How to repair an Apple MacBook power supply (MagSafe)

The cable came out of the MagSafe plug on my MacBook power supply, so I ordered a replacement cable. This is how to crack the power supply open and fit it, no need for a Dremel or a knife.
Thanks go to eBay seller junk-is-us7399 (myworld.ebay.co.uk/junk-is-us7399) for supplying a working replacement power cable.
To those who think Apple MagSafe connectors are useless: it's better than trying to repair a broken DC input jack on a laptop, which in many cases involve a total stripdown of the laptop just to get to the solder pads. Been there, done that.
Credit where credit's due: this video uses a case-opening method found at www.instructables.com/id/How-to-open-and-replace-the-MagSafe-cord-on-an-App/
INDEX
0:00 Index
0:40 Tools required
1:04 Testing the new cable
1:28 Dismantling the adapter
5:17 DANGER! LIVE PARTS INSIDE!
6:12 Desoldering the old cable and fitting the new one
11:40 Glueing the case back together

[@kipling1957]

Excellent - so glad you put this up. My problem was a break in the cable where it enters the brick itself due to repeated strain. Apparently, this happens fairly frequently. I did a patch job of soldering and shrink-wrapping the break that lasted about 6 months. I'm so glad you've figured a way to get into the brick itself so I can do a proper job!

[@glaucouswingedgull]

Thank you for probably the best description on this repair on youtube. A couple of differences in what I did: 1) I just clipped the wire lead ins so that I could just solder the replacement output power cord to them rather than the circuit board. Didn't have to peal back the shielding or dig so far into the transformer to do it that way. Did use wire shrink insulators after soldering. 2) taped the transformer back together with gorilla tape (duct tape) in the off chance I need to do this again. 3) Put a little loop in the output cord by the plug and glued it in place with my hot glue gun, to remove stress on this particular piece.

[@johnschubert825]

You gave me an idea! My problem is that the cable fails right where it leaves the rubberized stress reliever gizmo (which is miserably designed). I might try cutting the wire a few inches beyond the failure point, removing the rubberized gizmo, and soldering my new cut ends to the good part of the wire. I'll make it look great with a combination of heat shrink tubing, glue gun and duct tape.

[@skabde]

@@johnschubert825 "I'll make it look great with a combination of heat shrink tubing, glue gun and duct tape." The words of a true tinkerer. Thumbs up!

[@RUSTYDIXON-1]

@@johnschubert825 Just keep in mind that the black wire is actually the bare shielding down the rest of the cable. It's going to take a real heat-shrink tubing artist to get that done (but it's probably doable).

[@tonipeperonni]

Thank you so much. You save me 80€ for a new magsafe. So easy to repair with your tutorial I spent less than 10 minutes and around 10 euros for the replacement cable. Thanks from Spain!

[@juniormarbles8622]

Thoroughly informative tutorial. Thanks. I'd like to add one tip: When reassembling the two housing halves, clean and straighten the groove all around the edge of one of the halves into which the tongue of the other half is supposed to fit. When opening the MagSafe, the groove or tongue can get bent of marred, making it hard to fit the two halves snugly. For the curious: the failure in my MagSafe plug was due to intermittent contact of the spring-loaded center (control) pin: the spring behind the pin is so tiny and weak that it got fatigued with time, and could no longer push the pin firmly against the computer's contact.

[@CiceroMonteiro]

Thanks for being british and speaking so calmly mate :)

[@AintBigAintClever]

I can't help being British (Welsh to be precise) but I try my best to speak calmly (and edit out any pauses and stutters) unless I'm mouthing off about something :)

[@ciscohd6271]

Monde de petit

[@treesandbamboo]

Thanks for the video. I honestly only watched the first few minutes and then took it from there but it was a very helpful start, particularly your method of popping apart the case. The soldering (removing old and re-installing new leads) went easier than anticipated; the holes on the mounting board stayed open and retained a little solder ring around them which helped the new solder grab easily. I also held the whole contraption down to my desktop edge with a large spring clamp so it was easier to pull down on the old wire with pliers (as I heated the solder) without it scooting around.

