Sudden Death of two Airport Express Base Stations in Vienna/Austria?!?!

At hardmac.com is a report about "our" problem.

http://www.hardmac.com/news/2006-01-10/#top
(at this link you'll also find a foto of the opened airport express base station and the fuse...)

FLO

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Airport Express Base Station problems (cont.) - Lionel - 09:19:08

Since our news we published yesterday on dying Airport Express Base Stations (AE), we have received numerous reports from around the world which describe similar problems.
Basically, the AE suddenly stops working and won't turn on anymore.
A quick review of the serial numbers of defective AE showed no clue whatsoever.
Une première étude des numéros de séries ne nous permet pas d'y trouver un quelconque signe de série défectueuse.
If the problem does happen during the standard Applecare period, it seems it is more common on the 13th month...
One of our readers (Dieru), managed to resurrect his AE by opening it and replacing the fuse. Here is a picture of the culprit:

This is a 500mA 250V fuse, located under the adhesive tape (which can be yellow or blue). If you try and replace it, be careful to use a fuse with similar characteristics and when you turn the AE back on, do it from a distance to avoid any electrical shock risk.
Do notice that some other readers replaced the fuse without managing to make the AE work again. And one even managed to get it to work on batteries 🙂
Everything points to faulty power supplies [this becoming a trademark for Apple.]
Will we have to wait for a class action for Apple to start an extended repair program?

[translation by moose]

HEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!

This van't be true.

There are soooooooooooo many of dead Airport express base stations - and nobody does anything.
Isn't it possible to start a complaint against Apple??
I mean, we should try everything to ge new or repaired Airport Express base stations. This is Apples' fault!!!!

I think I'll start to contact some media in Austria - for example some TV stations' high tech magazines and the press. If there are some bad news about Apple, they will show a reaction. I'm sure about it.

FLO

And I'll call again the chief of Apple Austria

Yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!!!

I got a new Airport Base Station!!

I don't know why and how it worked, but suddenly I was called by the Apple Hotline, and they told me, that I'll get a new Airport Base Station...

Thx, it's great.
FLO

Hi!

I calles the Apple Hotline 3 times in a time period of about 1 months.
Everytime they told me the same - that this device can't be repaired or replaced.
They recorded my calls, because when I called the second and third time, they knew that I called one or two times before.
When I called the last time, they told that they can forward my problem to a supervisor or something like that - but they don't think that they would help me.

To the APple chief of Austria I sent a letter by snail mail and I simple reported my problems and told him that this small problem can be a big problem for apple soon, because if something like this starts doing its rounds in the media it can be like an avalanche, and the image damaga for Apple could be big.

I didn't get any answer from Apple Austria, for that reason I wrote an email to them, and almost in the same moment I was called by the Apple Support team +35... (I think Ireland). So I really don't know why I got a new Apple station, perhaps because of my calls to the apple hotline, perhaps because of my letter to Apple Austria....

Alltogether I think that this problem becomes a real problem for APple - just search this forum and you'll find many, many APX owners with the same problem....

flo