Einleitung

Magsafe cables are known to break off close to the connector. This article explains how to dismantle the magsafe and re-connect the cable to it.

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    • Open the jaws of the vice so the metal shell of the magsafe just fits between them. Place the magsafe between the jaws with the cable upwards and the white plastic housing resting on the jaws.

    • Cut off the cable as close to the housing as possible.

    • Use a cross-head screwdriver to force the metal section of the magsafe out of the plastic housing

    • Gently prise apart the strain relief metal band around the remains of the cable and put it aside for later.

    • Cut down one side of the soft plastic inner and peel it away from the wires and circuit board. You are very unlikely to be able to re-use it so don't worry if it tears.

    • The image shows roughly what you should now have. The braid is soldered to two places (one on each site of the circuit board at opposite ends - middle and right in the picture); the white core is soldered in just one (left in the picture).

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    • Unsolder the braids and core from both sides of the circuit board.

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    • Cut back 15mm of sleeve from the cable.

    • Peel back the braid

    • Tease out the fibres that are contained within the braid

    • Split the braid in to two equal parts and twist together.

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    • You will probably want three strips of heatshrink. They will need to fit over each other shrunk in place so likely need to be different sizes.

    • Cut the smallest diameter sleeve to 2cm long. Once shrunk into place the white plastic outer will need to fit over this. You might wish to check that this will work, as otherwise you will need to enlarge the hole in the housing (now, not later!).

    • Cut the others a little longer each e.g. 2.5cm and 3cm.

    • Slide the largest diameter heatshrink over the cable.

    • Slide on the next largest size

    • Push the remains of the strain relief out of the white plastic outer housing. Now slide on the plastic outer part of the magsafe connector. Make sure that you get it the right way round!

    • Finally, slide on the smallest piece of heatshrink.

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    • Peel back the braid

    • Tease out the fibres that are contained within the braid and then cut them off as close to the cable as possible.

    • Split the braid in to two equal parts. Twist each part separately to make two neat wires.

    • Strip back 3mm of insulation from the inner core. Twist the core by hand and then tin the end.

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    • Solder the core on to the opposite side to the chip (in the opposite corner).

    • Cut two pieces of the smallest heatshrink - roughly 4mm long.

    • Slide on to the braid leaving roughly 3mm of braid free at the end where it joins the cable.

    • Shrink in to place. If your heat gun is a bit powerful, use the soldering iron to supply the heat.

    • Cut off the braids leaving about 3mm free beyond the heatshrink.

    • Solder the first braid on to the chip side in the opposite corner to the chip.

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    • Make sure that the cable comes off the centre of the circuit board so the housing will fit over it.

    • Also check that there is about 3mm of stripped cable on top of the circuit board as the strain relief has to fit here (see next photo)

    • Solder the other braid on the other side, in the opposite corner to the core. Try not to extend beyond the edge of the circuit board

    • Carefully file off any solder or cable that extends beyond the end of the circuit board.

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    • Reattach the strain relief. It needs to fit under the two lugs on the circuit board above the solder points for the braid and core.

    • This is just visible on the left hand side of the core in the picture. The right hand tab is a bit short of the tab on the right because I didn't get the cable decently centred!

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    • Slide down the first bit of heatshrink and shrink down.

    • (You can see the right hand side of the strain relief is short of the tab in this picture.

    • I have since found (and others too) that the heatshrink doesn't stay in place that well and so is not so great as strain relief. More in step 10.

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    • Slide the housing back over the magsafe connector. It goes on either way round (there is a hole for the led on both sides.

    • Squeeze in place with the pliers. If it doesn't fit over the circuit board fairly easily, check that you don't need to file down the solder joints some more.

    • Slide the first of the pieces of heatsink up against the plastic housing.

    • Keeping it tight, shrink it in place. This is important to help avoid a future failure.

    • Repeat with the outermost piece of heatshrink.

    • Try powering it up! Remember that it will take a few seconds before the LED illuminates.

    • Orange light - success!

