Replace the dead Electrolytic Capacitors. Initial warning.. repeated constantly, with apologies to those who can read. There are dangerous voltages on the main supply capacitors even after several weeks of being disconnected from power. If you do this repair.. don't start without reading the whole page.. I just got criticised by someone who zapped themselves... because the warning wasn't at the top of the page. I did assume people would read the whole page before starting.. So please do not do this repair without carefully reading the whole page.. All warnings in RED are for your protection.. I am not kidding.. this thing can belt you..!! Dead Time Capsule power supply is unable to start due to suffering from bad capacitors then simply replace the bad caps. I haven't updated this page for a while, and rather than do so, let me direct you to Chris Fackrell's website where he gives lots of very detailed pictures. http://www.fackrell.me.uk/ I have just done a repair like this... obviously that is where the pics are from.. And it worked fine.. but I like the external supply solution from a heat point of view... the power supply is just packed in there too tight to get much cooling even when the fan is running as per the fan modification I did. Certainly dropping the overall temperature brings the supply temperature down as well. So please take note, without cooling improvement from a fan mod get ready to do this repair regularly.  Pull out the power supply and unwrap it, starting with the foil stuck to the top as per the picture. There are a number of layers so only undo what you need to get access. (Photos are high definition, click them once for larger size and again for full details).  IMPORTANT:: YOU MUST DO THIS BEFORE THE REPAIR. Discharge the main supply caps. (Not the secondary 5v supply, they will already be discharged and cannot hurt you anyway) I used a 560ohm 5W ceramic resistor. It is big and insulated and easy to grab (the insulated part that is). Use whatever you have to hand. At worst even just a piece of insulated cable but don't keep doing it. A dead short does stress the caps with the very high current it produces. You can make up something easily. Cut a length of normal insulated cable in the middle and solder in a 200-1kohm resistor. Wrap tape around it. Tin the ends to keep them from fraying. You should only need to discharge one but actually test it on a meter. I have found 187v after the TC was off for 2weeks or even more. Just turned off the caps will be charged to 350v, enough power in them to hurt you. Maybe even lethal... unlikely maybe... but don't be the first to find out.  The bad caps replaced. Position 1&2 are 1500uF 6.3v and 3 is 470uF 6.3v. Just cut 1&2 out and solder new ones in. Instead of cleaning the putty off the board I just soldered to the old pins. One guy damaged the board trying to scrap the goop off. The way I did it avoids that. No. 3 is easy to access and you should solder it through the board as usual. I used 3x1000uF 6.3v Rubycon which worked fine. The originals were 2x 1500uF and 1 470uF. End result about the same. Edit**: See below there maybe a 4th bad cap... just under 3 in the pic. Note 1: The originals were good quality... it did not fail because of poor quality caps. It failed because it overheat... it will fail again if you do not prevent overheating. 18months at over temperature is well outside the capacitor lifespan rating. Note 2: People are saying use 10v and they will last longer... I disputed that, but at elevated temperature as the capacitors decline their voltage tolerance also declines. Once it reaches a point where the electrolytes become conductive at the lower voltage they dry out very quickly... but here is the problem... 10v may not physically fit. And in my experience the physically smaller the cap the more expensive they are for a given rating and the life seems lower. You may get 1000uF 10v though that will fit... they would be good enough... Most 1500uF 10v will not fit. My point is to get the overall temperature lower using the fan mod and then the normal 6.3v caps should be fine. Also watch the actual current rating of the cap.. there is 3A on the 5v supply, so each cap should be rated to ripple current of 2A. **Today I came across the first supply with a forth dead cap, marked C5 on the board. It is 16v 470uF. I assumed it was part of the 12v circuit but it probably supplies the switch chip. Don't forget to look and replace any cap with a bowed top. Note 3: Replacement with 3x 1000uF Rubycon is fine. As long as you get capacitors no taller than 14mm. Total for a 5v 3amp supply could be 2000 or even 1500 and it would work fine... modern switch mode work at 200khz not 40khz like the old computer power supplies. Note 4: Buy good quality Rubycon, Nippon Chemicon, or even the original Samxon are considered reasonable. Look for known good quality brands. (Tend to be Japanese other than Samxon).  The duds will be obvious... the tops are slightly bowed. On one supply the small 470uF ESR still measured fine. On the other it was very bad. Replace it regardless IMHO!! It is CapXon brand which are less reliable than Samxon. I found no issues with the 12v supply caps. But check if any of them is also showing signs of decay. On later supplies I am now seeing the 470uF cap is Suscon and yet to see a dead one. Wrap the plastic and foil back as best as you can. The plastic will break and crack as it has been so hot. Don't worry about it as long as it holds. And the foil which shields from switching rf needs to be insulated from both inside and outside except where it folds on the top. Remount the power supply and it should fire up just fine. Good job if everything now runs as it should... but how long before the disk dies or the power supply needs recapping again... all because the initial cause of the problem hasn't been fixed. It runs too hot... and the fan never works to assist. See fan mod. Apple Time Capsule Fan mod Or follow the type1 or type3 repair and use an external power supply, Apple Time Capsule Repair If you are in Australia I am offering a repair service as well as freely offering all this info to help other users. Just click on above link and go to the Repair Service, and send me an email. I can also send you a bunch of the right capacitors cheap by post. It is not easy to get them in small quantities. And finally let me restate the warning WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING WARNING -- The power supply has a pair of electrolytic capacitors on the live side... ie the pair of 39uF 400v. Do not touch any part of the power supply without discharging them. People have now reported either a nasty zap or vapourised solder long after the power supply was disconnected from mains. We are talking weeks people!! AFAIK all zapped people are still alive... you may not be if you ignore this. Nasty Apple just NASTY!! A couple of bleed resistors is absolutely standard in Switch Mode power supply design. What happens if you repair the supply and wrap the broken up insulation back without taking sufficient care... remember that metal foil insulation must be protected from top and bottom where it touches both boards.. the TC earths it to the case when you screw the bottom on, as well as to the gigabit ports on the front, (back??) Poor Dion who emailed me... a pretty fair attempt to repair it.  After replacing the caps and reinstalling the power supply I
plugged in the mains and a large bang plus smoke emitted from the mains
end of the supply circuitry. Upon removing and unwrapping the power supply again the extensive damage is immediately apparent. Watch that foil... don't put it back if the plastic is damaged... buy some high temperature mylar tape.  |