Q: Macbook Air SSD failure?

Thanks Hotur, Susan and MacBabyBee.

After I got your info, I went to the apple store and pushed for a new one.  I got a call this morning saying that they will be replacing mine with a new 2013 one...

I guess Canadian support is a close 2nd to you Brits

I also received a new macbook I7 2013, and actually a bigger harddrive than I had before.  All I did was call to check the status twice, and then received a call from the manager stating theres no way she would get a harddrive in the "near future", and Apple has authorized complete replacement.

Posted earlier in the thread, as my MBA failed in late September. It has worked intermittently over the past month if I charge it fully. Finally got the Genius Bar to look at it and they admitted some problems with 64gb and 128gb versions. However, mine was denied repair since it was 256gb. Has anybody had failure or repair with 256gb hard drives? As of now I am looking at $568 repair since the store manager denied there is an issue with the 256gb SSD HD.

Thrilled for you. Glad Apple made things good again. Enjoy the replacement unit!

For those in Singapore, I just received this email from the service centre:

With regards to the Solid State Drive required for your Macbook Air, unfortunately there has been an unexpected delay in receiving the necessary orders due to a part constrain. We have since escalated to Apple on a number of occasions to obtain an expected delivery date. However, this delay is expected to arrive on 4th November 2013 or earlier.

Really annoying to see folks getting replacements, when I tried my damndest to get one and got nothing

Still not sure what to do. I couldn't make the repair the Apple store booked for me, and now Apple have acknowledged this issue, I think it makes the case for refund a lot weaker.

Goddammit Toshiba you've put me in a bind

I took my MBA in on the 15th, 2 days before Apple sent out the recall notice. The SSD failed and it was useless. We took it in on the 15th and they said 3-5 days probably on Monday. No luck, called back today and they said that the apple care facility is not getting any SSDs in until the 29th and our MBA will not be there until the 30th at the earliest. Hopefully we are close to the top of the list since we went in before the recall, but over 2 weeks is a lot to be without a computer. Seems like apple should have stocked up a little when they knew they were going to recall so many computers.

Hi,

Because I'm using an USB portable hard drive to boot up the Macbook Air which I bought when it first announced (June, 2012), I'm unable to install the SSD Firmware Update 1.1. The installer states that this computer does not need this update.

I'm assuming that because the startup disk is not an Apple hardware, the update cannot detect the SSD hardware. Or my SSD has already dead, it is unable to detect it. Am I right?

Because this Macbook Air has out of warranty (SSD was broken on July 2013, exactly 13 months after the purchase), does anyone know I'm eligible for a free SSD replacement?

I'm afraid that the Apple representative cannot understand me over the phone because of my speech disability, so I would like to try on the support forum.

Here is the full system report of SSD for my MacBook Air.

Intel 7 Series Chipset:

  Vendor:          Intel

  Product:          7 Series Chipset

  Link Speed:          6 Gigabit

  Negotiated Link Speed:          3 Gigabit

  Description:          AHCI Version 1.30 Supported

SandForce{200026BB}:

  Capacity:          33 KB (32,768 bytes)

  Model:          SandForce{200026BB}                   

  Revision:          306ABBR0

  Serial Number:          1

  Native Command Queuing:          Yes

  Queue Depth:          32

  Removable Media:          No

  Detachable Drive:          No

  BSD Name:          disk0

  Medium Type:          Solid State

  TRIM Support:          No

  Partition Map Type:          Unknown

  S.M.A.R.T. status:          Not Supported

Please help. Thanks.

Take it to Apple Care store or their authorized dealers. They will  fix it for you for free. Just tell them your SSD is dead and let them do whatever tests they need.

If you didn't get a message that you are ok from the frimware update then your are eligible for a free replacement.

Hi Chornox,

Thanks for the quick response. I will make an appointment with my local Apple store right away, and hopely it will be tomorrow because I hadn't used my Air for several months until I heared the recall program on TV. This is my first Mac so if I didn't heared this news, I was going to think that Apple hardware can only lasts for a year so that it can force its customers buy the newest genenration of device :(

Thanks again.

My Story:

I have a macbook air 13" (mid 2013) with 128gb SSD.

I was going to upgrade my OS to OS X mavericks. It prompted that I was required to update my Harddisk firmware first. I ran the update and it failled with a message saying "unexpected error" and a button to "Restart". After clicking restart, it failed to boot.

I took it to Hong Kong Apple Retail store the next morning.

- They tried to reinstall the OS through the recovery partition - didn't work

- They tried to format the the drive - can't

- They tried to backup my data via a thunderboard connection - not possible

- They said the only way to recover my data was to take it to a 3rd party data recovery company but they won't reimburse the cost

I was then told that my Laptop is eligible for the replacement program but had to wait 3-5 days before they can confirm when they will have parts.

It looks like the firmware update killed my SSD :-\

Why did Apple recommend the firmware update in the first place....

Not happy....

From what I understand, this is the path to the 'fix'. I have an affected Air, but it passed the firmware upgrade test. Now my Safari is broken, but my SSD is supposedly 'OK' unless it isn't later. You should be made good with new storage, but the inconvenience and lack of info is certainly annoying. I hope you did a back up before running the update.

My MBA is dead after installing update 1.1.

My exeperience:

Macbook air 13" (mid 2013) with 128gb SSD.

Tried to upgrade my OS to OS X mavericks.

System update asked to update my Harddisk firmware.

Ran the update and it failled with a message saying "unexpected error" and a button to "Restart".

After clicking restart, it failed to boot.

Now it only displays a folder with a "?"

I took it into the San Francisco Apple Store.  The genius bar swore that Firmware Update 1.1 does not actually update anything, only looks for possible bad drives.  My MBA was fine, until I applied that update.  Now it is dead.

The replacement parts are backordered by 2 WEEKS!  I am without a Laptop because a required update destroyed my SSD drive.

I'm very upset by this.

Sf-sly,

This was EXACTLY my experience. I am sure more people will encounter the same situation as they try to upgrade to OSX Mavericks.

I think the guys at genius bars will just deny its the firmware update that caused it until apple officially acknowlege it. The "genius" that looked at my MBA did not accept any responsibility and was not apologetic. I was just suggest that i should do backups with their Time machine before any updates.

Its annoying because my Macbook Air was running perfectly before update 1.1! Now I am told that Ive have lost all my data and need to wait for parts before it could be fixed!!