13 month old mb magsafe exploded. what to do? what to do?

phuong · Oct 9, 2007, 12:15 AM

it is the AC adapter of the macbook (core duo, not core 2 duo) which i bought for my gf last year. it suddenly exploded right at its neck (where it connects to the laptop. the laptop is fine - although it was excessively hot when this happened. i tried to plug my mbp's magsafe in, and it also worked fine.

how should i tell apple about this? the machine is 13-month old. i didnt buy apple care.

flopticalcube · Oct 9, 2007, 12:17 AM

Take it to your Apple Store. They may replace it for free if you are nice about it.

phuong · Oct 9, 2007, 12:27 AM

i bought it online, with student discount. i don't think they sent me a receipt though.

richardp2020 · Oct 9, 2007, 12:31 AM

I was going to start a new thread, but I guess here is better. My magsafe stopped working because the springs on two of the connectors broke. I have to wait 2- 3 weeks for a replacement. I am now using my old windows laptop

I'm not a mac fanboy or anything, actually I think xp is pretty good considering the amount of configuations it has to support, but I really miss my macbook pro.

loac · Oct 9, 2007, 01:15 AM

Just wanted to say that my Macbook cord did the exact same thing. The Macbook is about 1.5 years old.

The wires break from too much bending, which causes a lot of heat due to resistance, and the insulator melts.

If Apple would reinforce the connection better, (like every other cord in the world) this wouldn't happen.

Dybbuk · Oct 9, 2007, 01:32 AM

I don't care if this is out of warranty. They should fix this.

anti-microsoft · Oct 9, 2007, 01:36 AM

I had the exact same problem. I was five days out if warranty but they still replaced it. The battery might be next...(thats also happened to me, luckily the battery has a two year long garentee)

ale500 · Oct 9, 2007, 01:36 AM

Quote:

The wires break from too much bending, which causes a lot of heat due to resistance, and the insulator melts.

No, bestia.

Been a while since I found someone who still believes that a knot can stop the flow of electricity !.

That should read:

The wires and inner insulator break due to too much bending or twisting, and short-circuit. this produces enough heat to melt the insulator and the copper conductors. Once it short-circuits... there is no way back.

There are a couple of adapter with the same issue. I treat mine with special care, but I really think the connector and the cable should be more rugged. They were not made to last. The ones in the Lombard PB was much more sturdy (uglier), but more durable.

mrweirdo · Oct 9, 2007, 01:44 AM

this is a texbook example of apple putting design over durability/safety. I guess its probably gona take a few peoples houses burning down and lawsuits until we see this issue properly dealt with.

creator2456 · Oct 9, 2007, 03:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by phuong

it is the AC adapter of the macbook (core duo, not core 2 duo) which i bought for my gf last year. it suddenly exploded right at its neck (where it connects to the laptop. the laptop is fine - although it was excessively hot when this happened. i tried to plug my mbp's magsafe in, and it also worked fine.

how should i tell apple about this? the machine is 13-month old. i didnt buy apple care.

Walk into an Apple Store and show any genius and they better replace it for free. Make sure you have all 3 parts (adapter, 2 plug attachment, grounded cord).

I got my adapter replaced and all that was wrong with it was a little cut and one tiny wire visible near the magsafe and I got a brand new adapter (the new one too

).

Mattydj · Oct 9, 2007, 05:28 AM

My Core Duo Macbook did that in the exact same place. Called apple, they replaced it no questions asked.

phuong · Oct 9, 2007, 12:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mattydj

My Core Duo Macbook did that in the exact same place. Called apple, they replaced it no questions asked.

did your computer pass the 1-year mark? i mean 12 months is the warranty period isn't it? (im not sure how long its warranty is.) also did they ask you to return all 3 pieces of the magsafe? because my gf threw them all away, except the main part - she didnt know what they were for.

anyways ill call Apple as soon as i get home today. i hope thing'll go smoothly

zepharus · Oct 9, 2007, 12:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by phuong

it is the AC adapter of the macbook (core duo, not core 2 duo) which i bought for my gf last year. it suddenly exploded right at its neck (where it connects to the laptop. the laptop is fine - although it was excessively hot when this happened. i tried to plug my mbp's magsafe in, and it also worked fine.

how should i tell apple about this? the machine is 13-month old. i didnt buy apple care.

