Time Capsule Powered Off, Won't Power Back On

No it isn't. It's heat. The dust you mention may in some way insulate the components so they cannot cool down. There could be some contaminated dust that is conductive and that could have a detrimental effect on electronics where conducting surfaces are exposed.

Dust can clog air intake filters which causes the air-flow to not... flow, allowing the electronics to overheat.

Honest.

:-)

Cheers,

Chris F.

Just happened to me too. Only it only died after I installed the latest firmware update. (7.6 I think) Product worked fine and it is a 1st generation 1TB TC. Firmware was downloaded and showed it properly installed after the restart but then suddenly the green light went off and is now a very expensive paperweight...

Obviously there is a design flaw if this many people are experiencing the same problem. Apple should man-up and fix the problem.

I have heard of this and repaired one that did the same.. died immediately after a firmware update. You can assume it was on the edge of going anyway. But something in the new firmware makes a slightly greater demand on the power supply and trips it over. It can be something very simple. eg in older firmware the hard drive does not spin up for several seconds after the boot. Try to shorten that time to get the TC active faster and the load of too many things starting up can trip the supply over the edge.

Apple have denied their is a problem except in the first 6months worth of production which is now well and truly past 3years so the extended warranty for that first batch has finished. They seem to believe a backup product that lasts 3years is adequate. It is a consumable,, in their opinion.

My time capsule did the same thing. Installed the firmware update, died shortly afterwards. It's been powering itself off for a number of months, maybe a year or so. Bought it in Jan 2009. Even though I don't have an Apple Support Plan for the time capsule, the agent did look to see if the Serial Number off of my time capsule was in the range of time capsules Apple would warranty. Unfortunately it did not fall in the warranty range. 😟 What also irritated me is when you call in and go through the voice prompts, the prompt asks you something to the sort, "Can you describe the issue you're having with your time capsule? Example, I can't backup or the Time Capsule unexpectantly powers itself off."

Clearly there's an issue here.

jabberfolk wrote:

Clearly there's an issue here.

There may well be, but you're past the warranty period, so…

William Kucharski wrote:

There may well be, but you're past the warranty period, so…

Actually he isn't past the warranty.. if he goes out and buys a new Mac computer the applecare will cover the TC as it is still less than 3years old. Just that would not be a wise thing to do.. at least for that motive.

And surely a backup device should have a longer lifespan than 3years.

LaPastenague wrote:

And surely a backup device should have a longer lifespan than 3years.

It's a piece of consumer electronics technology like any other.

Buy an external drive for backup purposes and you'll have between 90 days and a year of coverage.

Buy an IBM TS3200 Tape Library and the warranty is three years.

Sure it will "last" longer if you purchase an extended maintenance contract, but you can say the same about purchasing a new Time Capsule after three years.

You bet there is an issue. Poor design and Apple arrogance. How can Apple not be aware of this problem?

The only solutions to salvage something from this is to buy a hard drive enclosure (caddie) and put the hard drive from the TC into that. You should be able to recover all the information held on the HD. Use you wireless router to network.

Should have done that in the first place would have saved myself loads of money and hours of frustration.

The design is actually quite good. It is let down by an appalling flaw in the cooling. Well, let me re-phrase that, a flaw in the addition of components that seemingly have no purpose inside the TC.

There is a cooling fan. Quite a good addition to the insides of the TC case. The hottest part of the TC circuitry is the PSU (power supply unit) and it in next to the cooling fan. The outlet of the cooling fan is designed to be the same size as the opening of the PSU plastic cover. This is a good thing... however...

The fan has no air inlet hole - pretty basic error.

The fan points the wrong way - it does not blow air through the PSU - another basic error.

The fan is not turned on - error maybe? This has been altered on the latest TCs. So this makes it slightly less useless!

The rest of the TC is really very well made and in concept works well. Get the **** thing modified to keep cool and it will have a VERY long life.

My prototype conversion is now over two years old and still runs cool. I added very little extra stuff, I merely reworked the parts added by Apple.

Cheers,

Chris F.

YORK - UK.

Count me in with yet another TC dying after only 18 months of use. Power supply unit fried (no lights, no nothing). I did the firmware update a week or so ago but I did not experience any problems until this morning.

Looking for someone to repair locally (I'm in Southern Spain so ... not many options). If I can't I will probably just yank the drive out for my data and return to using my old Belkin router again. Such a shame, I really liked this product.

This might help:

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

Thanks for the tip. Looks like I'm going to have a fix and modification done by a repairer in the UK (http://www.fackrell.me.uk). I'll keep this thread posted on the results in the hopes it will help other TC owners in Europe.

Good luck! A "repaired" Time Capsule is far better....power supply wise....than a factory device. So, assuming that the hard drive works.....they very rarely fail.....your Time Capsule will be better than new.

Mine has done the exact same thing. Powered off and completley dead. Called KRCS and they are sending it off to Apple for replacement! Happy days! Looks like mine is one that falls within the serial number range?

Serial numbers of "deceased" units are no longer being recorded at www.timecapsuledead.org, so I'm just adding my name here to confirm that my unit has unexpectedly shut down now as well and will no longer power up. Hope the replacement lasts longer...