Letterman's head writer faces sparking, smoking PowerBook adapter
By Darren Murph 
posted Jul 13th 2007 10:55AM
posted Jul 13th 2007 10:55AM
Granted, we've seen our fair share of Apple products getting a bit hot under the collar, and while the PowerBook AC adapters never were truly regarded as top-notch pieces of equipment, it seems that this particular one chose the wrong guy to get all sparked up on. Justin Stangel, a head writer / producer for the Late Show with David Letterman, was presumably writing up the night's monologue when he was uncomfortably faced with a sparking AC adapter. As any true professional would do, he actually filmed the volatile device getting its spark (and smoke) on rather than evacuating the area, so be sure and click on through to see what the fuss is all about. 
You always get sparks in power units when the contact is weak. I've got it before on toasters, iron, portable light, so what's the fuss? ;)
Yeah, in agreement. This happened with my MBP power adapter three days ago. Its basically all the times i've wrapped the power cord around that brick, i've been twisting up the wires on the inside of the cable to the point that some of them frayed. This results in the extreme heating of the metal and rubber (less connection = more resistance = more heat = sparks and melting). Long story short walked into the apple store they handed me a new one and i walked out.
Oh, it's a feature! Lick it a bit with your tongue, that will fix it. Jesus, are these people REALLY that stupid to be playing with a live power transformer in their hands while it's short circuiting?!?
Good thing he's not into guns. He'd be looking down the barrel to see if the bullets are coming out.
I just had my MacBook Pro power adapter replaced. This is the second power adapter I've had fail on me in the history of my Apple products so that seems like a good amount. the cuff near tthe magSafe connection on my old adapter was not as long as the new one, maybe something to do with it.
This happened on my Dell power adapteratthePCend,ithappenswhenyouhavethewirebentat asharpanglefrequently .
this happened to me as well and I have only myself to blame. I wrapped it tight, tripped on it and pulled it out of the wall more than once. wait....thats my dell.........so I guess its not just the apple adapter.................................
Yeah that tends to happen when you crush the wire under the leg of the chair and then sit your 300lb butt down on it. The point where that was sparking was in the wire itself. At a point where the internal + and - wires are individually insulated within a airtight seal. I am suuure that was totally spontanious and involved no prior abuse today or in the past of that power block.
That's ridiculous ... this ONLY happens if you ABUSE the cord. Granted it isn't the most stable connection ... but it ONLY happens if you crimp the cord/yank it/etc. And no wonder the Late Show is bad with that dolt as a writer.
Yes, when you use your power cord to the point that the casing around the wire has holes in it, the product will no longer function as designed. Please stop carrying the power brick by the wire. Do your tires function properly when you drive them till they have holes in them?
Yes, Apple (or Dell, Lenovo, etc) could bundle a kevlar lined cord that will never fray or break, but then you would complain that your power cord costs $250.
This same thing just happened to me! My adapter was smoking and everything. I took it to the apple store this past weekend and the genius told me that I was wrapping the cord too tight around the adapter. It makes sense to me, but I suppose Apple should have thought of this before I burn down my house.
How dare they even suggest that an Apple product has a problem!
I had this happen on my Titanium Powerbook adapter after about 3 years of use.
3 years of wrapping the adapter up and shoving it in a bag 2-3 times a day will wear out the power cord.
Got a replacement power adapter from Macally for $30.
Cheaper than the $79 from Apple.
I have seen this happen at both ends of the power adapter (the magsafe side and the brick side) one of them was after only a few weeks of use, go to the online apple store and check out the reviews for any of the replacement mag safe power supplies, this guy is definately not alone.
It's happened to me once already and has already started on my new adapator, and my battery swelled up.
If your battery swelled up, then it's a manufacturing defect from contaminants inside the LiIon cells themselves.
If you haven't already, you need to stop using that battery and get it replaced, the swelling is a sign of unwanted chemical reactions happening inside the sealed cells - Meaning that the cells could rupture and explode at any time, whether charged or in use or not.
As it's a manufacturing defect and a safety issue you should be able to get the battery replaced for free or have the cost of any new batteries you bought refunded.
It was my old battery. and one of two.
This happened to me as well...but not because of any unusual abuse...just general wear and tear. Solution? Dremel apart the transformer casing, cleanup and resolder the connections, tape the casing back together and we're more than 1/2 year past the fact with not the slightest problem.
The strain relief is puny on those! Just gotta be careful when you wrap up
The smoking was from the insulation - that stuff is toxic when it burns!
The same problem happened to me as well, about a year after getting purchase. Turns out I wasn't leaving enough slack when wrapping it round the two plastic cable holders and handling it too roughly by the wire, cable inside short circuited and it melted with smoke etc.
