No light on my Time Capsule

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Level 1

58 points

No light on my Time Capsule

I recently returned from vacation to notice that my Wifi connection was lost. Upon looking at my Time Capsule, I noticed that there was no light on the front. No green light, no orange light and no blinking light. Simply no light at all. I tried resetting it, and also resetting my modem. I've unplugged the ethernet and the power cord, but nothing seems to get the light back on. I feel hard pressed to believe that the thing just died, but I can't seem to figure anything else out here. I've since gone to my Airport Express to connect to the internet, but I am hoping to troubleshoot this issue here. My Time Capsule not only served as my wireless base station, but as my Time Machine backup disk. Any assistance or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Mac

Macbook Pro 17, Mac OS X (10.6.7), 2.93 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3

Posted on Apr 30, 2012 8:44 PM

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Answer 1

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John Galt

Level 10

140,954 points

Apr 30, 2012 8:48 PM in response to macorin

Off means "no power": http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4600

It is possible its power supply has failed. An Apple Store can make a definitive diagnosis, but without test equipment there is nothing more you can do.

Lots of people extract its internal disk drive and press it into service in another enclosure. Chances are it's still OK even if the power supply is not.

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Answer 2

macorin Author

Level 1

58 points

Apr 30, 2012 8:54 PM in response to John Galt

Thanks,

I was just scouring the other posts on this topic. Seems to be the case. I'll bring it to an Apple Store, but it is out of warranty. Trying to extract the disk to use in another enclosure seems to be a suitable idea. I really wanted it for my wifi base station, but my Airport Express is working just fine for that. I never liked using the Time Capsule as the backup disk in Time Machine. It was much too slow. I'd prefer to use a connected (Firewire 800) disk for Time Machine backups and restores.

Thanks again.

Mac

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Answer 3

John Galt

Level 10

140,954 points

Apr 30, 2012 8:58 PM in response to macorin

You're right about the time it requires to back up over wireless - an external drive is a better idea. Buy an external enclosure for $40 or so and your Time Machine backups can continue as if nothing happened.

Here is one procedure for removing its hard disk:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Removing-and-Rehousing-the-Hard-Drive-from-your- de/

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Answer 4

macorin Author

Level 1

58 points

Apr 30, 2012 9:01 PM in response to John Galt

Thanks so much. I'll look it over when I have more time.

mac

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