Power Adapters

[vacputer]

I've just had my last intact 65w G4-era AC adapter lose one of its cable-winding wings to a slight bit of jostling in my bag, joining several others I've had with the same issue.

It seems that Apple is obsessed with making their power adapters worse with every new revision.

The big grey PowerBook (180, etc) bricks were indestructable
The small grey PowerBook (500) bricks were indestructable and able to be used internationally
The black PowerBook (5300, etc) bricks were the same way, and had a handy winding area!
The hockey pucks shipped with iBooks, etc were compact, stylish, and generally amazing, but the cable was a bit on the delicate side.
The white bricks made for icebooks and G4 PBs are not only larger than old adapters, they're also designed in a way that adds needless strain to the wound cable, and the hooks for doing so are seemingly attached with wet paper.

Magsafe adapters have mostly useless strain relief on top of all that, and fray nearly instantly.
New Magsafe adapters have equally ineffective strain relief, but with the DC connector in a new shape that seems to encourage even more cable strain.

Magsafe 2 adapters are evidently made of tinfoil and bubble gum for how often they seem to fail despite reverting to a sensible connector shape.

The last three generations of adapters haven't had any substantial stylistic changes, yet are getting worse and worse.
That seems to rule out runaway form-over-function issues...

Anyone care for some pointless hypothesizing as to what's causing this?

 

 

[techknight]

Yea. Manufacturing costs, and overall cheapening. 

 

[Macdrone]

At least they said why they did it when they started making them. To many broken laptops, therefore make the power supply end spindly to make for easy pull off. 

The people would trip over the cord in coffee shops and drop the laptop to the floor or rip out the pic in the dc jam on the computer

My only issue (and thats it)  is if they knew that why not make that piece replaceable like the cord end.

 

[XBHS1997]

As often, older stuff is sturdier – in my opinion.

 

[Macdrone]

yes and not meant for clumsy idiots.  But with sales any moron will do damage to these by plugging them in in a busy area and get the cords yanked on.  To make the hipsters happy they do the thin / self destructing wire option.

 

[Byrd]

Good thread - Apple yo-yo adapters are at my top of the list for most unreliable chargers in my experience, often to the point of being unsafe.  I've had four that have burnt out and nearly caught fire - one good one left, but I don't use it on my Clamshell iBook! :0

 

[EvilCapitalist]

I'd agree that it's overall cheapening of quality and trying to get the hipster dollars (grumble stupid hipsters grumble).

Back in the days I was servicing iBooks for a school system the machines we got in the first wave (466 clamshells for the teachers/staff, 500 dual-USBs for the students) seemed to have noticeably more resilient adapters than the later ones.  A lot of teachers were still using their original yo-yo/puck adapters when the county ditched the iBooks 4 years later, while students who were "lucky" and got iBook G4s as the older 500MHz machines started to wear out seemed to go through adapters much faster.  The students liked the white adapters because they had the charging status light on the barrel but the pucks just seemed to hold up better.

 

[rsolberg]

It alarms me how far some folks will let the cords fray before repairing/replacing them. I found a like new 85w T style Magsafe for $5 at a thrift store and gave it to a friend whose cable was entirely wrapped in melting electrical tape. It would arc near the Magsafe connector on connection to the computer if the adapter was powered!

I found an eBay source for the Magsafe connector/cord a few years back and have repaired my own. I haven't had an issue since, but I do take care when handling/packing the adapters. I make a loose 6" diameter coil of the AC and DC cables in my hand and tuck that alongside the brick in my bag.

 

[XBHS1997]

My clamshell's yoyo-adapter was damaged and repaired, but badly and in a quite unsafe way. Luckily(!) I found 2 of these in trash which will make 1 good one.

I you look at the 145 adapters, they seem physically indestructible... But the later models, nope.