Magsafe gets very hot, & charging is intermittent

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Magsafe gets very hot, & charging is intermittent

Hi

I've got a 2010 model with a new charger (11 months old) & a newish battery with 312 charging cycles, the magsafe & the charging port get too hot to touch (plastic has cracked around it) & I have to wiggle the magsafe in the port to get a connection. Below is the battery info.

Model Information:

Serial Number: W0012TAKCE1LA

Manufacturer: SMP

Device Name: bq20z451

Pack Lot Code: 0

PCB Lot Code: 0

Firmware Version: 201

Hardware Revision: 000a

Cell Revision: 165

Charge Information:

Charge Remaining (mAh): 4560

Fully Charged: No

Charging: Yes

Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 4790

Health Information:

Cycle Count: 312

Condition: Normal

Battery Installed: Yes

Amperage (mA): 927

Voltage (mV): 12573

It says its charging but the cable is not connected.

The DC port has blackened around the outer pin sockets I assume as a result of the heat.

What to do? I'm 24 hours in 1 direction from Mac service centre so looking for a home fix. Could it be the DC adapter or the battery?

MacBook

Posted on Apr 5, 2014 8:06 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

John Galt

Level 10

140,964 points

Apr 5, 2014 8:14 AM in response to matt met

Contaminants in the charging port will cause the problem, and it will only become worse until it is addressed.

Examine the photographs in the following Apple Support document and carefully clean the contact surfaces according to its instructions (step 8):

Troubleshooting MagSafe adapters

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Answer 2

matt met Author

Level 1

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Apr 6, 2014 6:37 AM in response to John Galt

Thanks John, this has helped, the magsafe still needs a wiggle in the port to get a connection, but no sign of overheating yet. While the battery is charging the percentage of charge is dropping with only 2 applications running, this is the current battery info:

Health Information:

Cycle Count: 313

Condition: Normal

Battery Installed: Yes

Amperage (mA): -941

Voltage (mV): 11573

Any ideas?

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Answer 3

John Galt

Level 10

140,964 points

Apr 6, 2014 6:49 AM in response to matt met

The battery itself is probably OK. Wait until a couple of charge / discharge cycles have transpired before drawing any conclusions about it.

The charging port is supposed to be inspected and cleaned of contaminants "regularly". Of course few people do that. The problem is that dust or other contaminants present an additional load to the AC adapter, which gets hot as it attempts to charge the battery as well as overcome that load. Then, the contaminants themselves get hot and present an ever-increasingly larger resistive load, eventually causing discoloration of the charging port and the surrounding area.

It's a mess that can only be prevented by periodically cleaning the charging port.

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