TC, intact, as to not void the extended warranty, with a plethora of confidential client data still sitting happily intact on the drive, much less my personal files. I don't know what type of refurbishing/ disposal process goes on with these units---I never did get a straight answer from the support representative---but at the very least, if I'd known it would never power up again, I would have done a quick erase, followed by an attempt at a Zero-Pass erase while I could (much less the 7-Pass Erase I would have done if I were to have sold/ upgraded the unit).

I'm sure nothing will come of this, but it certainly does not sit well with me.... I thought it was bad enough that there was no encryption feature initially, but I settled for it having a cable-lock in place and hoping that any would-be criminals wouldn't be clever enough to do a hard reset (rendering the drive and all its data 100% accessible to them). *sigh* Well, Lion comes out soon...

Add another one to the list --- 834 range, purchased in 2009. No Apple Store in the area. Mad as fire because it just happened and, silly enough, I was using it as a backup and the first 3 years of my daughter's life in photos are on that thing, a year's worth of law school notes, and tens of clients worth of photo shoots on it and I can't access any of it. Worthless backup. Worthless.

I can't believe a company that puts out the ever-dependable Macbook et al would put their name on a piece of crap like the Time Capsule.

Chances are, it is the power supply that has failed and the drive is just fine and can be pulled from the Time Capsule case. A repair shop can do this for you.

You could also look at repairs to the device:

https://sites.google.com/site/lapastenague/a-deconstruction-of-routers-and-modem s/apple-time-capsule-repairers