time capsule stopped working

[macGirl18]

I am actually posting this for a friend who moved out of the country so I tried to gather as much information as possible.

He uses a macbook and also has time capsule which he uses with time machine. Everything had been working before he moved away. Now that he moved, he tried connecting everything again and the macbook doesn't recognize the time capsule. His shared networks shows other time capsules and computers from others in his apartment but not his. The time capsule itself is flashing with an amber light.

From what I've read, the only solution I find is to reset the TC but he already has everything on the TC and doesn't want to lose it. Plus, I don't know if that will even solve the problem.

What exactly does the amber light mean? Is there a way to fix this problem without having to erase everything on the TC?

Please help!!!!! Thanks, <3 Girl

 

[liketom]

is the time capsule plugged into the internet ?

 

[bokdol]

try connecting to it by ethernet and turn off the airport on the macbook. after that use the airport admin utility. see if that helps out.

 

[macGirl18]

updated info

Ok, so here is some more info I gathered which will hopefully enable one of you geniuses to help out.

Before the move, he was connected wirelessly with DSL. After his move, he is connected via ethernet.

The computer doesn't recognize the TC even when TC is connected to the internet. Computer does recognize other devises.

Please help and thanks so much for any and all advice!!!!!

 

[macGirl18]

Please Help

Please please please help!



If I am correct, TC has a built in airport, right? So this would mean, if TC was connected via ethernet that the macbook could be connected wirelessly. If this is the case, why can't the macbook detect the TC? Is there a something that has to be done, like a setting, to make this work?

 

[akchang]

The information you gathered is actually kind of confusing.

First off, resetting the Time Capsule shouldn't erase any settings. You can do a hard reset (hold the reset button down for 5 seconds until the amber light flashes) without losing data. Resetting to the default factory settings should allow you to connect using the default passwords.

So before the move your friend was connected wirelessly to DSL but now is on ethernet? I assume you meant that your friend has another wireless router that he uses to connect to the internet.

Try connecting the computer to the TC using an ethernet cable. I presume that the Airport Utility is not detecting his TC?

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

does he have another computer to test, see if any other devices can connect to the TC. Isolate the problem, so if other computers can't connect to the TC, then its the TC, just do a reset, which doesn't erase the hard drive, just the network portion of settings. try that.