Apple magsafe melting

Well I recieved my power cable this afternoon not the fastest service ever but better than most. Still worried a little about charging it when im not in my apartment

 

That's probably got something to do with it. There's no better way to block every vent on a laptop than a pillow. Of course the MB/MBPs only have the lone strip vent at the back, but it's still a bad idea.

Get a laptop desk or any similar thing. Lapworks makes a useful thing, but even an old-school kids "lap desk" (basically a piece of plastic on a beanbag) would be good. Something with a hard flat surface. Which reminds me... I should swipe that one back from my dad...

 

Atomsk, I saw this at Ars Technica, and just wanted to share that my adapter cord kinked in the exact same spot, but it stopped working instead of starting a fire. I took it to the Apple Store and they replaced it, but its scary to know I could have burnt my house down...

I've taken a few steps to try and reduce the tension on that part of the cord - including only plugging it in after I've pulled it up from the floor onto my bed and making sure that there is a decent amount of slack in the cable. I also only charge the unit when I'm around.

I really wish Apple would engineer a better connecter though. I went through my first power adapter in a month and I dont want to be making monthly trips to the Apple store. But they're eating the cost of their adapters and time spent getting it replaced, so if it really becomes an issue they'll fix it because its cheaper than replacing broke ones. FWIW, my Dell adpater I did the same thing to in terms of having it connected to my laptop and the tension on the cable, and I had to replace it twice (I think) in five and a half years of use (which I find totally acceptable, especially when compared to one month).

 

Yeah I remember that.... funny yet chillingly true

 

Apparently this is *not* a rare problem... at least if the Magsafe power brick reviews on Apple's website are anything to go by:
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APP...re.woa/wo/2.RSLID?mco=84A4F955&nplm=MA357LL/A

I'm a bit more concerned...

 

Holy crap I hope Apple looks at there product reviews maybe if this will persuade them to finally do something about it.

 

i find that if the system is in sleep mode while charging, it doesn't even get warm (outside of the battery)

 

If you are die-hard Mac fanatic, then you'll know that Apple have a few issues with QC.

Most people in the know will wait for a rev.B machine before they purchase so that any problems in the rev.A (i.e. ours) are fixed.

I did this with my 1GHz Powerbook, but still.. i've had the screen replaced under Apple Care for the white spots issue, i've had two hard drives die (once under Apple Care, once after) and i've had a couple dodgy batteries.

Why do I still use Apple after all these troubles? Because they are not alone in notebook malfunctions. The only notebooks i've ever had to be bomb proof where my Toshiba's (my Portégé lasted years and years and years, and I rough handled it) and an IBM my sister had. Every other notebook I have owned has had at least one major problem within a year.. (but granted my Powerbook didn't exhibit any problems until the 2nd - 3rd year).

It's a fact of life, things break... but then some things break more than others :shrug:

 

Yeah I knew that there would be issues when I bought my macbook pro. And I love apple products and always will. I just want them to realize what is going on with their product and the only way they know that is by customers telling them about it. I never expected anything from apple other than they would take my incedent and research it to prevent it from happening again if this is not an isolated problem.

 

Hmm... my MBP was just charging while in sleep mode, and I almost burned my hand picking it up. It's cooled off quite a bit though... maybe because it was in one of those pretty screensavers just before going to sleep while charging.

I really hope I remember to call them soon... the only time that I do is during some bizarre hour of the night (I tend to ruin my sleep schedule in the summer... just went 4pm to noon going for an 8-mile bike ride and about twelve hours of straight modding, got up again at 8pm and I'm going from that now, it's 2:15am and I just made myself a tuna casserole for breakfast ) Hopefully I'll be in the vacinity of an Apple store soonish and can have them check it out. I don't want to send anything off right now since my main machine is in pieces and I can't do a whole lot of anything from my fileserver.

