Skip to main content

Knockoff Apple Power Supply Burns Out Another MacBook Air

My brother made the mistake of trying to save some big money by buying a "genuine replacement" MacBook power adapter bought on Amazon.  The replacement adapter was under $30, was highly rated, and looked exactly like the Apple adapter.  But it burnt out his Mac after a year of use.

 

Replacement Apple Mac Charger
Evil Replacement Mac AC Power Charger

Huge money save?  Nope!

After about 18 months, my brother's MacBook Air stopped working completely.  He asked me, the family tech guy, to take a look and perhaps repair the damage.

I looked at it and immediately noticed that the MacBook's power pins were covered in carbon soot.  That's an indicator that the counterfeit charger was dumb enough to supply fully power over the small pins as the adapter was being connected to the MacBook. This is a behavior results in sparks,which chews away at the pins.

Burnt out Mac power pins
Burnt Out Mac Power Pins, removed from damaged MacBook

 

Then I looked at the connector on the power adapter's cord.  Ouch, the pins were not only carbonized, but they eroded away from all the arcing and sparking.  The plastic of the connector was showing signs of melting. It was a goner.

Burnt Out Pins of the Fake Replacement Power Brick
Burnt pins of the so-called "Genuine Replacement" Power Brick

 

From there I got out my real Apple power adapter and tried it on my brother's now non-working MacBook Air... no dice!  The MacBook still wasn't doing anything.  I took the effort to try to clean up the MagSafe connector on the Mac, and still nothing.  Dang.

Finally, after a few hours of trying to get power into the Mac, I succumbed and purchased a replacement power board for the MacBook Air.  Using my trusty tool kit I opened the MacBook Air and replaced the  MacSafe power board in an hour.  After a quick double-check of my work and I plugged it all in and the MacBook Air sprang back into action.  The burnt out knockoff charger went into the garbage, which is exactly where the manufacturer and retailer should have put it.

This is my THIRD personal experience with bad chargers killing electronic products. A knockoff iPhone USB charger toasted my iPhone 5, and two fake Mac chargers killed two Macs. 

So, my strong tips for the day: 

  • Buy ONLY only REAL chargers from KNOWN BRANDS.  Apple?  Yes.  Dell?  Yes.  Lenovo?  Yes.  Samsung?  Sure. Ajile?  WTF hell no!
  • Is the charger you want to buy sold as a "Genuine Replacement charger for MacBook"?  NO!!!  Legit chargers are NOT sold as "Genuine Replacements".  You are being lied to.
  • Ignore the logos - millions of fakes have the logos and look identical to the real thing.  Real looking chargers are often FAKE.  I usually cannot tell the difference between real and fake chargers until I open them up.
  • Five Stars?  So what!  Unscrupulous sellers often take 5-star listings and start selling one-star products under them.   Never blindly believe the Amazon reviews, as they can often be for different versions of the product.  Furthermore, users leave their reviews after 2 days of ownership and rarely update them.  And, of course, many reviews are left by shills.
  • Buy ONLY from a known seller.  BestBuy?  Yes.  Apple?  Yes.  Amazon?  Depends on the seller.  Facebook Marketplace?  Never!
  • Do not trust discounts.  Is the charger $20?  No!  $30?  No!  $65?  Not if you don't know the quality of seller and the brand!  A *high* price does not mean that it is legitimate, but any price less than retail almost always means "fake".
  • Will you pay more?  Not if you consider the expense of repair/replacement.

Otherwise put:

  • Is it a brand that everyone knows?
  • Is it from a seller (retailer) that everyone knows? (Amazon buyers: CHECK the seller into!)
  • Is it being sold at or near full retail price?
  • Can you return it for a full refund after a considerable amount of time?
  • Could you try to sue the retailer three years from now if at all goes very badly?

If all the answers to the above questions are "yes", then it's likely a good bet.  Otherwise JUST SAY NO.

