Mid-2013 Macbook Air screen goes black?

Thank you for the thorough response!

This is making sense. I haven't had a blackout for 5 days and I haven't once used Chrome in those days (trying to conserve battery). NIce catch!

Error, when I typed the below info in an earlier post....., I meant to type System Management Controller SMC,.......rather than power management. My error. Both however refer to system control/power Mgmt. But still 😊

***As to the 2013 Air, this is most certainly a conflict between the power management & Haswell processor; also conflict in the battery output which starts / causes initiation towards the Sleep Cause: 5

Of the 3 limited causative "issues" with a small (relatively) number of Macbook Air, that being:

A: wifi issue (not really an issue, but a protocol setting conflict between old routers and new 802ac wifi) issue already solved

B: sound fluctuation issue issue already solved

C: sleep/blackout issue..............

B and C have both been power issues. I diagnosed B problem early on as a power variance tolerance in the speaker assy, since a power boost from a 3rd party sound boosting APP fixed the issue,.......as such Apple issued a patch for this issue which accounted for the "razors edge" of power-pass to the speakers that was causing the problem in a limited number of Air. Software fix. Issue Issue already solved on B

C: When not directly related to Chrome, is also another power issue, with a likewise software/firmware patch.

In making the Macbook Air the King of long-life battery run-time, ...a few tolerances were walked "along the edge" wherein a small number of Airs on issue B and C didnt pass.

So, 2 power issues (B and C) fixable (B is already fixed) with a simple patch and a wifi protocol issue.

Are you able to recreate the issue on you MacBook Air? If you could provide the steps you took to arrive at your conclusions (regarding C) then others users can replicate and verify. I use Chrome exclusivly and am not seeing this problem.

I also trying the uninstall Chrome method, all bookmarks transfered to Safari and no blackouts today as yet, even though i have allowed it to sleep and number of times to test.

Fingers crossed... will report back.

Is it really Chrome?
I get these blackouts even when I'm not using Chrome (quit and everything)

Has anyone that has NOT installed Chrome reported the problem? That would be the real test.

For any new and/or old posters try to recall and report if:

1. You have installed Chrome (easy to remember)

2. You had used Chrome at some point (before a complete shutdown) prior to the blackout

3. Chrome was running at the time of the blackout

Unfortunately, I can't remember if Chrome was running when I had the blackouts (I would often run multiple browsers). As I said above, for power consumption reasons, I began using Safari exclusively about six days ago and have not had a blackout since. It could be coincidental, but it happens to fit with the story by PlotinusVeritas.

I'll continue to report on whether I've had a blackout.

FWIW, in the youtube video from "Tested" (posted earlier) the browser being run was Chrome when the blackout happened.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKJMPixyHTE

I haven't installed chrome on this MBA (256/i7/8gb) not on the prior I had that I returned (256/i5/4gb)

Interestingly in the past 2 weeks I haven't experienced the problem (in my case the black screen, non responsive with cursor) nearly as much as before... Still very frustrating. Also,

My friend has the same MBA config as me and has never had any problems.

I would be very surprised if Chrome were causing any sort of hardware issue. Aside from the video, has anyone been able to recreate the problem intentionally?

Unless more than one person can produce the same result from the same test case, this is all speculation. I have been trying to do the opposite of the suggestions here in an attempt to make the problem happen with out success. (ie using chrome to cause an issue)

Is anyone else actaully trying to make the problem happen in order to identify cause or am I alone on this?

edp22585

Has anyone that has NOT installed Chrome reported the problem? That would be the real test.

Yes, a couple have.

admanne

I would be very surprised if Chrome were causing any sort of hardware issue.

There was never any question of ANY hardware issue at any point, except in the 1st youtube video someone here posted showing the reed sensor on the Macbook Air that was being lifted up and down,........that issue was a singular hardware issue unrelated to THIS thread and its intent

admanne

I use Chrome exclusively and am not seeing this problem.

You nor anyone SHOULD expect a problem,..I have the new Air, and run Chrome on certain things,.no issue, ... same for others I know with the new Air and running Chrome......

Despite this thread being populated by people with an issue,...in the scheme of the Air, those who have this issue is extremely small.

For those with the problem, thats seems like hot air obviously, however its still a statistical certainty.

So I have had this problem since day 1. However it happens very infrequently... maybe once every couple of days. As such, it is a minor nuisance that I'm willing to just live with as a quirk of the Air.

For those that have the problem happening frequently - just return your unit. That will do two things:

1. Give you the chance of getting a replacement that doesn't have the problem or if it does have the problem, at least you might have it less frequently.

2. Increase the urgency for Apple to fix the issue... as I'm sure it is costly for them to take back used laptops. Squeaky wheel (or costly wheel) gets the oil.

****, I thought it was gone after i change Display battery sleep "Put hard disks to sleep when possible", and i havent use for 2 days. Blank screen comes again even i have setting not to put hard drisks to sleep. This is too much, I have install all softwares as well as i cover with invisable screecover, and hand-rest covers about $100.

But today when i start to use with battery; it goes to blank/white screen (flash) randomly for a 2 sec after I wake the screen. what should i do?

I have a month old 13" MBA and it also goes to sleep (black) randomly. It can wake it up again with a space bar click but it is really annoying.

I thougth I'll add my experience here to try to help out.

I did call support two weeks ago, we did an SMC reset over the phone and setup an in person appointment just in case.

The SMC reset seems to have fixed it for about a week. I went to the in person meeting (genious bar) and he did a diagnosis but could not find anything. I thougnt the issuse was fixed, but then the problem came back again.

I looked a the console and it is alway reporting previous sleep cause 5.

I am useing Chrom but I do not think it is related mainly because I noticed that it many time it goes to sleep right in the middle of me typing my password after I wake it up.

Yesterday it went to sleep while the only thing I had open was mail.

I have another appointment scheduled for Wednesday.

I chenged the power saving setting as noted above by PlutinisVeritas, lets see if it fixes it.

System:

Model Name: MacBook Air

Model Identifier: MacBookAir6,2

Processor Name: Intel Core i7

Processor Speed: 1.7 GHz

Number of Processors: 1

Total Number of Cores: 2

L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

L3 Cache: 4 MB

Memory: 8 GB

Boot ROM Version: MBA61.0099.B00

SMC Version (system): 2.13f5

Someone suggusted we try to recreat, I can as close as I think just now.

I rebooted at 11:23 PST.

I started taking notes to make sure I can trace it. NO CHROME!

Only used Safari for 10 min. no problems.

Used Adobe AI for 10 minutes no problem.

Use mail and things were fine for 20 minutes.

12:09:39 BOOM screen dark

Woke it up with space bar and prompted for password.

Entered password and immidiatly went to Console.

similar messages as before.

Just to make sure I did not start Chrom by mistake I CMD-TAB to see what is open and sure enogh there was CHROME but with no WINDOWS open. I looked at history and the last time I used it was 11:21 before I rebooted.

I looked at Console again and noticed that just before Sleep 5 there was Chrome HE. See attacehd.

I am going to remove chrom all togethe for a a few days and see.