Apple MagSafe One Charger Repair - How To Guide
1. The original MagSafe Charger for my 2009 13" MBP had become erratic, sometimes charging, sometimes not and occasionally allowing the MacBook to discharge completely. I've never attempted a repair like this before, as the device is completely sealed with no fasteners or obvious way in…. eeek.
2. The charger itself was not unduly warm and drew the correct amount of power, so suspicion fell on the MagSafe connector itself, which has an imbedded chip to negotiate the charging cycle with the MBP. As ebay has new complete cables for around £8 and new chargers are stupidly expensive it seemed like a good place to start.
3. Charger with old style MagSafe with the slightly newer L-type lead from ebay:
4. With no obvious way in I decided to attack the corners where the flip-out bunny-ears live. Not wanting to damage the charger by prying it open with a screwdriver I looked for a suitable tool to gently spread the case apart in a controlled manner. In the end my reversible circlip pliers with the prongs unscrewed proved to be an ideal tool. I clamped the rear corner to stop the charger exploding apart but it probably was not necessary. My hope was that I would only need to unseal part of the charger in order to access the power lead and the end of the PCB:
5. First to come out are the bunny-ears after a slight squeeze with the circlip pliers, then the flat springs before spreading open the case itself with a bit more of a squeeze:
6. The next challenge was wedging the case open so it didn't snap shut and allow enough room for multimeter probes and the soldering iron. Having pulled the case open as much as I dared I snipped some nails to the right length to act as miniature bonnet stays (remember when we all had matches to hand?):
7. Power checks confirmed the fault with the existing cable, which was desoldered and removed. I applied some heatshrink to the new wires, applied some fresh flux to the PCB thru-holes and soldered them in, making sure that the polarity was correct. Again, the new cable was tested with a DMM before shrinking the heatshrink with hot air:
8. From there it was a simple job to install the cable strain relief, add some insulation tape, remove the 2 nails, replace the 2 springs and the plastic bunny-ears:
9. For the sides that had been pried open a small amount of superglue was applied and then clamped shut to cure:
10. The completed charger with new cable installed together with the old cable:
11. Having convinced myself that the charger was not leaking smoke, getting warm or smelling bad I plugged it into my MBP:
12. It was nice to see the orange charging light come on correctly and for the MagSafe chip to communicate with the MBP in System Profiler:
13. A quite relaxing way to spend part of a Sunday afternoon and it saved a bundle of cash; hopefully of use to someone.
Regards to all.
1. The original MagSafe Charger for my 2009 13" MBP had become erratic, sometimes charging, sometimes not and occasionally allowing the MacBook to discharge completely. I've never attempted a repair like this before, as the device is completely sealed with no fasteners or obvious way in…. eeek.
2. The charger itself was not unduly warm and drew the correct amount of power, so suspicion fell on the MagSafe connector itself, which has an imbedded chip to negotiate the charging cycle with the MBP. As ebay has new complete cables for around £8 and new chargers are stupidly expensive it seemed like a good place to start.
3. Charger with old style MagSafe with the slightly newer L-type lead from ebay:
4. With no obvious way in I decided to attack the corners where the flip-out bunny-ears live. Not wanting to damage the charger by prying it open with a screwdriver I looked for a suitable tool to gently spread the case apart in a controlled manner. In the end my reversible circlip pliers with the prongs unscrewed proved to be an ideal tool. I clamped the rear corner to stop the charger exploding apart but it probably was not necessary. My hope was that I would only need to unseal part of the charger in order to access the power lead and the end of the PCB:
5. First to come out are the bunny-ears after a slight squeeze with the circlip pliers, then the flat springs before spreading open the case itself with a bit more of a squeeze:
6. The next challenge was wedging the case open so it didn't snap shut and allow enough room for multimeter probes and the soldering iron. Having pulled the case open as much as I dared I snipped some nails to the right length to act as miniature bonnet stays (remember when we all had matches to hand?):
7. Power checks confirmed the fault with the existing cable, which was desoldered and removed. I applied some heatshrink to the new wires, applied some fresh flux to the PCB thru-holes and soldered them in, making sure that the polarity was correct. Again, the new cable was tested with a DMM before shrinking the heatshrink with hot air:
8. From there it was a simple job to install the cable strain relief, add some insulation tape, remove the 2 nails, replace the 2 springs and the plastic bunny-ears:
9. For the sides that had been pried open a small amount of superglue was applied and then clamped shut to cure:
10. The completed charger with new cable installed together with the old cable:
11. Having convinced myself that the charger was not leaking smoke, getting warm or smelling bad I plugged it into my MBP:
12. It was nice to see the orange charging light come on correctly and for the MagSafe chip to communicate with the MBP in System Profiler:
13. A quite relaxing way to spend part of a Sunday afternoon and it saved a bundle of cash; hopefully of use to someone.
Regards to all.
Last edited:
