So I get up this morning to find my internet is down, after a little investigation it looks like my time capsule has failed, yellow light on the front, won't show up in airport utility, and the wired connection remains inactive when plugged directly into my iMac.
I've tried power cycling and hard resets but it seems like it's freezing part way through its boot up process, when you listen very carefully you can hear a faint clicking which *sounds* like a drive failure to me, but does anyone know if a failed drive will prevent a time capsule from booting?
Its 3 years old so well out of the original warranty... there's a SLIM chance I think apple might cover it as an accessory to my iMac which has about a year and half left on Applecare, but I'm not sure...
If not I'm willing to experiment to try to get it working again... Any idea if swapping or just plain removing the drive might allow it to boot and function for networking purposes?
Well back from the apple store, the friendly tech was able to confirm it was a hardware issue, and agreed with me that the clicking was likely a hard drive failure, which was freezing the boot up process during the hardware tests.
Unfortunately after checking the specifics of covering the time capsule on the iMac's warranty it's only covered if purchased at the same time (he said he had some leeway but that 1.5 years before the iMac purchase was just too much as even if I had a mac purchased at the same time as the time capsule the 3 year extended applecare would be expired by now (I bought the time machine a little over 3 years ago). He was very friendly and apologetic, but the best he could do would be an out of warranty replacement for $279 which would be almost as much as a new 2TB one (mine is only 1TB) and apparently the new ones have a LOT more signal strength from what I've read online so I was very tempted but decided to do a little experimenting on it first at home alone after confirming with the tech that it was likely the hard drive, and as it was already out of warranty I was free to play around with it as I pleased.
So home I go, crack it open and pop out the drive, confirming my suspicion, with no drive the device boots fine. (though it does give a status message error that the non-existent drive needs to be repaired).
Next step is going to be trying popping in a newer larger drive and see if it works. From what I've read online it should... the bigger surprise for me was that it will work with no drive at all (though not with a failed drive).
Well back from the apple store, the friendly tech was able to confirm it was a hardware issue, and agreed with me that the clicking was likely a hard drive failure, which was freezing the boot up process during the hardware tests.
Unfortunately after checking the specifics of covering the time capsule on the iMac's warranty it's only covered if purchased at the same time (he said he had some leeway but that 1.5 years before the iMac purchase was just too much as even if I had a mac purchased at the same time as the time capsule the 3 year extended applecare would be expired by now (I bought the time machine a little over 3 years ago). He was very friendly and apologetic, but the best he could do would be an out of warranty replacement for $279 which would be almost as much as a new 2TB one (mine is only 1TB) and apparently the new ones have a LOT more signal strength from what I've read online so I was very tempted but decided to do a little experimenting on it first at home alone after confirming with the tech that it was likely the hard drive, and as it was already out of warranty I was free to play around with it as I pleased.
So home I go, crack it open and pop out the drive, confirming my suspicion, with no drive the device boots fine. (though it does give a status message error that the non-existent drive needs to be repaired).
Next step is going to be trying popping in a newer larger drive and see if it works. From what I've read online it should... the bigger surprise for me was that it will work with no drive at all (though not with a failed drive).
That's bullshit. Geniuses should know the AppleCare terms and conditions, but they don't. Before you rip it apart, try calling AppleCare and requesting a replacement under warranty. It should be honored, assuming you really did purchase it 1.5 years before the purchase of the iMac under APP.
Time Capsules are covered if they were purchased up to two years prior to the purchase of the computer protected by AppleCare.
"Under APP for Mac, (a) one compatible Apple branded display if purchased at the same time as the Covered Equipment, (b) an Apple-branded mouse, Magic Trackpad, Apple Battery Charger and keyboard if included with the Covered Equipment (or purchased with a Mac mini), or (c) an AirPort Extreme Card, an AirPort Express or AirPort Extreme Base Station, Time Capsule, an Apple-branded DVI to ADC display adapter, Apple RAM modules and MacBook Air SuperDrive if used with the Covered Equipment and originally purchased by you no earlier than two years before the Covered Equipment purchase."
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Thanks for pointing that out for me, I'll be back on the phone with Apple tomorrow, though I'm afraid it might be a bit late now, as I've already opened it up (and there's no hiding that fact as the rubber foot didn't come off in one piece) based on the Apple store telling me that it would not be covered under warranty.
Thanks for pointing that out for me, I'll be back on the phone with Apple tomorrow, though I'm afraid it might be a bit late now, as I've already opened it up (and there's no hiding that fact as the rubber foot didn't come off in one piece) based on the Apple store telling me that it would not be covered under warranty.
You opened it up after being told inaccurate info. You should be able to get it replaced if you tell them the whole story.
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After pointing out that section to them they agreed to swap it out for a brand new 2TB model, yea for free upgrade! Thanks again for pointing out that section of the applecare agreement to me, it was news to me, and apparently to the geniuses at the Rideau Apple store...
After pointing out that section to them they agreed to swap it out for a brand new 2TB model, yea for free upgrade! Thanks again for pointing out that section of the applecare agreement to me, it was news to me, and apparently to the geniuses at the Rideau Apple store...
Glad it had a happy ending.
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From what I've read online it should... the bigger surprise for me was that it will work with no drive at all (though not with a failed drive).
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