Tuesday 29 May 2018

Whoops. Double Whoops!

I have an (older) Apple laptop, and some of you who do as well, may know the frustration of the charger cords.  They are absolutely the weak point of these devices and constantly fray and break.  Especially, it seems, for me, probably due to the angle of my cord compared to where it has to plug in and where I spend most of my time.

So because this part breaks so much, I get tired of paying the $100 for the replacement I know isn't going to live all that long.  Last time I got a replacement I tried to fortify the break point, but it still went.  And then I ordered a slightly cheaper one off of Amazon.  It didn't come from apple, but arrived with all apple branding, so... I figured it was real enough.  *shrug*

It frayed as well, and this time the protective coating was only slightly split so I left it for a while, intending to get some electrical tape to seal it up for a while.

Which is why I was not so happy to hear and see it spark when I went to plug it in the other night.

ZAP ZAP! is not a sound I really like to hear around electricity... so after seeing the spark happen again, I went and directly unplugged it from the outlet and shut off the laptop for the night.

I went in to London Drugs (closest store that sells them, same price as apple, but faster, since no need to wait for delivery) and brought my old, fire-worthy charger and they got me the replacement.

I took it home and it didn't quite fit properly, ugh.  I looked it up and I had a higher wattage than my computer needed, but the internet said that wasn't a problem.  But the not fitting was... I figured, so I went back the next day and explained the issue... it didn't quite fit AND was the wrong wattage (power... amperage?  I dunno) So the guy said he figured it was the wrong style and gave me the different style of charger.

Which... I got home and?  Didn't fit at all.  Le sigh.  Back I went.  With the page from apple on my phone saying precisely which one matched my computer.

And it wobbled too.  Ugh!  What on earth was going on here?

And then I thought that maybe just maybe I should check the port itself... and, sure enough, there was a little blob of... who knows, gunk of some kind that was meaning the charger wasn't sitting flush.  Whoops, my bad!

So not only did I come close to possibly starting an electrical fire, I also thought something wasn't working when it was, it was just gooped up.  So yeah... cleaned out that charger port, didn't I?

3 comments:

Jonathan said...

That sounds like the sort of thing my other half would do (along with drop her phone, drop the phone before that, and the one before that, and drop her laptop, and the one before that... you get the idea).

Jason Langlois said...

I'm glad your laptop didn't get shorted/fried!

Victoria said...

Jonathan, I've had a friend lose a few phones into the toilet. Oh dear...

Oh geez Jason, I didn't even think of that! PHEW!!!