# Lifespan of Airport Express unit



## jmlachance (Nov 6, 2005)

I just bought an A.E. unit. mostly for the Airtunes feature. In past reviews, it looks like some of these units have a rather short lifespan before overheating and dying. Anyone here have one that's at least 2 years old?
I bought it from Staples with the extended warranty ($20) just in case. I know most extended Warranties never get used but the price of it in this case was reasonable considering what I've read in the reviews (Apple site).


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## Vexel (Jan 30, 2005)

Mine was 2 in January.


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## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

.


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## Lawrence (Mar 11, 2003)

Just bought mine last weekend to replace my D-Link wireless access link,
Love it, Works great and I just love the Airtunes.

Dave


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## AquaAngel (Feb 16, 2007)

mine still running on heavy use. for the Xbox 360, airtune and wds and printer share.


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## mr.steevo (Jul 22, 2005)

Hi,

Mine will be 3 this October.

s.


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## Kazak (Jan 19, 2004)

This is a timely thread, since I've been wondering the same thing myself. I've had mine for about 2.5 years, and lately I'm not getting the strength of signal (or the speed) I used to get at the far end of the house. I was wondering whether it's the Express, the Airport card, both, or house gremlins. Do these things wear out?


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## Atroz (Aug 7, 2005)

I bought mine a year or so back. Been working fine. 

In fact, I just finished copying 133 Gigs of lossless compression ripped CD's from one system to another. Took over 3 days to do. So, full out transmitting for 76 hours without failure. It that wouldn't overheat it, I don't know what would (besides extreme ambient temperatures).


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## keebler27 (Jan 5, 2007)

for anyone else reading this post, they are on sale for $89 at the apple cdn refurb store. i might just bite on one.


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## Sybersport (Jun 7, 2005)

Mine has been experiencing problems lately (its about 1.5 years old) - internet keeps getting dropped. is there any way to diagnose a problem, if there is one, with the AE router?


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## Sybersport (Jun 7, 2005)

Sybersport said:


> Mine has been experiencing problems lately (its about 1.5 years old) - internet keeps getting dropped. is there any way to diagnose a problem, if there is one, with the AE router?


I just found a thread that mentioned changing the channel that the AE uses - mine was set to automatic, and I changed it to "2". I guess we'll see how this works because I was thinking there could have been some sort of interfearance with a cordless phone or something in the area.


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## HowEver (Jan 11, 2005)

.


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## (( p g )) (Aug 17, 2002)

The first generation ABS had heat dissipation issues but those were resolved with the "Snow" edition. I had one of the latter models and ran mine non-stop and error free for nearly five years until I sold it...and I think the new owner is enjoying the same kind of experience.


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## macsackbut (Dec 15, 2004)

The APX life span issue has been a hot topic of discussion at the Hardmac forums. Here is at least one thread on it. From what I can gather, it would appear that certain units manufactured in 2004 and 2005 had a defective part. Units manufactured more recently don't seem to be as prone (if at all) to failure. 

My own is approaching two years old and is working normally.


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## Another_Paul (Sep 20, 2005)

Lately I have been plugging my APX unit into my powerbar. I think people have a habit of plugging the APX unit into the wall with no power surge protection.

I do admit, it does look better plugged into a wall than a powerbar.

That could possibly explain "short life spans" of these units.


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## saxamaphone (May 18, 2004)

mine has run great from day 1 (shortly after canadian product release)


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## macsackbut (Dec 15, 2004)

Another_Paul said:


> Lately I have been plugging my APX unit into my powerbar. I think people have a habit of plugging the APX unit into the wall with no power surge protection.
> 
> I do admit, it does look better plugged into a wall than a powerbar.
> 
> That could possibly explain "short life spans" of these units.


While this could have an effect and is undoubtedly a good idea, one would expect in this case that the "defective" units would be spread out across different manufacturing lots. But that isn't the case. According to the Hardmac people, most of the defective units appear to have come from a single batch manufactured during a specific period.


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