Crazy Question: Power Macbook with ATX power supply directly to battery leads OR solder generic power brick leads to Magsafe?

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somerandomguy2

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Jun 8, 2009
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Ok, so I have an absolutely destroyed Macbook that a neighbor gave me because he has no use for it. I've ripped it apart with the idea to just play with it and maybe throw Linux and XBMC on it. The problem is that I don't have the Apple power brick that has their proprietary Magsafe connector. I've done some reading on it and apparently the connector is smart and the laptop reads info from it before deciding to pull full power from it.

Sooooo, I have a brick or two that supply the correct voltages and amperages. Will the Macbook circuitry allow the brick to charge it if I can solder the correct leads to it? If not, has anyone ever tried to power a laptop with any other power supply(I have several ATX power supplies laying around) directly hooked up to the battery leads?

Any other ideas? I've done quite a bit of Googling and I can't seem to find much in the way of real information I can cobble together to figure out. I kinda do and kinda don't care if it fries. I don't even know if the board is good and I really don't care to spend $20 on a cheapo used Apple adapter that I would have no use for ever other than this.
 
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