2013 MacBook Air 11-inch boot device error

My old 2013 MacBook Air hung overnight. I forced it to power down with the power key, and tried to restart but only get an icon of a blue folder with a question mark. Diagnostics by booting with 'D' key down reports "There may be an issue with a storage device. Reference Code: VDH002"


I have tried zapping the PRAM and reseting SMC with boot key sequences.


Processor works fine; It will boot from the Internet with Command-R, runs Disk Utility and no drive appears in the list (apart from the tiny ram boot image).


How do I differentiate between an I/O Board failure or SSD failure?


...Demetri


Posted on Jun 18, 2024 9:29 AM

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Posted on Jun 18, 2024 2:23 PM

All things being equal.....the SSD is the weakest link as long as no liquid damage is involved.


Besides, the 2013 Apple SSDs had a known failure where Apple even had a free SSD repair program at one time which expired long ago.


You can get a third party SSD replacement from OWC if you feel it is worth putting money into such an old laptop. The laptop must have had macOS 10.12.4+ installed at some time in the past so that the laptop's system firmware is able to communicate with an NVMe SSD.


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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 18, 2024 2:23 PM in response to CentralServices27b-6

All things being equal.....the SSD is the weakest link as long as no liquid damage is involved.


Besides, the 2013 Apple SSDs had a known failure where Apple even had a free SSD repair program at one time which expired long ago.


You can get a third party SSD replacement from OWC if you feel it is worth putting money into such an old laptop. The laptop must have had macOS 10.12.4+ installed at some time in the past so that the laptop's system firmware is able to communicate with an NVMe SSD.


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2013 MacBook Air 11-inch boot device error

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