Walked into the apple store the same morning the genius saw it and replaced it on the spot with no questions and a quick tip to leave slack while wrapping it round.
So how is this an issue? Most people do notice that it needs to be handled properly? I don't think this should even be on engadget, it's that minor.
Thanks for the advice. Now it won't happen to me. :-)
I was pretty surprised the dude said apple didn't offer to replace it. They're pretty amazing w/ that stuff. A friend spilled water on my Macbook (like 2 weeks after I bought it). I took it in to the genius bar, and 15 minutes later walked out w/ a new Macbook. I will always be an Apple user (unless their products go WAY down hill) for that reason.
The cord is frayed; Of course it's gunna spark and smoke!
I had the same thing happen to my 12" power book adapter. I babied that thing, but it went up in a poof of smoke. That thing could have burned down my house, but Apple wouldn't even honor my warranty.
I can guarantee I never treated the cord in an improper way.
I always pay attention to it, but it suddenly happened.
the light on the safemag went off, and the cord started burning.
I was told that the issue is not a manufacturing one and the power supply can't be replaced.
oh, did I mention it happened to 3 of us during the past 2 months?
I bought a new one and I don't really care, but I store the old till the moment they realize it's their fckup and I can get a new one.
well if you sit there and agitate it like that, im pretty sure it will spark.
Hey, this happened to me exactly how he showed it about 2 days ago and I didn't "abuse" my cord I take good care of my macbook. I don't wrap my cord or anything I just heard a loud popping sound come out of my room and when I went in there the adaptor was on fire with blue flame shooting out. I'm glad I'm not the only one thought I'd be out 79 bucks.
ubi de feo the light on my magsafe went off too! It's crazy how we all are having the same problems, can you say recall?
In 2005 my girlfriend's Powerbook G3 did the same thing, but right at the plug end that goes into the laptop itself. It was kind of freaky, smoke and sparks everywhere. The insulation had apparently pulled back and the wires shorted out from bending around for a couple years.
most power supply cords arent as small and fragile and apple cords. theres a lot of power going through these cables, and they are under a lot of stress because people need to take them with their laptop. this is another case of apple's small, lightweight design not living up to real hard use.
my hp's power charger is a brick, and the cable is twice as thick as this. yes its ugly, but it also can take the beating it needs to.
I have two dells power supplies, 1 HP, and 1 Sony with frayed cords that says you're wrong and all power cords die from abuse/lots of use, accident.
@ rus
yes all power cords will break over time and use if not well looked after.
but apple power cords are noticably thinner than that of most other manufacturers.
meaning the cable and the insulation is thinner and will be more liable to break sooner.
Happened to me... Apple over-nighted me a replacement though, for free... one of the few times AppleCare has paid off!
Where did his neck go?
i think its rare for an apple product. generally their hardware is of superior kind.
but the video is cool though.
apple's hardware to be the superior kind??
omfg you got to be kidding, apples build quality is one of the worst, out of all the laptops i've opened; apple, sony, dell, acer, toshiba, apple has by far the worst build quality. they use foil for radiation shields where other companies use proper sheets of rigid alumnimum, and some pieces look like they where filed or bent slighty so they would fit in.
Well he had better timing than me. My cord melted (the chord literally bubbled and melted) as I was writing my final for class. I didn't have time to yooutube it; too busy crying and cradling it in my arms.
Looking for 5 secs of fame with a non-issue. Tsss.
He should've gotten shocked out of his pants while filming his abused power cord, keeping jiggling it till the casing smolders more and more.
This will happen with any power adapter if you don't handle it with care.
It very clearly is a wear & tear issue from wrapping the cord tight around the brick a few times too many. The cord and the relief strain are built light, but it is no coincidence this happened right outside of it.
Could Apple build it a little stronger? Sure. Who knows, they might in the future. Or not.
Anyhow, it is a non issue, afaiac.
this is why i'll never buy a macBook.
Thank God! Let Dell or HP have the morons for customers!
that adapter isn't from a MacBook, it's from a 3-4 year old PowerBook or iBook that has been abused by a fat man.
just for the record...i do have a g4 1.25 imac. i use to work on photos to developing stuff w/cocoa.
you're having to forcibly bend the wire to make sparks. pretty obvious you haven't been looking after your power cable properly and bend it frequently. causing the insulation on the wires to break.
why would apple give you a replacement when its not a manufacturing problem but your own negilence in looking after the adapter??
what a fat dumbass
This exact thing happened to me after ~2 yrs of use. I always coiled up the cord around the brick using the flip-out guides which are built-in to the adapter. I never carried the adapter by the cord, or pulled it by the cord.
