This one hits a little close to home. Back before I got my shiney new Mac Book Pro, I was toiling away on an out of date iBook, used as my second computer, and the thing was a beast. It just kept on kicking, until I got up in the morning and stepped on the end of my power cord. It hurt like hell at first, but I felt the pain deeper than the original bruises. The dongle was squished and upon trying to fix it, I broke the tip off.
What’s a person to do when they have to replace some hardware that’s no longer supported by Apple? EBay of course. After searching for a while I found a reputable seller offering legitimate iBook power cords at a price that was pretty hefty, or so it seemed. I decided to go for it. It worked great for a couple of weeks, then came a loud pop and an iBook that no longer worked. The piece of crap counterfeit clearly had some issues regulating the power. It blew the end of the plug right off the cord, and probably directly into my iBook. I should have known better.
Today, Apple’s made a move to stop third party companies from creating cheaper power plug alternatives, and I welcome the news. Sure, a ten dollar chord might save you some cash now, but when it blows up your iBook, you’ll probably crawl to Apple for some support.
Word to the wise, buy your power cords from Apple and save yourself from having to replace an entire laptop. Luckily in my case my laptop was already entering the end of its life cycle.
A power chord isn’t the same as an HDMI chord. If you want to save a buck save them on buying things like HDMI chords on amazon, but never, under any circumstance buy a replacement power chord from anyone but the original product manufacturer. That goes for any personal computing equipment that you might own.
Article Via Information Week
Image Credit studiocurve
