my sparking laptop adapter

November 29, 2006

So I’ve had my nose to the grindstone without much relief for the past few weeks, hence the lack of posting. Before that I had the awful upper respiratory. That is still not gone, but I don’t cough at night. Not unless I’m out in the weather for more than a few minutes at a time.

My Mac started making slight crackling noises from time to time. Poor thing, it hasn'’t had much rest lately. Then one day in the thick of work, I saw that the adapter was not lit as it should be when it’s charging, and that the battery was really low. That’s when I noticed that where the cord goes into the adapter (brick, it’s called), there was some fraying. Yesterday, a couple of sparks appeared. After jiggling it a bit, the charging light came back on. I couldn’t stop working due to a deadline or two.

It gets worse. Soon I had to keep manipulating the cord to keep the light on, and the part of the cord going into the brick was disintegrating more each day. Sometimes when I picked up the brick, it was really, really hot.

Today after I moved the brick a bit, a puff of brown smoke came out. Tomorrow, I’m going to the Apple Store to see what they can tell me.