A few weekends ago I was using my old PowerBook G4 while over at Lauren’s. While packing up my PowerBook to head home, I noticed that the power adapter was abnormally very hot. Looking closer, I noticed that the DC output wire’s insulation was creating a slight burning smell and looked all bubbly.
I’m lucky it didn’t start a fire and burn down Lauren’s house. And I’m not the only one who has been lucky, as this seems to be a recurring problem with PowerBook and iBook power adapters. There’s even a class action lawsuit.
The problem is that the design of the power adapter’s elegant cable management solution causes a lot of wear and tear on the DC output wire, especially where the wire meets the cable management hook, which is precisely where the big bubble is on the wire in the close-up. Apple is obviously aware of the problem, as with each revision of the power adapter they seem to add more reinforcement to the DC output wire. Unfortunately this is all that Apple has done. They’ll replace a fried power adapter for free, but the replacement of course has the same design flaw.
It’s difficult for me to judge how much this is Apple’s fault; I simply don’t know enough about electricity. Could there be circuit breaker that could stop a short on the DC side of a power adapter? Could the power adapter communicate with the computer on the other end to ensure that the power that is being sent over the wire is within a safe range of the power being received by the computer? I really don’t know.
In any case, it’s important for people who have a PowerBook, iBook, and even MacBook power adapter to handle their cables with care. If you have been rough with your cable — the power management hooks really do invite rough handling — then you should be wary of leaving your power adapter plugged in unattended. You might also consider buying a third party power adapter, like the the one sold by Macally. There is of course no guarantee that theirs is any safer, but it at least doesn’t suffer from the same design flaw as Apple’s.