Awesome thanks for this.
Same thing here, my girlfriend plugged in an after market non apple cable from her phone to her laptop.
The cable had proven to be unreliable and not work well, but we didn't buy a new one as it still worked most of the time.
As usual the cable stopped working and she went through the process of unplugging and replugging the cable into the laptop which usually helped along with powering the phone off and on a couple times usually got it to start charging again, however this last time her laptop screen went blank and would not power back on. When she plugged in the power cable only a fast and weak blinking green light.
We found this article and got up early and went hunting for a screw driver. We happen to be in cambodia so this was a bit tricky. Finally we found a screw driver at a PC repair shop. After unplugging the battery for 20 seconds or so and plugging it back in and then replacing the top cover this fixed the issue.
SO THANKS A HUGE AMOUNT!
We went directly to the nearest apple authorized seller and bought an Apple usb cable. The cable was 22USD.
There has got to be a way to get a good quality cable for less than that. For that price in Cambodia is like two nights in a really nice hotel room, or meals out for 2 days (Breakfast lunch and dinner for two people each day) all for the price of one cable that honestly should be 5$ at the highest quality one possible.
I'm going to have to research what makes an apple usb cable so special.