Filed under: Hardware, Wireless, Airport, Bad Apple
Are Apple Time Capsules out of time after a year and a half?
There are quite a few unhappy Time Capsule owners over at the Apple support boards. It appears that some Time Capsules are going belly-up at roughly the 18 month mark, simply refusing to power on. As Brian from Texas wrote:
"My TC did the exact same thing two days ago. It is 18 months old. After doing some research, I have found others with the same problem. At 17-18 months, the power supply goes out. I went to the Apple store today and they said too bad, out of warranty."
There are 6 pages of TC owners with similar issues, most of them happening after about a year and a half, so it looks like something is going on with the units.
This seems eerily similar to the 'dead airport express' syndrome of a couple of years ago where the products would simply fail to work and all the data and power lights went off. Sometimes there was an audible popping sound. Other times, the APX just died.
If you are having this issue it might be a good idea to report it to Apple and see if the weight of complaints gets them to look into this. Let us know too.
Thanks to Mike for the tip.
Update: As it's being discussed in the comments here, Lauren went ahead and investigated whether AppleCare for your Mac will cover an out-of-warranty Time Capsule. The answer may surprise (and please) you.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Michael said 4:16PM on 9-11-2009
oh goody, more applefail to look forward too....
Reply
Bingo said 6:19PM on 9-11-2009
All you kiddies need to learn a little about something called PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE. How else can the economies of western civilization spin 'round 'n 'round?
Basic manufacturing biz. Vendors in their contracts often have stipulated terms of mean time between failure. Shit needs to break, go out of style, become old technology, etc etc.
robogobo said 7:04PM on 9-11-2009
you must be new to Apple. We're used to their stuff lasting a looooong time, and that really shouldn't change.
Dan Woods said 7:27PM on 9-11-2009
If you have AppleCare for your Mac, Apple Peripherals are also covered.
I can't remember about Displays, but Mighty Mouses, Apple Keyboards and AirPorts are all covered by AppleCare.
I can't see why TimeMachines wouldn't be covered too.
KB said 9:53PM on 9-11-2009
Obsolescence is one thing (i.e. an iBook G4 is obsolete since it's old and not as good as a Macbook... but it still works 5 years later). This is flat out FAILING. But as robogobo says - most Apple stuff lasts for a long time (not iPods though...).
Dan - if you have AppleCare Protection Plan on a notebook or desktop then the Time Capsule is covered. However, you don't get the old hard drive's contents transferred to the new unit and there is no guarantee that your data is safe.
Wheels said 4:16PM on 9-11-2009
You mean, the power supplies of Time Machines are internal and not external like Mac Minis, portables, etc?
Reply
Greenie said 5:25PM on 9-11-2009
That's right, just a cable between the TC and the wall.
Wheels said 5:32PM on 9-11-2009
Wow, that seems kind of silly. I can see why things overheat then.
NoAndThen said 9:43AM on 9-12-2009
I can't believe Apple is screwing people on this... we need to make it a big deal!
In the mean time, plenty of folks have fixed it with an external PS:
http://sites.google.com/site/lapastenague/a-deconstruction-of-routers-and-modems/TCRepair.pdf?attredirects=0
http://sites.google.com/site/lapastenague/a-deconstruction-of-routers-and-modems/apple-time-capsule-repair
hope this helps someone.
Ket said 2:51PM on 9-13-2009
this article is very timely. I purchased a 1TB time capsule in March 2008. Mine just died this week (Sep 2009) with the symptom of no power to the unit (light not on).
I talked with Applecare and it's covered under a recent mac purchase's Applecare so that was a nice surprise. however, there aren't any provisions for getting the data off that drive and would simply be a straight swap for a replacement unit.
instead of taking the replacement, i opted to crack the TC open and removed the drive for use with a usb/sata enclosure. that way i didn't lose any data.
while i had the TC open, i removed the power supply unit to have a look. Two of the smaller capacitors had leaked so at least i know what killed it (warning, all of the caps still hold a charge so don't touch finger to cap/board/etc!!!)
i know apple is all for sleekness, but in this case i'd really prefer an external power brick like the laptops have, which is much cheaper/easier to replace in the event of a failure.
samuel said 4:17PM on 9-11-2009
Oh no, I hope not. If its just a power issue that should be sorted right. Could it be a heat issue? I've always been wary of the heat that thing produces!
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Dave said 4:17PM on 9-11-2009
Just a quick comment, if this is happening in the UK, you're protected by the sale of goods act upto 6 years for a repair/replacement, and anywhere else in the EU a 2 year warranty applies to all electronic goods.
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WinterTiger said 4:22PM on 9-11-2009
Another reason for me to move to Europe after college... Why do you guys get all the good consumer protection laws? Ah, don't answer that, America is too business-centric is all.
Dave said 4:28PM on 9-11-2009
the thing is a lot of shops will tell you where to go, because shop staff barely know the law themselves, so the majority of the time you have to complain to head offices. That 2 year EU law doesn't apply in the UK though
Melvin said 5:16PM on 9-11-2009
You are wrong!
In Germany you have 2 years "gewährleistung" by law.
I have 1 year warranty by apple! They'll have to repair broken stuff.
The following year I have to proof that the defect was there when I bought the product.
Dave said 6:01PM on 9-11-2009
Like i said the UK has a different law, i'm not familiar with the EU law as it doesn't apply here, and as far as i know it is actually a warranty for 2 years (provided by apple or not) There is several cases on the internet, and obviously the directive itself , BUT if there are several documented cases then usually you can prove that the fault was there when you bought it.
The UK law is similar, but more enforceable with the threat of small claims court after being unsuccessful with a series of letters.
So no i'm not wrong, misinformed maybe, but that EU directive is there for you to gain at least a repair for upto 2 years
Richard said 6:42PM on 9-11-2009
...and yet the United States, with our 'business-centric' ways has produced Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Yahoo, Google... just to name a few.
So, has the Euro-Zone produced anything like this? Yeh, did not think so.
rossheth said 10:08PM on 9-11-2009
BP? Shell? Rolls-Royce?
John.B said 10:51PM on 9-11-2009
@wintertiger: I get your point about EU consumer protections, but the business-centric US environment did manage to spawn a somewhat successful computer/media company out of Cupertino.
Hopefully any uproar will encourage that company to implement a fix for this.
NoAndThen said 9:26AM on 9-12-2009
@Richard: You, sir, are an idiot. The fact that the US is too business-centric and not focused enough on consumer protection is why we have bred such monstrosity corporations.
You really have no idea what you're talking about, do you?