[@eddiepurple]

​Hey, thanks so much for taking the time to put this up, I'm now typing this from my laptop with repaired charger, you've saved me a load of money! Cheers!

[@tomashbo]

The really best movie about reparing the MB power supply. Without destroying the cover and with exact clarifying every single step. Many hanks!

[@gravytrain29]

Great Video. I bought the cable for $11 (instead of $80 for an adapter from apple) and used your video as a guide. Thank you!

[@Agent22817]

Thanks for the credit on the opening method and the link to the intractable I wrote :) I'm glad it's helped so many people! (now if I could only get my cats to stop chewing on my cords)

[@AintBigAintClever]

It certainly has! A few people have tried fixing the MagSafe connector itself but they're very difficult to open without damaging them (one idiot had a pop at me reckoning the MagSafe fix was easy, but seeing as he managed to pick up his soldering iron by the "business end" when trying to fix it his opinion counts for shit).

[@keithsabine7398]

Brilliant! Thanks for the tip on how to open the case with pliers - it worked a dream. I had to remove the cable gland as the cable had been damaged where it enters the charger - the outer screen of the cable was completely broken. As the cable was moulded into the gland, I found the best way to remove the bit of old cable was to carefully snip off the leads on the inner side of the gland, then use a 3.5mm drill to drill out a hole though the glade to push the cable though. Then strip back the cable about 2cm, twist the outer shield and put a bit of heatshrink sleeve on, then solder the outer to the ground pad on the pcb and the inner to the power pad.

[@rruntsch]

I was able to watch half of the video to learn how to successfully repair my charger. Thanks for the helpful demonstration! It waved me quite a bit of money.

[@grahammcdonald]

Tips ..I opened the plastic up ONLY A LITTLE BIT so to retain some of the original back end clips, (I put wedges in to stop it closing), cut the wires as close to the plastic/rubber connection as poss, (shortened the new replacement eBay cable a bit), then used pliers (black and white). Each wire held out so I could carefully strip and solder (wire to wire), then I taped them it with electrical tape (making sure the tape could not move and cause a short! rubber sleeves are better if have them) then a sparing bit of superglue and your foot help down on it for a min. Job Done! thanks!

[@reale83]

Thanks for posting this! Successfully got through the entire repair following your clear instructions.

[@sspabu]

Great tutorial :) I think it's the best about MBP charger repair on YT. It's great to see it can be done without damaging whole the plastic cover! Thank you!

[@gentlesoul1513]

excellent great help, saved me a fortune. many thanks fir taking the time to do the video.

[@AintBigAintClever]

Yep. I've just fished the chewed-up remains of the dead connector from the bin (which is lucky, tomorrow is "bin day"). 4 LEDs (2 per side), a handful of other discrete SMDs and a 6-pin chip marked 3AB1 2100, all crammed into that aluminium barrel.

[@richard2524]

Props to you sir! I just used this tutorial and it worked like a charm! I've never soldered before or done anything the least bit technical, but it still worked perfectly on the first try. I didn't replace my cable, just cut a bit off the end and stripped the old cable, re-soldered, and bing... Orange charging light!

[@HelloStrangerPod]

Thanks! You just helped me answer my question 9 years later. I went into the comments meaning to ask if that was possible. Cheers 🙂

[@graftonindustries427]

After watching this, i did my own, took me only 15 minutes! Everything was exactly as shown in the video. Thanks mate!

[@uncoy]

You're handy. 15 minutes is fast for this work.

[@AintBigAintClever]

This method really comes into its own when soldering multicore cables, where it also has the advantage that if the tape comes off one of the joints, it can't short out to one of its neighbours as the neighbouring joints are either further up or further down the cable.

[@vamsi8669]

Hi Thank you very much for this video. I am absolutely grateful to you. I am able to fix my broken cable. I dont have a spare cable though. My cable was cut off at the white brick end. I copped off and resoldered and it is absolutely working fine. I am not able to put back the connector as it is laminated to the cable, so got rid of that and resoldered. NOW I'M ABSOLUTELY HAPPY!!! THANK YOU!!!