    • Abrading the top of the casing and applying a big blob of hot-melt glue seemed to provide more permanent, if less elegant, strain relief!

Abschluss

To reassemble your device, follow these instructions in reverse order.

Dave Fixedit

Mitglied seit: 31/01/10

1499 Reputation

24 Kommentare

This is great! Very useful, and nice zoomed in photos. Thanks for putting it up!

Kyle Wiens -

Zitat von Kyle Wiens:

This is great! Very useful, and nice zoomed in photos. Thanks for putting it up!

Thanks. I think that the strain relief needs more work though as it is still not standing up well enough to my daughter working on her lap! I have some ideas but need to try them out.

Dave Fixedit -

Hi Dave

My MagSafe is broken inside the wires, close to the power supply.

Do you have any tips on how to open the power supply?

Is it glued together in the white plastic?

(60W for MacBook white)

thanks Hans Henrik

Hans Henrik -

I do believe they are glued. Opening the cable management tabs (not sure what they're actually called) we'll give you access and room to attempt to pretty it apart. There are videos on YouTube, and most likely a tutorial here on iFixit.

zondervon -

Zitat von Hans Henrik:

Hi Dave

My MagSafe is broken inside the wires, close to the power supply.

Do you have any tips on how to open the power supply?

Is it glued together in the white plastic?

(60W for MacBook white)

thanks Hans Henrik

Hi Hans

Sorry, but I haven't tried that. I did pick up a broken one on ebay for the magsafe connector, so if I get a chance I will try pulling it apart as it doesn't matter if I break it.

Dave Fixedit -

this guide is amazing!! i did it well, been my very first time soldering cables, tip to remember: try to calculate the size of the whole soldering and the cable together, i didn't and before closing the case up, i realized it hasn't fitted, i disoldered everything and resoldered everything again... yes, i had to...

thanks guys! your contribution was very helpful. many thanks.

Mugen -

Excellent guide with great pictures! I recently fixed one I found put to the road on my way home, but now I'm nervous about trying it out on my Macbook Pro 13. I originally tested it on a Macbook, but it started sparking, and the Macbook shut off. I realized the solder on my white wire had become disconnected and have since resoldered it more securely in place. Any suggestions on how to safely test this? Do Macbooks have built in protection for faulty chargers? or should I somehow use a voltmeter or something else? Thanks!

(Also if you're having issues fitting the housing over your bulky solder job, a small file is great to slim it down. Just test the strength of your solder again after)

Buddy Lee -

I did this but found the strain relief via heat shrink to be very flimsy, it provides the required stiffness but does not anchor well to the connector = poor fix. I found a product on line that is a hand moldable rubber that will adhere to the connector providing a true strain relief. I'm going to try it.

http://sugru.com/us

Eric D -

Thanks guys for your comments; much appreciated.

1. Getting the lengths right is indeed a problem. I am pretty sure it too me more than one attempt too.

2. I don't know about the safety cut-out in the power supply, although I suspect that there must be something as it must be possible to short out the pins on the connector by mistake some time.

3. I found that the strain relief was not good myself too. Abrading the top of the casing and then putting a big blob of hot-melt glue worked much better, even if it was not very elegant! It would be interesting to see if your strain relief

Dave

Dave Fixedit -

I have done this on a T connector and thought I would share some tips I discovered...

Soak the T connector in isopropyl alcohol (higher % is better. ie: 91%, grain alcohol, everclear etc) prior to attempting to remove the housing. This softens the epoxy considerably making it MUCH easier to remove the housing without damage. You can cut the connector off of the cable prior to soaking to prevent wicking.

Also, check the solder connections from the pogo pins to the circuit board. The ROHS solder used to make the connections is garbage and is prone to failure. 3 out of the 5 pins in my connector had broken joints. You will likely need to use a loupe or other magnifying device to spot these cracked joints.

Good Luck!

-John C.

sonicj -

I was able to do this and now my charger is working properly again, however my magsafe charger doesn't light up either, green or orange. Is there a way to fix this? or should I just leave it?