Cmon man... look at that magsafe connector and cord. They are both beat to crap. Just LOOK at the pics closely. I agree with the poster that said when those wires get twisted and bent enough they will short circuit.

This comes from abuse more than anything. If people would take care of thier things this wouldnt happpen. Alas we live in a disposable world...

phuong · Oct 9, 2007, 12:46 PM

the magsafe was designed to be safe. that's litterally what steve jobs said in his keynotes.
i've never seen exploded AC adapter from other branches before.

zepharus · Oct 9, 2007, 01:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by phuong

the magsafe was designed to be safe. that's litterally what steve jobs said in his keynotes.
i've never seen exploded AC adapter from other branches before.

safe from tripping on it and knocking it out,..

MacinDoc · Oct 9, 2007, 01:32 PM

See the completely ragged edge and the lack of scorch marks? Are you sure it exploded and was not torn apart? If it overheated, the cord should not have this appearance.

There are also 2 unrelated cuts on the cord. The insulation is clearly compromised by these cuts.

longofest · Oct 9, 2007, 06:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MacinDoc

See the completely ragged edge and the lack of scorch marks? Are you sure it exploded and was not torn apart? If it overheated, the cord should not have this appearance.

There are also 2 unrelated cuts on the cord. The insulation is clearly compromised by these cuts.

Yes, the power adapter looks a little beat up, but that's to be expected with a mobile machine and it's power brick.

Also, there should be a circuit-breaker that breaks on these things once the wires are crossed. Something is clearly wrong with these adapters if they are melting the plastic and everything without tripping the breaker.

taybo20 · Oct 9, 2007, 06:50 PM

These are power cords for "mobile computers". Meaning the cords along with the laptop will get pack and unpacked. The cords should be designed for a lot of use. Both Dell and HP have stronger cords on there power bricks for their laptop computers.

BUT, Ultimately is seems Apple has decided to replace these power adapters with a new version, which means there was something obviously wrong with the current one.

BTW, when you cord "blew up" was the sound loud? Were there any sparks? I don't want mine to do the same thing...

Mal · Oct 9, 2007, 07:51 PM

Mine did a similar thing, though not nearly as drastic, but I took just the adapter itself into the Apple Store near me and the guy replaced it instantly, no questions asked, didn't even check my warranty. They know those parts have been having trouble, though some won't admit it, but they should take care of it no matter what.

jW

unixfool · 09:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zepharus

Cmon man... look at that magsafe connector and cord. They are both beat to crap. Just LOOK at the pics closely. I agree with the poster that said when those wires get twisted and bent enough they will short circuit.

This comes from abuse more than anything. If people would take care of thier things this wouldnt happpen. Alas we live in a disposable world...

The first image (on left) shows scorching (brown staining). As for looking like it was beat to crap, I don't see it. I'd agree if I saw, for instance, chew marks or some type of definitive creasing (these cords aren't exactly the consistency of spagetti)...I don't see anything but what appears to be some type of overload. Let the genius determine what it actually looks like, based on how he/she observes the damage.

What I see is a cord that looks like it burst apart from the inside. Until you can compare how the cord looked before and after, how can you know that it was abuse that lead to the damage. Several posters also complained that something similar happened to them.