[@sjoerdv92]

Thanks, just used your tutorial to fix my powercord. Didn't discharge the condensors, but wasn't a problem. Just be extra careful. Putting the adapter back together was a bit of a hustle, so now it hangs together using a piece of tape. But I don't mind, I've installed the fixed adapter behind my desk and I'm using a new adapter on the road. Thanks again!

[@in_sympathy]

Nice video, bud 👍🏻helped me a lot both on disassembly and assembling the thing back. Mine only had a broken piece of power cord that I just cut and soldered back - good as new 👌🏻

[@Plan-C]

Thanks. That looked like a pretty serious belt you got off those caps! Just finished fixing up a 2010 ebay MBP so will probably end up having to do this judging by all the reviews of the 'quality' of the Magsafe on the Apple site lol. Mine has 2 cables and not a plug so I'm hoping they used to build them better than they do now! I'll probably just cut the cable and solder the new end on with heatshrink though. Nice to see somebody giving them the finger about £85 for a replacement that barely lasts a year. Good work.

[@NigelGentry]

I had a break in a wire right near the power supply. Using your instructions on opening it up and describing what's in there, I shortened the wire and re-connected it inside. Thanks for the video, it was really helpful.

[@HelloStrangerPod]

I have a question. I'm not sure how to describe this. Did you manage to run the cable thru the thing holding the conductors from being pulled out of the soldering? If not what's holding them?

[@NigelGentry]

@@HelloStrangerPod I did manage to slide the cable through that thing. I seem to remember that it was quite hard to slide along the cable, though.

[@HelloStrangerPod]

@@NigelGentry well done. I ended up drilling a hole through the thing for the whole cable to slide through. I kept it narrow enough for it to still firmly hold the cable in place.

[@Owfownugi]

Great video! Thanks for taking the shock from the capacitor so future DIYers didn't have too! I couldn't believe it was just two wires within that fancy Apple cord.

[@HarvardBob]

Knew there would be a way inside this little beast. Thanks for the tips. My Retina MagSafeII was a little different and required a bit more "persuasion". Note, if you have ring extractor pliers these work quite well to open the seams as this type of pliers can be set to push out the jaws when you squeeze the grips. Very handy. These cases are pretty well glued together and an X-acto knife judiciously placed. opened the seams where brute force alone would have cracked the case sides. Also, the Retina supply uses an epoxy heat sink compound to bond the supply heat sink to the plastic case. Apple supplies are notorious for getting extremely hot when on full charge. Metal to plastic heat conduction is a pretty poor method for heat dissipation. Beware of your charger overheating after your repair or better yet, use some metal particle filled epoxy between the heat sink plate and the plastics side. I used epoxy also to glue the case back together as there were a few open cracks that epoxy can fill better than cyanoacrylate.

[@joeheyes5256]

Thanks for the video. My lead didn't need replacing, but I found a number of dry joints on the PCB once you'd demonstrated how to get into it!

[@johnnelson7893]

Very useful video, I just finished repairing my wife's charger. She has a MBP, less than a year old, and there were some minor changes to the brick. Those 2 flaps of shielding have changed from a silver color to gold, and have also been soldered together in 2 places (no longer just taped down and inserted together). In the end, the 2 halves of my power brick didn't seal together totally, so I couldn't get the cable winding tabs to stay in, but no big deal... never used them anyways!

[@revjmark]

Many thanks - just what I needed to repair mine. Thanks for taking the time.

[@neilmckay4671]

Great video. Worked for me as described and saved a lot on a new adapter. Many thanks!

[@Buddhabobb]

Nice and slow through all the steps. I'm going to order the part on ebay today. My kind of video repair guide. Great job!!

[@brucew5727]

Great video. In my case, the wire was broken at the other end, right next to the "brick." Needed to fix today and could not find new wires. A simple fix was to carefully cut into the rubber nipple at the end of the brick and also remove about half an inch of white insulation along the wire. This exposes a fine silver mesh around a grey wire. The grey mesh had broken from repetitive movements and I was able to twist a section of it on both sides, then soldered a small amount of wire to bridge the mesh together. At this point one just has to wrap up the cut (my preference is vulcanizing or self fusing tape). It works well and I did not have to take apart the brick! If the center wire is broken, then one would have two parts to solder and carefully ensure that they are insulated from one another.

