MacBook Pro power adapters dying, keys frying, strange heat problem

Question

I've got a very frustrating and mysterious major situation going on with my MBPro. I'm living in Peru in the jungle. I've got a basic electric hookup that's caused no problems for the few electrical devices I've got: small dorm-size fridge, a lightbulb, speaker system, iPhone, iPod, and, until recently a MacBook I had borrowed temporarily from a friend here. I recently visited the states and returned with my MacBook Pro which I need for work down here. Thusly my troubles began.
I noticed pretty quickly the power adapter got super hot, could easily fry an egg on it sometimes. One night I unplugged the Magsafe adapter from the MBP for safekeeping, slept, and in the a.m., the adapter (unplugged from the Mac but still plugged into the wall outlet) was terribly hot. Does this make any sense? It gets stranger & worse...
I used the Mac later that day and within a couple hours two of the keyboard keys stopped working for good (I was later able to remap these keys using a 3rd party program). The next day the Magsafe adapter stopped working. Certainly heat had something to do with it, despite the fact that MagSafes have built-in safeguards whereby they (should) shut down temporarily if overheated. But this sucker was dead.
A friend from the states visited me 3 weeks later and brought two more adapters ordered from Amazon.com, each a different generic brand that had good customer reviews.
The first, which looks just like a MagSafe, worked fine but died in a week. Again, it would get superhot not even plugged into the MBP (like the other one). I should note the MBP also was always hot to super hot. Also the large plastic square power hub of the adapter, even after it died, would get hot if plugged in, it just wouldn't power the Mac.
The other (3rd) adapter worked for awhile, and its rectangular power bar hub would only get a little hot. But the Mac would still get insanely hot, as did the very top of the adapter plug - the part with the teeth that go into the MBP. Within 2 weeks, the adapter wouldn't work unless I applied pressure on it against the Mac. Then it stopped working even with pressure applied.
Here's where it gets even stranger:
What I noticed was that the two outermost of the five teeth on the plug had been somehow pushed further in, such that they couldn't make contact with the MBP (I guess the pressure I was manually applying helped this for awhile until the teeth sank even much further in). How and why in the world did this happen?
Desperate, I brought the two adapters to an electrician, and had him combine the good teeth end piece from the previous generic Magsafe with the adapter whose teeth caved in. Viola, it worked...but just for three days. Amazingly the two outer teeth of the new hybrid plug ALSO retreated and couldn't make contact. Furthermore, I noticed some dried plastic juice gunk around them and concluded that the heat of the connection to the Mac was somehow mysteriously melting the glue around these teeth and also causing them to push further into the adapter more. I know: sounds almost impossible. But this is what happened, TWICE.
Obviously there is an overall problem here, one which concerns heat, among whatever else. It's hot here in the jungle. While my other appliances have had no problem, I've certainly noticed the fridge and speaker subwoofer system run hot. But the electricity reading is normal, and I have a current regulator stabilizing the electrical flow. And the previous MacBook (not Pro) had no problems. And yes the fans on the MBP work. And in general the electricity here works fine to run people's electronics, including some very large freezer units and plasma TVs.
I'm at a loss as to what to do and to how to identify the problem beyond "heat". If I don't get the MBP working normally I can, in effect, no longer be here as it's essential to my work. Therefore any help would be most awesome and greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

1) Make sure you have the right adapter type for your model of MacBook. There are 45w, 60w, and 85w adapters. Pro's either take the 60 or 85 watt.
2) Most 3rd party adapters I have tried are junk, junk, junk. They quit working, have melted, have fried my macbook, and even caught on fire.
Now what it sounds like to me is maybe your are having an issue with a loose magsafe board. This was a big problem with the white macbooks( I realize that is not what yours is). The MagSafe board (part where your charger plugs into the computer) gets pushed in ever so slightly and if the connection between your adapter and the board is not precise it can cause issues of anything from overcharging and shutting off the adapter, overheating, damaging your Magsafe board, and making the adapter useless.  The best way to tell if it is this is if you have to wiggle your adapter to get it to charge correctly. (Note I have never seen the happen with the T-shaped MagSafe 1.0 but I wouldn't doubt it, but I know it happens with the MagSafe 2.0 L shaped adapters.)