Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

BURNED Power Supply MBP.

W

wightstraker

macrumors regular
Original poster
Dec 18, 2007
162
0
Last night my roommate was using his 15" MBP when, oddly enough, he smelled something burning. Minutes later he noticed (fortunately before touching it) that the rubber casing on his power supply had burned through and the wire was exposed.

This obviously isn't normal. He was plugged into a surge protector, his battery was charging normally, and he wasn't doing anything abnormal - just browsing the web. Nothing had shorted out. He called apple today and was told that this was not their responsibility and insinuated that it was the result of his own "abuse" of the power supply.

Personally I think Apple is full of it on this one. It's not normal for a power supply to melt in the middle of normal use.

I need your advice. Have any of you experienced or heard of anything like this before? Any ideas on how to deal with Apple? Thanks for your help.
 

Attachments

  • Small-burn.jpg
    Small-burn.jpg
    64.4 KB · Views: 79
wightstraker said:
Last night my roommate was using his 15" MBP when, oddly enough, he smelled something burning. Minutes later he noticed (fortunately before touching it) that the rubber casing on his power supply had burned through and the wire was exposed.

This obviously isn't normal. He was plugged into a surge protector, his battery was charging normally, and he wasn't doing anything abnormal - just browsing the web. Nothing had shorted out. He called apple today and was told that this was not their responsibility and insinuated that it was the result of his own "abuse" of the power supply.

Personally I think Apple is full of it on this one. It's not normal for a power supply to melt in the middle of normal use.

I need your advice. Have any of you experienced or heard of anything like this before? Any ideas on how to deal with Apple? Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...

It happens on all of them sooner or later
 
Billy Bob said:
It happens on all of them sooner or later
Click to expand...

He's had this laptop and power supply for a year. Does an $80 power supply really crap out after 12 months?

Also, isn't there a safety concern here? I don't care if a power supply stops working after a couple years. But burning and melting through the wiring? Someone could have gotten shocked, or a fire could have started. This is not a normal way for a power supply to die.
 
wightstraker said:
He's had this laptop and power supply for a year. Does an $80 power supply really crap out after 12 months?

Also, isn't there a safety concern here? I don't care if a power supply just stops working after a couple years. But burning a melting through the wiring? Someone could have gotten shocked, or a fire could have started. This is not a normal way for a power supply to die.
Click to expand...

This was a known problem with the older ones. Apple redesigned them a few months ago with thicker insulation.
 
zioxide said:
This was a known problem with the older ones. Apple redesigned them a few months ago with thicker insulation.
Click to expand...

So a fault was admitted implicitly. Then why is Apple telling my roommate to go f*** himself?
 
If you're able I'd try taking it to an Apple store. I usually find that if you are able to sit down with an employee and they can see the problem for themselves it really makes things a lot easier.
 
If you have to, threaten a lawsuit with Apple and/or report them to the BB. This is a known serious issue and Apple SHOULD have issued a recall on the old power supplies.
 
I had this happen to an early MBP 17" power supply, but when I walked up to the Genius Bar it took the Genius all of five seconds to grab me a replacement, no questions asked. I'm a little surprised that phone support is giving people the runaround on this, given that it was a definite issue with the early ones.

I have admittedly been a lot more careful since then, but even though the replacement doesn't look much different it hasn't shown any wear in slightly over a year of use.

(Note: Since caution never hurts, putting the little clip as close to the magsafe connector as you can and folding the cord back on itself into a little finger-length loop seems to provide some strain relief.)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back