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applemacdude

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Mar 26, 2001
3,240
2
Over The Rainbow
Apple says this is normal....... i dont think so.. .can any one else with a macbook pro please take a shot of their port? thanks
 

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I don't have my camera with me, but my port looks almost perfect, with only 2 or 3 discolored spots. That top one definitely looks bad... I guess the machine and the connector generate so much heat that it melts the plastic :eek:
 
Get a ticket with Apple's e-mail based customer service and send them that picture. There have been some reports that this happens because of contaminants in the housing, but enough is enough.... as nice as MagSafe sounds, no one's traditional power cable is melting anything. And there's no reason part of your Mac should be melting, even if reasonable contaminants are in there. If contaminants are the core issue, then it needs to be designed in a way that is robust with respect to contamination.

EDIT: You may also try contacting this person and asking if they would be so kind as to share their reference number... so that you can reference a pre-existing case. Sounds like they had a much nicer person on the other end of the Apple line than you did. Here is another reference....
 
If any part on any computer is melting, than it is completely unacceptable. To actully cause melting, there must be some very serious heat going on here. This could be extremely dangerous, what if the notebook was burst into flame while charging? You should demand a free repair, or replacement.
 
Slightly OT, but I went into the Apple store today with my less than 2 month old iMac, which has a faulty HD and even though the Disk utility said the drive was failing the so called "genius" said there wasn't a problem because it passed their special HDD test:rolleyes: Not to mention how rude the guy was too! Utterly unimpressed!
 
This actually made me really scared of running my newly ordered MacBook at night, what if it catches fire and the whole building burns down?

I'm starting to think that I maybe shouldn't have ordered my MacBook right now.
 
That is definitely not normal. Easy solution...

Call Apple, tell them that the faulty magsafe connector has melted the charging port, and that it generates a lot of heat. That is just unacceptable as it poses a threat of possible fire.
 
Looking very close I'd say the top (and bottom) connector(s) are OK. Aside from a little foreign matter at the base of the connector, which won't hurt anything, the contacts and their surrounding area look fine. I'm an EE with 30 years experience as-well.
 
Did anyone stop to think that rather then melting that the discoloration was caused by the clicking in and out of the magsafe. That is a pretty strong magnet pulling the metal into a small hole this could easily cause some denting or discoloration over time.
 
yeah it looks more like scraping to me. But thats just a from a picture posted on the web.
 
bbrosemer said:
Did anyone stop to think that rather then melting that the discoloration was caused by the clicking in and out of the magsafe. That is a pretty strong magnet pulling the metal into a small hole this could easily cause some denting or discoloration over time.

Yes. The point I was going t make - does the connector actually get hot? I mean, run it for a while, pull it out and feel it. I can't believe for a minute there's enough juice going through that to melt plastic - power connectors should have very low resistance! Whatever's causing the discoloration, check it's not heat first.
 
I don't see any signs of melting on either of those connectors.

What I DO see is lots of physical wear. Even the adapter symbol on the outsides of both of those cases is worn off. It looks like someone has plugged and unplugged the thing like a million times already.

Also - the magsafe connector does not get hot...
 
It does not look like melting, if anything, it looks like the chrome plating of the plug itself has rubbed off and stuck to the inside of the port. Either that, or the gray paint inside the port has worn off to reveal bare metal.

Again, it is difficult to tell because the picture is not the best possible to diagnose what the problem is.
 
remowilliams said:
I don't see any signs of melting on either of those connectors.

What I DO see is lots of physical wear. Even the adapter symbol on the outsides of both of those cases is worn off. It looks like someone has plugged and unplugged the thing like a million times already.

Also - the magsafe connector does not get hot...
Totaly agree.

It just looks like wear and tear, it does not appear to be melting.

Even your usb symbol is fading and there are alot of scratches on your machines.

:rolleyes:
 
Whether or not this particular one is melted...there does seem to be sufficient credible evidence that these things heat up -- most likely when contaminants are present. There are a number of stories on the net, including the ones I linked above....
 
mkrishnan you referenced the same story in both your links the second link was just a news blurb about the first link. And that incident might have been caused by a cat peeing on it, it has been said. Besides that one incident I haven't read anything else about the magsafe connector getting warm or anything.
 
I have to agree--it just looks like a lot of wear on the plastic to me, which would be harmless. The upper one does seem as if some of the chrome plating on the connector has come off in there, but again, its nowhere near the pins, so I don't see an issue.

I am a little curious: What on earth have those computers been through? Magsafe hasn't been around that long, but you've already managed to almost completely wear the labels off one, which I've not seen happen even on well-used TiBooks. Must be an awful lot of surface friction going on in that area.
 
That is bad, very bad. I hope Apple fixes this asap. I like the Magsafe idea, but I never thought it would come to this.
 
ok the one on top is the defective one... the one on the bottom is fine.... i went in to the apple store... and they were booked... so i bought procare to put it up so i can get it back asap.. the macbook has been kernaling and overheating very bad.. to the point where it hit 195 F according to CoreDuoTemp. it crashed in the apple store... and no its not software i reinstalled the os from scratch (yes i wiped the hd) and software updated to the very latest version of all apple software.. and alas it still kernals... well i went to my apple store and the next afternoon i got a phone call.. cool i tought they must have replaced the faulty mobo. wrong. they didnt do anything. they said that they could not replicate the problems... so after talking with them... nothing happened.. they said that they port was normal wear and tear... this macbook is not even 2 months old... i figured something must have been defective in the machine... but no they didnt do anything. so now i need to call applecare on the phone tomorow and see what i can do there...
 
CoMpX said:
It does not look like melting, if anything, it looks like the chrome plating of the plug itself has rubbed off and stuck to the inside of the port. Either that, or the gray paint inside the port has worn off to reveal bare metal.

Again, it is difficult to tell because the picture is not the best possible to diagnose what the problem is.


no the plastic on the magsafe port is melting off to the point where it hits the metal casing of the macbook
 
applemacdude said:
no the plastic on the magsafe port is melting off to the point where it hits the metal casing of the macbook
The problem may not be magsafe per se. Maybe its the heat from the overheating mobo thats just manifesting in the plastic melting in the magsafe connector...
 
Fukui said:
The problem may not be magsafe per se. Maybe its the heat from the overheating mobo thats just manifesting in the plastic melting in the magsafe connector...

which shoudnt be happening in the first place..
 
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