No password for refurbed Airport Extreme - broken reset button?

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No password for refurbed Airport Extreme - broken reset button?

Hello!

I just bought a refurbed Airport Extreme (MD031LL/A) from geeks.com. Surprisingly, it came with already set-up - "Karen's Wireless Network". Of course, I don't know the password so I tried a soft reset - pressed and held for one second. Didn't work. Then I tried a hard reset - pressed and held for 9-10 seconds. Also didn't work. I tried both methods a few more times. The light never blinked or flashed. Then I tried to Kismac but couldn't get enough data packets. I'm guessing the reset button is busted. Should I tried to open it up and fix it? Is that hard to do? Or should I just send it back to geeks.com?

Thanks for your help!

-G

Airport Extreme-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.7.5), 13"Late 2010 MBA 1.86 GHz Intel C2D

Posted on Jan 9, 2013 10:16 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Bob Timmons

Community+ 2024

Level 10

159,266 points

Jan 9, 2013 10:23 AM in response to geefin

Send it back unless you have plenty of time and like to experiment with things.

Even if you heat up the rubber mat on the bottom of the device to the point where you can peel it off, it is not easy to get into this thing....and I doubt that the reset button can be repaired anyway if it is broken.

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Answer 2

Tesserax

Level 10

148,435 points

Jan 9, 2013 10:22 AM in response to geefin

Don't waste your time trying to fix the reset button. There is probably a reason that it is broken in the first place. I would recommend that you return it to geeks.com.

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Answer 3

geefin Author

Level 1

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Jan 9, 2013 10:27 AM in response to Tesserax

Thanks for the input. I do like to tinker, but don't have anytime. Sending it back tomorrow. Weird that it came with a network set up already, no?

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Answer 4

Jan 9, 2013 10:32 AM in response to geefin

Weird that it came with a network set up already, no?

In this case, "refurbished" means "used". The outfit took a defective unit that was returned from a customer and simply reboxed it without bothering to check it.

You might want to think twice about buying from this vendor again.

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Answer 5

Tesserax

Level 10

148,435 points

Jan 9, 2013 10:32 AM in response to geefin

Weird that it came with a network set up already, no?

That would tell me that geeks.com either didn't perform a "factory default" reset or couldn't perform one (hmm, maybe because the reset button was broken?) before they shipped it to you. You may also want to try a different source for refurbed AirPorts. For example, Apple provide them as well.

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