Fire in the Airport

Ok so it has not caught on fire yet but there has been a lot of talk about the new Apple Airport Extreme Base Station (AEBS) and issues with it freezing up or shutting down. Every review and/or forum post I have been reading are reports of people who have talked to Apple and been told that it is an issue they are working on and to await a update. I do not think we are going to get the update in the form of a software update. I believe it is a hardware issue.

When my AEBS froze the first time I put my hand on it and thought, wow that puppy is a bit warm for a router but I did not think much about it because my MacBook Pro would turn my legs into fried chicken wings if I set it on my lap long enough. Anyhow so I reset the thing and it worked fine for about an hour then locked up again. I unplugged it over night and plugged it back in when I woke up and it worked great until later in the afternoon when it was a bit warmer in my office. I decided at this point to look into the issue. I read what I stated above. Software updates, bah! I had to look into it a bit more.

So I decided to turn it on its side and put my desktop fan in it’s direction. I ran the router for 3 days and even did some video streaming for most of the day. No issues. I turned off the fan and the video stream and continued working while downloading 2 torrents, yes torrents! It froze 30 minutes later and was warm.

I have a infrared temperature gun… At rest with the fan blowing on the top side of the router the base (which is the hottest point) of the router was about 90 degrees. I turned off the fan, leaving the AEBS on its side. 30 mins later the base of the router was 110 degrees. Who knows what the temp was inside of the unit itself.

I have had electronics turn off or freeze up due to heat before (ie. iPod, Cell phone). I live in the central valley in California where summer time can see 115. If you leave anything in your car or the sun for very long it will have issues until it cools. This is reacting the same.

I am not a professional in electronics but I have my theories and I do not think I am to far off. I believe that the AEBS overheats and shuts down, sometimes freezes. How can a software bug cause something to sometimes freeze and sometimes shut off when there is no function to switch the power off with out unplugging the wall adapter?

What are your thoughts and experiences? Do you have one of these routers? I would love to hear how it has worked for you so far.

jerad