Is your USB-C hub going to kill your Mac? Well according to some Youtube comments and forum
posts out there, some USB-C Hubs have picked up an assault rifle and are hunting down MacBooks left
right and centre. But what is the reality? Is it really an issue? Let’s look into it.
Starting in November, multiple threads and reddit posts about this issue began to pop up.
There was no real pattern or cause. Some people simply reported their MacBooks
dying supposedly due to the USB-C hub they were using. Specifically,
it was while using a hub that provides pass-through charging, which most do these days.
When experienced, the Mac will simply go completely blank and then be totally
unresponsive. No lights, LEDs, fans, nothing at all. It's as if it has
no power. Some users even reported hearing a clicking noise just before the Mac died.
So what’s causing this?
Well, one explanation is simply bad USB-C hubs.
This comment on the Apple support forums summed up my thoughts perfectly. In my opinion,
a large number of these failures were caused by cheap hubs made by the same company,
either because they were cheaply made or had a manufacturing defect. If you didn’t already know,
a huge number of hubs available for sale are manufactured by only a few large companies,
and are purchased in bulk, rebranded, and then sold individually under different brand names.
This is why I always recommend to avoid cheap hubs (especially if they provide USB-C pass
through charging or power delivery.) It’s best to spend that little bit
extra and get a hub from a reputable brand such as Anker, OWC, or Belkin.
But that’s not the only explanation, a much smaller number of users did report bricked
laptops even when using the official hubs they purchased from the Apple store directly.
I think the issue here could potentially be software based. My theory is that the way these
M1 Macs interface with some pass-through USB-C charging hubs caused some of them to die. Due
to the new architecture of the M1 Macs, it’s possible that somehow, the USB-C hub bypassed
the safety mechanisms to prevent over voltage and this in turn fried the logic board of the MacBook.
If you weren’t already aware, the new M1 Macs do not have a separate SMC
(or System Management Controller) any longer, as this is now embedded
in the M1 processor itself. Could this be the reason why these issues are happening? Did Apple
not foresee this issue when they designed the M1 architecture?
It’s impossible to say, and Apple hasn’t announced an official explanation as of yet.
However, Apple did just release macOS Big Sur update 11.2.2,
which according to the release notes, prevents the damage caused by USB-C docks and hubs with
Power Delivery. This leads me to believe that Apple has implemented some kind of
extra software safeguard, or a cut off when over voltage or a similar surge occurs, much
like a surge protector strip that you plug devices into, except this is the software version of that.
Personally, I’ve been using a number of different hubs without issue on all of my M1 Macs.
Some of them provide charging too., and I haven’t had any issues at all.
The important thing to realise is that confirmation bias plays a big part in this,
making the issue appear a lot bigger than what it actually is. If your MacBook dies due to a USB-C
hub, you are likely going to seek out others that have had the same issue
and post about it on the internet. If you never have this issue though,
which is 99% of people, you of course won’t be posting about it on reddit and are likely
completely unaware of the issue in the first place. What I’m trying to say is don’t let the
small number of reported cases of something bad happening stop you from purchasing an M1
Mac. In the unlikely event something does happen, well that’s what warranty is for.
Apart from that, thank you for watching this video, and if you have any comments
or questions please leave them down below, and I’ll catch you in the next one.