Alexdelarge1972
Level 1 (4 points)
Mac App Store

Q: Macbook Air mid 2012 - SSD failure but now working normal?

I have a macbook air mid 2012, it was working just fine but hadnt veen used for about 2 months. I had installed osx el capitan and the had drive was completely empty except for the fresh install. I boot the computer normally but after I tried launch safari, computer froze and the screen went black but the mouse was still there. I power down the cpu using the power button but when i restarted i got the flashing folder icon. I tried booting into recovery mode, wouldnt work and went straight to internet recovery. Using internet recovery mode I tried to go in and repair the hdd but it wasnt visible, i tried to install a fresh copy of osx but there was no hard drive visible to install with. I took the macbook air to an authorized service repair center,  and the macbook booted up  showing a circle with a slash thru it like a no smoking sign, no flashing folder icon. They ran diagnostics and said the ssd had failed. The replacemwnt price was more than the laptop was worth (almost $700)

 

I went home upset, but now this morning i trued booting the laptop and it gave me an apple sign with a grey loading bar theb booted up normal. I webt into disk utility to run dianostic check on the ssd and it came back like everything was ok.

 

What could be happening? Why did it stop working but now work ok? I need to give this laptop to a friend for a gift but cant do it if the ssd will fail soon. Should i jist cough up some money and get a replacement hdd and install it myself because this ssd is going bad? Its a 256gb ssd and it kills me....

 

 

Thanks!

MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11.1)

Posted on Jul 5, 2016 12:23 AM

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Alexdelarge1972

Q: Macbook Air mid 2012 - SSD failure but now working normal?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by OGELTHORPE,Helpful

    OGELTHORPE OGELTHORPE Jul 5, 2016 3:17 AM in response to Alexdelarge1972
    Level 9 (52,725 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 5, 2016 3:17 AM in response to Alexdelarge1972

    This is only a guess, but there may be a connection that is faulty and occasionally disconnecting the SSD.

     

    Ciao.

  • by Alexdelarge1972,

    Alexdelarge1972 Alexdelarge1972 Jul 5, 2016 3:20 AM in response to OGELTHORPE
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac App Store
    Jul 5, 2016 3:20 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

    Thank you, this sounds like a legitimate place to begin looking. Perhaps the authorized service center can check on this for me. I bet they will be a little perplexed when I bring the laptop in working now, as yesterday they wanted almost $700 to order a replacement.

  • by OGELTHORPE,

    OGELTHORPE OGELTHORPE Jul 5, 2016 3:25 AM in response to Alexdelarge1972
    Level 9 (52,725 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 5, 2016 3:25 AM in response to Alexdelarge1972

    Please understand that intermittent problems are very difficult to diagnose.  Replacing a logic board is easy, finding a bad/loose connection or faulty wire is not.

     

    Ciao.

  • by Alexdelarge1972,

    Alexdelarge1972 Alexdelarge1972 Jul 5, 2016 3:49 AM in response to OGELTHORPE
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac App Store
    Jul 5, 2016 3:49 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

    I guess I'm just familiar with SATA cables for connecting larger HDDs to a motherboard. You're right about diagnosing that as the culprit would be difficult, but you could swap an SATA cable out with a new one and see if your problem ever comes back. Do you mean it's not this straight forward for the connection of an internal macbook air ssd? I'm in Chiang Mai right now and they don't speak the best english at the authorized service center. Worst case scenerio could I have them just put in a new cable? Or when you say logic board, is there no cable to swap haha?

     

    Would there be any way for them to open up the macbook air and remove the sdd for testing, to isolate if it's the ssd or something else?

     

    Cheers

  • by OGELTHORPE,Helpful

    OGELTHORPE OGELTHORPE Jul 5, 2016 6:59 AM in response to Alexdelarge1972
    Level 9 (52,725 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 5, 2016 6:59 AM in response to Alexdelarge1972

    To be candid, I am a MBP owner, not a MBA, so these finer details with MBAs are alien to me.  Replacing a connecting cable may solve the problem, but there is no guarantee that it will.  It has been my observation that many repair facilities (and this does not exclude Apple) find it easier to replace a logic board because that has so many components integrated into it that the odds for a solution are quite good, rather than trying to look for the exact cause.

     

    I assume that Chaing Mai is in China.  It will help if you are Italian since they use their hands a lot when they speak, when you deal with the locals. 

     

    Ciao.

  • by Alexdelarge1972,

    Alexdelarge1972 Alexdelarge1972 Jul 5, 2016 7:03 AM in response to OGELTHORPE
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac App Store
    Jul 5, 2016 7:03 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

    This is rough, it'd actually be better if it were the SSD. I bought this macbook air used but in great cosmetic condition on ebay before I left the states (Chiang Mai's in Thailand btw). Replacing the logic board would basically be the cost of the macbook air. This is nuts.

  • by OGELTHORPE,

    OGELTHORPE OGELTHORPE Jul 5, 2016 7:28 AM in response to Alexdelarge1972
    Level 9 (52,725 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jul 5, 2016 7:28 AM in response to Alexdelarge1972

    Alexdelarge1972 wrote:

    (Chiang Mai's in Thailand btw).

    Just shows my ignorance of the orient.  Never the less, hand gestures are universal.

     

    Run an Apple Hardware Test and see if that offers any clues:

     

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201257

     

    Note that an error free AHT is not conclusive.

     

    Ciao.