My friend and colleague Gianugo says this happened to him also, and it seems to be quite frequently. To make it short, the power cable of my MacBook Pro started malfunctioning this afternoon: the led wouldn’t light up and no power was flowing. Apparently the soldering between the thin cable and the MagSafe connector cannot stand the repetitive strain that you apply on it by continuously winding and unwinding it around the power brick.
So I called up the store and they told me I will need to bring it in for checking tomorrow morning and they might have one spare power adapter to lend me. Luckily, after some prodding, pushing and pulling I was able to make the cable work again this evening (see picture), but I am afraid it’s going to fail again as soon as I try to move it. Anyway, I have two fully charged batteries now and they should be enough to allow me to use the laptop tonight (and post this entry) and tomorrow morning until after 10AM, when the store opens.
Hi Ugo.
This happened to me a while ago. the little pins in the power adapter are probably not pushing up again, if you look you’ll notice 2-3 of the pins are depressed. This is causing the problem.
i had some success getting the pins up by tapping it, and putting the power cord into the socket in a special manner, but it’s only a short term measure you’ll need a new cord.
If your sneaky, put your old cord in the new box, and return it as faulty
I was horrified when I saw once Gianugo pulling firmly the cable to unplug his Mac.
I consider disconnecting by pulling the wire a security measure and *always* pull the plug by grabbing the connector. The cable is as nice as it was the first day!
Hi Ugo,
I encountered the same problem but it isn’t the cable. You will notice the plug in yout mac has two pins wich got black (due to electricity over bad contact). If you take the sharp point of a knife and remove the black dirt (You’d better unplug the battery first!) you’re back in business again. Good luck.
Looks like Ian’s diagnosis was correct. The pins were sticking to the inside and not pushing up. Luckily my warranty was still valid, so I got a new adapter for free.
Mine just died- and no clue where to get it replaced
David, you will have a warranty directly with apple. Contact them via their website.
Mine is failing, too, and it’s not the pins, it’s the actual cable. Now, I use my Macbook every day on my lap, and it appears the cable’s not designed to cope with the constant bend to the floor, and has started to split at the point it comes out of the magnetic connector (just past the harder plastic sheath). The plastic has cracked and the wire itself is visible.
Now some might argue that it’s not designed for constant use on one’s lap, and I should use it at a desk instead. I would counter that it’s a laptop….
Fiona… I completely agree. I’ve been babying my cable for a long time now and it appears to be ready to fail any day now. I have had it less than two years and it just seems wrong that it would fail anytime in the first 5 or so…
I’m going to head to the Apple store and see what they’ll do for me.
I had the same problem. The cable started to seperate from the magnetic connector. I took it to the Apple store claiming it was poor manufacturing, as this happened within a year of buying the Macbook. They told me it’s not covered under warranty and I’ll have to buy a new one. $80.
I’m also in the failing cable group. Mine has split where the cable enters the plug too.
I’m wondering if I can save it with a bit of heat-shrink tube or get a replacement plug from some where.