[@LuisChavezatgoogleplus]

Thanks friend for posting this helpful DIY video, I used it in theory ( I didnt use a solder, I don't have it) and it turned out to be working as well! you saved me 150 bucks well at least I will save money until I get a new one and this still works. Greeting from Mexico city.

[@viciousgazza3318]

I’ve just fixed mine! First time using a solder in my life! Thanks so much! :) saved 80 quid!

[@ScrubsIsee]

Great repair tutorial! Except the test at the end is missing. But anyway: Good camera and lighting, well explained. No need for me though, as I own two of these still working without any fault for 7 years now. I really liked to see you fixing one.

[@iuriigarmash3285]

Liked the simple way of opening it with pliers. So it still would look good afterwards... Thank you!

[@thadeusajayi4253]

I just did this in 2019, breaking it open as seen here was all i needed. Thanks

[@hesterhouwing1061]

Thanks a lot for taking the effort on making this video and uploading it. Now I know how to fix mine. Much appreciated!

[@filmdude007]

top video, thanks. It's actually a very simple process but thanks for through everything with simplicity.

[@meghrichie]

Thanks for the video, would not have successfully replaced the charger without your help!!

[@Lilylibra]

Absolutely bloody brilliant video, thank you. So fed up with buying new chargers, will definitely give this repair guide a go. 👍👌😍 (Have subscribed for more of your repair tips😉)

[@jeewarangagunasekera3745]

Thank you very much for this very informative and detailed video. The shop guy asked damn 100 $from me for a new one. You saved me all the money and gained some skills in electronic repair too.

[@arisskarpetis]

Great method. You can also drip some methylated spirits along the seams to soften the glue to make a little easier to open it.

[@kevinbsaunders]

Thanks so much! Very helpful! Saved me the cost of a new adapter.

[@kristiantoyanuar]

just got my magsafe cable fixed now, thanks mate!

[@akospasztor4336]

Thanks for the video. I've just finished the procedure and its working fine! :)

[@AintBigAintClever]

You're welcome, thanks for the comment! :)

[@Kac309]

Thanks to your video I repaird my broken power supply. Cheers mate.

[@JonathanMaddox]

I tried it at home! I was working on magsafe2, and the cord colours and holes are slightly different. My replacement cord came with a mere 1mm of prodtruding black wire with a green extension already soldered on to it and 1mm of grey wire with a red extension. The original cord had black and white wires, no green anywhere, the merest hint of melted red insulation at the end of the white one (but I couldn't really see that until after it was removed). As a rank amateur, I noted mentally but failed to WRITE DOWN or photograph which wire was in which hole before I removed them both, then of course I couldn't remember. I found that on both the new cord and the old, I seemed to have full conductivity from BOTH wires to ALL FIVE pins at the magnetic end (and no this wasn't just because the old cord was broken and the new one a dud -- the black wire clearly corresponds to the outer conductor of the coax). Everything else seemed very much the same as your video, so stupidly I simply took a punt as to orientation. It didn't work ... so I swapped the wires over ... electrocuted my middle finger in the process, of course, because I'd had it plugged in and didn't discharge it. YEOW! I figured I had probably fried the adaptor as well as my finger, but I carried on regardless (more cautiously) and lo, it works fine now I have the orientation correct. For those in my boat with magsafe2 and uncertain as to orientation, the black/green wire goes nearest the edge of the PCB and the grey/red wire goes behind the small bright blue ceramic capacitor. BTW I do love your accent. Torchwood with maybe the very merest hint of Littlefinger.

[@dennisogenche1498]

I used this video to repair my a105 MacBook pro charger. Thanks for making this.

[@cd2stw]

Very good video. Just two comments: It would be easier to desolder/solder if you have some kind of support for the main structure (brick) and when desoldering cables is not good to use mechanical force, I know if from (bad) experiences, it's natural to attempt that but PCB's traces are so thin and can break very easily, just be patient and extra cautious about that part.

