Another MagSafe fire!

Ok so we've all seen the story of the guy who came home to find this:



Well a similar event happened to me 2 weeks ago. I have been at boarding school since the event and most websites are blocked so I could not post this any sooner.

I was sitting on my bed listning to music with itunes when the MBP suddenly turned off (screen, hard drive etc). Sraight after, a glowing red circle appeared in the left speaker (where the MagSafe is plugged in) and it disappeared almost instantly but then smoke and fumes started coming out of the speaker. It was an electrical fire. I unplugged the MagSafe from the MBP and blew out the fire then removed the charger from the mains. [I am afraid I do not have impressive photos because I was there to put the fire out before the thing was completely burned - the only visible damage on mine was small holes in the plastic on the side of the MBP where it had melted]

I got on the phone right away to Apple and they asked me a lot of questions about whether anyone was injured in the area etc. Then they told me that the MBP was to be collected during the week and it was being shipped off to Apple in Cork, Ireland.

I received my new MBP just yesterday without the old hard drive backed up (which they should be able to do - Im pretty sure that the HD was not damaged from that fire). I spoke to them again today and they said it is unlikely that they will be able to save my data and that it has now been shipped to Apple HQ in California so even if they can back it up, it will be a long wait.

They also gave me a number to call to claim a 'gift' which I am yet to call but I imagine they will offer me an ipod or something but I dont really think that is enough since I was in a school boarding house with 60 people in it. What if the fire had occured at night and people had been killed? It is unlikely that I would not have smelt the dreadful fumes that came out of it when it was alight but still, the scenario exists and I think that they owe me more in compensation that a measly ipod.

The other guy who had this problem is very lucky he had his cats there to pull the plug. I just hope that this problem doesnt ever cause anyone serious harm.

Wow thats crazy. Good thing youre ok. Maybe the free gift will be a quad powermac and 23 inch display.

I hope you informed an official at the school.

Do you have any idea of what caused it?

gosh, makes me kinda wary leaving my MBP pluged in when I'm not around.

Ahh the joys of rev A hardware....

Glad to hear you were not injured or your bed for that matter. Hope Apple fixes this soon.

And we all know what the problem with the first PowerPC laptop, th PowerBook 5300 was like.

Deja vu it would seem.

Glad to hear you are safe though, that's the most important thing. (I'm not all that far from you since you are in Reigate!)

Vicky

Glad to hear your ok and Apple sorted things quickly as they should do in your case! This is a real put off for me now as i was about to buy a MBP......looks like i;ll go for the Asus V6J now.

I'm just south of you so not far away too!

@Brown Study: I did inform staff yeah.

@Kokopelli: Nope no idea!

Im gonna call them today about the free gift they offered me and Ill keep you updated.

i was wondering if you'd be offered any gift or something...It seems like apple is trying to keep this story of the fires on the magsafes quiet.

never heard of anything like this, interesting
-chris

Man, this kinda freaks me out. My MBP is currently back at my Condo sitting on the floor, plugged in, downloading torrent files all day long while I am at work. Oh well, thats what HOI is for.

schondesign said:

Man, this kinda freaks me out. My MBP is currently back at my Condo sitting on the floor, plugged in, downloading torrent files all day long while I am at work. Oh well, thats what HOI is for.

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Yeah Im gonna keep downloading to the desktop from now on. And I unplug the new one whenever Im not in the same room. Better safe than sorry.

**** that is scary. I just left mine plugged in on a pillow all weekend while I was out of town for 4 days....

phew... never again.

I'm sorry to hear this happened, and it's a pain in the @$$ I'm sure, but at the same time, things like this shouldn't deter consumers. It's frustrating reading some of the responses to things like this, and I'm not trying to point fingers, but people, this happens with all sorts of products every day. I'd presume a good portion of you have seen Fight Club. They stuff talked about in that movie about recalls is no BS. Products of all sorts and sizes have failures. Here is just one quick example: http://www.llnl.gov/es_and_h/lessons/e-dell_battery_recall.html

My point is that every product involving any kind of electrical wiring is susceptible to possible fires. The fact that this has only happened with 2 so far (out of I would imagine tens of thousands, not sure of an actual number of sales thus far) is proof enough that it seems to be a few isolated cases.

Also, and I haven't really dug deep to read into it, but was it written anywhere that the computer power supplies were plugged into a surge protector? I'm sure they were, but that could be a whole other aspect to consider.

Things happen... gas leaks lead to explosions, brakes go out on cars, planes crash, h*ll, even my d*mn AC almost caught on fire last summer. That doesn't mean people shouldn't buy a stove, or drive a car, or fly on a plane for that matter. And you d*mn well better believe that I'm going to use AC next summer..

I'm not saying don't be cautious... by all means take precautions... my AC is never on when I'm not home anymore (it's a window unit), and if I smell a gas leak, I call Consumers Energy to be safe. To do otherwise would be naive, so don't think that's what I'm implicating...

Sorry to rant, but it seems I'm one of the few people around these forums who tries to look at the positive side of things. Things happen, life goes on. Don't let isolated cases ruin your perspective on the MacBook Pro, or life for that matter.

well said slyydrr well said

schondesign said:

Man, this kinda freaks me out. My MBP is currently back at my Condo sitting on the floor, plugged in, downloading torrent files all day long while I am at work. Oh well, thats what HOI is for.

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Trust me if your magsafe catches fire you wont have to worry about HOI apple will have to take really good care of you.

@ plattypuss:

Did you ever find out what kind of "free gift" they had in store for you?

I'm just curious to what extent they were willing to go to take care of you. Hope it was a worthwhile offer!

@slyydrr

Well I have been speaking with them the last few days and so far their offer has gone from an ipod shuffle to a nano so Im not gonna accept that yet because I dont see that as enough tbh

Offering an iPod shuffle does sound like bloody cheek to me.

That said I don't think a Power Mac G5 was ever on the cards! I would excpect maybe a 30gig iPod 5th gen, or maybe some software titles. Maybe even just a gift voucher of a decent value.

Vicky