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Dying Time Capsules
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Addicted to MacNN
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Are Apple Time Capsules Short Lived? - Time Capsule - Gizmodo
Unfortunately, the referencing site is currently down (I'm guessing it got slashdotted or something).
I always did find it a little ridiculous that Apple used some of the worst hard drives on the market for the 1TB Time Capsule - not to mention that neither model uses multiple drives for any kind of redundancy.
This particular run of problems may be related to the power supply. Still, kind of a problem.
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Sell or send me your vintage Mac things if you don't want them.
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Posting Junkie
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But but but… they’re server-grade!
Really though — it’s a hard drive. Hard drives die after a while. The good news is that you can replace the hard drive if the built-in one goes bad.
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Games Meister
Join Date: Aug 2009
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I thought the root of the problem had something to do with the power supplies, not the hard drives.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Mar 2001
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The reviews in the Apple store raise interesting questions (though the users rather noobie). People seem to love the performance (except one who complained that if multiple people are backing up at once [?from scratch? - he doesn't say.] everyone's throughput suffers. duh.
However, there are lot of 1-star reviews - mostly complaining that "it died" after 18mos. Unfortunately they don't say *what* died: the HD? To me that's a key issue: I'd like to know that if the MoBo/powersupply dies I can lift the HD out and drop it into another TC.
Also: am I missing it or is there no Apple Care for the TC (or: only if bought with an entire system or some such?)?
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TOMBSTONE: "He's trashed his last preferences"
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Professional Poster
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Given the amount of heat that Time Capsules generate I'm not surprised the the drives go awol after such a short time, or that other components suffer. Time machine should really be viewed as only one part of a back up strategy, however on the plus side at least people who never considered backup have something in place now.
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This space for Hire! Reasonable rates. Reach an audience of literally dozens!
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Nov 1999
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Nov 2000
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I thought this bad capacitor problem should have blown over by now. Are there still bad capacitors out their being used today or did the TC somehow end up using bad capacitor leftovers?
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Nov 2000
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Ah, here we go. Just found the WP article.
Apparently bad capacitors were still being used in manufacturing as late as 2007.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Apr 2003
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My 500GB TC just died, power supply, just out of warranty.
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Moderator
Join Date: Jan 2001
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Originally Posted by Andy8
My 500GB TC just died, power supply, just out of warranty.
sometimes apple will replace things even out of warranty if convinced that the problem was a defective product line or manufacturing problem. The stained MacBook palm rests come to mind as one example.
I would print out some of those articles and call apple support or visit a genius bar with specific references to what's been discovered. Ask for a swap.
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Nov 2000
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I'll second that. If your TC is just out of warranty talk to Apple. If you're just a bit lucky they'll treat it as if it were still under warranty. I had them once swap a MLB on a 14 month old iBook (w/o AC) for free that way. Be friendly and honest. Try to explain. Point out it's just out of warranty. Good luck.
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Mar 2001
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I don't know why Apple doesn't make a slightly larger time capsule mirrored to a second drive, as Shif says... I know that the odds of your computer's HD and the TC drive dying at roughly the same time are sort of remote, but surely there are some people that would gladly tradeoff a little extra size and price for a little extra security?
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Apr 2005
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They should increase the size, just to add a large fan that running slowly, whenever the TC is in use.
Heat will kill hard drives
Heat will kill capacitors
Bad capacitors in the PSU can kill the HDD
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Nov 2000
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I'd like to see Apple increase the size of the TC, AP Extreme, and Mac mini so that they finally don't need the darn power supply brick anymore. I know that's additional heat within the enclosure, but the power brick makes cabling such a mess. And it kind of defeats the purpose of having a compact computer/device in the first place.
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Posting Junkie
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On the other hand, if a computer won't start up due to a blown power supply, it's dead simple to get up and running again if the power supply's external.
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Addicted to MacNN
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Originally Posted by seanc
They should increase the size, just to add a large fan that running slowly, whenever the TC is in use.