It's pretty easy to assume that the cord was first abused, but how many issues does it take before someone actually takes a real look into the issue? I'm not saying that this is becoming a common problem, but things do happen. Anyways, why would one even bend that area of the cord? That's very close to the connector (as close as it can possibly be). I do see a cut less than an inch beyond the connector...we can wonder about this but it's worthless for use, the unaffected, to assume, since this isn't our machine and its not us having to visit a genius.

phuong · Oct 9, 2007, 08:57 PM

it made a hard, sharp sound - but not very loud - kind of like it was from a tiny firecracker.
i dont know if there's any sparks since i didnt look at it. but there are scorch marks around the "wound."

taybo20 · Oct 10, 2007, 12:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by phuong

it made a hard, sharp sound - but not very loud - kind of like it was from a tiny firecracker.
i dont know if there's any sparks since i didnt look at it. but there are scorch marks around the "wound."

Thanks for the info... Hopefully it doesn't happen before I get my new power cord.

icymountain · Oct 10, 2007, 05:14 AM

I did notice that the wire connection next to the magsafe is getting loose, and there is some small wire length (half a milimeter) that is not covered by the plastic protection anymore. So I started being concerned about the magsafe falling apart a couple of weeks ago, but I was not able to drop by the Apple store... This story makes me consider this a very high priority action.

I assume I will be without my laptop power supply for a couple of weeks.

Wild-Bill · Oct 10, 2007, 05:25 AM

Sue Apple!!!!

Class Action, baby. lawsuits are all the rage these days. What about the emotional anguish you've been through??

They just announced they've stop shipments of those death traps. So getting a new (functional) magsafe should be easy.

Guess they're working them pretty hard over there in the Apple factories.

mheidt · Oct 10, 2007, 08:42 AM

Just wanted to say, that this happened to mine as well.
Lying on a couch daily and having the back of the couch to your left, so that the adapter is pressed against the back, is enough to make it explode.

Even when having AppleCare, they didn't pay for a new one...I seemed to be one of the first a couple of months ago...

Oct 9, 2007, 12:15 AM	#1
phuong macrumors 6502a Join Date: Aug 2006	13 month old mb magsafe exploded. what to do? what to do? it is the AC adapter of the macbook (core duo, not core 2 duo) which i bought for my gf last year. it suddenly exploded right at its neck (where it connects to the laptop. the laptop is fine - although it was excessively hot when this happened. i tried to plug my mbp's magsafe in, and it also worked fine. how should i tell apple about this? the machine is 13-month old. i didnt buy apple care. Attached Thumbnails

Oct 9, 2007, 12:17 AM	#2
flopticalcube macrumors 601 Join Date: Sep 2006	Take it to your Apple Store. They may replace it for free if you are nice about it. __________________

Oct 9, 2007, 01:32 AM	#6
Dybbuk macrumors 6502a Join Date: Aug 2006	I don't care if this is out of warranty. They should fix this. __________________ Aluminum MacBook 2.0 + 4GB RAM; Logitech Anywhere Mouse MX; Airport Express; JBL Creatures II; moshi Codex 13 se

Oct 9, 2007, 01:36 AM	#7
anti-microsoft macrumors 65816 Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: Catalonia, Spain	I had the exact same problem. I was five days out if warranty but they still replaced it. The battery might be next...(thats also happened to me, luckily the battery has a two year long garentee) __________________ MacBook + iPod touch flickr

Oct 9, 2007, 01:32 PM	#16
MacinDoc macrumors 65816 Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: The Great White North	See the completely ragged edge and the lack of scorch marks? Are you sure it exploded and was not torn apart? If it overheated, the cord should not have this appearance. There are also 2 unrelated cuts on the cord. The insulation is clearly compromised by these cuts. __________________ MB Alu 2GHz, iMac i7, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS

Oct 9, 2007, 12:27 AM	#3
phuong Thread Starter macrumors 6502a Join Date: Aug 2006	i bought it online, with student discount. i don't think they sent me a receipt though.

Oct 9, 2007, 12:31 AM	#4
richardp2020 macrumors newbie Join Date: Oct 2007	I was going to start a new thread, but I guess here is better. My magsafe stopped working because the springs on two of the connectors broke. I have to wait 2- 3 weeks for a replacement. I am now using my old windows laptop I'm not a mac fanboy or anything, actually I think xp is pretty good considering the amount of configuations it has to support, but I really miss my macbook pro.