[@shiinari2869]

Thank you heaps for the tutorial! I'm careful about where I leave my charger but sometimes I forget to hide it from my bunny and well... we can all guess the ending of that scenario :'D I was up to my 4th replacement before coming across your tutorial, really liked how you kept the camera rolling and didn't skip out on any parts while completing the replacement, that really helped!! Dismantling the damned thing took ages and I think I might've removed it incorrectly because the shielding came apart from the casing unlike yours (where the top part had stuck to the casing and you only needed to remove the light yellow tape) but it still worked fine after soldering the new cable on. I think I'll keep this video somewhere easily accessible because I see myself needing it again in the near future...

[@trishar3480]

Thanks much for this video. I just replaced mine and this helped heaps!

[@leifkeane]

Just done it!! And I didn't blow it up when I plugged it in!!!! Thanks.

[@stewartsimpson2236]

Excellent video - helped me to fix my charger this evening :-)

[@AintBigAintClever]

I do the video editing in Windows as I'm familiar with Sony Vegas, but other stuff (Photonicinduction's intro theme, for example) is done on Mac. Any on-screen schematics are done using EAGLE on the Mac as well, usually screen-captured in full HD by plugging the laptop into the TV.

[@santhosh933]

Very steady hands there...

[@miriamschuman311]

Excellent video! I just replaced my cord for $6.00, instead of spending a bunch of money on a computer cord that is ten year's old! And, it was fun to do. Good luck. Advice to add--be careful not to connect the new soldering dabs for the two wires, and be extra careful not to tear any of the board tape inside the box.

[@GrandmasFolly]

Thank you so much, you have inspired me to fix my own and save some money. Great video too.

[@on_your_yoga_mat]

Thanks, really clear instructions; fixed mine no problems 🙏😀

[@Lee-pm8ol]

thank you for the tutorial, your procedure was a bit messy but practical thx

[@nydrone7051]

Good soldering. Thanks.

[@ridenhour1]

Thanks for the video friend. I get to try this tomorrow.

[@WorldReserveCurrency]

nice closeups!! very helpful thanks!

[@jtomasg91]

perfect tutorial!! Congratulations!!

[@thinwhitedukenator]

Awesome. Just completed this - worked a treat. Thank you. Before I closed it up I made sure it worked and charged my Macbook. I then realised I'd just put myself at risk from a nice capacitor discharge like you had. Rather than use a screwdriver I connected it to my Macbook without mains power, green/orange LED glowed for a split second and then went out. I'm thinking this is possibly a better and safer way to discharge the circuit. Thanks again for the vid. I now have two refurbished chargers!

[@JonathanMaddox]

+ThisIsMud that's a safer way to discharge ... if it's all in working order. In my case it wasn't (my own fault, I got the orientation wrong due to ambiguous colour coding and arrogant overconfidence in my visual memory).

[@AintBigAintClever]

+Jonathan Maddox that's where digital cameras come in handy. Been there, done that.

[@vesuveking3465]

Thanks mate for showing how to replace it:)

[@anassaammou732]

Great job, very detailed and so helpful, thank you soop much

[@maribethyap-pajaron3172]

I saw ur fingers to discharges the capacitor first before u did to discharges on metal screw :) ur video helpfully for the other's. nice video

[@polishbroadcast]

Thanks for this. Really helpful.

[@AintBigAintClever]

Watch out if opening the charger. It's not designed to be worked on, so there don't appear to be any discharge resistors across the input smoothing capacitor. This can store up to 350 volts DC and as you can see in the video it takes a LONG time to discharge itself, even two days isn't enough!

[@fisnikkastrati837]

How to be safe then? What is the workaround to this problem i.e., how to discharge the capacitor?

[@rainbowevil]

@@fisnikkastrati837 yep, short it out like he did in the video as a precaution - always wise to do with big capacitors when taking things apart. If you have any slightly higher power resistors you could also use one of those to discharge slightly slower (nicer on the capacitor and not so sparky!)

[@sunkhanmiosameyan6667]

Thanks a lot for the video!T'was really cool using the methos

[@DarkSith1980]

I agree with the previous comments....after repair yours looks the best! I will do mine like yours and not butcher it up!

