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calvol

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 3, 2011
995
4
The 45w power adaptor on my 2010 13" Air died after about 16 months of use. It was acting flakey up to the failure, and finally the green or orange light would not come on. Went to apple store and bought a 60w adaptor, and it works fine. I've noticed a lot of failures on these, wonder if Apple is going to have a recall? The way it acted, it appears the capacitor slowly went bad. This could be a design flaw. Shouldn't have to shell out $60-80 for a new power adaptor after a year!
 

calvol

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Feb 3, 2011
995
4
Is it 60w or 45w? I think the 45w is a little under-spec'd for the 13" Air. It ran pretty hot when charging.
 

Jessica Lares

macrumors G3
Oct 31, 2009
9,612
1,056
Near Dallas, Texas, USA
The 45w power adaptor on my 2010 13" Air died after about 16 months of use. It was acting flakey up to the failure, and finally the green or orange light would not come on. Went to apple store and bought a 60w adaptor, and it works fine. I've noticed a lot of failures on these, wonder if Apple is going to have a recall? The way it acted, it appears the capacitor slowly went bad. This could be a design flaw. Shouldn't have to shell out $60-80 for a new power adaptor after a year!

Apple has redesigned the magsafe three times now.

magsafe-family.jpg


They KNOW they have a problem, and have settled class action suits over them. It is a design problem. Most issues you'll ever have with Apple is because they do trial and error designing of things. You know, like with their overheating iPads and glass iPhones.

The problem with power cords is that people drag them around everywhere, they let their pets get to them, and they go through lots of wear and tear. With laptops, you're not even supposed to be using them constantly, they're there for when you need to charge the thing, and leaving it on the machine constantly with ruin the battery.

I don't know if you've ever noticed it, but the thing is ALWAYS in use when you have it plugged in the machine, hot to the touch if you touch the charger's base. I personally think the reason why people have so many issues is because of that. 365 days of constant charging...

I had this happen on my first MacBook Pro too. My dad sliced the cord open and added some electrical tape at the tip. That worked for another year or so, constantly adding tape, but then it stopped working completely.

You should have taken it to Apple when it started doing that in the first place though.
 

Total Respray

macrumors regular
Nov 16, 2011
153
674
My MBA mag safe adapter died after just three months, even though it was in perfect condition. I concur with the design fault theory, and even the Apple shop assistant told me that they have a high number of returns for this item.
 

alphaod

macrumors Core
Feb 9, 2008
22,183
1,245
NYC
Call Apple Support; if you don't have AppleCare, I would take it to an Apple Store instead. The store usually more flexible when it comes to out of warranty stuff.

As with the wattage, the MacBook Air worth with the 45W, 60W, and 85W adapters. The higher ones will adjust the output accordingly when used on the MacBook Air. Personally, I only buy the 85W adapters since I can share it between my MacBook Pro and MacBook Air.
 
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