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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.

 

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