 

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

Fixing a SodaStream Jet, part 1: Disassembly Guide

I've had my SodaStream Jet for years, and once in a while something has gone wrong. Disassembly is the first step to repair.  Start with this article to see how to disassemble the SodaStream, and then once you have that down, scroll through my other articles to see how I repaired specfic SodaStream problems. SodaStream Jet Disassembly Guide Tools Required Flat head screwdriver Phillips head screwdriver 1. Remove the Carbonator.  Duh. 2. Remove the black panel lever The front big black tilt lever needs to be removed first. Removing this panel is tricky, but it isn't impossible. Looking up at the bottom of the black panel, there are two tabs, one on the left and one on the right. These tabs fully secure the panel in place. The trick is to use a flat-head screwdriver under the plastic to gently lever the tabs out of the way.  Note in the pictures how I approach these tabs with my screwdriver.  I usually release the left side first, and then I release ...
Read more

Canon SD890 Review

My Canon PowerShot SD890IS Review Wahoo! I just received my new Canon PowerShot SD890IS . Here's my review of the new SD890IS. Updated! (20-April-2008)! I like taking good photos. And I hate lugging around big cameras and equipment. And so I concluded that I needed to buy myself an awesome point-n-shoot camera. I often take pictures in difficult conditions, such as a museum where a flash camera is prohibited. Or a concert, where I can't use a flash, the lighting is low, and the people on stage are in motion. Or with the zoom cranked up and focused on a distant subject. Taking good photos in these conditions, with a small lens camera and without a tripod is a challenge at best. In comes the SD890. I was particularly excited about the SD890 because it is pocketable, yet it has awesome specifications: Image stabilization ; a 5x zoom lens, and 10 megapixel resolution. When I bought the camera, I imagined that these features would help me take much better pictures in the...
Read more

Apple TV HD - The Best Streaming box ever

I purchased my Apple TV on its release day, in October 2015.  It continues to serve me perfectly, after nearly 10 years of active use. Although it is decidedly not the newest model of Apple TV, it does 100% of the things I want it to do without any issues.  Sure, I'd love a more modern SoC, gigabit Ethernet, Thread support, 4k video support, etc, but honestly I am not missing any of those features, so "upgrading" it today would be a waste of money.  I did sell the original Siri remote in 2023 and upgrade to the 3rd generation (USB-C) Siri remote. The original Siri remote was working great, but I figured after 7.5 years of use, it was time to get a new remote with a new battery.  I will likely upgrade my Apple TV in the future, but I can't predict when that will be.   Due to a quirk of its release strategy, this Apple TV was discontinued in late 2022, and so it is likely to be supported for several more years. A new device would have to be a leap ahead, because m...
Read more

Macintosh: Upgrading an eMac

It's been a long time since I wrote this article, but the fact remains: The good old eMac can still be useful if you take the simple steps to keep it as good as it can be.  All can run Tiger, and most can run Leopard - great operating systems for their day with a bit of useful life.  This article describes the procedure I used to upgrade my old eMac, including: Replacing the internal hard disk with a large capacity drive. Increasing the memory for performance Upgrading the operating system Here I'm upgrading a 700 MHz eMac, but the procedure and tasks for upgrading other eMac models should be almost identical. Upgrading versus Replacing My sister's eMac is of the 700 mhz variety, with 256 MB of memory. The machine seemed to be getting "slower", and the original 40 GB disk was becoming jammed packed with photos and iTunes, and within a few months she'd be out of disk space. There were two options to address the problems: upgrade the eMac, or go o...
Read more

Connecting your MIDI keyboard to your Mac

MIDI and the Mac.  It's easy, fun, and shockingly inexpensive! I enjoy fooling around with musical instruments, and so when Garageband originally came out several years ago, I was very excited to start using it with my cheap little Casio keyboard. Initially it seemed expensive and complicated to get the right parts together to connect the Mac to my keyboard via MIDI. I didn't want to spend a ton of money in professional-class electronics. I wanted to fool around. Happily, I discovered that it's inexpensive and easy.  If you know where to look, a Mac-compliant MIDI adapter can be purchased for under $10! That's right, for less than $10 I connected my Mac to my MIDI keyboard and by MIDI drum kit. I bought an MIDI-to-USB interface, in particular, one like this really inexpensive USB MIDI Cable available through Amazon . The adapter is a simple device that has a MIDI "in"/"out" connectors on one end, and a USB connector on the other.  The adapt...
Read more

E-waste portfolio grows, thanks to the losers managing Ring.

 I just installed a Ring doorbell the other day, and in perusing the website I read this gem: "security updates until at least four years after the device is last available for purchase"  Four years is all Ring promises for a brand new device?  This isn't 2007.  It's a mass market doorbell and a camera, something expected to be safely used for years, if not decades.  Even my home router has a longer promised life, and that's saying something. Ring management must be embarrassed by their ineptness.  They're idiots, and clearly the only way they know how to make a buck is not through great ideas and great implementations, but through planned obsolescence and customer abuse.  
Read more

Other Posts

Show more