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Power surge question

ghall

ghall

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jun 27, 2006
3,771
1
Rhode Island
Okay, so I was stupid enough to turn on my air conditioner when my laptop was plugged into the same outlet, and the power surge blew out my ac adapter. I didn't realize this, so I continued to use my computer until my battery got low (which surprised me, as I thought the battery was charging). When my mom got home from work I tried her AC adapter from her MacBook, and it worked fine, no problems that I could see. The processors weren't running up to specs, but I assume that had to do with the lower power ac adapter.

So I called Apple, and a new MacBook Pro adapter is on it's way. I was just wondering if this could have cause any damage to my laptop. I ran the Apple hardware test and no problems came up, but I'm still a little uneasy.
 
I'm surprised the surge didn't have any noticeable effect on your laptop. For sure I was under the impression that the little adapter wouldn't do anything for protection. Pretty cool though. If it ain't broke don't fix it ^_^ Just get a nice surge protector.
 
Most power supplies have built-in protection against voltage surges. While they aren't as good as a dedicated surge protector, they have fuses in them to prevent the computer from completely frying.

A few years ago a tree fell on the power line going into my house and caused the voltage to spike from 110 to 220v. It blew out a bunch of electronics including the PSU in my old computer. When i opened it up, there were a couple of fuses in there that had been blown out. The rest of the computer was fine, and I just had to get a new power adapter.
 
Yeah, the fact the adaptor broke is a very good sign your laptop is fine because the fuse would have broken (in the adaptor) and the effects of the surge wouldn't have really hit your laptop. :cool:
 
So...I have nothing to worry about?

So, does the crippled cpu performance have to do with the MacBook AC adapter I'm using?
 
mad jew said:
Yep, nothing to worry about. Yep, the crippled performance is 'cause of the adaptor. :)
Click to expand...

Okay, cool. Thanks dude. I feel much better now knowing that my laptops not going to just die on me because of some overloaded logic board or something. :)


BTW, if I had the money I'd be delighted to contribute just to see your mankini photos. ;)
 
Oh they come highly commended. :D

Using the MacBook adaptor in the long term would probably shorten the battery's life because it'll be forced to tap into its own power rather than that available through the power socket more often. However, since you're getting a new one soon this isn't really a problem. Here's hoping you get the new, smaller model. :)
 
mad jew said:
Oh they come highly commended. :D

Using the MacBook adaptor in the long term would probably shorten the battery's life because it'll be forced to tap into its own power rather than that available through the power socket more often. However, since you're getting a new one soon this isn't really a problem. Here's hoping you get the new, smaller model. :)
Click to expand...

Well, until I get an iPhone, I'll just have to take your word on that. :)

Ah, okay, that makes sense. Shouldn't be a problem though, I'm getting Harry Potter 7 tomorrow so I probably won't touch my computer for the next few days anyway. :)
I hope I get one too, but chances are probably not. I'll let you know if I do though. :D
 
RichL said:
I'm surprised the surge didn't have any noticeable effect on your laptop. For sure I was under the impression that the little adapter wouldn't do anything for protection. Pretty cool though. If it ain't broke don't fix it ^_^ Just get a nice surge protector.
Click to expand...

Shouldn't the transformer inside the adaptor protect the computer? Or was I just trying to convince myself of that...
 
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