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Mid-2013 Macbook Air screen goes black?

I just got my shiny new mid-2013 MBA (haswell 13" i5 256GB SSD 8GB RAM) and it's been rockstar (no WIFI problems). However, last night, when I was browing the web, the screen went black all of a sudden and wouldn't come back on. I had to press the power button (heard the fan shut off), and then press power again to make the system wake back up from sleep. Any ideas what caused this, and should I be concerned in the future?

MacBook Air (13-inch Mid 2013), Mac OS X (10.7.5)

Posted on Jun 20, 2013 2:41 PM

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929 replies

Aug 5, 2013 6:32 AM in response to jportnoy

I bought 11" and 13". and I'm having the same exact issue only at 13" (MBA 8GB SDRAM- 512GB flash drive). It happends only a few times while working on 13" MBA for 1 to 3 hrs. So when I took took it to Apple Store. I can only tell them screen goes black, they troubleshooted it later, and it doesn't happens at there. Because the black screen comes randomly at sometime when i am using at home. There are No other obvious problems/symptoms with this new. it randomly happends. What should i do?

Aug 5, 2013 8:23 AM in response to jportnoy

Update (check my prior posts for history)


Still no issues on my machine (or if it's happening, i'm not seeing it)


I think the issue has to do with timers (which someone else mentioned earlier) after doing

  1. an SMC reset
  2. PRAM reset,
  3. turning off the "put hard drive to sleep" on both battery and plugged in mode (in energy saver preferences)
  4. changing the sleep of the display to 15 minutes for both battery and plugged in


I'm not seeing this issue after about a week of testing. (this is my work computer and I use it for at least 8 hours a day, pretty much every day...


when i started posting to this thread, it was happening multiple times a day (that i noticed), I haven't had one blackout for a while (that I've witnessed).


Additionally; I don't think the majority of users would see this issue I was having if it was happening on their computer. I saw the youtube video of the guys screen shutting off every time he picked up the machine and clearly that is something different than I am having. (Or at least if it is the same issue, it doesn't happen on my MBA by moving the computer around, or putting a magnet next to the display. Which BTW, putting a magnet next to your computer generally isn't a good idea...)

Aug 5, 2013 10:39 AM in response to jportnoy

My timer is set to 11mins and the problem persists for me....despite trying various settings for 'put hard disk to sleep' etc.


Am sending mine back for a refund. First time I have done such a thing for an Apple product (I've owned about 15 Macs of various guises in the last 7 years). Instead will stick with my 11" 2010 MBA and 2012 MBA with RD...both running Mountain Lion with no problems.


Good luck everyone and I hope Apple sort this soon.

Aug 5, 2013 11:57 AM in response to jportnoy

Happened again. This time on Power, not battery. Sleep interval is 10 mins and hard-disk sleep option is checked.

ug 5 14:10:25 macair WindowServer[81]: Created shield window 0x2a7 for display 0x04273c00

Aug 5 14:10:25 macair WindowServer[81]: device_generate_desktop_screenshot: authw 0x0(0), shield 0x0(0)

Aug 5 14:10:25 macair WindowServer[81]: device_generate_lock_screen_screenshot: authw 0x0(0), shield 0x0(0)

Aug 5 14:11:49 macair WindowServer[81]: Created shield window 0x2a8 for display 0x003f003d

Aug 5 14:11:49 macair WindowServer[81]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: no lock state data

Aug 5 14:11:49 --- last message repeated 1 time ---

Aug 5 14:11:49 macair WindowServer[81]: Created shield window 0x2a9 for display 0x003f003e

Aug 5 14:11:49 macair WindowServer[81]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: no lock state data

Aug 5 14:11:49 macair WindowServer[81]: MPAccessSurfaceForDisplayDevice: Set up page flip mode on display 0x04273c00 device: 0x10c8af110 isBackBuffered: 1 numComp: 3 numDisp: 3

Aug 5 14:12:04 --- last message repeated 1 time ---

Aug 5 14:12:04 macair kernel[0]: PM notification timeout (pid 153, Google Chrome)

Aug 5 14:12:04 macair kernel[0]: PM notification timeout (pid 245, Google Chrome He)

Aug 5 14:12:04 macair kernel[0]: PM notification timeout (pid 246, Google Chrome He)

Aug 5 14:12:04 macair kernel[0]: PM notification timeout (pid 247, Google Chrome He)

Aug 5 14:12:04 macair kernel[0]: PM notification timeout (pid 248, Google Chrome He)

Aug 5 14:12:04 macair kernel[0]: PM notification timeout (pid 249, Google Chrome He)

Aug 5 14:12:04 macair kernel[0]: PM notification timeout (pid 2200, Google Chrome He)

Aug 5 14:12:04 macair WindowServer[81]: Created shield window 0x2ac for display 0x04273c00

Aug 5 14:12:04 macair WindowServer[81]: device_generate_desktop_screenshot: authw 0x0(0), shield 0x0(0)

Aug 5 14:12:04 macair WindowServer[81]: device_generate_lock_screen_screenshot: authw 0x0(0), shield 0x0(0)

Aug 5 14:12:04 macair mDNSResponder[54]: ActivateLocalProxy: No service for interface utun0

Aug 5 14:12:09 macair kernel[0]: AirPort_Brcm43xx::powerChange: System Sleep

Aug 5 14:12:11 macair kernel[0]: IOThunderboltSwitch(0x0)::listenerCallback - Thunderbolt HPD packet for route = 0x0 port = 11 unplug = 0

