Home Forums Hardware Mac Desktops & Notebooks Power Adapter Late 2008 Aluminum - MB467LL/A

It's a Late 2008 Aluminum - MB467LL/A - MacBook5,1 - A1278 - 2254
So, I know it takes a 60w adapter and the L style. Is there more than one version of a 60w L style adapter or are those the only specs I need to buy a replacement? I had it plugged into my power adapter with no issues...

Also, it sez the airport card is missing. Then I read this:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1399798?start=15&tstart=0
Can you turn on AppleTalk in SL? That's what it's running.
(I'm just getting it going for someone's kid.)

Check with a reliable retailer that knows Macs such as Other World Computing or Smalldog Electronics.

I wouldn't get another L adapter. Apple stopped making them for a reason. When the cord is pulled from the long end, it essentially completely defeats the "pops out" protection of the magsafe. I've had to fix a number of MacBooks that were taken clean off tables because an L cable got walked through.

Get a T that has at least the rated wattage of the pack it is replacing. More is fine with watts/amps/current. If anything it'll run cooler if its rated higher.

Thanks. Thought if it was higher rating watts would run hotter. Counterintuitive. Note: Small Dog now charges $29.95 for a tech support call.

yeah, watts is capacity. if you compare two devices both running at their maximum capacity, then you'd be right. But when you have a high capacity device loafing along under a load that's light by comparison with what it can handle, its current carrying abilities and heat dissipation abilities are handing the lower load with ease. They may be generating the same amount of heat, but are dissipating it faster so feel cooler. Also higher load capacity means thicker wires, and those will run cooler than thinner wires made to handle a lower maximum load.

Maybe SD was getting a lot of support calls unrelated to sales? I expect a tech company to give me a little free tech support to use the product I just bought from them. That can't be good for their business!

Can you explain about the heat thing again? I think there might have been a word or two that autocorrected and I didn't get it. I kept thinking that when these Mac, in particular, power supplies get super hot it is because you are 'squeezing' too much power through them.

At my friend's trailer home a lot of plugs, outlets, and stuff get hot... Is that the wires in the wall being too thin?

SD: Well, I knew the sales department wasn't going to know and would just send me over to support. Everytime I need to know what to buy anyplace else, I hit the support option. Once you press 2 for support, that's when they tell you $29.95. So, I guess they offer paid phone support service for stuff you didn't buy there, that's all.

That is disappointing, but I was thinking in terms of a sales call. "Do you have a power adaptor for a MacBook5,1? How much does it cost?"

Other World Computing clearly lists what computers each power adaptor supports. No need to contact Tech Support.

SD has the 60w power adapter on their site but states for MBP with Retina and it was $80. But they sell used Macs, so I thought I should speak to someone. I should have just gone through sales, they would have put me through to tech support for free I'm sure. The $29.95 was a recorded announcement while I was on hold for tech support, so I was going to wait and say it was a pre-sales question, but the wait was too long.

It would make sense to state they offer a $29.95 technical support service, because that is probably what it is. At least I hope so!

You may be stuck with eBay if you follow V1's advice to get a "T" MagSafe.

Ok. Thanks.

You have to get a little into Ohms's law to understand why it works the way it does.

The "tl;dr" on that is pretty similar to how you describe it though, "squeezing electrons through a small wire". Technically that's not too far from the truth of what's going on, though for a slightly different reason.

Maybe a slightly better way to look at your analogy is to consider a man running down the subway, late for his train. The platform is the wire, the width of the platform is the wire's resistance (wider tunnel = lower resistance), and the man is an electron. How fast he is running is the voltage. The sum of all the people on the platform is the current. A wider platform makes for smoother travel (lower resistance) for everyone. If he doesn't bump into anyone as he runs down the platform, he doesn't lose any speed, and his voltage does not drop. If there's a lot of people on the platform, or if the platform isn't wide enough, he's going to have some collisions, and lose some (average) speed. This produces a voltage drop, and less voltage is available at the other end of the wire. (he's not moving as fast by the time he gets to his train, he's tired) In addition, he's ran into people on his way through, and this produces friction. The energy is lost as heat in a wire, or him getting yelled and cussed at as he clips people as he sprints by. Loss due to this friction can be reduced by lowering the number of people on the platform (lowering the current) or by widening the platform. (lowers the resistance, use a bigger gauge of wire)

That works surprisingly well, though I'm not certain how to fit wattage into it. Maybe we'll look at the people in the train car. They represent the power delivery of the subway/wire. The more people that are in the car (higher current) or the more energy they have left (from not having had so many collisions on the way to the car), the more overall work they can do when they get where they're going. That's the watts / wattage.

people x with of tunnel = speed they can run at -- current(amps) x resistance(ohms) = voltage(volts) -- e=i*r (Ohm's law)
people x energy = work -- power(watts) = current(amps) x voltage(volts) -- p = i * e (power law)

not bad. seems to work better than the usual "water analogy"...
(theoretically though, any number of people can move down the tunnel, that will just generate more heat/friction and in either case you will have a meltdown!)

So if you're going to send a lot of people by train, you'd better make sure the tunnel's wide enough, or you're going to have a bunch of grumpy tired people by the time they get to work.

Thanks, I have to read this a few times but I think I will get it.

