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I hate the magsafe plugs

H

hexonxonx

macrumors 601
Original poster
Jul 4, 2007
4,610
1
Denver Colorado
I absolutely hate this plug on my MBP. I rarely use my MBP on battery power. It has 8 cycles on it now and all but one is because the adaptor plug pulled out of the computer without me noticing.

I wish there were a way to keep it from pulling loose.
 
so you would rather have your computer fall from the power cord being pulled than have it use the battery??:confused:
 
That extra cycle is less detrimental then you would think. Depth of the cycle and age are equally - if not more - important.

Perhaps you could beef-up the magsafe strength by finding a neodymium magnet and epoxying it to the side of the plug?
 
I was actually somewhat surprised at the strength of the magsafe when I messed with one - perhaps you have a defective / weak one?
 
I think Apple's reasoning lies in the fact your problem is accidentally unplugging it which in turn caused a measly 8 cycles of loss (which probably was inevitable without unplugging it) instead of another person accidentally ripping their MacBook off a desk causing significantly more damage.

Since it seems you aren't running it unplugged, try recalibrating your battery. You might find that you haven't even necessarily lost 8.

Also, if you really want to "keep it from pulling loose" it wouldn't be to challenging to make that possible.

Another solution is change your Energy Settings to dim the screen when it is on battery. The lower screen brightness would then inform you its on battery.
 
ledd said:
I think Apple's reasoning lies in the fact your problem is accidentally unplugging it which in turn caused a measly 8 cycles of loss (which probably was inevitable without unplugging it) instead of another person accidentally ripping their MacBook off a desk causing significantly more damage.

Since it seems you aren't running it unplugged, try recalibrating your battery. You might find that you haven't even necessarily lost 8.

Also, if you really want to "keep it from pulling loose" it wouldn't be to challenging to make that possible.

Another solution is change your Energy Settings to dim the screen when it is on battery. The lower screen brightness would then inform you its on battery.
Click to expand...

I just did that now, thanks!

Big-TDI-Guy said:
Yeah - just try to hit it AFTER next week if you know what's good for you.

People R crazy this time o year.
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Yeah I haven't been to the Apple store since before Thanksgiving just because of the crowds.
 
jnc said:
Eh... maybe I don't quite get it. If its constantly mains powered just remove the battery altogether to avoid this, no? :confused:
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That's a good idea but then if the plug gets pulled, well, I lose what I'm working on or what I have open. We get a power failure at least once a month here and during a bad snow storm it can happen even more. I have the batterys in all three of my laptops just for this reason.
 
I'm not sure I would.

Computer power supplies have huge beefy capacitors in them - which help to stabilize the output power. Most laptop power supplies have much smaller capacitors (to make them smaller obviously) -- But this can reduce the output regulation.

Batteries tend to make GREAT capacitors - and smooth things out while protecting from voltage spikes / drops.

Now I'm really behind on switching supplies these days - but I can't imagine their operation changing much over time.

So short version - I would keep the battery in, but that is MO.
 
hexonxonx said:
That's a good idea but then if the plug gets pulled, well, I lose what I'm working on or what I have open. We get a power failure at least once a month here and during a bad snow storm it can happen even more. I have the batterys in all three of my laptops just for this reason.
Click to expand...
Maybe you should get a UPS then.
 
jnc said:
Eh... maybe I don't quite get it. If its constantly mains powered just remove the battery altogether to avoid this, no? :confused:
Click to expand...

You can do this, but your laptop will run on half power. Needless to say, its not advised.
 
hexonxonx said:
Wow, that could work! Just have to unplug that when I need to use the USB port. Thanks for that!
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I hope this is sarcastic, because that is honestly quite silly. Mine comes unplugged sometimes, so I just ... plug it back in.
 
^also it doesn't waste the usb port.. it just extends it... looks like you can still plug into it..

picture1lx4.png

http://img507.imageshack.us/img507/7521/picture1lx4.png
 
you are supposed to drain your battery at least once a month anyway, if you have 0 cycles, your battery would completely die after a few months, maybe a year.
 
theman said:
you are supposed to drain your battery at least once a month anyway, if you have 0 cycles, your battery would completely die after a few months, maybe a year.
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I never drained my battery just to drain my battery and rarely got it below 50% using battery power (on my former iBook). Battery's fine - 99%. Just use it and don't obsess.
 
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