Heat will kill hard drives
Heat will kill capacitors
Bad capacitors in the PSU can kill the HDD
hmmm… so tempting to buy
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Nov 2000
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Originally Posted by CharlesS
On the other hand, if a computer won't start up due to a blown power supply, it's dead simple to get up and running again if the power supply's external.
Absolutely. And as I mentioned there's already a heat issue that doesn't need to be made any worse. I just don't like the brick for esthetic/design reasons. But there are no doubt good reasons to have it.
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Moderator Emeritus
Join Date: Apr 2005
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Originally Posted by angelmb
It doesn't have to be that large!
Plus, I believe the brand of the product you linked to is called Lacie...
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Clinically Insane
Join Date: Mar 2001
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I've always been a little apprehensive about those turnkey RAID appliances/NAS devices such as the LaCie posted above. It is often unknown which SATA/RAID controller they are using, how reliable it is, and what it does to notify the user when/if a drive fails. It is also often unknown how difficult it is to replace drives without trying to get hold of a manual or something, especially since this model's 5 bays are not hot swappable like others I have seen.
The problem is, if you really want to backup 2 TB of stuff, unless you happen to have another 2 TB lying around you can use as another backup, the security of my data is a mystery to me. There are never any guarantees, but then again I'd never purchase a product if I knew that its SATA controller was garbage.
In the case of RAID 5, you also have to be cognizant of power failures. Most RAID 5 cards have batteries for making the last of the writes, but without a UPS this battery will only last for so long.
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Join Date: Apr 2005
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I'm happy with the Buffalo Terastation Live and Pro NAS devices.
The one we're using in our office is running on 4 250Gb Samsung Spinpoint drives with a RAID 5. It's a bit smaller than the Lacie and has a medium sized fan in the back running at 1000rpm.
One of these drives failed a couple of months ago. The NAS gave an alarm to alert us of the failure, emailed us repeatedly and stopped the shares on the device. The emails and LCD on the front of the unit told us drive 3 had failed.
We shut the unit down, opened the front door and slid drive out. Took the old drive out of the carrier and popped in a Western Digital 250Gb. Booted it up (it complained about drive 3 again), rebuilt the array and it's been fine. It did say the shares may not be available while it was rebuilding the array, but we were able to access them and continue working.
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Clinically Insane
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Originally Posted by seanc
I'm happy with the Buffalo Terastation Live and Pro NAS devices.
The one we're using in our office is running on 4 250Gb Samsung Spinpoint drives with a RAID 5. It's a bit smaller than the Lacie and has a medium sized fan in the back running at 1000rpm.
One of these drives failed a couple of months ago. The NAS gave an alarm to alert us of the failure, emailed us repeatedly and stopped the shares on the device. The emails and LCD on the front of the unit told us drive 3 had failed.
We shut the unit down, opened the front door and slid drive out. Took the old drive out of the carrier and popped in a Western Digital 250Gb. Booted it up (it complained about drive 3 again), rebuilt the array and it's been fine. It did say the shares may not be available while it was rebuilding the array, but we were able to access them and continue working.
Beauty!
I wonder what percentage of turnkey NAS products behave identically consistently? I don't mean to infer that most don't, I honestly don't know. Accepting some degree of magic is I guess a price you pay for a turnkey product.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Apr 2003
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Originally Posted by Cold Warrior
sometimes apple will replace things even out of warranty if convinced that the problem was a defective product line or manufacturing problem. The stained MacBook palm rests come to mind as one example.
I would print out some of those articles and call apple support or visit a genius bar with specific references to what's been discovered. Ask for a swap.
No luck so far, 35 minutes on the phone with Apple HK, 25 minutes on phone with Apple Australia, and now this morning in person with the authorised service centre in HK, all refused to repair or replace my 18 months old dead TC.
Registered my dead TC here for now
1406 registered here so far!
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Professional Poster
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My 1TB TC just died. Appears to be the power supply.
My problem is figuring out how to get the damn thing open without breaking something.
Anybody got a clue?
