Third Party Battery Chargers for MacBook Pro

Question

I had a very interesting experience last week. I bought 2 85W power adapters for my MacBook Pro. There is no "name brand" for it. They were about $47.50 each. The price was effective in getting me to buy 2 as it was a 33% savings over the purchase of 2 Mac adapters. The location of the store and name on the internet is: CCS - Calcellular.com - CSPower.com (through Yahoo! Store Order System).
Well, to save me some time, here is a description of the "problems" I had with this adapter:
Hello,
I bought 2 Replacement Power Adapters for my MacBook Pro. It is 85W as per Apple specifications.
After one week, the first adapter failed miserably. Of a sudden, my MAC started acting sporadically as though there was some sort of a short or something. After a bit longer, my MAC's screen turned black (the power was still on and the adapter plugged into my MAC) and it died! I was afraid that there was a sudden zap of electricity from the "brick" of the power adapter. However, I unplugged the adapter from my MAC, leaving the adapter plugged into the wall. I then tried to get my MAC to work again and, fortunately, after shutting it down by just turning it off by pressing the power button. I then plugged in my old original Apple power adapter and then turned my MAC on again. After a while, the plugged-in "brick" of the power adapter that you sold to me was "cold." It had died! I actually bought 2 of these in the hope that, should one die over time, then I would have another at the ready when the need arose. Well, after the scare that I had with the first one, I was extremely reluctant to use the second one for fear that, maybe, the second one may do the same and actually cause damage to my machine. I just plugged in and kept on using the old one. Today, I got an original Apple 85 Watt power adapter that is now connected to my MacBook Pro. Well, since this "event," I have been having trouble with my built-in FireWire interface as it just fails to recognize my external drives extremely erractically for no reason at all. I have changed the cables numerous times and even cut down the number of FireWire drives down from 6 to only one! However, the problem still persists at the same frequency (about once every 15 minutes after getting the drive recognized again). Now, I cannot reliably back up my data from 2 750G drives to a 1T drive as needed. My iTunes library is more than 200G and needs to be on an external drive and I cannot listen to music without the danger of losing my iTunes directory as well as a numeric level of my DRM rights. This was NOT a problem BEFORE the "brick" suddenly malfunctioned or went "bad" on my MAC. I followed the instructions to the letter about how to use the power adapter included in the box. I also bought this MAC last May.
What can you do for me to "make things right"? I am sure that my MAC requires service as well as repair. However, should Apple deem that it was due to "other than Apple's fault," it could cost almost as much as a new MAC as this "shock" to my MAC may have caused the necessity to replace my current motherboard (over $1600!).
I am, to say the least, very unhappy and I would like to see a "resolution" to this problem that will return my MacBook Pro to its proper state and performance.
Thank you,
Anyse
Well, I am letting all of you know that this "replacement" is not worth it and I will definitely keep all of you posted as to how this turns out. At least you can learn from MY own experience, if not stupidity!
ANyse

Answer 1

Thanks for sharing. Do keep in mind the old adage, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is..." Since Apple has not licensed the MagSafe design, there are no 'official' non-Apple power adapters, so you're either buying a knock-off or a reconditioned one (and with power systems, reconditioned is not a good idea).