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Is it possible for a charger to fry/damage the logic board?

[macbook 13.3//core 2 duo//2.4ghz//white]

HI! My macbook hasn't worked in over 2 weeks and i feel like my arm has been cut off!

I purchased a charger from ebay (85w i believe) maybe a year ago and my computer has been fine all year long. One night by accident i dropped the charger and the light kept blinking. its never done that before but i knew it was a big possibility that it would not work for long. But i though i just damaged the part that makes the light go green or amber so i put the charger on my macbook. I turned on my macbook several times that same day and it showed the it wasnt charging. i turned on my comp about 3 times that day to check. it was fine, it had about and 1 hour and some minutes left of battery. But i got busy and left the charger attached to my macbook for hours and when i came back, my computer for the life of me would not turn on. I was devestated.

i feel so stupid, why would i attached something damaged to my computer? when i asked my mom she told me maybe the charger damaged my logic board. i hope thats not the case cause i cant afford to replace or fix this thing. PLEASE anyone tell me something anything that might save my baby! thanks!

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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There's nothing wrong with using an 85W charger on any MacBook...you just don't want to go the other way around and use a 60W charger with a machine that requires 85W. And it's not the processor that determines what AC you need -- it's generally whether it's a Pro or not, and there are definitely Core 2 Duo machines that requires 85W. But I agree, the first step is to test the machine with a known-good AC adapter.

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+ rdklinc is correct you need a known good magsafe. The problem is most likely with your charger and not the actual laptop. All the light/led on the magsafe indicates is that the SMC and the charger are talking and the charger is allowed to give the laptop power. It does not indicate that the magsafe is actually providing any power to the laptop or the quality of the voltage being provided, if any. Most imitation power supplies coming from China consist mainly of a bridge rectifier and a few capacitors to reduce the ripple in the DC voltage. If the capacitors filtering the voltage were compromised when the adapter landed from the fall it may not be putting out pure enough DC voltage or no voltage at all. The lack of charging after the fall gives hint to this.

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If you have a core duo or core 2 duo macbook then they use a 60w power adapter and not an 85w one. The problem that you most likely have is a dead battery and the charger won't properly charge it so the computer can't get power from the battery or the charger. Order a new charger and see if you get anything or borrow a friends charged battery and plug it in to see if it works.

Hope this helps.

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A bad power source would have fried your Macbook right away.

The way you are describing it, the power supply you had was simply not supplying the power anymore. Ignoring it, you emtied out the battery of your Macbook and if (no) luck has it, the internal battery for the mother board as well.

All you can do is: get a correct power supply and try to force restart the machine. There should be a small button on the back of your book for doing so.

Computers are just machines, you'll need to treat them as such.

Hartmut

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Yes, a bad power adapter can fry your MacBook. It happened to my brother. He bought a “4.5 star replacement power adapter” on Amazon. It looked a lot like an Apple power adapter, but it was not. It was very inexpensive. He used it for a many months successfully, but then his Mac stopped working. He asked me to take a look, since I’m the family tech guy.

There was heavy carbon buildup on the connectors of both the Mac and the power adapter. Evidently, the knock-off power supply was always sending out full power, even as the adapter was being plugged and unplugged from the Mac. This resulted in arcing whenever power was connected or disconnected. After plugging/unplugging a hundred or so tiemes, the bad power situation eventually eroded away the metal pins and the plastics of the connector on the Mac. No amount of cleaning would allow power to be delivered to the Mac.

Happily, I was able to buy a good used board for the Mac and replace it, and sell the old board for “parts or repair”. The lesson learned: say NO to power supplies that are potentially fake and/or from a company with a weak brand reputation. They may work for months and seemingly “earn their stars”, but they can also toast your computer at the same time. You have been warned.

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