Mac Book Pro charger

[Tobs_]

About a week ago, the top of my MacBookPro charger went all 'gammy', kind of greenish and darker, and thinking it was mud, I pretty much ignored it.
http://img211.imageshack.us/img211/4292/dsc00077xg8.jpg
Oopsie
It done got fried.

Does anyone know if this has happened to anyone else?
For the moment, I just wrapped some magnetic tape round it until I can get to an Apple store (still under warranty I assume - got it in January), and it almost works. I just have to hold the cable at funny twisted angles, and it takes about 9 hour to fully charge it >.<

Tobs

[bronxbomber92]

Yeah, that happened to me. I went to Apple store, and demanded a new one, and they gave it to me (I was out of warranty also ;)).

[ThemsAllTook]

I've heard of this happening before, but my charger is doing fine. How do you remove it from the MBP? Do you pull straight out by the cord, or push it upward/downward to disconnect it gently? Given the amount of force required to pull it straight out, I'd suspect that habitually doing that would cause something like this to happen...

[Tobs_]

I think normally I pull upwards and disconnect it with my finger on the solid plastic bit at the end, but chances are i've yanked it a fair few times.
I'm just printing off my email-reciept-thing now whilst i've still got battery... 60% left! I can imagine the next few days until I get my replacement are gonna feel like the stone age :p

Tobs

[Skorche]

Yeah, leave it to Apple to leave out overcurrent protection on their AC adapters. Just be glad you didn't burn your house down. ;)

[AnotherJake]

I just have to hold the cable at funny twisted angles, and it takes about 9 hour to fully charge it >.<

DO NOT DO THAT!

Not only is it an incredibly dangerous fire hazard, but it also produces voltage spikes which have to be absorbed by the charging circuitry and can permanently damage your computer. The reason it got hot there is because there was too much current trying going through too small of a conductor. Any extra motion of the cord at that spot will only worsen the condition. And every time there is movement there will likely also be tiny little sparks (electrical arcing) which you might not be able to see and those create more carbon, which means even more resistance, which means even more heat. And depending on the design of the charging circuitry, a low-voltage/current situation might also cause damage there too!

[DoG]

Yeah, leave it to Apple to leave out overcurrent protection on their AC adapters. Just be glad you didn't burn your house down. ;)
This doesnt have anything to do with overcurrent protection, its rather shitty insulation on the cables, causing them to break, therefore thin out, and become hot or even touch each other. The thinner the wire, the hotter the fire, so it goes :)

IF the full cables would touch, even if there is a foldback current limiter in the power brick, the contact point would probably still get hot enough to cause some damage. The brick has no way to determine wether its your laptop or a short-circuit causing the current draw.

[Tobs_]

I borrowed a charger off a friend of mine, so I have some power =].
When I was charging it, I had some insulating (both electric and heat) tape, so there was no immediate risk of me getting a shock.
Guess I could be pretty lucky, but i'm sure there's something built-in to stop idiots like me from burning the place down.
Odly enough, it only powered down once when it was charging (swapped to do some work on Windows, and it BSODed), but booted up fine.
Does anyone know where I can find some details on the power supply units on the Mac Book Pros? I'm pretty interested in finding out what protection they use.

Tobs

[Skorche]

Guess I could be pretty lucky, but i'm sure there's something built-in to stop idiots like me from burning the place down.
...
Does anyone know where I can find some details on the power supply units on the Mac Book Pros? I'm pretty interested in finding out what protection they use.

Tobs

That's the thing, there is nothing. Someone wrote up a fairly lengthy article about this.

edit: Not exactly the one I was looking for, but: http://zinkconsulting.com/dangerous-by-design/

[kelvin]

I've found that the damage to the cord comes from wrapping the cable around the rabbit ears. After about 3 or 4 wraps it's already diseased and warped. Since reducing my winding/unwinding around the rabbit ears the disease has slowed. Though, for portability, I have to use the ears to keep things neat. This is my 3rd power adaptor...

You'd think they could make the small cord as flexible as the big cord...

[PowerMacX]

I've found that the damage to the cord comes from wrapping the cable around the rabbit ears.

I remember when I first found those, I wondered for weeks what it was for. :p
Also, I wondered where was the "cable management system" mentioned in the tech specs at Apple's site.

I was *so* disappointed when I found out... :blush:

(no, I don't wrap the cable around it because it seemed to bend too much, now I'm glad I never did)

[PowerMacX]

I'm just printing off my email-reciept-thing now whilst i've still got battery... 60% left! I can imagine the next few days until I get my replacement are gonna feel like the stone age :p

:cry: I just picked up my MacBook after sending it to have the battery replaced. I planned this very carefully:
- they said it will take between 24 and 48 hours (so they could figure out if the battery was the problem)
- they are closed on weekends
- I turned the machine in on wednesday, and they of course took 48 hours
- I picked up the machine with the new battery, but forgot to pick-up the charger (which they specifically asked me to bring)
- The store closed 30 minutes ago
- :mad:

[AnotherJake]

That totally sucks! Isn't that the way it seems everything goes?

[PowerMacX]

20 minutes left... byebye :(