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User profile for user: jess_searle
jess_searle Author
User level: Level 1
4 points

MacBook Air randomly shutting off & won't turn on unless I hold power button for 10 seconds

My 2013 MacBook Air has just started randomly turning off when I leave it for 5-10 minutes. Instead of going to sleep it is completely shut down. I can then only turn it on by holding the power button in for 10 seconds. When I hold the button down, I hear the power up chime and the apple logo with the loading bar appears. If I let go of the button before 10 seconds, the screen goes black again.

When I am able to successfully turn it on, the first few minutes seem to be very slow and laggy.

It was working completely fine until this morning when I noticed it was turned off.

Would anyone have any idea why this is happening or any ideas to fix it?

Thank you!

MacBook Air 13", macOS 10.12

Posted on Jun 30, 2019 2:30 AM

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User profile for user: HWTech
HWTech
User level: Level 9
60,284 points

Posted on Jun 30, 2019 8:35 AM

Try an SMC reset and PRAM reset (hold the PRAM reset for at least three chimes so it activates several times).


Once you reach the Desktop, Option click the battery icon on the menu bar and check the status condition of the battery. If it shows anything but "Normal" or "Good", then the battery needs to be replaced.


You can also run the Apple Diagnostic.


It sounds to me like your laptop display might be doing dark and the laptop is still actually powered on. Holding the power button for 10 seconds is actually forcing a system power off before triggering the power on. The slow and laggy nature after booting is probably due to macOS recovering from an improper shutdown.


Try a Safe Boot which will load only the minimal drivers necessary, disables Startup & Login items and also removes some temp & cache files among other things. See if the issue occurs in Safe Mode as well. FYI, the screen may flash or flicker due to a very basic video driver being used and is normal in Safe Mode.




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User profile for user: HWTech
HWTech
User level: Level 9
60,284 points

Jun 30, 2019 8:35 AM in response to jess_searle

Try an SMC reset and PRAM reset (hold the PRAM reset for at least three chimes so it activates several times).


Once you reach the Desktop, Option click the battery icon on the menu bar and check the status condition of the battery. If it shows anything but "Normal" or "Good", then the battery needs to be replaced.


You can also run the Apple Diagnostic.


It sounds to me like your laptop display might be doing dark and the laptop is still actually powered on. Holding the power button for 10 seconds is actually forcing a system power off before triggering the power on. The slow and laggy nature after booting is probably due to macOS recovering from an improper shutdown.


Try a Safe Boot which will load only the minimal drivers necessary, disables Startup & Login items and also removes some temp & cache files among other things. See if the issue occurs in Safe Mode as well. FYI, the screen may flash or flicker due to a very basic video driver being used and is normal in Safe Mode.




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MacBook Air randomly shutting off & won't turn on unless I hold power button for 10 seconds

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