There is a PCB in the magsafe connector. It's small, but you could easily zap the PCB and destroy it with some static electricity. With enough static charge you can blow a capacitor and the components on the magsafe pcb are much more sensitive. That's why your LED is dim, first indication you blew out the PCB in the magsafe connector.
Sorry you think that's "unacceptable" but it's a fact of life with electronics...
buy a generic adapter on ebay for $20 and call it a day.
I get the feeling that you aren't sorry that I find this "unacceptable".
Listen, I know all about electronics and static charge. I have an ESD safe Hakko soldering station and I've worked with plenty of MOSFETS and ICs. I've built and designed a peak detect fast charger for a custom regulated battery pack. I work at a particle accelerator. And I have never ever before seen or even heard of static electricity destroying an 85 watt power supply. This sort of thing is not a "fact of life" with consumer electronics, feelthefire. But, yes, you're right. I almost certainly destroyed the PCB in the magsafe connector itself. The power supply IS probably just fine and dandy. Still, consumer electronics should stand up to static discharge, and almost always does.
As for a generic adaptor on ebay, no thanks. Bad recommendation all round in my opinion.
reset your smc,
that should fix it, i highly doubt static electricity would damaged it, i dont believe the whole static electricity bit,
i have handled well over 25 thousand sticks of ram in my life, some i have zapped and they all still work fine.
The magsafe 85w power supply has an SMC? I highly doubt this! LOL! I think you misread the situation here. My laptop is fine. Static electricity did not damage it. Just my magsafe power supply.
How far was your finger from the MacBook when u discharged? Let's put it this way for a static charge to jump 1/4 of an inch at room temp resonably low humidity you are looking at 20,000 volts. That is enough to screw a power brick.
The static didn't discharge until I actually touched my MBP. At least as far as I could tell, anyway. I'm sure it was high voltage, though. I do understand about static electricity.
I thought MBP batteries won't charge if they're at 95% charge or higher? Are you sure it's dead?
Oh yes. I am sure. I know that the charging wouldn't kick in until below 95 percent. I tested it after it had discharged to 80. I tested it every which way. It's dead.
You should always use the grounded 3-prong cable, not the 2-prong travel adapter. With the 3-prong cable, static electricity has a safe path to ground through the third prong. With the 2-prong adapter, the laptop and power adapter see ground as "floating". Normally, that's OK, and it will be kept within a reasonable voltage of the wall voltage. That's why you can sometimes feel electricity if you use the 2-prong cable and stand on a grounded surface (like the ground) and run your hand across the aluminum on your MBP.
When you discharge static onto the MBP, suddenly the floating ground goes from close to ground or wall voltage to several thousand or hundreds of thousands of volts above true ground. The power supply has to equalize the voltage, but without a path to ground, the excess voltage has to go out the mains. Obviously the power supply can't connect ground directly to the mains line or your MBP would electrocute you, so it needs some kind of shunt circuit to discharge the static safely. If the shunt doesn't work right or there is too much static for it, the excess voltage will try to go back through the power regulation circuit, which is bad because as you found out, that tends to fry things.
It's hard to say if your power supply was defective or if it is just a design flaw. Apple has to make a lot of compromises to fit everything they do into the small Magsafe package. You can try to get Apple to replace it, but if it is out of warranty, they will probably be reluctant. When you get a new one, try to always use the 3-prong grounded cable.
Thanks for the advice, Matt. I was using the two prong adaptor and not the 3 prong extension. And I do understand that the two prong adaptor doesn't connect to mains ground, just line and neutral. But, I much prefer the two prong adaptor when I can use it as it is just a lot more convenient and neat and attractive and easy to handle.
Let me just say that I do love the apple power bricks. They are an excellent piece of design. They really are. And I love the magsafe connector and how it doesn't matter which way is up. I love the small green or amber LED. I love the quality of the cable. It's great. I'm buying another one and wouldn't buy a generic one if I could (is such a thing available?).
And if my power adaptor had just stopped working, or burnt up or something like that, I wouldn't have come here and posted about it or whined about it.
What surprised me was that it was STATIC ELECTRICITY that killed it.
I have never heard of that happening to anyone else. I did more than a cursory internet search, and as far as I know, no one else has destroyed their magsafe with static. I've heard of people GETTING shocked, of course, but not what happened to me. If I'm wrong about this, someone please feel free to chime in and let me know.
You might be eligible for a free replacement even though your computer's out of warranty.
Make a Genius Bar appointment at your closest Apple Store, or call 800 APL CARE if you don't live near a store. If they state that you'll have to pay for a new adapter, just ask them to review
Kbase Article Number TS1713.
"Whether your product is in or out-of-warranty, you can take your adapter to an Apple-Authorized Service Provider or Apple Retail Store for evaluation and replacement if necessary. You may be eligible for a replacement adapter free of charge provided there are no signs of accidental damage."
You can read a little about this at
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1713 ; keep in mind that the page provides some internal information to Apple employees on what is and is not covered free of charge.
fluffyx,
EXCELLENT! Thank you for this link. I printed it out and will take it to the Apple store on campus where I bought my MBP and where I was going to buy a new magsafe adaptor, and maybe they'll replace my failed one for free! That would be very cool.
Thank you!