Oct 9, 2007, 01:15 AM	#5
loac macrumors newbie Join Date: Oct 2007	Just wanted to say that my Macbook cord did the exact same thing. The Macbook is about 1.5 years old. The wires break from too much bending, which causes a lot of heat due to resistance, and the insulator melts. If Apple would reinforce the connection better, (like every other cord in the world) this wouldn't happen.

Oct 9, 2007, 01:44 AM	#9
mrweirdo macrumors 6502 Join Date: Nov 2005	this is a texbook example of apple putting design over durability/safety. I guess its probably gona take a few peoples houses burning down and lawsuits until we see this issue properly dealt with.

Oct 9, 2007, 05:28 AM	#11
Mattydj macrumors regular Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: United Kingdom	My Core Duo Macbook did that in the exact same place. Called apple, they replaced it no questions asked.

Oct 9, 2007, 12:46 PM	#14
phuong Thread Starter macrumors 6502a Join Date: Aug 2006	the magsafe was designed to be safe. that's litterally what steve jobs said in his keynotes. i've never seen exploded AC adapter from other branches before.

Oct 9, 2007, 06:50 PM	#18
taybo20 macrumors regular Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: New Mexico	These are power cords for "mobile computers". Meaning the cords along with the laptop will get pack and unpacked. The cords should be designed for a lot of use. Both Dell and HP have stronger cords on there power bricks for their laptop computers. BUT, Ultimately is seems Apple has decided to replace these power adapters with a new version, which means there was something obviously wrong with the current one. BTW, when you cord "blew up" was the sound loud? Were there any sparks? I don't want mine to do the same thing...

Oct 9, 2007, 07:51 PM	#19
Mal macrumors 68020 Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Orlando, soon to be Chiba	Mine did a similar thing, though not nearly as drastic, but I took just the adapter itself into the Apple Store near me and the guy replaced it instantly, no questions asked, didn't even check my warranty. They know those parts have been having trouble, though some won't admit it, but they should take care of it no matter what. jW __________________ My Googlepage: Serenity Icons and More!

Oct 9, 2007, 08:57 PM	#21
phuong Thread Starter macrumors 6502a Join Date: Aug 2006	it made a hard, sharp sound - but not very loud - kind of like it was from a tiny firecracker. i dont know if there's any sparks since i didnt look at it. but there are scorch marks around the "wound."

Oct 10, 2007, 05:14 AM	#23
icymountain macrumors newbie Join Date: Dec 2006	I did notice that the wire connection next to the magsafe is getting loose, and there is some small wire length (half a milimeter) that is not covered by the plastic protection anymore. So I started being concerned about the magsafe falling apart a couple of weeks ago, but I was not able to drop by the Apple store... This story makes me consider this a very high priority action. I assume I will be without my laptop power supply for a couple of weeks.

Oct 10, 2007, 05:25 AM	#24
Wild-Bill macrumors 65816 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: somewhere in the cloud	Sue Apple!!!! Class Action, baby. lawsuits are all the rage these days. What about the emotional anguish you've been through?? They just announced they've stop shipments of those death traps. So getting a new (functional) magsafe should be easy. Guess they're working them pretty hard over there in the Apple factories. __________________ Mac Pro Octo 2.8 \| 8800GT \| 14GB RAM \| 3.5 TB MacBook Air Rev. C 2.13 \| 128 SSD 12" PowerBook G4 \| ATV Take 2 \| iPhone 3Gs 16 gig

Oct 10, 2007, 08:42 AM	#25
mheidt macrumors member Join Date: Jun 2005	Just wanted to say, that this happened to mine as well. Lying on a couch daily and having the back of the couch to your left, so that the adapter is pressed against the back, is enough to make it explode. Even when having AppleCare, they didn't pay for a new one...I seemed to be one of the first a couple of months ago...

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