[@AintBigAintClever]

Good tip. Tricky to get hold of hypos though, I tried asking at the local chemist because I needed to precisely apply paint to a scratch on the car, no chance!

[@gimmespamnow]

Great video, very helpful. Thank you!

[@migbalrat]

Thnaks for the useful information. Congratulations!

[@jonbretro4596]

Nice one. You make it look easy - mine came apart even easier! :)

[@RahulKhurana85]

very helpful, thanks for uploading

[@SergioNasi]

Thanks, just repaired the power adapter after following the instructions of the video, can't get it wrong. Cost of the cable on Amazon: 8€. I owe you the 80-90€ I saved.

[@bobevansIW]

Very good :-) Thank you for saving me a few quid! Only took 10 mins ;-)

[@2204JCM]

Just did mine in about an hours time total- including getting the tools out and finding a few things.I also put white shrink wrap on both ends of the new cord to add a bit of strain relief. That way I don't have to replace it so soon again. I ordered two cords so I'll have one already the next time it dies. As a bonus I used the heat gun to help when splitting the two halves. That way mine came apparat easier and there wasn't any rough edges or damage.

[@AintBigAintClever]

+2204JCM Nice. Well done :) My sister's fiancé is using mine at the mo.

[@jeanbernardg5859]

+2204JCM what do you mean by "splitting the two halves"? you mean opening the power supply only with a heat gun, in order to avoid cracking the clips, hence not using super glue?

[@jasonleong1519]

Hi Sir, Thanks for your tutorial, i manage to fix/repair my one :)

[@HH_shorts-w8e]

Thanks a lot. Not sure if I had an original Apple product or not, but the MagSafe wire was insulated only on the white line. In the cable, the wire carrying the "black" signal isn't insulated. The black insulation starts on the board, but stops after about an inch. And of course, the white insulation started to break apart, and a beautiful short circuit happened between black and white lines.

[@AintBigAintClever]

I got off lightly, there was still plenty left to zap the screwdriver.

[@sneffels]

hay i just what too-say , love the vids. nice, clean, and constructive for people to follow for rvrrone to follow

[@PervizAhmed]

good work. i will try this tomorrow.

[@leifkeane]

+Perviz Ahmed Same!

[@MennoPieters]

Worked for me... Wasn't easy to open, not so easy to solder (a bit small), but it worked out.

[@MedSou]

*Very helpful,Thank you* 👍👍👍👍👍

[@AintBigAintClever]

Sounds like you may have short-circuited something in the adapter. Could be a stray strand of wire or blob of solder, could be that the metal shielding is touching something it's not supposed to.

[@weareswift]

Thanks for the video it was perfect.

[@Itsmyzelf]

Thanks for the help! I just fixed mine :)

[@BengalTiger]

This is the best video to repair the mac charger. I ordered mine from eBay. I'm little confused about the wire that I got. the wire in the charger is black and white the white one with green tip. Should I solder the red one where the green one placed.

[@RafaelMonteroRMS1990]

I made it successfully! Thank you!

[@fortanell1]

thank you dude... you save the day..

[@jackroche727]

thank you great tutorial , Video is awesome. .

[@warrenlee7064]

after watching this, I just decided to buy a new charger

[@Biboubier5528]

+Sang Won Lee Don't give up as soon as it's a little bit complicated :)

[@maribethyap-pajaron3172]

+Dave Adriaanse yeah make first diagnose before judgment and make to save a money.

[@yompyz]

You are definitely right.

[@uncoy]

After having five or six of them go down (we have quite a few MBP at home and more at work), buying new ones sounds less attractive. We repair them in bulk.

[@wharrbarg]

yes me too

[@EarendilTheBlessed]

Heat it well with a heat gun or a magic bag before trying to pry it. You may also use a vice to force cracking. If it does not pop right away, it's not hot enough.

[@solahinsourjah2721]

Thanks. same way i manage to replace my Damage cable

[@sisgri]

(To Simón Torres) Applying some force is needed in order to remove the wires: they have a terminal lug with a sort of clip that fits inside the circuit. If you want to avoid force, you need to suck out most of the sulder and cut the clip before removing the wires.