power cord shutting off?

[tuneman07]

I just started playing WOW a few days ago - now I am thoroughly addicted but today after two long sessions (about 2 or 3 hours each) the power cord on my Macbook (bought in July last year- not the aluminum one) quit charging the battery.

The first time the computer simply shut down, and I noticed the mag cord light wasn't on so I figured I had an outlet problem, switched outlets and voila light came back on. The comp started back up and I saw the battery was at zero so just figured the outlet didn't work and the battery drained out without me noticing.

Second time with the different outlet I realized immediately as I had been watching the mag cord light, light went off, now I know something is up with the cord. I unplugged it for a few minutes and it worked again.

Is this some sort of auto shut off for the power cord? The brick itself is pretty hot (nothing too crazy- not even close to being too hot to touch), the magnet part where it connects to the computer is not hot at all, the processor isn't very hot (about 60 C) and I can comfortably rest the comp on my lap. Any thoughts on this? seems like a safety shut off after all the cord probs of the past.

 

[Reflow]

Take a look at your connector. Sometimes stuff gets stuck between the magnet parts. Also look at the four pins on the connector. Make sure they are not pushed in when not plugged in..

 

[tuneman07]

Thnx for the reply- I checked all the connections, everything looks good.

This really seems like an auto shut off type of feature- makes sense when you consider all the issues in the past of melted/burned power cord connections. The fact that it happened 2 times, at two different outlets, after similar amounts of time doing the exact same sort of processing makes me think that.

Just surprised there is no explanation of this somewhere if it was some sort of auto shut off feature.

 

[tuneman07]

Well today the cord melted to the comp- definitely some sort of cord problem. It still works but it has completely melted and I can't separate the mag connector from the comp. I don't really wanna use pliers or something like that- I suppose it is ok like this as long as I don't over use it to over heat the cord anymore?

 

[RedTomato]

You've got a serious problem. Don't mess about with defective power supplies and lithium laptop batteries.

If, as you say, the power cord connector to your laptop is melted to the laptop, unplug and turn off the laptop immediately. Take the battery out if you can.

Phone the Apple store and describe what happened. I'd leave out the bit about playing WoW - it's not relevant.

I hope you got the 3 year warranty for your macbook, but if not, there's still the possibiity that Apple will sort it out for free.

Hope all goes well.

 

[spillproof]

Yeah, I don't think using any electronic device that has a power cord melted to it is a good idea. You should be able to break (as in end connection) the connector away from your computer, but I would seriously recommend a new complete power cable.