Gen4 A1409 bricked

Is there a web link (I could not find one) which will let me open the TC, extract the drive and put it in an external enclosure to extract the data.

The basic opening instructions are on the ifixit website.

Apple Time Capsule Repair - iFixit

Once you get the hard disk out it is a simple matter to find a USB to SATA cradle.. although not all work.. so be warned you might need to have a try with more than one..

Check out OWC for USB drive cradles/enclosure or dock.. they are very good with Mac stuff.. and will understand if you ring and ask them.

Search Results for USB enclosure at MacSales.com

I have pulled out drives and use a gadget like this..

The self powered drive will work with the cable on the left.. ie your standard 2.5" drive.. but for 3.5" drive they need 12v DC.. and that is where the USB drive cable on the right has a dc socket for 12v.. easy peasy.. plug it in and power the 3.5" drive.. on a Mac of course to read the format.. PC is useless..

Cables and even docks are extremely cheap from China via ebay.

My problem is no lights of any kind even though the hard drive is running. So if this means the board is bad, can the board be replaced. Is it possible to get one. It has been in service since 2012 and just quit yesterday. If not repairable I could put the HD in a usb case.

If you are saying that you have a 4th Gen Time Capsule, the board can likely be "re-baked", but it's probably not worth the time and effort since the hard drive is due to fail any time now.

If it were me, I would pull the hard drive and place it in a SATA to USB caddy and then make a copy of all of the data on the drive over to another drive. Then, use the old Time Capsule drive as a spare for non-critical work.

If you decide to try to bake the board, La Pastenague has the details for you.

Gen4 A1409 issues - LaPastenague

Baking the board has been very successful..

I have kept a few alive doing this and it is long term successful.. but 2012 is now 5years.. and time is ripe for a new router anyway as well as backup device.

To OP seriously other than fun.. it is time to spend some $$$ if you want backups that actually work.. a very useful thing if you actually depend on them.. or need to one day.

Baking the board has been very successful..

Very true. I followed your instructions and did it myself about 4 years ago and the TC was solid as a rock until the hard drive screeched to a halt a few years ago. I used the TC as a spare AirPort Extreme for another few years.

https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Apple_Time_Capsule

Hard disk removal is easy peasy..

Just follow the guide.. but be very careful so you can put it back together without it being obvious.. eg tearing the rubber base mat is the worst sin.

Make sure you heat it up with a hair dryer or heat gun.(gentle with that).. heat it up slowly for 5 min.. until you can barely touch it.. then slowly pull it off.. particularly over the label pull it over parallel to the label lengthwise so it doesn't crease.

Then remove the temp sensor and just unplug and lift out the drive..

Once you complete your file extraction and then deletion.. plug it back into the TC and seal it up.. buy the Applecare for apple TV and get them to replace it.

I do not know if trying to switch to another TC when the FW upgrade on the failed one had started was my cardinal sin.

Do you mean you actually powered it off.. or you just flipped over in the utility to another unit. They are hard to brick.. I have never managed it.. and I have done a lot of naughty stuff.. Even if you did what was unwise.. ie moving anything is unwise.. I tell people sit still and meditate on your navel for 5min.. apple uploads the firmware to RAM in the airport.. it is encrypted so it is first unencrypted and expanded.. it is CRC checked (MD5 more likely) and then copied from RAM to FLASH. Once the firmware is uploaded.. other than you powered it off it should proceed just fine. If you broke the connection before the firmware was uploaded.. it will simply fail the upgrade.. the only time it is vulnerable is writing the new firmware to flash. And even then lights should come on.. you are not replacing the bootloader.. only the OS part of the firmware.

If it did fail the bootloader might still be able to accept firmware.Problem is nobody has ever posted how.. and I have never seen anything inside the firmware to suggest a how.

What are the symptoms.. because it might actually have not bricked.. it might be the straw that broke the camel's back. They were living on borrowed time..

When you get in there.. Give all the bits of the board a good push around.. push all the plugs around.. even reseat them..

Then apply power.. note if the hard drive spins up but no lights come on the board is dead.. and it appears to be soldering issues.. as it can come good again. If nothing happens. Then it can be shorted on the board like the gen3.. although that is rare.. or power supply failure.. again rare.

Loner T wrote:

I tried to navigate away from the specific TC in AU UI when the blue bar was at Downloading firmware. Since it did not let me navigate away, my assumption is that it did not result in the bricking.

That will not brick it. The process is very automated.. so I doubt this had anything much to do with the failure. But it can stress components.. writing flash makes extra demands on the power supply.. and so things can and do go wrong.. Gen4 are known to come back to life.. I have had it happen myself.. it seems totally dead.. I opened it.. measured all the voltages from internal supplies and all were good.. put it back together and the darn thing ran perfectly for another 6months.. I deliberately kept it in full operation then waiting for the day it fell over.. after the second failure I couldn't bring it back to life.. Tried lots of stuff.. people have had success with oven roasting the board to reflow the solder.. but I am not sure of long term success..

I suggest to people check out ebay for a gen3.. it is actually an identical board to the Gen4 just different wireless card.. (sadly you cannot swap the card.. and make a gen3 a gen4.. I tried) swap the gen4 hard disk and power supply into the Gen3.. and keep using it.

I would skip the current model TC.. wait for next model out.

I am doing TM backups now to a Synology NAS.. been working great.

OK.. Drive not spinning is a bit unusual.. you did power it.. there is no way a USB to SATA can power a 3.5" drive.. it must have a separate power supply.

Very unusual for them to go bad..

Check it out with the drive outside the TC.. just the drive.. you might have to measure voltage because without the SATA plugged in, it probably won't spin up.. but you can see if the power supply is dead.

No luck then you need to get creative..

https://sites.google.com/site/lapastenague/time-capsule-power-supply-repair-kits

The power supply from the earlier version.. gen1 and 2 will probably work for a while but I think they break down.

You cannot repair the Delta if it is broke.. well it is really broke..

We invented several ways to repair them.. if it is just the supply.