2018 MacBook Air Boot Loop

I was in a zoom meeting when my MBA fan turned on and the computer shut down. Since then I cannot get it to fully boot up. It starts up to the screen with an apple and status bar, makes it about halfway across the status bar then shuts down and starts over.

I tried running through fixes with Apple support, but nothing worked. It was almost as if the laptop never fully shut down so I could try the next step they suggested. The rep I spoke to said it sounded like the OS just needed to be reinstalled. It was suggested that I take the MBA to the Apple store for service.

Today I took the MBA to the Genius Bar. The person helping me tried several different things but could not get the computer to boot either. She decided it must be a hardware issue and offered to send it for repair, but said I would need to pay $428 up front.

I’m a little baffled at the thought of paying $428 to repair a computer that I paid $1,000 for a year and a half ago. I’m really kicking myself for not getting Apple Care. I hoping maybe this was part of the 2018 MBA logic board repair, but was told my serial number doesn’t qualify.

Does this definitely sound like a hardware issue? Has anyone else had this problem and had it repaired?