Aug 5 14:12:11 macair kernel[0]: IOThunderboltSwitch(0x0)::listenerCallback - Thunderbolt HPD packet for route = 0x0 port = 12 unplug = 0

Aug 5 14:12:11 macair kernel[0]: Wake reason: EC.PME EHC1 (User)

Aug 5 14:12:14 macair kernel[0]: AirPort_Brcm43xx::powerChange: System Wake - Full Wake/ Dark Wake / Maintenance wake

Aug 5 14:12:14 macair kernel[0]: Previous Sleep Cause: 5

Aug 5 14:12:14 macair kernel[0]: The USB device HubDevice (Port 1 of Hub at 0x1d000000) may have caused a wake by issuing a remote wakeup (2)

Aug 5 14:12:14 macair kernel[0]: wlEvent: en0 en0 Link DOWN virtIf = 0

Aug 5 14:12:14 macair kernel[0]: AirPort: Link Down on en0. Reason 8 (Disassociated because station leaving).

Aug 5 14:12:14 macair kernel[0]: en0::IO80211Interface::postMessage bssid changed

Aug 5 14:12:14 macair kernel[0]: IOThunderboltSwitch(0x0)::listenerCallback - Thunderbolt HPD packet for route = 0x0 port = 11 unplug = 0

Aug 5 14:12:14 macair kernel[0]: IOThunderboltSwitch(0x0)::listenerCallback - Thunderbolt HPD packet for route = 0x0 port = 12 unplug = 0

Aug 5 14:12:14 macair kernel[0]: The USB device HubDevice (Port 8 of Hub at 0x1d100000) may have caused a wake by issuing a remote wakeup (3)

Aug 5 14:12:14 macair kernel[0]: TBT W (2): 0x0100 [x]

Aug 5 14:12:14 macair kernel[0]: The USB device Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad (Port 2 of Hub at 0x1d180000) may have caused a wake by issuing a remote wakeup (3)

Aug 5 14:12:14 macair kernel[0]: AppleUSBMultitouchDriver::checkStatus - received Status Packet, Payload 2: device was reinitialized

Aug 5 14:12:14 macair hidd[62]: MultitouchHID: device bootloaded

Aug 5 14:12:14 macair WindowServer[81]: Created shield window 0x2ad for display 0x003f003d

Aug 5 14:12:14 macair WindowServer[81]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: no action for lock state 1

Aug 5 14:12:14 --- last message repeated 1 time ---

Aug 5 14:12:14 macair WindowServer[81]: Created shield window 0x2ae for display 0x003f003e

Aug 5 14:12:14 macair WindowServer[81]: handle_will_sleep_auth_and_shield_windows: no action for lock state 1

Aug 5 14:12:15 macair kernel[0]: MacAuthEvent en0 Auth result for: 80:a1:d7:28:4f:a2 MAC AUTH succeeded

Aug 5 14:12:15 macair kernel[0]: wlEvent: en0 en0 Link UP virtIf = 0

Aug 5 14:12:15 macair kernel[0]: AirPort: Link Up on en0

Aug 5 14:12:15 macair kernel[0]: en0: BSSID changed to 80:a1:d7:28:4f:a2

Aug 5 14:12:15 macair kernel[0]: en0::IO80211Interface::postMessage bssid changed

Aug 5 14:12:15 macair configd[19]: network changed: v4(en0-:192.168.1.3) DNS- Proxy- SMB-

Aug 5 14:12:15 macair awacsd[72]: InnerStore GetWakeInfoForZone: zero address for 1275066441.members.btmm.icloud.com.

Aug 5 14:12:15 macair awacsd[72]: KV HTTP 0

Aug 5 14:12:15 macair configd[19]: network changed: v4(en0+:192.168.1.3) DNS+ Proxy+ SMB+

Aug 5 14:12:15 macair UserEventAgent[13]: Captive: en0: Not probing 'Airtel_602' (protected network)

Aug 5 14:12:15 macair awacsd[72]: InnerStore GetWakeInfoForZone: zero address for 1275066441.members.btmm.icloud.com.

Aug 5 14:12:15 macair configd[19]: network changed: v4(en0!:192.168.1.3) DNS Proxy SMB

Aug 5 14:12:15 macair airportd[4280]: _doAutoJoin: Already associated to “Airtel_602”. Bailing on auto-join.

Aug 5 14:12:15 --- last message repeated 1 time ---

Aug 5 14:12:15 macair kernel[0]: en0: BSSID changed to 80:a1:d7:28:4f:a2


Aug 6, 2013 11:49 AM in response to jportnoy

Hi all,


Also been having these blacks out issues, mainly when logging back in from a screen saver time out. However I disable the screen saver log in and it did it again today. Having read part of this thread I immediatly rang UK customer service. The lady ran through a number of checks.


1. disable "put hard disks to sleep"

2. got me to delete a power management file from the HD.

3. Got me to reset the power management system, by closing down the MBA, plugging the Macbook in the adaptor and holding Shift+Alt+ctrl+power button for 10secs then restarting the macbook.


She then gave me a reference number and said call me back if it happens again... and the wait begins.


13" MAcbook Air (Mid 2013), 1.7Ghz/8G8.


What with Wifi Issues and now this, not a good start to Mac ownership, especially having to have already returned my first macbook Air for turning up dented right out of the box.

Mid-2013 Macbook Air screen goes black?

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