I have been using Macintosh laptops for a number of years now – first a Powerbook 520 and now an Ibook – in both cases, the power cords were of the kind that slip right out of the slot without any indication. Often, I’ve found that I have drained the battery power when I thought I was using the cord for power because the laptop got jarred a little bit and the plug slipped out just enough to interrupt power.
Does anyone know the reason for this design? I should think that power plugs should be designed so that it takes a deliberate force to plug and unplug them, preferably with a snap.
It’s not just Apple laptops that have this problem. I have a Toshiba that is really bad about this, there’s almost no feedback when you plug it in, and the plug can actually come partway out and still look plugged in. I now have a rubberband tied to the end of the cord so I can snap it around the case to hold that thing in there. It’s ugly and low tech but works.
My HP Omnibook isn’t as bad- though it’s a similar plug, it fits much more snugly and stays in pretty well. No locking mechanisim though.
However, since both of these are usually running windows, whenever they come unplugged they tend to freeze for a second to do god knows what, and then come back to life, which gives a bit of warning that they’re on battery power.
My TiBook has a light on the end of the cord that tells you when the machine is charging or on ac power, which gives some feedback as to the status.
I don’t know why they don’t make them clip on, though. Probably a cost issue.
On my old Thinkpad (years ago, it’s long gone now) I had a similar problem. Since I always used it in the same spot and always kept it plugged in, I superglued the cord in. That proved to be a problem when the cord broke though. Luckily it was soooo out of date at that point, it was a good reason to trash it.
Well, on my Powerbook there’s an icon in the menu bar that clearly shows the state of the battery and whether it’s plugged in and charging or not. There’s also a control bar that shows the state of the battery and approximately how much time you have left at the current usage level.
So mechanically, the connection may not be optimal (although my connector is pretty tight), but they do give you a lot of indication as to whether it’s plugged in or not.
What I’ve noticed with my Powerbook–and it’s ancient (1996, but all I do really is write on it)–is that whatever the power cord plugs into in the back of the machine is prone to breaking, and I’m then unable to plug it in. I’ve sent it to Apple to be fixed twice since I got it, free of charge because I think there was some defect in the design. I’m sorry I can’t give you any more details (I can’t recall what the problem was, exactly), but I’ve sort of resigned myself to the fact that I have to be really vigilant about accidentally tugging on the cord (or tripping over it, which I do much more often) and treating the back of the Powerbook with care and caution.
“Yeah, the power cord connection sucks, but at least they gave us a handy icon to tell us when it falls out”? Gimme a break, Finagle! Those kinds of answers may fly over at Microsoft, but we’re talking about an Apple, here!!!
I’m afraid I expect more than this from consumer products manufacturers. When I’m using a computer to take notes or to write, I pay attention to my work, not to the tiny little icons. And, frankly, I shouldn’t have to. This is bad design.
As per the OP – 'in both cases, the power cords were of the kind that slip right out of the slot without any indication. ". In fact, there is an indication. Further, you get a notification when battery power gets low. And a final notification when battery power gets critical.
In other words, they’ve provided redundant notifications of a problem and you ignore them. Hint: don’t do this with the temperature and oil trouble lights on your car.
From what I can tell looking on the Web, the iBook uses the same power connector as my G3. My search didn’t turn up any hits on “loose iBook power connector”. Mine is not loose and is in fact an industry standard connector. You may have gotten one that’s out of spec, but I don’t think it’s the design that’s to blame.
In my view “indication” is a big dialogue box that says “YOU HAVE JUST UNPLUGGED THE POWER CORD AND ARE NOW RUNNING ON BATTERY POWER.” A tiny icon that changes colour just doesn’t do it - it’s not an adequate indicator.
The problem with the big dialog box is that you can never make everyone happy when doing user interfaces. If you pop up the big dialog box, half the people would get irritated and say “I know, dammit! Leave me alone.” So you’d end up having to parameterize the warning so people could turn the feature off and on in the Energy Saver control, and it would be off by default and no one would ever use it.
Worse than that, most people close the laptop (initiating sleep) and unplug their laptops in one smooth set of motions. Get the timing wrong and the dialog box comes up, preventing the system from sleeping. The system stays on, uses up the battery and gets very, very hot. (This happened to me once on a Windows Laptop. The thing was never the same afterwards.)
BTW, I’ve just examined my plug and there are some metal indentations on it that give a tight friction fit. If your power plug is slipping out when the laptop is jarred, then you might consider taking a pair of pliers and very carefully attempting to tighten the fit. Or go into the nearest Apple store and see if you can talk them into replacing the power adapter under warrantee.
I’ve owned five Mac laptops over the course of the last ten years (PowerBook 100, Duo 210, PB 3400, PB G3, PB G3 Firewire). I have never had the power cord slip out. Not once. In all cases, the plug seems to fit very snugly, so much so on my current PB that I sometimes have to struggle a bit to get it in. And yes, I frequently move the PowerBook around while plugged in; from the coffee table to my lap and back, sitting to laying down, etc. Often I unplug the cord from the wall and carry the PB from room to room, with the cord dangling and the transformer box dragging on the carpet. Not one time has the power plug come loose.
