Time Capsule light is not on

Update, the freeze method was more and more unstable for me. I have now invested 2 hours in disassembling and baking my PCB with good result, I also updated to a 4Tb disk, and it works 100% well. A note is that the oven temperature should be 200 Celsius, translated from Fahrenheit, and the plastic flip holding the ports is hard to find as it is of chrome finish.

This is a late answer and it is not very scientific.

I have had this issue for a while and read some DIY tips including baking one of the circuit boards in the oven. I tried something else that works 100% of the times for me. When power is cut to the Time Capsule and it is restarted, I hear the disk spinning but no light at all on the unit. I put the unit in the freezer during night and when plugged in it will boot normally and operate as usual until power is cut again. This has worked for me during one year now but I would recommend to use this opportunity of unit resurrection to save your data somwhere safe and repair or replace your unit.

It is an old thread.. and I went on to use the oven bake method.. I have done several TC now.. all of which work fine.

Gen4 A1409 issues - LaPastenague

So I think using heat is better as it does give a more permanent solution..

Freezing must do something similar but I cannot think what.. but it is interesting info to have.

That fault is typical of a Gen4 .. I do not yet know why but hope to get a dead Gen4 and find out shortly.

Please confirm it has A1409 on the label.. if not please give me the model number.

Anyhow.. it is dead, busted, rosak, stuffed,

With no light on.. nobody is home! !!

If you have applecare, exercise it.. Apple will replace TC up to 3years old but the rules are fairly complex..you have to have bought the TC within 2years of the computer that has applecare.. please ring and ask apple.

Other than that, you can recover your files by pulling out the hard disk.. this is not a hard disk problem.

Unlikely to be power supply either.. so I am unsure.. if you have disk still spining.

i have same problem, & same device (A1409 gen4). But this problem already appeared few times (with frequency 1 time per month), and after stood for de-energized, the capsule starts to work again.

Again if you have any warranty exercise it.. that includes applecare on a device that covers peripherals.. apparently even ATV applecare in some markets can cover a TC.

Once a month problem is going to be hard to demonstrate so ring Apple support and explain the situation. Ask what proof they need to do change over.

For now I can offer no repair strategy. Both of you have somewhat different faults. I doubt I can pinpoint it without the fault happening on my bench. I do now have a faulty one.. and I am waiting for the fault to occur.

I still suspect the issue is the capacitors on the various power supplies.. but all are putting out the correct voltages at the moment.

For the light to go out and the disk to still spin the TC 1.8v power supply will be the one at fault. I can suggest soldering in a large electrolytic as per the instructions for Gen3 TC here.

https://sites.google.com/site/lapastenague/a-deconstruction-of-routers-and-modem s/apple-time-capsule-repair/new-issue-with-a1355-gen-3-tc

If I do locate an issue I will post a page about it for the gen4.

There is no way to wipe the data without breaking the seals and removing the drive. You have to trust Apple... so far there has not been a complaint about data being used from a dead TC.

Wiping data requires the TC power on.. or physically break warranty and remove the drive..

See http://www.ifixit.com/Device/Apple_Time_Capsule

Breaking in can be done.. very neatly.. !! Make of that what you will.

I do have warranty and going to use it. But before that I have to copy my files (only one copy on capsule hdd) from capsule to another hdd.

So today after two days didn't working, capsule start to work correctly. And I decided to move it closer to my Mac, in order to connect them by USB to improve copying speed. But when I plugged capsule in another plug it stops working again.

May be this info helps you to figure out somehow with that problem...

And I will wait another two days to get a chance and copy my docs from capsule.

You did a bad thing.. you cannot plug the TC buy USB to a computer.. it is now and forever more a network device.. but use ethernet and it will be faster than USB ever will.

So far I am inclined to think the power power supply is actually bad. This is expensive to prove because you need to open it and replace the power supply but the dead one that came to me has been ok with the power supply replaced.. no board converter has shown bad yet.. although I have not yet done a major backup.

If you cannot get the data out.. open it and remove the disk very neatly.. who is to say??

thanks for the advice. i got the data and changed capsule warranty.

This malady has just hit us now. Our device is just under one year old. I can see that we had a power loss about 11am Saturday here as both our MacMini Server and our Ubuntu Server show uptime values indicating the power loss at that time. This morning I found the Time Capsule A1409 3TB not functioning. The power light does not come on, but it feels like the drive is spining up. The unit was plugged into a working UPS, which was properly grounded (not that the Time Capsule even has a ground).

I would like to see if Apple Care here in Thailand will warranty service this unit first, but I am willing to open it and service it myself it they will not.

Apple do not supply parts to their repairers for the TC so there is no repair possible..

They may help you to recover your files but I would not bet the house on it.

In fact a buck is too much.

If you open it very very neatly.. follow the instructions particularly heating the rubber bottom mat very hot.. and I mean really hot.. it will peel off without splitting.. peel the label last in one piece.. lift it long ways so it doesn't crease.. then when you finish whatever you can put it back and no body is the wiser.. make of it what you will.

I did get one dead one.. it came to life.. after being fully stripped down including the main board and everything. so that is good but bad .. because I was trying to find the fault.. I could not locate anything but I keep it running waiting for it to go bad again.