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Apple Offers Repair Program for 2008 Time Capsule Power Issues

Bah

This MIGHT have been useful if it was announced before my first two Time Capsules died 2-3 months after their Applecare ran out (and I decided to "rip" the glued bottom off to salvage the drives, silly me).

I now use an Airport Extreme and an external USB drive. Thanks for nothing, Apple.
 
Here's wishing they end up replacing my 500MB single band with a 1TB dual band.

I doubt it though. They likely have a warehouse full of old 500mb versions.
 
They have been doing this since around February, the power brick just dies due to overheating.

I had my replaced about 3 months ago. Great and fast service, even though I'm not in the U.S.
 
i run all my hi-fi and computer equipment via UPS units, just to ensure stable power input and not necessarily for backup power, we operate on 240 volts AC here in south africa, have lost too many expensive equipment due to extreme voltage fluctuations.......... how stable is the general 110vac in the states?
 
Nice they finally went public with it. Back in May (when mine died) they offered me a free replacement, but wanted to charge me $99 for a "data transfer" fee to a HDD that I would provide.

Note: If you need to retain the data that is on your affected Time Capsule, Apple provides options depending upon where you live.
Click to expand...

My problem remains a privacy one, it's not that I want to retain the data on the drive. I just don't want anyone else to have it.

B
 
Hasn't died yet

I purchased my TC back in March of '08. After having problems setting it up originally, it finally started working fully a couple months later. Since then it's had a few problems with the overheating warning, even though it's in a properly ventilated area.

It had been flashing that ugly amber light over and over until I finally told it to ignore the problem. Now it has a green light and works great even though the fan is constantly whirring. It's quite annoying, although I've gotten pretty used to it.

So I guess I'm just waiting till the thing dies. And if it is going to die, I would like for it to do so before my three years are up!
 
have just booked an appointment with a genius for this saturday, so hopefully will have a new one !
 
Repair your own TC

Hello all!

I have been offering Time Capsule repairs for quite a while now. I think i have repaired around 30 of them.

If you have a soldering iron around, you can fix the PSU yourself. You need some patience and some shiny new capacitors.

It is usually the case that 2 capacitors need to be replaced. However, i have seen a couple where a third, different capacitor goes.
 
franswa za said:
i run all my hi-fi and computer equipment via UPS units, just to ensure stable power input and not necessarily for backup power, we operate on 240 volts AC here in south africa, have lost too many expensive equipment due to extreme voltage fluctuations.......... how stable is the general 110vac in the states?
Click to expand...

That's not the problem, the problem is that the power brick simply dies in the end due to overheating. The Time Capsule is a closed plastic enclosure, with no ventilation and with a very hot hard drive inside. It can't last that long.
 
Hardware Update

It's been a year since they updated the hardware/capacity. Isn't the hardware update cycle for Apple products usually one year? I really need one but will wait for the updated/more capacity TC.
 
garfield81 said:
It's been a year since they updated the hardware/capacity. Isn't the hardware update cycle for Apple products usually one year? I really need one but will wait for the updated/more capacity TC.
Click to expand...

What is there to update?

It's dual-band and has a 2TB drive. Larger drives don't really exist yet.
 
Good to know.. I was considering to get one a while back, but the failure rate was so high.. it would die in just around 6 months..
 
Yay I can actually use the harddrive on mine now instead of just using it as a very expensive router.
 
Aw thanks Apple!

After I threw mine in the electronics recycling at work. (The p/s caps were bulged. Fail. Now are folks happy they are using internal p/s in mini's? ;)

But I've been running my household on my Airport Express and have had no problems with it at all, so ...perhaps it's good riddance?

Hopefully someone nabbed it and takes it to Apple for a replacement.
 
can I get it replaced even though it hasn't died yet?:confused: And do I really need a Time Capsule to be able to use the Time Machine feature? If not, what do I need in order to be able to use the Time Machine feature besides the Time Capsule?
 
A little late there MR. ;)


From the other thread posted earlier:
I hope that the people who went to Apple and were told to pound sand when their TCs died prematurely are compensated with a new TC even if it died a while ago. I know some who had the TC, it died 18 (ish) months later and Apple told them to kick rocks. It's cute that it took Apple so long to figure this one out. :cool:
 
Problem comes to Airport Extreme

Is there any chance that this problem will show up on the Airport Extreme?
 
n0otro said:
DAMNIT! mine died last november, and since I needed it fixed ASAP, I took it apart and wired the appropriate A/C adapter. This works great, but i'd much rather have it fixed officially so I don't have this A/C adapter hanging off the back of it.
Click to expand...

Can you provide please short instruction how to wire A/C adapter to it? Because I took apart mine too, so I haven't a warranty now.
 
alternative repair plan

I got mine fixed just a couple of weeks ago at eutechnics:

http://www.fackrell.me.uk/

a beautifully done job too and it now runs really cool. Nice to know Apple has now formally acknowledged this problem which seems to be a small issue in an otherwise beautifully engineered product. I wonder if Apple's fix will be as good as mine is ...
 
Mine died and was swapped out a couple of months ago. I had to show the Geniuses proof that I had Apple Care, and once they saw that, they backed up my info and handed me a new Time Capsule. It took a few trips to the Apple Store, but I was happy that they could save my files.
 
Man, I'm nervous now! My TC is within the serial number range listed. I've had it for over 2 years now. Been working like a champ 24/7 (I keep my Mac on). I should back it up just in case.
 
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