It's kinda more the opposite...the result of more power being drawn than the wires are designed to deal with.

Rewiring the trailer is probably not an option, so your friend needs to unplug stuff that may be drawing power when it's not in use...power adaptors, for instance (Edit: and turn off stuff that's unnecessarily on...lights, for instance).

If there's more than one circuit/circuit breaker in the trailer, balancing the load between circuits will help...possibly a lot.

All that stuff that gets being hot is a fire hazard.

Edit:The heat is most likely bleeding off from the wires in the wall, rather than the result of individual appliances drawing more power than they're rated for.

Well, she had a heater plugged in and the plug and outlet got very hot. So, there is the worst case scenario. I told her not to use it and maybe get one with less watts. i don't know if that would make the right difference then. But she should turn off as much other stuff as possible and maybe it would make sense to drop another line just for the heater? Would it help to not plug it directly into the wall but plug it into some kind of adapter that dissipates the heat?

Yikes! I cringe when I hear stuff like that. My first thought would be "Why are things getting hot without a breaker going?" I don't mean to be alarmist but all of this sounds like it's headed toward a fire. It seems to be me the problem needs to be identified and fixed, not worked around.

Like ryck says!

I actually wondered whether your adaptor exists, but after giving the matter some thought I decided that it's not a very good idea...probably even a bad one.

Yeah, a heater that draws less power is certainly a good idea, as is a lower wattage hair blower if your friend uses one.

It all comes down to "load" and how it can be minimized. One or more new lines with their own breakers is the best idea.

Edit: 1. Minimizing load can also be accomplished by not using multiple high-draw appliances at the same time, i.e. don't dry your hair to while you're under your sun lamp and nuking dinner.

2. The fact that things are getting hot doesn't mean that a fire is imminent, nor should the load necessarily trip a breaker...up to a point, but it's one hell of a sit-up-and-take-notice warning.

Yikes! was my reaction too when I noticed it. I can tell someone to rewire their house, call in an electrician, but will they? Electricians are expensive and there are just so many times I can say this is more dangerous than you think! So, I can offer some things that could make it less likely to cause a fire, and that is what I need. I already suggested sweaters.

A smoulder started in an office I was working in a long time ago when someone plugged a surge protector into a surge protector. They were told to never do that but people don't think these things really happen.

Edit: Written before I read your post, artie505.

Boy do I know that!

Under the circumstances, the best things you can do for your friend may be to

• make sure she KNOWS that you NEVER use water on an electrical fire and
• make sure that her fire extinguishers are rated for electrical fires (as not all are).

Great idea, I'll buy her one. The one they have is the regular kind.

"more power being drawn than the wires are designed to deal with." -- "wires in the wall are too thin."

these are exactly the same things.

"ABC" is the most common fire extinguisher, and should be good for common trash, liquid, and electrical fires. So she may have what she needs already if it's an ABC?

http://www.brkelectronics.com/faqs/oem/what-do-the-abc-ratings-mean-on-fire-extinguishers

To put a fire out you have to remove either heat, fuel, or oxidizer (oxygen) to stop the chemical reaction that is "fire". (highly exothermic oxidization including thermal decomposition)

There are more risks than just electrocution when fighting fires. Another classic is the "didn't set the CO2 cylinder on the ground before blasting the fire", that can give you a big enough static shock to send you flying. (this was a big problem during WW2 with ship fires during battle) Whenever you see someone that doesn't understand water is a bad idea on an electrical fire, think about the CO2 static example - that's how water/electricity are to them, it's not intuitive for everyone.

In an absolute sense...absolutely, but when you factor in load there are two possibilities:

1. The wiring is insufficient to deal with the expected load (read shoddy design, execution, or both), and
2. The load exceeds the expected capacity of the wiring (read unwise users).

I was saying that it's likely that the latter instance is what slolerner's friend is dealing with.

Ah yes that's a subtle difference, "below its spec" vs "insufficient spec selected"

I would add to your list…

• Make sure your fire insurance policy is up to date and is sufficient to cover a total loss.
• Make sure your fire alarms are working, have fresh batteries, and are loud enough to wake you from a sound sleep
• Be sure you have enough life insurance to cover all your terminal expenses
• Compare those expenses with the cost of having an electrician in to make sure your residence is properly wired for the current load.

An electrical inspection when we bought our current house revealed the bus bars in the breaker panel were almost burned through. The result of the previous owner's electrical contractor son having ignored the building codes and expanded the system by replacing 15 amp breakers with 20 amp breakers and in some case replacing a single 15 amp breaker with double 15 and even double 20 amp mini breakers. The wiring had been up to the code when the house was built in 1968, but the subsequent additions to the system had grossly overloaded not only the breaker panel but the wiring itself.

Interesting side note: Current building standards often call for smaller gauge wires for a given load than the older standards on the theory that the smaller gauge wires provide more resistance and make it more likely the breaker will pop rather than wire heating starting a fire. Sounds counterintuitive to me but I am a software engineer, not a building engineer.

Excellent additions to the list! Thanks.

Your sidenote does, indeed, sound counterintuitive, but then again, I'm named after my late uncle who touched the wrong wire in the backyard, and I share his penchant for carelessness with electricity, so who am I to judge?