The day that MagSafe failed me; and I lost my love for it

[joesphone]

I’ve been hanging on to my wonderful MacBook Pro Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014 for dear life. And now this happened: With the MacBook sitting on a glass table, connected and charging via its MagSafe connector, our big dog went crazy for some critters outside, he got entangled with the power cord and ended up pulling down the open computer, it fell sideways on the hardwood floor.

The computer still works fine, but the screen broke and I now lost 1/3 of the screen on the bottom and have to work with smaller sized windows.

Yes, the trusted MagSafe didn’t work the one time I really needed it to disconnect and save the computer!
So be careful with your old precious MacBook and don’t just rely on MagSafe.

When money for the new job comes in I’ll decide what to do, screen replacement or a new MacBook Air or Pro. After MagSafe didn’t work I really won’t miss it in a new computer, it also has been an issue when I wanted to charge the MacBook in a less than stable setting, e.g. in an open backpack, with the MagSafe being constantly disconnecting when the backpack was touched. This just leaves the notorious butterfly keyboard as a deal breaker to keep me from upgrading, but recently I was using a friend’s 15-inch MacBook Pro with the 1st gen of that keyboard and I really had no issues typing with it.

 

[fivetoedsloth]

Sorry about your computer! I don’t understand how the MagSafe was strong enough to stay connected to that heavy 15” computer and pull it down... my lighter 13 inch 2013 rMBP is still heavy enough to hold itself in place when I yank on the MagSafe. Are you sure the dog didn’t hit the table somehow and send the computer flying?

I really love MagSafe connectors and I have one on my Surface Pro as well. It is true that it can disconnect if the cable is at an angle in your lap or on an uneven surface, but I haven’t found that a huge hindrance. I have been saved by MagSafe more than once.

 

[nouveau_redneck]

Sorry to hear about your trouble. I'm kind of surprised given how lightly the MagSafe attaches itself. I breath on mine wrong and it detaches, and it's actually saved my laptop twice already. Guaranteed in both those scenarios it would have hit the floor for sure without the MagSafe.

 

[pshufd]

Losing a display is tough. My 2008 MBP 17 display eventually died. I can still use it with an external display though.

I think that MagSafe is great but you're tempting fate with a large, unpredictable animal around.

 

[joesphone]

@ fivetoedsloth @[URL='https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/the-day-that-magsafe-failed-me-and-i-lost-my-love-for-it.2182339/members/nouveau_redneck.1094402/']nouveau_redneck[/URL]: Thank you. I have the 85W MagSafe 2, the rectangular one. I tried to recreate what happened and at certain angles I was able to pull the MacBook a few inches until the MacSafe came off, This was on a clean glass table without a lot of friction. If you put a piece of paper underneath it glides even further. That was probably enough to get it over the edge of the table.

My MagSafe easily comes off when pulling it to the sides but when pulling it in a straight line it stays on for a while (I just tried it again, and was able to pull my MacBook for about 10 inches! I stopped at the edge of the table.

In the past, I've been very happy with Magsafe, maybe after some years the port gets a bit more dirty and sticky?
I was using it now for about 4.5 years.

@ pshufd: I didn't think about using an external display in this kind of situation, thank you.

 

[ascender]

I loved magsafe and I really wish I still had it, but after a few years of usb-c, I really like having four ports which are all the same and I can power the laptop from any of them. Often, the fact I can do that alone, removes the obvious trip risk which Magsafe would have had to have dealt with.

 

[Queen6]

Apple just put the MagSafe back and bump up the wattage to support decent internals. Removing MagSafe and forcing one of the IO ports to be scarified for charging was just plain dumb or simply cheap to save on production cost.

Seriously poor decision, especially for the customer...

Q-6