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Posting Junkie
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Junior Member
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Does anyone have any information if the time capsule debacle of them dying with faulty power supplies has been remedied? Looking for a NAS device, and like the form factor of the TC, but don't want a turd after 18 mos.
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Posting Junkie
Join Date: Jun 2002
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I honestly don't trust any hard drives that have anything less than a 3 year warranty.
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Grizzled Veteran
Join Date: Apr 2001
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Not certain on the Time Capsule situation, though the two that I have bought for family members are still running at this point. One is now a year old, and the other is a bit past the 18 month mark.
NAS wise, if you want Time Capsule like Time Machine support, but also the ability to also have more then one drive, I'd recommend looking into the NASes offered under the Netgear ReadyNAS brand. I bought an NV+ right when NetGear acquired the company (Infrant), and 3 years later the unit is still solid and seeing updates. It works with Macs really well with AFP support and Time Machine compatibility. Mine still has 2 years left in the warranty, and has just sat in my walk in closet performing it's duties. It also shares out music over the iTunes network sharing service, along with DLNA for PS3/360/TVs that support it. They don't offer router functionality, so thats one downside compared to the Time Capsule.
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<This space under renovation>
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Mar 2006
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Originally Posted by Love Calm Quiet
The reviews in the Apple store raise interesting questions (though the users rather noobie). People seem to love the performance (except one who complained that if multiple people are backing up at once [?from scratch? - he doesn't say.] everyone's throughput suffers. duh.
However, there are lot of 1-star reviews - mostly complaining that "it died" after 18mos. Unfortunately they don't say *what* died: the HD? To me that's a key issue: I'd like to know that if the MoBo/powersupply dies I can lift the HD out and drop it into another TC.
Also: am I missing it or is there no Apple Care for the TC (or: only if bought with an entire system or some such?)?
Whenever I read short or vague reviews of a product, I'm skeptical. If someone says "It crashed.", or "It broke.", this can easily mean "I broke it.", or "I don't know how it works.". The same goes for positive reviews, of course. If someone says "Awesome! Love it!", frequently they don't know why they should like or dislike a product compared to it's competitors.
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Well, mine has a serial number in the right range, but it’s lasted at least 2 years now. I kind of wish they’d let people do preemptive exchanges, since I’d rather not have to worry about it dying. I guess the fact that they’re not handling it that way implies that it’s a minority of those Time Capsules that will kick the bucket.
Also, the support page about the recall mentions that there are options for backing up data, so it seems like the problem isn’t with the hard drive.
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Senior User
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R.I.P Steve Jobs
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Mac Elite
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^That’s what the post above my last one was referring to. What I was getting at is that they’re only replacing ones that have already kicked the bucket.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Apr 2003
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Originally Posted by slugslugslug
^That’s what the post above my last one was referring to. What I was getting at is that they’re only replacing ones that have already kicked the bucket.
Well let us hope that Apple replaces mine, it died late last year.
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Mac Elite
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Originally Posted by Andy8
Well let us hope that Apple replaces mine, it died late last year.
Let us hope that you’ve gone to the support page linked to above and checked your serial number. If it’s in the appropriate range, Apple will probably replace yours.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Apr 2003
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Originally Posted by slugslugslug
Let us hope that you’ve gone to the support page linked to above and checked your serial number. If it’s in the appropriate range, Apple will probably replace yours.
Yes my serial number was within the ranges quoted on the Apple support page.
I took my dead TC down to our Apple Authorized Service Provider and they gave me a replacement right away!
My concern now is that they replaced my dead TC with an exact same model, which may fail again without warning anytime soon! (my replacement TC has a serial number in the same range!)
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Administrator
Join Date: Apr 2001
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I don't know how I missed this thread all the way back in October, but I did. TC threads go in Networking, so I'm moving this thread there...
Andy, can you contact that ASP and ask them about the "same serial number range" issue? I'd be interested to see what they had to say about it.
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Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
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Mac Elite
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If the problem is with the power supply only, it seems likely they’re just replacing those on other returned models without replacing the serial number printed on the case or embedded how/wherever it is in the rest of the circuitry.
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