Mid-2013 Macbook Air screen goes black?

After doing some more reading around on other forums and support sites (including here), everyone's narrowed the problem down to one of multiple possible causes.

- SMS (sudden motion sensor) not working correctly with the SSD drives (people self-installing SSD drives in older Macbooks see this issue as well)

- A bug somewhere in OS X 10.8.4 Build 12E3067

- Faulty graphics card

- Questionable battery output (The best answer to what "Previous Sleep Cause: 5" is that I can find)

- Disagreement between the power management and the new Haswell processors used in the Airs (apparently this comes straight from an Apple engineer)

I expect a software update would fix this in due time. It'd likely be an EFI update or may come in the form of OS X 10.8.5 - we'll see.

Thanks for the investigation,

Will there be any chance that manufacturer of the part migth be related?

My SSD was Sandisk for your information.

Not to my knowledge - nobody cared to post what brand SSD they've been using.

Apple's used Toshiba and Samsung SSDs in the past from what I understand. The one in my MBA '13 is Apple branded according to System Profiler.

Yes, from what you have seen...

APPLE SSD SD0128F Media

SD means Sandisk, SM means Samsung afaik.

Well, first time my MBA went to screen saver tonight I got the 'Blackout' so its back onto Apple tomorrow.

They need to ge tthis sorted or I'm starting to push for a refund.

😟

oh well, you just proved that this epidemic is unavoidable because it is coming from the faulty gene ?

My replacement didn't avoid the same fate.

Mine also have this problem it happen when i connected the USB HDD. The screen went black for sometime (10 seconds) then went back on. During that time I cannot type anything. It also happend when I used MBA in the car. I'm not sure if shaking active this problem or not. Also when I used it in the office. This problem occur everywhere about once or twice a day!

Please Apple, please fix this. MBA is a great product overall. Please fix it or else I have to return this back and find a replacement.

mstrswrd06 wrote:

- Disagreement between the power management and the new Haswell processors used in the Airs (apparently this comes straight from an Apple engineer)

It happens on my Mid 2012 MBA also. So I don't think this issue is specific to Haswell.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3837322?start=0&tstart=0

I'm having the same issue on my configured to order Mid 2013 Airs i7/8/128. I will be actively using my computer and the screen goes black like it is going to sleep. I tap some keys and it comes back to life. Seems to occur about 3-4 times a day on average. There is no method to the madness, it seems to be random. It's very frustrating to have my new device not function properly. I have filed cases with Apple (I bought two of these) but my 14 days ends today to exchange the thing no questions asked. Should I bother getting new hardware since it seems that many of you are stil having issues with your replacements? I don't want to get stuck with a defective product and have to jump through hoops down the road if the problem persists. Refund, Exchange or Wait? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

So after receving a call from apple support, I didn't find them very helpful, we went through what everyone has stated on this forum and it still happened.

I didn't buy my MBA from Apple (bought it through a reseller, MYER). How do I go about this?
Should I take it to the Genuis Bar? Get an exchange from Apple or MYER?

Has anyone figured out for sure if it's a hardware or a software issue?

I'm refunding mine. No word from Apple. Unacceptable.

I have 3 brand new mid-2013 13" i5 128GB MBA's in front of me and can confirm that all 3 have this issue on a daily basis. The screen will turn off randomly during usage. Sometimes everything will come back with one click, other times it will just be my cursor on the screen for 1-2 minutes. Very annoying, but I don't think I'll take em back to Apple just yet since the replacements also have issues. Hopefully software update will fix. 2 of the MBAs are from Best Buy, 1 is from the Apple store (all bought in the last week).

Are you going to get another one or..?