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MacBook Pro 2017 buzzing sensation when charging

S

Shadow Puppets

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 28, 2016
153
79
Hey. I've been doing a little Googling about this and it seems like an issue people have picked up on over various MacBook and MacBook Pros, but I was wondering if anyone on here experiences it.

When my brand new MacBook Pro 2017 (13") is charging, if I press my finger against the chassis I can feel a slightly buzzing / tingling / vibrating sensation. It seems to not happen every time, and it definitely isn't there when it's unplugged. My initial worry was that it was a grounding issue with the laptop or charger, but I went into the Apple store and out of curiosity touched a few of the laptops in there... felt the same thing happening with a few of them.

Just wondered if anyone could shed any light on this. Is mine considered defective, a dodgy charger, or just normal for this kind of design?
 
You'll get this with any metal bodied object that isn't grounded on the AC. They all use the shell as ground, so this 'tingling' is just static electricity.

It's not an issue and poses no risk to anything or anyone. If it bothers you, you can simply use a grounded AC connection, the Apple extension lead (That used to come with them) has a grounded pin; however the plug that comes with the charger out of the box does not (If you look there is no ground connection, hence the problem).

So there's no defective charger or anything of the sort, you're just not using ground at the moment.
 
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New_Mac_Smell said:
You'll get this with any metal bodied object that isn't grounded on the AC. They all use the shell as ground, so this 'tingling' is just static electricity.

It's not an issue and poses no risk to anything or anyone. If it bothers you, you can simply use a grounded AC connection, the Apple extension lead (That used to come with them) has a grounded pin; however the plug that comes with the charger out of the box does not (If you look there is no ground connection, hence the problem).

So there's no defective charger or anything of the sort, you're just not using ground at the moment.
Click to expand...

OK cool. I would have expected a charger for a computer bought in a UK apple store to be grounded, but as long as it's not a major issue. Could you point me in the direction of the correct product I need to buy on the Apple Store Website?
 
Shadow Puppets said:
Fair enough. I've never experienced it before with my previous 2015 MacBook Pro (but to be fair that probably came with this extension did it?)
Click to expand...

They will have done it on any of the aluminium body MacBooks when you don't use a grounding pin on the AC to charge. So if you were using a plug with a metal grounding pin, you never would have noticed. It's also not something that occurs all the time, it's due to a number of factors such as current charging load and other environmental factors such as humidity.
 
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