I'm just a bit scared/concerned that it runs cooler in Windows than in OS X. I thought some firmware was supposed to modify the fan behavior, but I still have only heard it come on when in XP, and it never gets alarmingly hot then (which makes no sense, as battery life is shorter indicating that XP's power management is worse).

I just hate being paranoid about it right now, especially since I'm the only one in the house at the moment. Dunno why, seeing that I just finished soldering something at the kitchen table and have been giving my heat gun quite a workout, but there you go.

 

Yeah, with the introduction of these new Intel Core Duo chips, the MBs and MBPs have been running ludicrously hot.. and the worst thing?

The MBs have been clocking down, i.e. reducing CPU core speed when it gets too hot and the situation when it get that hot is when it's working a full speed on an intensive app... so... what's the point it that? reduce core speed just when you need max speed?

I think that Apple have made a boo boo with on this one, a BIG boo boo. But Mac users are a forgiving bunch.. :shrug:

 

Thats because only a few of the MBs clock down and those with them make the biggest noise. As is often the case as with this thread the vast majority of the users dont have any issues but the few that do make so much noise everyone expects that their story is typical.

 

i tend to only leave mine sleeping/charging with the lid closed... and its never warm... it does get warm after a lot of use though..

maybe i just got lucky

 

Mine runs bloody hot!!!!

I run a kitchen and large wok burners... they get hot, the food gets hot, everything is hot and so I can take the heat.. when I say my MB runs hot, I mean HOT!!

So hot that it warps a piece of thin sheet (2mm) thermoplastic sheeting we have covering a table top.

 

have you fixed the thermal grease issue yet? a proper application of arctic silver 5 keeps the top a lot cooler because all tghe heat is now being vented out the back instead of out the top.

 

personally, i'm not disecting a $2000 piece of kit and voiding my warranty

you'd have to be nuts

at least if it gets hot and messes itself up, it's covered by warranty

 

Same here maybe when my macbook pro's warranty runs out I will fix the thermal paste but I like my warranty just the way it is after all I have already used it once and will probably have to use it again.

 

yeah, agreed with the two above... but i've seen somewhere that some mac site actually already tried that and replaced the standard paste with a fine layer of AS5, and it only reduced temperatures by around 2 degrees on average. not a lot really.

They concluded that MBs over heating must be attributed to crap cooling on Apples part.

 

Actually someone in some discussion pointed out that provided you don't actually damage the computer, you do not void your warrantee by reapplying thermal paste. It's one of those reading the fine print and knowing your rights things. That said, if you do screw it up and kill the thing, you *are* out of warrantee, which is why you'd need it in the first place.

I swear right now that each time I charge my MBP, it's getting hotter than the previous time. And I'm talking hot to the point of easily causing burns, and quite possibly melting skin if you keep in contact with it for a couple seconds. Right now I'm typing on it and it's leaned up on my legs (angled up so only the edges are touching me, not the whole base) and it's fine, though on the top-let corner (escape key corner) it's quite toasty. I've also got a sheet between myself and the machine. It seems that moderate use would cause quite a bit more heat than merely charging the thing, and it's just about to the point where I'm afraid to charge it at all because it's so toasty. Naturally I managed to forget to call Applecare again, and if they're closed on the weekends (which I'd expect.. I'll have to double-check that one) then I've gotta call Monday or I miss them on the 4th for the holiday.

I think it's some sort of problem with the charging though... it seems to get a lot hotter while charging than even at full load, even if loading it becomes unacceptably hot. I can use a computer at low load... it's a lot harder to use a laptop without the ability to recharge the battery safely.

 

fireheads right, as long as you dont be noob and break stuff, youre not out of a warrenty.

and when you reapply the thermal paste correctly, the temps dont change much, but the heat is distributed more efficiently through the cooling system and out the back instead of up and out the top of the case, where it promptly heats up the metal casing. just be careful and follow the disassembly guide from ifixit and youll be all set and happily using a much less toasty mb pro.