It failed in the middle of a presentation, smoking and sparking as seen in the video.
I tried following this guide:
http://theappleblog.com/2005/08/13/powerbook-65w-ac-adaper-repair/
But I ended up purchasing an iGo Juice70 universal power supply which works in car, home, and airplane. It's a bit pricey, but the cost of buying a new $79 PB adapter every year isn't worth it.
I hope a class action forms out of this, Apple ignored my request for a replacement.
Not as exciting as when my dell latitude power adapter started beeping and smelled like electronics burning. It started beeping, I kid you not. My co-workers and I were like WTF? Is it meant to beep so you can find the burning power brick or was that just a weird 1 time event?
It is supposed to beep when it has a short-- it's a safety feature. Mine did that a few weeks ago. Dell sent a free replacement overnight.
Yep, same thing happened to me, I called Mac, they sent me a replacement and seemed generally worried about customer satisfaction / de-figurement due to sparking charger.
It happens, it would be nice if Apple (and other OEM Power supplies) had a built in self resetting breaker. I noticed my other 3rd party (ex. iGo Juice) has this feature. My cat chewed through the cable and it would just shut off once it shorted..
BTW, even scarier.. My wife's hairdryer started throwing huge sparks with smoke and some fire one morning, she would hang the hairdryer by the cord... after a year or so it just wore through. Scared the poop out of us. lol
God, I hope to hell he doesn't write a lame-ass "Top Ten Reasons My Powerbook Caught Fire" list for Dave based on this.
Shit happens...Yet you guys're luckily enough cos it seems to work anyway...My ThinkPad T43 adapter just went silent and never worked since sometime when I was using it in a very much normal way. I ran out of battery in 3 hours and then had to handwrite all that was left to type! Shit happens...yet it was on the next day that I realized a happened shit would cost me a bunch of notes.
Judging by his size I would say he mistook his Apple for a fruit and not a PC, hence the bite marks on the power cord.
"I've been jiggling my cable all day long"
To all the tight wrappers: There are those little white fold-out ears on the block to wrap the cable around. Use them. They greatly reduce the chance of the cable being broken due to nasty angles.
I have a dell adaptor that quit working, started working again for a while, and then completely died. Dell refused to replace it, so I opened it up hoping that a capacitor popped so I could just replace it. Nope. Right behind the AC cord it sparked badly with the copper wrapped around a ferrite core, fusing the copper together. Apparently the 'tape' used is extremely thin and weak, and it was designed such that the ac connector rubbed on it and then sparked. Why wasn't there shielding on the back of the AC? apparently to cut costs. And I'm not the only one with problems. one person had it replaced 4 times in one year. I even had a dell adaptor do nearly what this video shows, except at the laptop connection instead of the 'power brick.' Trust me, the stuff is cheap crap.. well, cheaply made, costs a fortune for the end user.
It's happened to no less than 4 Apple power supplies in my family since they started making everything 'stylish'. Being a student and working from my Power Book, my power supply goes almost everywhere with me, so it's understandable that something with very little insulation would break over time. Apple could have beefed up the insulation at the ends of the thin cable, especially since it is constantly bending coming out of the power supply where it wraps around the hooks.
Apple could take a hint from its customers, but I wouldn't count on it any time soon.
Oh boy, a damaged cable causes a short and he films it for the world to see.
Dumbass.
Man that guy has small hands. He can barely hold the transformer.
I had the same problem with my Macbook power supply on the other end of the cord. Instead of burning it up and crying, I opened it, soldered it, taped it, and put it back together. Just like new again.
My ibook power adapter recently did this. Mine was up near the plug that goes into the computer, just behind the "stress relief" (not much good that did). It sparked a few times and then I got it replaced (extended apple care).
I had this happen with every notebook I have used (all PCs), so it's not an Apple issue!
Just open it up, snip the damaged end off, tie a knot, desolder the old connection, solder the good end, and snap it back together.
It won't look as good, but functionally it's identical - and saves a bunch from spending on a new adapter.
When replacing a PowerBook adapter of this type, I recommend the replacement adapter made by Newer Technology. It is much sturdier and better made than Apple's adapter. It is also larger and not as nice looking, but personally I don't care about that.
Also, the guy is lucky that he didn't become injured. It could have started a worse fire. If your power adapter (any power adapter) is malfunctioning, unplug it immediately and don't plug it in again. Get it replaced.
Hey, at least it *looks* pretty.
