Sikachu!'s Blog

Apple, your Magsafe made me angry!

Yes, I’m one of the Apple fan, and I really like Apple products. However, when it comes to accessory and stuffs, I hate them!

Why?

Somehow, their price for those accessories are too expensive for me to buy, imo. Somebody may say that it worth to buy it, but for me who can make only 15k/mo, it’s too much.

I used my MBP for about 1.5 years now. It was working perfectly, until I suffer something; the insulation on my Magsafe adapter wore off on the adapter side! I usually wrap my wire using those L-shaped thingie on the side of the adapter, and somehow that made the insulation to be wore off!

Gosh! Why Apple didn’t document about this thing in the manual or FAQ?

Anyway, because of that I need to rub the wire to make it get back in the insulation. It was working fine, however, for a long period of time, so I didn’t think that I need a new adapter.

Until one day, I charged my MBP as usual, and somehow the light on my adapter suddenly disappear after full charge. I didn’t know that there’s any much problem going on with it, so I just ignore it and let it go. Time passed, and for about 4 more months that I use MBP with my faulty Magsafe, I discover that sometime my battery just gone dead, without going to sleep. That’s not good, for sure, so I recalibrate my battery by follow the instruction.

You know what I got? A 315 cycles 40% health battery!

That’s ridiculous! I mean, my battery got killed by the faulty Magsafe adapter! So, I tried to get my adapter replaced by the Apple service center here in Thailand. You know what? They said NO for the reason that my insulation wore off on the Magsafe side, not magnetic side.

Bs!

So, after I suffer with that, I think it’s time for me to get a new power adapter. It cost me about 3,870 THB (whopping $112) .. what the heck? It cost > $30 more than in US!

I though I would order one from online store, make it ship to my Aunt’s house as I used to. Somehow, I think that didn’t worth it. So I paid for it, the whole 112 bucks .. gosh !

So, After I bought their new adapter, I gave it a go and try to recalibrate my battery again. The charger’s light wasn’t disappear again, but then my battery still at deadly 40% health! WTF now? Also, it seems like I still suffer the same problem with not-sleeping-low-battery issue again! What a waste of money ??

After I did some research, I found out that the problem about disappearing Magsafe light would because of short circuit in my adapter. Surely, those short circuit should occur because of the wore-off insulation problem of my adapter. Somehow, the wire there got cut of and made a spark, result in short circuit. Hmm .. I didn’t think about that, or else I would buy that new adapter ASAP!

Finally, the next thing that I will have to buy would be a battery. I’ve looked on Apple’s website again …

It’s $129, which is .. well .. not so pricy compared if it’s going to last for a long period of time. I won’t going to buy a new model of macbook pro soon, so this would be my choice. However, when I check on Thai site, guess what?

It’s 6,000 THB, or $173! It cost ~$50 more than one in US! What a bargain …

… Hell NO for Thai Apple reseller shop. They are selling things with a whopping price, compared to another countries! Gosh .. I felt so bad now.

Anyway, here is a lesson: If your Magsafe insulation got wore off on the adapter side, get a new one ASAP. If it’s on magnetic side, follow this page to get yours replace. (My boss has two of them, and they both get replaced.) And surely, don’t buy any Apple stuff when you visit Thailand, it’s pricey ..

P.S. I saw on this page that there’s battery exchange program for MBP’s battery here. However, it stated that the cycle should be <= 300. Let me quote it:

Affected batteries will have one or more of the following symptoms:

• Battery is not recognized causing an “X” to appear in the battery icon in the Finder menu bar.
• Battery will not charge when computer is plugged into AC power.
• Battery exhibits low charge capacity/runtime when using a fully charged battery with a battery cycle count (as shown in System Profiler) of less than 300.
• Battery pack is visibly deformed.

Do you think my battery still be available for replacement? As mine will be ~315 soon. It’s only +15 more … help me