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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Posted on Dec 8, 2017 8:03 AM

After a bit of web surfing I ran across this thread. The last 15 minutes or so, the screen on my 2013 MBP running MacOS High Sierra, has gone black several times. After reviewing this thread, I realized that my iPhone was near the laptop (running on battery). My iPhone case has a magnetic clasp and I just realized that every time the magnetic clasp passes over or near the Thunderbolt port on my laptop, the screen immediately goes black.

I have now done this multiple times to confirm I am not imagining things. It was just so odd, it took me a few minutes to make the correlation.

Hope this information helps someone.

929 replies

Jan 13, 2014 12:17 PM in response to jportnoy

All of the same problems here! I am in the middle of trying to get a pro although they are being difficult about it. Hopefully when the woman from corporate calls back today they will let me give them more money and get the pro. At this point my 5 year old PC was more reliable for exams then my essentially brand new MBA. Fix the problem and stop selling people broken computers that don't work

Jan 14, 2014 8:57 AM in response to T Cappenberg

I think the easiest way to reproduce the problem is like this (REMEMBER this will most likely hang your computer requiering a forced restart, I don't take any responsibiblity for any trouble that might cause you):


1. Have the MacBook Air (Mid 2013) running with the display/lid open.


2. Hold down the ”cmd alt/option” keys and press the power key (this will cause the MacBook Air to enter sleep mode)…


3. …then immediately after pressing the above key combo, press random keys on the keyboard in an attempt to wake up the computer.


After the first or a few tries you should have a hanged MacBook Air, i.e. black screen and not responding to keyboard input.


I've noticed that it sometimes doesn't hang directly (still responding to keyboard input) but the screen stays black. After a while it seems it hangs, though. Can be that it restarts automatically (”because of a problem”) that you then can send to Apple.


Anyway, like has been said before, though: it seems Apple are aware of this and a Firmware fix will hopefully come out relatively soon to take care of it.

Jan 16, 2014 2:27 PM in response to jportnoy

I've just experienced this thing crashing out to black screen (with no energy saver options, and no typing/trackpad activity - literally just went black for no reason) in the middle of a product demonstration to some very important stakeholders. I've tried to make an appointment at my Apple store, but surprise surprise, there are no appointments available whatsover for the forseeable future. I have already lodged a formal complaint with Apple months ago, and did not receive a response - under my country's consumer law, their lack of response has left them open to a consumer dispute claim, and their faulty product means they are obligated to fully refund or replace the product if they cannot repair it. This weekend I will go to my Apple store, albeit without an appointment (I cannot find any reference to 'Genius appointments' as a requisite for consumer law enaction in our consumer law), and return the product. I will digitally record the entire transaction (yes I will inform the staff that they're on the record), and based on their actions, I will issue Apple with a summons through our Consumer Affairs and Fair Trading Tribunal, in addition to lodging a complaint with the Australian Consumer and Competion Commission asking them to investigate a mandatory recall (they are already watching Apple closely). I have lodged numerous support tickets, made several complaints, and have experienced the most unprofessional, discrespectful, and comptemptuous response from what has always been my favourite technology company. This is my second faulty Macbook Air in a row. My last one didn't last 9 months before its battery swelled up and pushed out the trackpad. Literally everybody I know who has a MBA is experiencing the black screen problem.

Jan 17, 2014 1:03 AM in response to jportnoy

An update to add to the pile. Just off the phone to AppleCare and was passed to a senior support person. They gave me something along the lines of:


"Apple is aware of the issue. They require no futher evidence. It has been flagged as important. The internal document is referred to as 'Cannot wake from sleep MacBook Air mid-2013'. I'm very sorry."


I asked if the internal doc had a reference code but he wouldn't give that out.


The tone was along the lines of 'just wait for a software update'.

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Mid-2013 Macbook Air screen goes black?

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