Just what is a Magsafe Adapter?

What the hell! (re: Magsafe adaptor). Does it still work? I'm curious how it all works out if you take it to Apple and so on. Mine seems in perfect condition but I'm approaching the end of my warranty and who knows!

That happened to me too - I could see the connector separating from the wire... and then one day I smelled smoke and saw that it had fizzled in some key way.

Sucky...

Same thing happened to mine. I called AppleCare and before they even asked what the problem was they said I was out of my 90 days of telephone support. They then asked what the problem was so they could direct me to the appropriate physical support location. As soon as I said "Magsafe caught on fire" they had me right through to a product specialist. Apple replaced the MagSafe adapter 2 hours later at my local store (under warranty, of course).

Yeah Apple has been replacing them left and right. And to think it could have been easily solved had the engineers extended the reinforced covering at the end of the adapter.

Such a silly oversight on what I think is the best connector Apple has put out for their laptops (decades better than the pin connectors they used to have)

Coke is awesome! If I have to fly United, at least I can have the sanctity of knowing that I can get a Coke (although soon that will probably be an extra fee).

@Falconfire: Yup... the replacement has a covering that is twice as long as the original

Not to blame but I have seen this happen when the connector is pressed to firmly against the back of a desk, wall, or inside of a laptop case. The plastic joint weakens, the internal wire fray, then burn. Be careful.

Wheeeeeee!

That said:

@5cents: Actually, yes.. it did work after the short. I left iTunes playing by my bed overnight. Everything was working fine in the morning so I didn't even notice until I needed to recharge the battery at work.

As other people have mentioned, getting a replacement wasn't a problem. I went online and scheduled an appointment with the Genius Bar at the nearby Apple Store for later that evening. When my technician asked what he could help me with, I held up my frayed, charred cable and said "This."

A quick trip to the stockroom and a signed receipt later, I walked out with a fresh Magsafe Power Adapter.

Of course, given what I paid for my Applecare plan, swapping the charger out for one that wasn't scorched and melted was the least they could do.

Same thing happened to mine as well, it would still work, except slowly you would have to wiggle it more and more and get it in a certain posistion in order to use it.

I called apple, they were all like,

"you do know you don't have apple care right?, well what is the issue that your having?"

"My power cable has apparently melted."

"OH, well luckaly you are under a 1 year hardware replacement warrenty still. I'll replace that right away"

"Great"

"Is it melted to the computer?"

"..., no"

Does someone's house have to burn down before they replace these faulty connectors? Why don't they just issue a recall?

@Greasy Thumb Guzik: Apparently we're not cool enough to warrant an answer. If we were hip Mac-using urbanites, we'd already know what a Magsafe adaptor is.

@pestie: its the power adapter, two seconds of google could have looked that up for you.

Its called magsafe because the end is magnetically held to the computer, and not plugged in like everyone elses. So if someone walks by and snags the cord, only the connector will pull out without breaking things off in the computer, not the entire computer.

@Falconfire: Yeah, I could have Googled it, but my comment was really about the fact that nobody answered the first comment, not that I was really all that interested in the answer itself. I was making a funny, a ha-ha, a joke. That's all. And poking the Apple fanboys with a stick, which is only so amusing because they inevitably take themselves so seriously.

Thanks for the answer, though. That really is a very clever design.

Magsafe: A perfect example of Apple's brilliance and its idiocy.

Someone trips and ruins their laptop all the time...amazing to see the magsafe just pop right off...instead of crisis, it's comedy. Goddam shame everyone else doesn't have it.

Then Apple goes and cheaps out on the rest of the charging system...look at the comments in the official Apple.com store, it's ridiculous.

Quick, someone write a gushing letter to King Jobs, that should clear it up! ...if only he knew about the problem, if only...

But there is very clearly a tooth mark from a cat on that magsafe.

Right? Mine broke just like that and I had two little holes just like that. Cat marks. Cats like magsafes cause they're shiny.

Well as some have said, it happened to me as well. Here's the kicker. I phoned "Conceirge" at the Apple Store at Sherway Gardens Apple Store in Mississauga, Ontario, they told me to bring it in (and I was way past the 90 day support thing). I brought it up to the counter, they looked at it and said "Wow", he went to the back room, found another adapter and I was off.

He took the serial number of my MacBook Pro. He never asked for a receipt or proof of purchase, they just replaced it, no questions asked. The whole ordeal took all of two minutes and I was gone.

So for those who like to bash Apple, I say this. Act professionally, be courteous and they will take care of you. They sure impressed me.

BTW....I noticed that the new adapter has a "grayer" coloured cord vice the bright white, and the "retaining colar" joining the magsafe to the wire has been strengthend somewhat as well.