Macbook Air SSD failure?

This is an update to my earlier post. My 15 month SSD had died. It wasn't under warranty because I couldn't get extended warranty as I was 10 days late, when I had called Apple Care. Mine was bought from HK and I live in India. Product support is very poor in India, and Apple is no exception.

When my iPhone had an issue they delayed the replacement process for a week saying the display of my iPhone seemed a duplicate one. 2 days back and after the "original iPhone designers" verified it was indeed a real one they replaced the iPhone.

For the MacBook, they just denied service as it was out of warranty. There is no Apple Store in India and the call center support isn't that impressive and the apple care centers very very unfriendly. I didn't ask much as I don't want another SSD which fails.

I ordered a 120GB OWC SSD and I replaced it yesterday. It works great, maybe faster too, will have to use a few more days before confirming. Taking risk with data is just not possible for me and this was a cheaper option too.

I have 8 Apple devices currently and will still go for Apple next but things like this just hurts.

Best,

Shirsendu

Engineer @ LinkedIn

Add another to queue. I have Macbook Air 13" 2012 bought in july 2012 and its ssd crashed in Aug 2013, Called Apple support and apparantely they declined the service because i was out of warranty for more than 2 months. I went to Apple service Centers in Delhi, India and they quoted me around $700. Hence in immediate urgency i bought Macbook Pro.Now i found this discussion ( due to my busy schedule was not getting time to sit and google ) and pretty much confident that this seems to be a major problem with mid 2012 MBA's. I wonder should i call again to Apple Support? or as i found OWC in threads is a good idea to buy ssd?

Hi Shirsendu,

I am from Delhi,India. Have same problem like you and out of warranty. Can i ask you few questions about OWC purchase.

1. How much it costs to you?

2. How much time it took in delievery?

3. How is the performance and experience using OWC 120GB SSD?

4. Just to confirm. You bought it from macsales.com?

Thanks

Bharat Sharma

Hii Bharat,

My condolences for your departed HDD.

1. $159.99 + $30 Shipping + Rs. 2450 import taxes to Government via FedEx.

2. It took 3-4 days. The shipping was very quick.

3. I had started using an external HDD for the OS while I waited for the SSD to arrive. I still haven't installed OS on that, just benchmarked file trasfers. (I have another MacBook Air 😉) But it was impressive. I am waiting for Mavericks, will install that directly on the SSD.

4. Yes, as that was OWC's official site.

Do get the right screw driver if you plan to do it yourself.

Best,

Shirsendu.

Thanks Shirsendu

"Do get the right screw driver if you plan to do it yourself. "

Which screw driver you refer and from where i can get it?

Check this guide.

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Air+11-Inch+Mid+2012+Solid-State+Drive+Repla cement/12351/1

🙂

SMC version is 2.5f7 currently on the "fixed" SSD. Don't know what I had before. Try and stay up to date.

Keep calling AppleCare and make sure you get an official file started and request a follow up. Mention 20 pages on the support forums with similar problems. They won't address it until the noise gets louder. Squeaky wheel gets the grease...

Also, AMEX doubles any warranty on items purchased, it's included in the cost of the card. Saved me here, but I am still pursuing Apple because I don't trust that this "new" drive will run any better than the last one.

Also, those that got it fixed for free, if you could include repair order number, that may be helpful for others so that Apple Care can see others are getting warranty exceptions for this seemingly widespread problem...

My warrenty was extended based on 3 things I think: I have been an Apple user since 1985, 2nd failure in 14 months and I asked the person on the phone to look at this thread. Recently I have noticed that the MBA mid-2012 is no longer on the list of buy back computers used by Apple and it has also disappeared from Gazelle--both in the last few weeks.

I would stress the latter two points.

In my case i did call apple, malaysia,and was told there was no such extended warranty for my 128GB ssd MBA mid2012 which fail after 14 months. And was quoted more than 1/2 price than my MBA price tag for replacement. I have some problem with my order of OWC Aura Pro 6G 120GB from macsales.com, will getting it from S'pore for $320

So the Genius I spoke to today said that the 128GB Toshiba drives were, and I quote, "worldwide supply constrained."

LOL

I tried my best to wrangle a replacement which he wasn't having, but needless to say I am very unhappy that a part that is clearly defective is going to be replaced with the same defective part.

Think I'm going hit up Citizens Advice in the UK for some advice about a refund. When you pay a grand for a laptop you shouldn't have to worry about the replacement part being the same defective junk.

Hello to all of you.

I'm very disappointed that I have to add the case of my MBA 13" to the ones with the faulty SSD drive, too. I bought it in July 2012 in Athens, Greece. About one week ago, it was suddenly frozen and non responsive. After rebooting, there was the flashing folder with the ? on it. Disk utility still could see the SSD but only as a device, not formatted or containing any data at all. I took it to the service of the Apple store that I bought it and they told me that the SSD was able to pass hardware tests and did not seem to have any problem. They claimed of a software failure blaming it on possible "not good usage" by myself, like deleting some file that I shouldn't !!!

Anyways, they told me that this malfunction was nothing to worry about, since they see that the disk has no problem. When I asked them about the cost of a possible replacement of the SSD drive, if needed, they told me that it is 883€, unless I'm willing to return the faulty one and pay around 550€ instead. Well, today (5 days later) and after having installed mac os again and various applications and restoring anything that I had in backup (the fact is that I lost a large amount of work, which was very important) the same symptoms appeared. This time, the SSD drive does not appear even as a device.

So, I wonder: is it really right for me after having made a purchase of 1500€ before one year and 3 months, to pay 883€ or 550€ now again? If this is normal and expected from my SSD, then I suppose that I am expected to replace my SSDs from now on every 1 year and 3 months. I certainly did not buy my MBA for just one year!

http://www.apple.com/support/macbookair-flashdrive/

Excellent news. Thanks you Tlix

& Apple 🙂

YEEEEEES! ....but yesterday I ordered OWC SSD for 160 euros...nah 😀

still good news...

Aweosome news 🙂

I qualify for free replacement offically 😝