My Time Capsule Was Too Young to Die

I've been without an Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) Time Capsule for a several months. One day, without warning, it simply died. When I tried to power it up, turn it on and off, I got nothing -- no pulse, no green light, no last gasp.

So I switched over to my Verizon DSL modem and used its 802.11g signal instead. Reconnected to the Internet, I fired up Safari to find some answers.

I learned that my Time Capsule, which is a combination backup hard drive and wireless router, had a power supply problem in which the internal power supply system gets hot, stays hot, and finally expires from the heat. Seemed like an obvious potential issue to me because the Time Capsule was a mostly sealed slab of industrial Apple design. When I first got it (immediately after it was announced in 2008) I was concerned about the heat, so I placed it on a top shelf with lots of empty space around it for excellent air flow. And it didn't move for two years.

Surprised at Its Demise

In September of 2009, Time Capsules started dying, seemingly spontaneously around 18 to 22 months of life. I somehow missed noticing this, but hey, how large was the Time Capsule market, anyway? The Time Capsule seemed like a great product -- a wicked fast and flexible wireless router, which was easy to set up, and it came with an integrated backup device for incremental backups. But in 2008, it cost $299 for a 500 GB model, $499 for 1 TB. Not exactly cheap.

Pim van Bochoven from the Netherlands had a Time Capsule fail on him in 2009, and when he learned that many others were failing, he created The Apple Time Capsule Memorial Register. The small site was designed to show Apple that there were many failing Time Capsules. Within a few months, 2,500 people registered their dead Time Capsules with the site, and it closed down to new submissions. It provides a bit of background detail (along with a fantastic image of a Time Capsule cemetery) and notes that in November 2009, Apple created a support document for the Time Capsule ... and various consumer reports noted that Apple occasionally replaced failed Time Capsules -- if a customer was on AppleCare, they could usually get it replaced even if the AppleCare was for a Mac and not specifically for the Time Capsule. Some customers apparently bought new Macs and, while on the first year of AppleCare, called Apple to get their Time Capsule replaced. And many, it also seems, were turned away because the units were out of warranty and Apple didn't have to do jack.

But Come On, This Is a Backup Device, Right?

When my Time Capsule died, I had a little more than 2.5 years on it. Since I was not in the middle of AppleCare, that option was out, so I looked into repairing it myself. To do it, I'd have to crack the case and solder the power supply unit with some parts I'd have to hunt to find. One guy almost gave himself a nasty shock two weeks after the unit died when he cracked the case -- apparently, electronics can hold a charge for a long time. I considered this option, as well was soldering in an external power supply unit, but one thing stopped me, in addition to the time and cost: I'm not an electronics expert, and "fixing" a heat-based electrical issue myself on a unit that is constantly on, inside my house, whether I'm there or not, might not be the smartest move. Saving a couple hundred dollars only to burn down your house -- not a risk, however small, that I'm willing to take.

When I realized that this was indeed a design or component failure, and that my only real option was to crack the case and salvage the hard drive for some other use, I was pissed. Seriously, this was a backup device, right? Marketed as a backup device. And Apple seemed to think that a two-year lifespan was perfectly acceptable. Say what? This was not the company that I knew and loved. So I called up a buddy (who is twice the Apple fan I am, with about 10x the brains that I have) and I asked him about the Time Capsule issue. Wouldn't he be angry?

He said, "Ah, these things happen with electronics. They get hot, they fail."

Imagine my expletives. I mean, the Time Capsule is a mostly sealed unit -- of course it's going to get hot. Apple designed it to be small and cool-looking on purpose! Wouldn't the "Designed in Cupertino" team plan for heat? There's a reason I pay so much for Apple products, and it's not for them to overheat through use.

I mean really, $300 for two years? That's $12.50 a month. I might as well pay for an off-site storage solution with a monthly fee (which isn't a bad idea).

But I Eventually Relaxed

Not that I had much choice, but I relaxed and started looking for a replacement wireless router. I didn't really want to shell out $179 for an AirPort Extreme Base Station, nor did I want another Time Capsule. I learned that the feature set of the AirPort Extreme Base Station was actually pretty good, even for the cost. To get a similar wireless router with the handy USB port -- and with good customer reviews -- I was generally looking at something well over $100, too. (Although, it seems that some models have dropped in price recently.)

And then my Verizon DSL Wireless Router died, too. Ah, the irony. This unit continued to power on, it just couldn't maintain any sort of connection to the Internet. A Verizon repair guy came out to the house and checked every connection, plus he rewired my connection with better components, and that's when he said the unit was toast. His comment? "Sometimes they just die."

Now What?

So I bought a new wireless DSL modem and lost a $100 to something I didn't need a few days prior. But I was -- and am -- still down to a single backup hard drive. I like to have two backup options, just in case. I've been planning on tearing out the hard drive, buying a FireWire case, and using the Time Capsule hard drive as another fully bootable backup drive. But now I don't have to.

Apple is going to do the sensible thing, the right thing, and replace my Time Capsule.

I'm definitely pleased.

According to a newly updated Time Capsule support document, if you were an early adopter of the Time Capsule, and yours died from an internal power supply issue -- or intermittently turns itself off or fails to turn on -- check out Apple's TS3351 document. You may now be eligible for a replacement unit or repair.

While I have good backups, if you do not, Apple may also now transfer the content of your old Time Capsule to a new one. Way cool. Check it out. And oh yeah, if my new Time Capsule dies in two years? Hmm. Why get livid over something that hasn't happened yet?