airport express not found in airport utility

#Airport express not found in airport utility how to#

Swapped the wires and it works!!!” We had discussed swapping wires earlier in the day, but figured that the unit wouldn’t power on at all, and that something else was the problem. That night I got a text message from my persistent co-worker, who took the project home to work on it in his own time. No amount of tinkering by either Andrew or yours truly would alleviate the problem, so we abandoned the project for the remainder of the day. The second unit exhibited the same exact problem. Even though the AirPort Express Base Station powered on, it would not retain custom settings once we tried to set it up properly. A short while later, he had mockup #1 emitting an orange light. So Andrew did what any other self-respecting enginerd would do: solder two AA batteries together. We had a generic 5V, 1A phone charger laying around, but nothing near 3V. The second problem of the day was finding a ~3V power supply. Kind of like “do I cut the blue wire or the red wire” on a bomb, but with less explosive potential results. The tricky part was to figure out which wire provided the 3.3V and which the 5V input. Since there was one cable connecting the two boards together, Andrew had little trouble figuring out where the power was coming in. Written on the power supply in all caps: OUTPUT: “+5V 0.7A,” and “+3.3V 1.21A” - score! Apple usually doesn’t give out carrots like these, so they must have thought that nobody would be crazy enough to open up an AirPort Express Base Station. This crucial piece of information allowed him to analyze the problem further. Some astute readers may have noticed the output power ratings on the Samsung sticker Andrew removed from the power supply. So he tossed it aside and focused on providing an alternate source of power to the AirPort card inside the unit. He soldered new resistors on the other side of the board, but no amount of manipulation would fix the board. The inductor had continuity between its contact points, and it was assumed to be somewhat functional. The method that Apple engineers used to adhere the two halves of the case produced such a strong bond that the plastic surrounding the case cracked, not the seam itself (in Andrew’s attempt, at least).Īnd this is why we’re not making it a repair guide:Īs Andrew found out, fixing the power board proved to be a futile exercise. Andrew used a heat gun and Dextered the case using Exacto knives and flat-head screwdrivers, while I went the light-saber route and melted through the case seam with a soldering iron*. We kept increasing our force, and finally succeeded with two different methods. Both of us tried all sorts of tools to neatly open them, to no avail. He came across problem #1 very soon: merely opening the plastic suckers. After all, our site is called iFixit, not iThrowItAway. Word spread around the office regarding my new-found treasure, and one of our mechanically-inclined enginerds, Andrew, took it upon himself to fix a unit or two. Alas, they did not work, just like the Post-its instructed. One day I came into our office and there were three AirPort Express Base Stations sitting on my desk, all labeled “Non-working.” I couldn’t believe it, so I plugged them in. If you still attempt to do this at home, consider yourself gently warned.

#Airport express not found in airport utility how to#

Given the very destructive nature of the repair, as well as the iffy probability of your device working afterwards, we decided the writeup was to remain a “hey, look what you could possibly do” blog post, rather than a specific set of instructions on how to fix your AirPort Express Base Station. Disclaimer: We debated at length whether this writeup should be a repair guide or a blog entry.