After investigating and thanks to many forum members and readers (particularly Jen, Henrik et Antoine), we identified the faulty component: capacitors with inappropriate technical specification to be able to properly work in a closed and hot environment as one can find it inside the APX. Such a problem might be considered as a design or manufacturing issue and Apple should acknowledge it and launch an Exchange & Extension Program for the Airport Express base station. We also decided to help Apple's consumer service to identify the defective APX serial numbers.
Today, based on over 1,000 reports, 85% of the reported defective APX have been manufactured in 2004. Based on more than 850 cases, the average lifetime of APX depending on the production week in 2004 is illustrated below:
It seems that the issue keeps on going at the beginning of 2005, but then dramatically drop. It remains unclear so far if it is directly correlated to the gap expected with the 18 months lifespan calculated so far for the APX, or if Apple changed faulty capacitors for a more suitable ones, giving APX a much longer and reliable lifetime (Samsung is manufacturing the APX power board).
Evolution of the number of dead APX reports collected over time, from the introduction of this product by Steve jobs in June 2004:
As we already reported it couple of weeks ago, Apple might have already in hands a list of the "cursed APX", while not willing to launch a repair program yet. Based on our information, we identified series of APX that should be eligible to a Exchange & Extension Program: All APX with a serial number ranging from HS428xxxxxx to HS518xxxxxx.
For users who would like to revive or keep using their APX while waiting for the appropriate Exchange & Extension Program, a reader sent us a new procedure to replace the defective power board by an external power source.
Bartholomé has been using 2 diodes and an old power supply unit:
When my APX died, I was happy to found all information on macbidouille/hardmac, especially details concerning Henrik's procedure to revive my APX. I used a different system to re-power my dead APX: 2 diodes and an old 5V PSU.
The external PSU was originally from a Palm.
Specification are as follow:
PALM AC adaptor
P/N: 163-1149B
MODEL: PSA05R-050(PA)
AC INPUT:100-240V 250mA 50-60Hz 12-17VA
DC OUTPUT: +5V 1A
With an external PSU, the resurrected APX is not warm anymore, maximum 40°C (slightly warm in my hands).
With such information and details, we hope that Apple will not wait further to launch a dedicated Exchange & Extension Program, this issue has been identified and detailed for quite some months already, and it is about time to react: it has been around for too long now.
