Colorado State University

We are often asked about whether we have an “adapter for my Mac laptop”.  It may seem like a simple question, but is far more complicated in the end.  You see, Apple has managed to change the port that adapters use 4 or 5 times in the past 7 years.  The adapter needed will depend on the type of Mac, and its year.  Recently, I stumbled upon this Apple support page which does a great job of listing the adapters that are available for a specific Mac computer.  It even describes how you can figure out what year and model you have.  Check this out:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3235

The next question we often get is, “Where can I get one?”.  It turns out, we probably don’t have one on hand – these often get lent out, and we never see them again.  However, the library on campus has a loaner program too, and they are much better about their checkout process – so they can track who actually has it in order to get it back.  The following site will show the availability of their various items, including Apple adapters:

http://lib.colostate.edu/access/availability

If you really need to own one of these yourself, you can either order it directly from Apple: http://store.apple.com, or you can stop by RAMtech on campus and pick one up: http://ramtech.colostate.edu – it might be a good idea to call them first and check on their availability of course.

I hope this helps clear up this confusion, at least a bit.  Enjoy!