meanwhile

[egypturnash]

I think I need a new power brick. The cord got rather strained yesterday and today, what with being pulled out of the wall several times, and a short seems to be developing right where the cord meets the plug. Occasionally a little smoke comes from the cable. I'm not leaving it plugged in when I'm not right there next to it.

Now I know why Apple came up with the magnetic power cables for the newer machines.

I was hoping to use the money from the fashion piece and a Flash slideshow I hacked out for other stuff, like trying to catch up on my share of the rent, but... life is like that, I guess.

edit: Wow, there're lots of horrible reviews of the Apple power bricks on Apple's site. Third-party bricks: Macally, Macwizards. Check for reports of sparks shooting from the plug. (For the record, my power brick was fine for the slightly more than two years I've had it.)

Comments

[ff00ff.livejournal.com]

Yes, smoking is very rarely a good thing for electronics to do. Keeping an eye on it is probably an insufficient safety measure.

[eriscontrol.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes you do. I'm on my third power supply now, and believe me, I'm taking damned good care of this one.

For my first replacement, I forked out some good money (over $100) for a universal power brick because you can buy replacement tips for $10 each, foreseeing that the tip was most likely to fail before anything else. This was, of course, the case. However, the company no longer sells replacement tips for old (i.e., pre-Intel) Apple hardware. Indeed, they don't seem to be available anywhere. That really made me angry, I'm sure you can imagine.

Verdict: pay the $80 for the Apple one and take good care of it. Universal adaptors are a risky proposition. :(

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

This stock Apple supply has taken a fair amount of abuse; I can't complain. It just ended up taking too much strain, over time, on the cord - right at the end of the little strain-reliever thingy.

[eriscontrol.livejournal.com]

Oh, and since I missed the bit about the smoke: please, for the love of all things green, stop using your power brick right now.

A mere second or two after my first one started smoking, I realised that it was uncomfortably, even painfully hot against my skin. After unplugging it I saw that the cord was charred and had damn nearly caught on fire. I'd hate for you to get hurt or, you know, damage your Powerbook beyond repair. :(

[turbinerocks.livejournal.com]

Laptop power bricks seem to suck everywhere. I went through two Dell ones on my old machine, and I've heard horror stories from people with Toshibas as well. :P

[doctorpinkerton.livejournal.com]

Damn shame you're so far away Peggy. You know I'd fix this in a heartbeat if you weren't so geographically remote.

At least the replacement's price doesn't seem obscene...

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I look at what I can see from outside and think about the mechanics involved, and I'm damn sure it's a half hour at most to worry the connector apart, snip off a half-inch or so of wire, and put it back together. But I don't have the tools or the basic wiring skills involved.

Maybe I should try and pick them up sometime. I've had this weird urge in the back of my head to build a pair of speakers; I figure that's something a novice can actually manage (my mom is still using the ones my dad built when he was in his teens - in part, of course, because he had his father's woodshop to draw on in making the cabinet!). It'd teach me a lot about physical creation.