Did my macbook fry 2 chargers?

Hey,

I have a macbook air early 2015 and having some problems with the charger. About 4 months ago the charger stopped working, so i went ahead and got a new one since it was a pretty old charger anyways.


The new one worked fine, but after about 2/3 months that one stopped charging as well. Well it didn’t exactly stop charging, the light sometimes lights up on the cable and it does say its connected sometimes (although battery % does go down). This wasnt an original charger, and after asking around on here (different account forgot which one lol) it was advised to try an original apple charger.


I did, and that one did charge it. But guess what, today that original charger decided it was time for retirement and stopped charging as well. First couple of times it just randomly stopped charging and worked again if i unplug and plugged the wall mount back in, but now its officially dead.


Have done SMC, PRAM reset, charging port is clean.

Any ideas?

MacBook Air

Posted on Mar 5, 2023 7:55 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Mar 7, 2023 6:09 PM

It is hard to say without being able to physical examine the chargers and the laptop.


Common causes of problems include:

  • Needing to unplug the charger from the electrical outlet to reset the charger's internal circuitry which can get into a weird state sometimes.
  • Some metallic piece has gotten stuck in the magsafe port of the laptop preventing the charger from seating properly. Sometimes it may be an extremely small & thin piece of metal, or even a staple. It is easy to miss them if they are positioned so they are not easily noticed.
  • Laptop has an internal hardware issue (DC-In Board, Logic Board, Battery)
  • The MBAir has an I/O Board and I/O Flex Cable which many times will have a problem, or perhaps the cable has become loose. I also find liquid damage to many of them as well, usually just a small bit of corrosion...it is one of the common places to find liquid damage as it is next to the fan.


Liquid damage to the Logic Board can also easily cause these problems as well (just takes one drop at the right place). Probably 50% of the repairs we perform are due to liquid damage so I always have to consider the possibility.


Here is an Apple article for troubleshooting Magsafe charging issues:

If your MagSafe cable or power adapter isn't working - Apple Support


You can also try running the Apple Diagnostics to see if any hardware issues are detected.


A 2015 laptop is now considered "Vintage" by Apple, but Apple or an AASP can still examine it to let you know the problem and a repair estimate.


Similar questions

3 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Mar 7, 2023 6:09 PM in response to Snikkel12

It is hard to say without being able to physical examine the chargers and the laptop.


Common causes of problems include:

  • Needing to unplug the charger from the electrical outlet to reset the charger's internal circuitry which can get into a weird state sometimes.
  • Some metallic piece has gotten stuck in the magsafe port of the laptop preventing the charger from seating properly. Sometimes it may be an extremely small & thin piece of metal, or even a staple. It is easy to miss them if they are positioned so they are not easily noticed.
  • Laptop has an internal hardware issue (DC-In Board, Logic Board, Battery)
  • The MBAir has an I/O Board and I/O Flex Cable which many times will have a problem, or perhaps the cable has become loose. I also find liquid damage to many of them as well, usually just a small bit of corrosion...it is one of the common places to find liquid damage as it is next to the fan.


Liquid damage to the Logic Board can also easily cause these problems as well (just takes one drop at the right place). Probably 50% of the repairs we perform are due to liquid damage so I always have to consider the possibility.


Here is an Apple article for troubleshooting Magsafe charging issues:

If your MagSafe cable or power adapter isn't working - Apple Support


You can also try running the Apple Diagnostics to see if any hardware issues are detected.


A 2015 laptop is now considered "Vintage" by Apple, but Apple or an AASP can still examine it to let you know the problem and a repair estimate.


Mar 8, 2023 6:07 AM in response to Snikkel12

What you are calling a charger is properly called the power adaptor which steps down voltage from the wall outlet to your Mac. Your Mac has the charge controlling unit built into the computer . Since you've now burned out a couple of power adaptors I'd have a qualified electrician inspect your building's electrical system. Especially the circuit(s) your computer was plugged into.

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Did my macbook fry 2 chargers?

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