MBP Early 2008 Charger

[SpadeAssassin]

A friend recently gifted me his old mbp early 2008 (the one with graphics problems). The problem is he dropped it, and the battery doesnt work anymore, and neither does the charger (not caused by drop ofc, other reason).

I can't determine if it's working, and before shelling out 120$ for a new apple charger (yes that's how much it costs in my country) And battery which is also freakishly expensive I wanted to get one of those cheap (30$) knock off chargers to see if it works.

Is this a good idea? Can I ruin it by using the knock off charger? Also I heared that if I run it without the battery it halves the cpu speed, is this true?

Thanks, sorry for long post

 

[TheIguana]

Is this a good idea? Can I ruin it by using the knock off charger?

Honestly, most of those cheaper chargers are fire hazards. They are not built anywhere near to the same electrical standards as the OEM ones. Your best bet if you just want to test it is to find a friend with a MacBook that could let you use their charger for a bit. If it works and you still want to go down this road then buy a new charger.

Also I heared that if I run it without the battery it halves the cpu speed, is this true?

Yes, the computer will throttle quite considerably. Some reports have pegged the reduction in performance at about 40%.

 

[SpadeAssassin]

Honestly, most of those cheaper chargers are fire hazards. They are not built anywhere near to the same electrical standards as the OEM ones. Your best bet if you just want to test it is to find a friend with a MacBook that could let you use their charger for a bit. If it works and you still want to go down this road then buy a new charger.



Yes, the computer will throttle quite considerably. Some reports have pegged the reduction in performance at about 40%.

Thanks a lot for the reply, unfortunately None of my friends have a macbook, it's not a common occurenece in my country (the average salary is around 400$ a month) so I might just try and go to the store and ask them if i could try the charger and if it works buy it.

 

[snaky69]

Is this a good idea? Can I ruin it by using the knock off charger? Also I heared that if I run it without the battery it halves the cpu speed, is this true?

Thanks, sorry for long post

Yes, very true.

Knockoff chargers are a fire hazard. Burning down your house is not worth a few bucks.