Charging vibration my MacBook pro

Bas Alias wrote:

When I charge my MacBook pro using a lower frequency (100) than within my country (240) it seems there is a vibration in the chassis (left and right to the mousepad). Sounds that familiar to someone or do you know whether this could cause any damage?

100 and 240 are voltages not frequency and would have no effect at all on the phenomena you mention.

Power frequencies are 50 or 60 HZ,

In the UK (if that's where you are) the frequency is 50HZ at 240 volts, in the USA it is 60HZ at 120 volts.

No damage results from this as the Apple Power Supply operates on 100-240v at 50 or 60 HZ

If you plug into a different wall outlet, does the vibration persist? If taken somewhere else (internet cafe, work, someone else's home), does it continues.

Sometimes, individual buildings---especially those with old infrastructure---can have power issues, sometimes called "dirty power."

hello guys, i've posted a reply to a similar problem i have when i purchased my MBA 13" 256 GB SSD 2011 today.

here is the link, and i hope it will help you guys 🙂 thought i'd post here as well, since i understand how distressing this problem can be, especially with such an expensive hardware.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2663087

and p/s, i live in a 2-year modern well built condominium in Malaysia with 3-phases voltage regulators etc, so i don't buy into poor grounding as the reason to the charging vibration/current leakage. and i think it's not an issue with different country voltages. my suspicion is the poor slightly mismatched fuses that they bundled with the MacBook Air packaging. not sure who's to fault.

sweejin wrote:

hello guys, i've posted a reply to a similar problem i have when i purchased my MBA 13" 256 GB SSD 2011 today.

here is the link, and i hope it will help you guys 🙂 thought i'd post here as well, since i understand how distressing this problem can be, especially with such an expensive hardware.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2663087

and p/s, i live in a 2-year modern well built condominium in Malaysia with 3-phases voltage regulators etc, so i don't buy into poor grounding as the reason to the charging vibration/current leakage. and i think it's not an issue with different country voltages. my suspicion is the poor slightly mismatched fuses that they bundled with the MacBook Air packaging. not sure who's to fault.

Your building might have 3 phase service but the wall outlets are single phase (actually 270 degrees of any 2 of the 3 phases), fuses will have no effect, the most likely cause is phase misconnection further 'up' the line (at the service entrance to the building is the most likely).

A quick test is to reverse the connection at the wall, but that should be undertaken by an electrician.

yeah, you're exactly correct, from the simple understanding of 3-phases from Wikipedia 😝

i shouldn't have include that in my reply, what i was really trying to say is that my building is a new building with good construction etc, so i don't think i have grounding issues at my place, as i've a few pc's and many other electrical components and i have not seen issues when plug into those sockets. so i doubt grounding issues is the cause to the "vibrations/electrostatic discharges" to my new MBA, as explain in that post i referred 😉

sweejin wrote:

yeah, you're exactly correct, from the simple understanding of 3-phases from Wikipedia 😝

i shouldn't have include that in my reply, what i was really trying to say is that my building is a new building with good construction etc, so i don't think i have grounding issues at my place, as i've a few pc's and many other electrical components and i have not seen issues when plug into those sockets. so i doubt grounding issues is the cause to the "vibrations/electrostatic discharges" to my new MBA, as explain in that post i referred 😉

Test the ground yourself, buy a voltmeter (cheap one will be fine) connect 1 probe to the ground connection in the wall socket and the other to a metal object (plumbing is good) if you read more than a few millivolts your ground is not good.

PS

I have seen plenty of new construction with bad grounding, I've also seen live/neutral reversals, even inspected a facility with a ground/neutral reversal!

heh heh, that sounds easy to do but i had my apartment's sockets and power/lighting points checked 2 months back by 2 electricians from a trip. even had all the up-rising fuses changed just incase. they found it to be poorly screwed wiring. since then no problem 🙂

in a reply, in another post shown above 😉 i suspect is the power adapter supplied by Apple. i will go to the hardware store to get the correct fuse to replace Apple's and see if my suspicions are correct and will give my feedback here. perhaps it will help others down the road.

thanks for you feedback ^_^

Let me know the result, stay within the fuse rating though.

will do 😉

I had the same problem with my new 2012 MacBook Pro. It is apparently a grounding problem. If I use the included US power supply without the included three-prong grounded extension cord, I feel the electrical tingle/vibration when touching the computer casing. This is easily remedied by using the three-pronged grounded extension cord that comes with the power adapter. Thanks for mentioning it was a grounding problem! That was driving me crazy. Apple should change the design of the external US power brick to always utilize a grounding prong.

rezolution studios wrote:

I had the same problem with my new 2012 MacBook Pro. It is apparently a grounding problem. If I use the included US power supply without the included three-prong grounded extension cord, I feel the electrical tingle/vibration when touching the computer casing. This is easily remedied by using the three-pronged grounded extension cord that comes with the power adapter. Thanks for mentioning it was a grounding problem! That was driving me crazy. Apple should change the design of the external US power brick to always utilize a grounding prong.

The Apple power supply is supplied with both grounded and ungrounded connectors, what else do you want, gilded?

Was that a poor attempt at being witty, or are you just being snarky and unhelpful? I never mentioned gold plated power supplies. Since this problem with people being subjected to mild electric shock appears fairly common (Google "MacBook Pro charge vibration tingle shock" I mearly suggest that Apple redesign the power supply to make the grounded prongs the default or at least include a note stating that the grounded extension be used if at all possible to prevent a shock hazard. Or better yet, find out why electrical current is being passed to the user through the case and prevent that from occurring. I've owned macs since 1985 and have used countless other electronic appliances, this is the first time I've been subjected to a constant, mild, electric shock during normal use of a product. Regardless of how much you pay for a product, there is obviously a problem here. You think Apple should just turn a blind eye to this and wait for some greedy SOB to turn this into a big lawsuit?

Apple include grounded and ungornded connectore, if the ungrounded one 'tingles' then use the other one, it's that easy.

And how would you know to do that without people posting the solution here? You must like to argue and be impolite.