Apple Cinema Display cords vs. Office Chair I: Chair won in TKO. Help me win the rematch!

March 13, 2008 7:52 AM

Apple Cinema Display cords vs. Office Chair I: Chair won in TKO. Help me win the rematch! The end user ran over the DC plug of her Cinema Display monitor. How can I fix this?

This monitor has its own power brick that sits on the floor under a desk. The male DC plug which goes into said brick was apparently run over by the wheel of the office chair. This plug is similar to all the other Mac plugs: white plastic sheath (now cracked in half) and the metal connection is almost broken in two. The brick, its connection to the wall outlet, and all the other connections from the monitor are fine.

So I need a new cord / DC plug; the monitor itself is fine. Unfortunately, the cord doesn't unplug from the monitor. Help me find a way to fix this!?

some more details:

The monitor is out of warranty.

I have dealt with a couple folks on the 1-800-MY-APPLE phone support and they have all said all I can do is walk this unit into an apple store and see what they can do. My store is in Chicago's loop, and this monitor is on the extremely bulky side, too big to ride in on the el.

So my question is: can I find a replacement-type cord available for sale that contains the DC plug, then snip it and splice it in place of the crushed plug? Am I crazy to think this DC plug is attached to any cords for sale by Apple? I've scanned their online store but had problems finding conclusive evidence of its absence.

posted by joemax to computers & internet (5 comments total)

I was recently looking for a replacement myself and discovered there are replacements and that you can use any power adapter that is your wattage or higher:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86800

The part numbers are A1096, A1097, and A1098 and replacement are available various places online:
http://tinyurl.com/3a9zfw
http://tinyurl.com/3ck5ye

The A1097 seems to be the most commonly available one.
posted by drinkspiller at 8:42 AM on March 13

I'd just like to point out that the parts you're taking about aren't the part that joemax says is broken. That's the part he says is unscathed.
posted by majick at 9:28 AM on March 13

Can you post some pictures of the parts and the damage? I've been googling, but I'm not having much luck picking out the important details. In particular, it looks like the cinema display power adapters being sold on ebay may not come with the "dc plug" cable indicated in the manual, and it sounds like you really only need the cable.. On the other hand, it would be stupid to sell a power adapter without the DC cable..

They should have told you to go to the Apple store with only the parts that are broken.. And, that might be worth trying even though they didn't suggest it.
posted by Chuckles at 9:40 AM on March 13

Oh.. The cord doesn't unplug from the monitor ?!?! Damn that manual is confusing.

Well, pics would still help, but this will be a relatively hard problem, because it looks like the power connector is very proprietary.
posted by Chuckles at 9:44 AM on March 13

You can buy a non-proprietary power adapter spec'd at 24V and whatever current you need (3 amps to 7amps depending on the display size), and splice the appropriate connector onto the cinema display's power wire, but that assumes there are no extra signals being transmitted from the apple power brick. So, how many wires go to that broken connector?

Or, you could open the power brick you have, and add a non proprietary connector to it. Probably by soldering a little stub of wire on the power brick side, and splicing in a standard power connector (the 4 pin molex used on Hard drives is a nice easy to find candidate for the connector). It is probably glued shut, so you might have to dremel or hack saw it open.. You will have to be very careful about the live AC parts, it is a serious electrocution hazard. When you close it up, make sure you seal it in the same way it came, which might mean using epoxy to fill in gaps you created..

If ebay doesn't have the power wire, it will be hard to find I think.
(ebay doesn't have it)
posted by Chuckles at 10:19 AM on March 13