...and I've had 3 Dell laptops and 1 Acer laptop and NONE of them have frayed up...my god people what are you doing to your poor laptops?! And I just love the comment "This is the second [Mac Book Pro] power adapter I've had fail on me in the history of my Apple products so that seems like a good amount." You sound like a Windows user making excuses for when his PC crashes, I think you'll find NONE is a good amount, two means the cables crappy and you're not treating it right - sheesh ... sorry been watching too much House!
I had the same exact thing happen to me to my powerbook's power adapter while I was in my school's library studying...yea, not the place you want to have that thing catch on fire.
I agree though-I don't know if the MBP power bricks are any different than the PB ones, but I hope they've taken care of this small problem...
Mine did the same to me the other day, maybe i should have taken it in to complain rather than buy a new one :S
Hey dumb ass -
If you keep twisting the cord like that, of course it's going to short out, spark, and cause smoke. Quit @#%^-ing with the cord and it won't happen.
Although the cord is not the sturdiest of cords, turning and twisting it like that will sure cause problems.
Three words - "Made In China"
I treated my iBook G4 power brick like a baby...mostly because I'd checked up on Apple's website & other places on the adapter, and read that some people went thru 3-4 replacements (jeez...how careless are some people?).
Mine finally died after nearly 2 full years of use. The cord was "wrapped" carefully, never crimped. I never sat on/rolled over/tripped on/dropped the power brick...until one day it just stopped working, and sparks flew.
So to say, as some have here, that this only happens to blatantly careless people is dead wrong. I treated mine with extreme care, and it still died. It just means that Apple's brick isn't as sturdy and as well-designed as hoped. It's not a universal thing that users who have theirs die are merely "careless." That's ludicrous.
I recommend a G4 adapter from Macally. Got mine brand new off of eBay, and it's been a joy. It's lightweight, and VERY strong. There's no "LED" light on the end of the tip, but I'm too much of a slave to my battery to not pay attention to when the battery's charged & to unplug the cord. It's a good bargain.
This should be filed under "wahhh."
I had the Same Problem.
Funny, I was just watching it last night. They have Macs in the control room too.
Any electrical cable would spark and smoke if the rubber exposed the wires and you twisted and turned it to contact the other wires inside.
Maybe Letterman would be funnier if they stopped playing with random stuff and actually wrote good material.
Mine did exactly that too - except I didn't play with it. I returned if for a new one at no cost. I wound it up twice every day around the provided flip out hooks - which I believe caused the problem as the plastic initially split due to the angle it got pulled at. I don't care, I got a new one for free and can probably go back when my new one does it too.
this happened to mine too
And that is why on some Dell power supplies the cord coming out of the power supply has a built in right angle turn on it. So when you warp it around the brick it does not strain the cord. Why didn't the so smart brains at Apple think of this?
I've owned 2 laptops and have supported some 20 more and have not see this happen with any of my clients. None are Mac users. Though I suspect some abuse by the guy in the video, I also see the product was built for looks more then durability.
Apple fan boys love to say how much better built the Apple products are. But they are built in the same Chinese factory as PCs are so I find that hard to believe.
Reality distortion field at full power.
Okay Mr. Head writer for Letterman try writing a check for another power supply. And stop trying to get something for nothing, it make be true that there are power supplies that fail and I’ve had a few IBM ThinkPad power supplies that have failed. But your video is over dramatized and a weak attempt at seeking attention. It's obvious that the outer case of the wire is cut or broken and I'm not sure that you did not aggravated the condition of the wire to make a point but if you didn't your not only careless for not taking care of your equipment, your an idiot for playing with a power cord that has been damaged for some time. It makes us think that you Hollywood types are a bunch of whinny babies that thinks that the world owes you something for free or you will cry to your adoring fans and they will force them to submission. Why could you be just a regular person that had a problem with an Apple power cord and who cares. Of course your not.
His POWERBOOK?
That system is many years old now. What do you expect?
If it happened on his 2007 MacBook Pro, it would be an issue. An old PowerBook? PLEASE spare me your drama.
Wires get crimped and damaged over time with use. `Happened to my electric bike's headlight. Do I scream about it? No. I buy a new headlight.
Oh.. by the way:
"look at that!" (twist, crimp, bend) "Look! It's just doing that on its own!" (bend, twist, crimp)
Idiot.
Apple was right. Go buy a new one and this time don't abuse it, dim-bulb!
Apple needs to toughen up their cords! Is 'style' worth people dying in a fire? This is coming from a life long avid Mac user.
Worst. Ellen. Feiss. Impression. Ever.
"So I was, like, writing my script for Dave and I so totally, like, had it ready before deadline, you know... then my Powerbook adapter just ripped it's own cord right in half! And wiggled itself to make sure the bare metal shorted out. And my script was like: bloop, bloop!"
"I was like... so bummed..."