Home Repair of Apple's Airport Base Stations?

Peter DeWeese asks: "After hearing that my Apple Airport Base Station was fried and that Apple doesn't service them unless under warranty (they are considered disposable, Apple doesn't physically service any of them), I had the opportunity to see the insides. I was suprised to find a single board AMD computer with a PC card slot, an on-board Ethernet port, and an off board apple modem just like the ones in iBooks and PowerBooks. The PC card is none other than the Lucent Technologies WaveLAN Silver, with built in antenna. Turns out that the modem is blown from a recent ice storm here and I need a replacement. This modem is very standard looking, with a little on-board connector shared by all of Apple's xBook hardware. I removed it, and the base station still didn't work, but reset itself every 10 seconds. Also, what embedded OS is run by this AMD computer? The AirPort web site at Apple clearly states that it is loading a kernal when the 3 lights are amber."

"I also had to remove the PC card, which operated just fine in my PowerBook. It runs fine now, minus modem and 802.11, and I am left with a great little mini NAT-DHCP router, perfect for LANs and cable modems. It also will do port mapping, which is a cool feature. Thought this would be interesting information for the wireless fans out there.

I still would like my base station working again, and am wondering if by some fluke, the wireless card only works if the modem is working, or if I burned out some other circuit when the modem blew. Any thoughts?"