Charger DIY Fix - HELP!

[kmcconkey92]

Hey guys,

I woke up this morning to find my MacBook Pro (Retina) charger not working! It is very obvious what the problem is! The tiniest portion of the cable appears to have been nibbled on by my dog? ..or possibly smushed by a leg of my coffee table? Not sure. But it has exposed the wires and you can tell that a couple have been cut and there is even a brownish color suggesting that they are perhaps burnt. I at first, not knowing that it was affected at all, wrapped it with electrical tape. But upon attempting to use it, it was clear that this has caused the charger to not work at all.

This sucks because this charger and my laptop are literally only a month old and I know that in most cases, the chargers are a good $50 and up.

Does anyone know of a DIY trick to solve this problem, any other solutions, or as a last resort, the best place to get a replacement for a good price?

I have to figure this out today, as I am using my laptop as we speak and need it for work. It is important to note that only the laptop section of the charger is affected (I guess this is consider the adapter?). The AC/wall connection cable is completely fine and undisturbed.

**** I will post pictures of the damage in this thread ****

Any help would be soooo greatly appreciated!!

Thank you!!

Kelly

 

[skinny*k]

Kelly, the best repair would be to cut-out the damaged section of wire and attach a plug and socket, as shown here. I suggest, though, that you cut the cable and test for voltage before you buy anything; there’s a chance that the short has damaged the power brick, in which case your only recourse is to buy a new power adapter.

Good luck.

 

[kmcconkey92]

@ skinny*k

Thank you! I will check into and do this before I go buy a new one!

----------

** I suppose it doesn't hurt to also ask:

Being that this equipment is brand new is still covered under Apple's warranty, any chance that they would cover this, either by fixing it for me or issuing a new power adapter?

I naturally assumed that they would not being that it is not an internal issue, but instead something that is quite obvious.. was caused by my doing..

But I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask to see if there is a chance..

What do you think??

 

[johnnnw]

Apple replaced my cable under Applecare. It had stopped working after a year or so of pressure at the bend where it plugs into the macbook.

I'm not sure if they will replace it with evidence of physical damage like this as my damage was internal due to torn wires, worth a try though I guess.

 

[kmcconkey92]

Yes, that's exactly what I figured. And for obvious reasons, they won't tell you whether they will cover it or not without you first coming to the store so that they can see the damage first-hand, so..

Probably worth the trip, just in case I can get it resolved for free and not have to pay for a brand new one.

 

[thundersteele]

Looks like it was chewed on by your dog. I have a DVI-VGA adapter that was chewed on and it looks similar.

You might be able to fix this, but I would just go and buy a new one, because you will be using this charger on a daily basis, so imho it is not worth taking the risk that it will break on the road or even do some damage to your Mac.

 

[kmcconkey92]

My exact thinking!