Q: Macbook Air SSD failure?

I called the service again this afternoon. Asked straight whether they knew about a problem.

The technicial told me that although there was nothing official, something must be going on. Since 2010 they had only 3 SSD failures and suddenly over 20 within 3 weeks, all Toshiba mid 2012 Airs. Apple is not even able to estimate delivery date for the spare parts. He has 14 more guys like me waiting.

I don't think we need more "evidence"

Since I talked to a Consumer Service (Supervisor---sombody higher up the chain) serveral days ago, Apple has been working hard to provide good repair service and has shipped the box for returning it to Apple).

In the context of making the repair arrangements, I spoke to a Tech (supervisor) and asked her to look at this Discussion which she did. Based on what she saw, she agreed to explore further and to put out an alert. That is the first person who has acknowledged the possibility of a problem. Apparently I am not the only person to report 2 SSD failures 6 or 7 months apart.

Perhaps the tide is turning.

As per the Toshiba SSD (and few others re: 2012 Air), ...it would be about a 1 chance out of 10 that the Toshiba SSD itself failed, rather the flash memory controller of the Toshiba SSD, or as meant the 'SSD processor'.

(SandForce SF-2200 controller)

Yes, but who cares if it's a controller on SSD or memory chips on SSD? The SSD is defective regardless of which SSD component failed (that's a different subject already, but just for the record, Toshiba is taking  responsibility for any product they put their name on and it doesn't matter who made it for them)

PS. Of course if the memory chips are intact it's possible to recover data from them, but the cost of it would be a deal breaker anyway.

I can't really understand how people are saying it's not a common problem given the evidence...

A common problem doesn't nescesarily mean 75% of MBA's suffer from it, the fact is the same problem on the same peice of hardware is occuring frequently, added with a shortage of the replacement parts also.

Also, to anybody saying just because 10 people post on a forum saying they've got a problem, you have to think that it's a very small amount of people that would actually come on here to vent about their frustration, and take into account the thousands of forums there may be with posters posting about the problem.

I'm going to phone the apple shop up tomorrow to see if I can get any news about ETA on my part in the UK

Anybody else from the UK been told any waiting times, I've seen somebody say 3 weeks, I'm lost without it already :@

Is there any use in trying to ask for them to replace it with the Samsung one instead of the Toshiba if I say I need the MBA back urgently?

SmOg3R

You're correct on all accounts above in what you said,...I did not mean to imply contrary; rather merely pointing out highest likelihood of the locus of failure.

Data recovery off SSD extremely quickly approaches astronomical impossibility.

Archived multiple copies storage of valuable data is the universal 'etched in stone' rule all pros follow, SSD or conventional HD.  

No computer, regardless of make or model, should ever be considered at any time a "data storage device".

Yep, I'm in London, UK and I was quoted 3 weeks from Covent Garden Flagship Apple store.

Been running my MacBook Air of a USB3 drive as can be seen in the video I made.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6LEykaS7Iw

One more data point here (actually two). My 11" 2012 mba's SSD died after one year and two weeks. Apple replaced it no questions asked - great service! Now the replacement has died after two months! Disk Utility launched from a USB recovery drive reports that the internal drive has a total capacity of 33Kb - can't even attempt an internet recovery :-) Can't say I was hard on the machine in any way.

If I can't get this replaced by Apple I might try a do-it-yourself OWC replacement. After this I'm *never* purchasing a laptop with and SSD again. I've never had any problems with old fashioned mechanical drives in all the machines I've owned over the last 15 years.

markfromnzl,

The only explanation I can think of is that the replacement part was from the same 2012 branch for months lieing in Apple inventory. It would be unbelievable to think that 2013 toshibas could be prone to failures just as much. Or else, you have a really, I mean *really* bad luck

Now have you had that firmware update for mid-2012 MBAs SSD flashed? This FW judging from it's description can prevent it from failing just as well as possibly causing it.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1583234

I have exactly same problem of sudden death (Macbook Air 13inch 2012). I'm just out of warranty.

I bought it in Korea and here in the UK. I made a resevation in Apple retailer of Bluewater on Wednesday.

After reading all of posts here, it seems that i have to wish my best of luck meeting generous guy to give me a free replacement, or otherwise i have to pay all although it's products failure nothing to do with customers' fault.

I wonder in case if it is profitable that i buy a OWC's SSD product (256g) for USD 320 instead of replaceing it officially. Please, somebody tells me what to do.

Hopefully i would meet a generous person who is aware of seriousness of this issue.

I'm quite dissappoited by this event.

Tobanai, I would suggest that you call apple care first. If you take it to an official retailer they won't repair it out of warranty for free unless Apple approves it first.

If you don't manage to get apple to accept an out of warranty repair I would say to for the OWC. I jus took mine to an apple store for a warranty repair but I was quoted £300 if I had no warranty. You can get 256gb instead of 128gb for that price nowadays.

Thanks a lot for your suggestion, J Olaya.

I suspect they take my call of apple care out of warranty, though.

Moreover, it costs GBP 200.

I prefer OWC's bigger SSD in this case.

Anyway, I would report what happens after visiting and claiming apple retailer on Wednesday.

Good luck to me.

Update. I got an email from AppleCare telling me my repair is put on hold because they don't have the parts they need yet.

I wonder that it could be an 'official evidence' proving that there was a SSD issue which Apple had been aware of, isn't it?

So, why shold we(out of warranty) take whole responsibility for every penny then??

Was this SSD firmware update delivered via Sofware Update from Apple, or do you have to "know" about this and do it manually? I always kept my mba up to date with all software updates released by Apple via Software Update.

Cheers,
Mark.