Michael Malek -

My MagSafe connector stopped lighting and I took it to the Apple store. The Genius took out the battery and connected up the cable and turned on the MacBook, which worked. That proved that the charger was OK. It turned out to be a small PC board inside the MacBook. He told me that little PC board only operates the LED and does nothing else. I had it replaced, but the repair was pretty expensive (about $100 as I recall), so you might want to live without the LED.

Cliff Harris -

hi, great guide. I was too experiencing problems with the cable connectivity and since the plug part was seemingly alright I tried to take a look at the t connector part. I opened it up without cutting any cables and found everything ok so I tried to close it back up and gave on more shot at "straightening" the wire from the outer side. Long story short, I managed to get power again but, after unpluging the connector once or twice, the magnet-pin part got cut of the rest of the edge!! Is there sth I can do to repair this part? Can I somehow solder it back on? Thanks for you help and guide ;)

mitrogogos -

Hi, I opened my MagSafe connector, but it's different from yours. Any experience with that?

Christ -

Hi,

My brother’s laptop has the magsafe connector broken at the laptop’s end.

We tried soldering the powercord of the adapter directly to the board where the magsafe connector

is also connected to… We figured out that pins 1 & 5 are the ground and 2 & 4 the supply. Pins 3 seems to control the led on the connector.

So we soldered ground to 1 and the positive to 4, but it seems not to be charging this way.

Should pin 3 be connected as well ? (maybe the charger-side connector has some circuitry build in to control the charging process ?)

Any help would be greatly appreciated

Amadeus Van Kerckhoven -

We tried soldering the powercord of the adapter directly to the [laptop’s] board

So we soldered ground to 1 and the positive to 4, but it seems not to be charging this way.

Should pin 3 be connected as well ?

Yes. If MagSafe power supply is identified as null and zero, then MacBook embedded controller does not allow charging of main battery.

similar problem, reference: Re: MagSafe 2 is not charging, but keeps the power

similar problem, reference: Re: "Battery is not charging" and no light

(maybe the charger-side connector has some circuitry build in to control the charging process ?)

The MagSafe outlet connector has circuitry built-in, it does exactly two things: it identifies itself and controls status indicator lamps. Charging process is controlled by the 'Power Management Unit' (PMU) circuitry internal to MacBook.

unsubstantiated -

It is quite some time since I have looked at this to be honest. However looking up the wiring e.g. on Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MagSafe) I would think that all the pins need to be connected. The centre one is not only used for the LED but also to inform the computer about the power supply being connected.

Dave Fixedit -

Hi!

Any success stories with MagSafe 2 with metal housing? Still the same algorithm?

Kirill Gagarski -

I’m also wondering about the MagSafe 2 connector with metal housing. I think I’ll just go for it… will report back if I do so.

Spencer Allen Freebairn -

Any success stories with MagSafe 2 with metal housing?

I once tried. I think MagSafe 2 tips seem impenetrable, indestructible, non-repairable. I vow to never buy a MagSafe 2 power supply. "MagSafe 1" is: repairable, more compatible, and so more useful than MagSafe 2.

unsubstantiated -

My experience is that the metal shell does not prise off the connector body using the steps given for removal of the plastic shell. I haven’t found the trick for separating them yet.

Robert E -

Hi,

I forget the terminal position. lemme know what was the exact locations. We have two wires, the one is insulated and other is non insulated wire. There is + and - on the chip. But which wire is + and - ?

unekores -

It is a very long time since I looked at this and no longer have an example to check. However, the brade (uninsulated wire) will be the -ve and the other the +ve.

Dave Fixedit -

A stitch in time saves nine.

When I saw that the plastic sheath was coming adrift from the metal end I tried all sorts of tape but they did not hold up for long. Then I made the mental leap from my computer repair kit to my automobile tool box. I remembered wonderful stuff called amalgamating tape. The joint is now better and stronger than it ever was. Under stretching an wrapping the rubber tape amalgamates into a solid. Fantastic stuff.

rsjrsj -