Macbook broken by 3rd party usb cable

kawaii · 28-11-2014 07:22PM #1

Hello,
Yesterday a friend of mine bought an iPhone usb cable at Eurogiant. At first it seemed to work without any issues, but later that day her laptop wouldn't turn on, wouldn't charge etc.

At the time she didn't realise that The cable was the cause, but today when she tried to charge her phone on my laptop using the same cable my laptop instantly turned off, no sign of any battery function whatsoever.

There being no doubt that the usb cable is the cause, is there any way we can be compensated for the damage caused by this faulty product? What are our consumer rights?

braddun · 28-11-2014 07:27PM

http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

davo10 · 28-11-2014 07:27PM

kawaii wrote: »

Hello,
Yesterday a friend of mine bought an iPhone usb cable at Eurogiant. At first it seemed to work without any issues, but later that day her laptop wouldn't turn on, wouldn't charge etc.

At the time she didn't realise that The cable was the cause, but today when she tried to charge her phone on my laptop using the same cable my laptop instantly turned off, no sign of any battery function whatsoever.

There being no doubt that the usb cable is the cause, is there any way we can be compensated for the damage caused by this faulty product? What are our consumer rights?

Apple recommend you only use genuine apple accessories and the devices will usually display the fact that you have connected a non apple product. The cable may not be faulty, your devices may just recognise it as a non conforming product and initiate a shut down to protect the device.

There is a reason why it was so cheap to buy and why genuine apple products are so expensive.

slimjimmc · 28-11-2014 07:46PM

kawaii wrote: »

Hello,
Yesterday a friend of mine bought an iPhone usb cable at Eurogiant. At first it seemed to work without any issues, but later that day her laptop wouldn't turn on, wouldn't charge etc.

At the time she didn't realise that The cable was the cause, but today when she tried to charge her phone on my laptop using the same cable my laptop instantly turned off, no sign of any battery function whatsoever.

There being no doubt that the usb cable is the cause, is there any way we can be compensated for the damage caused by this faulty product? What are our consumer rights?

You'll need to show there is actual damage and that the cable caused it before you have any hope of claiming any compensation. Considering what others have posted it remains to be seen if any damage has been done. Assuming you've ruled out an issue with her iPhone and the cable is faulty or is incompatible (despite claiming to be suitable) then the most that can happen is your friend can seek is a replacement or refund.

Nonoperational · 30-11-2014 12:08PM

Very unlikely the cable damaged the Macbook tbh.

my3cents · 30-11-2014 01:40PM

The damage is often caused by the user not looking what they are doing and jamming the USB plug in the wrong way up. Once the power supply contact of the socket shorts out to the metal casing the power supply detects and overload (dead short) and switches off. Another way to damage a USB socket is to force a flattened or bent USB plug into the socket.

Check the socket OP and see if there is anything bent inside.

witnessmenow · 30-11-2014 01:45PM

Nonoperational wrote: »

Very unlikely the cable damaged the Macbook tbh.

Its not impossible, if the internal cables were touching it could have blown a fuse or something.

ahnowbrowncow · 30-11-2014 01:49PM

davo10 wrote: »

Apple recommend you only use genuine apple accessories and the devices will usually display the fact that you have connected a non apple product. The cable may not be faulty, your devices may just recognise it as a non conforming product and initiate a shut down to protect the device.

There is a reason why it was so cheap to buy and why genuine apple products are so expensive.

That is nonsense tbh.

Gone West · 30-11-2014 01:54PM

ahnowbrowncow wrote: »

That is nonsense tbh.

Actually it is not nonsense.

The guys who copy them will manufacture very generic USB plugs with large tolerances on sizes. The "genuine" apple cables will have much stricter tolerances on limit differentials.
In simple terms, the genuine cables are much less likely to short out your laptop by being plugged in the wrong way. The generic cables can sometimes cause this to happen.

my3cents · 30-11-2014 01:58PM

witnessmenow wrote: »

Its not impossible, if the internal cables were touching it could have blown a fuse or something.

I can't say for sure with a Mac Book but I have straightened out a good few pins on USB sockets and sorted out problems of no power. Most PSUs are capable of detecting the excess current drawn by a short circuit and switch off, they work again fine once the short circuit is removed.

my3cents · 30-11-2014 02:27PM

Fuzzy wrote: »

Actually it is not nonsense.

The guys who copy them will manufacture very generic USB plugs with large tolerances on sizes. The "genuine" apple cables will have much stricter tolerances on limit differentials.
In simple terms, the genuine cables are much less likely to short out your laptop by being plugged in the wrong way. The generic cables can sometimes cause this to happen.

More nonsense. I've spent days plugging USB cables in and out of sockets when testing peripherals for various commercial projects and found no difference between cheap and expensive USB plugs, even the 75 cent cables I used to buy in bulk were identical to the ones you could buy for 14.99 in PCWorld.

One of the results of that testing was that we used a cheap 50 cent USB hub from China instead of a much more expensive branded one in one system and never had an issue with the plugs sockets or hardware.

Keep a USB charge lead in you back pocket and sit on it and an expensive plug will deform just a quickly as a cheap one.

If there is no obvious physical damage to the OP's USB socket then the lead may have an internal short circuit, with a pin out diagram from the web for the cable and a cheap test meter that can easily be checked.

Gone West · 30-11-2014 02:29PM

my3cents wrote: »

More nonsense. I've spent days plugging USB cables in and out of sockets when testing peripherals for various commercial projects and found no difference between cheap and expensive USB plugs, even the 75 cent cables I used to buy in bulk were identical to the ones you could buy for 14.99 in PCWorld.

One of the results of that testing was that we used a cheap 50 cent USB hub from China instead of a much more expensive branded one in one system and never had an issue with the plugs sockets or hardware.

Keep a USB charge lead in you back pocket and sit on it and an expensive plug will deform just a quickly as a cheap one.

If there is no obvious physical damage to the OP's USB socket then the lead may have an internal short circuit, with a pin out diagram from the web for the cable and a cheap test meter that can easily be checked.

Yeah, so I'm talking about manufacturing tolerances and you are talking about personal anecdotes from "commercial projects" (lol)
You don't get it.

keithclancy · 30-11-2014 04:57PM

davo10 wrote: »

Apple recommend you only use genuine apple accessories and the devices will usually display the fact that you have connected a non apple product. The cable may not be faulty, your devices may just recognise it as a non conforming product and initiate a shut down to protect the device.

There is a reason why it was so cheap to buy and why genuine apple products are so expensive.

They they shouldn't install Universal Serial Bus ports on their machines.

Macbook broken by 3rd party usb cable

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