General Question

troubleinharlem's avatar

Why isn't my mom's new charger working?

Asked by troubleinharlem (7999points) May 3rd, 2011

Okay, so, my mom’s charger recently broke for her Macbook, and so we went to BestBuy to get a new one (since she has to do taxes and whatnot). She tested it out in the store and it worked fine – the light turned green and then orange. When we got home, however, it failed to work.

We tried different outlets in different parts of the house, and we don’t know what is going on. This has happened with three different kinds of chargers so far – generic, the real deal, and some random hybrid one.

What’s going on?

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5 Answers

Randy's avatar

I have problems with my Macbook charger as well. I have to wiggle it back and forth until the light comes on and then wait a second until it starts charging. After my first charger went out, I had to buy a whole new battery. Make sure it’s really the charger and not the battery.

mrrich724's avatar

Is it possible that it’s the battery? That’s what I’d guess, especially if it was working in the store.

Batteries need replacing every few years.

Seaofclouds's avatar

When you tested it in the store, did you test it on her computer? If not, it’s probably a problem with the actual computer end of things (either the battery or the place the charger plugs into). Even if you did try it on her computer in the store, it could still be something with her computer.

When you try them at home, are you trying the same outlet initially? Do other things work when plugged into that first outlet? If not, it could be something in that outlet causing a disruption in the things you plug into it and possibly even shorting them out.

jerv's avatar

I am reminded of the joke about the blond who goes to the doctor complaining that every part of her body that she touches hurts and the doctor tells her, “You broke your finger.”. You’ve been through enough chargers that you can probably eliminate that the problem is the charger. The odds of all of them being bad is pretty small.

That leaves two things; the battery or the computer. Now, if the battery is more than a couple of years old, then it’s likely that you need a replacement. Then again, I have also heard reports of newer chargers not working with older Macbooks.

creative1's avatar

I had a similar problem with mine, brought it to apple and because my computer was under waranty they gave me a new one, if yours is older you may need to purchase it. I would take the macbook to the apple store and have one of the genius bar people diagnois and get you a charger that works. Apple will actually take it out of the box and let you see that its working. You can find a store by going to www.apple.com

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