My MacBook Air (2013) won't turn on

Thanks everyone for their responses! I don't have a Macbook Air 2013, but I have a 2008 Macbook Pro 15 in" that I have taken absolute great care of, including maxing out RAM and installing a 500gb ssd/moving original 750 gb apple hd to the optical bay. I mainly just use this computer to watch movies on, so at night I just shut the lid when I'm done with the movie to put it in sleep mode instead of "shutting down". Every day when I need to use it i just wake the computer up by opening the lid and pressing the trackpad.

However, about a week ago, I tried to wake it up and it just would not wake up. I tried SMC resetting all sorts of ways. I opened up the computer and cleaned the fans (which I admit were very dusty). The LED light would indicate it was fully charged, and then sometimes it would be amber and charging, but it wouldn't power on.

I even tried the shake like a mad person and alas, no sign of life, fans would not even make a sound. I began ordering hard drive enclosures to prepare my new move to a new computer.

So then after hearing about how some people "cook" their mother board, I figured I would try that with my own twist. My computer (no protective case on) was resting in a tote bag on my backseat floor vertically standing up, sort of leaning diagonally. It was pretty hot outside today, so I thought, *hey I'm not going to put my mother board in the oven, but let me see if leaving it in the car for a few hours will help bring it back to life.* I left it in the car, went about my day, then 5:40pm I took out my computer, did a control-option-p-r just for the heck of it, plugged in the the magsafe charger, pressed the power button, then 2 seconds later, the white screen, then my login screen I always see when my computer has woken up from sleep!!!! I couldn't believe it!!!

Now I'm afraid to turn it off, and will do a harddrive clone/time machine/complete back up of every single probably on multiple drives!!! But if you feel like you have no hope -- try leaving it in your car on a warm day for a few hours and see if it works (AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION OF COURSE!). Good luck!

Unbelievable. Our 14 month old MBA just wouldn't boot recently. This machine has never been dropped, never even been out of the house, but was (of course) out of warranty. We didn't see this thread in time. Apple is charging us $280 to replace the logic board. All of this for a bad solder joint? And clearly a problem we are not alone in...

The quality of Apple products is really becoming ridiculous. Bad phones after 18 months, and now this? With the premium we pay for their products I'm disgusted. And angry. And now out cash at the holidays, too. (End of vent.)

my MacBook Air (early 2014) would not turn on. It beeped once and then a black screen. I tried every thing the SCM Reset, the shake (though I don't know if I shook it hard enough) . The back apple light was working, but it never turned off even when I closed the lid. No lights on the keyboard (caps locked). Well so I tried the PRAM reset, but I did not get the second startup chime. So I angrily shut the laptop lid to search with my iPad whether anyone else had had this same problem and voila! The back light turned off! I opened my laptop and it turned on with the diagnostic screen offering a diskcheck and OS install which apparently I dont need. I don't know whether it was the PRAM reset or maybe my shutting it hard had the same effect as the shake!

This has happened to me too, twice.

Latest was just this morning. Computer working properly last night, plugged into charger, green LED showing.

This morning, all dead, except green LED. VERY annoying as am travelling and needed to urgently access computer file. had to risk using insecure internet access. Computer was cold to touch and has not been dropped, shaken (or stirred).

Tried again after about 4 hours and, Bingo!, all started normally.

This is the second time the problem has happened to me and, reading correspondence here, is not at all uncommon.

My request is to Apple - please let us, your customers, know what is causing this issue and, if possible, provide a solution.

Thank you,

Adair

This seemed like a long shot, but tried it before heading to my Genius Bar appointment after a couple hours of desperatey trying to bring it back to life. I shook my MBA like I hated it (which I did at that point) and boom - started right up after being left for dead! What an amazing and ridicilous fix!!!!!

Genius Bar looked at it - had been functioning normally for about 4 days. Confirmed that this model doesn't have an SMS, so if shaking is actually helping that's for some other reason. Only suggestion was that it might be a logic board problem - £400 to replace. I don't think so! Took it home again.

Vendor tells me that he's never had this problem - I think I believe him. It seems to have occurred when the computer has been asleep for a long time (e.g. overnight) so maybe a simple solution is to power off at the end of the day. Startup is so quick that that's not going to be a nuisance.

Am in the same situation, everything is dead, no lights chimes etc. Strange as this happened after an SMC update today.

I have exactly the same problem! Bought the macbook air 2013 a month ago!! Now I wake up in the morning and I have an exam to work for and I cant use my expensive "amazing" laptop!

Thanks alot Apple

Oh my god, I shaked it and it worked. Thanks man, you saved my life.

4 years after you, I find myself in the same situation. I bought a refurbished MacBook Air after my MacBook Pro died(4 years with it, 0 problems!) well the laptop has been quitting by itself a bunch of times but nothing that can't be handle albeit the inconvenience, he worst is that the laptop wouldn't start for days after turning it off and then when bringing it to the store, it would start just fine by itself! I had to make a video at my house just so they would believe me in case I would book an appointment at the Genius Bar and the laptop would work just fine again. Every time I brought it in also they run the diagnostics and told me that everything was fine with it...on the third time, they finally couldn't make it start and had to send it to the mainland from Hawaii for a logic board replacement, 2 months later, here I'm again with the same problem, I travel a lot for work and can't have this happening while abroad or even here...at what point does apple return my money so I can buy something that isn't a "lemon"? I'm already over this computer that I can't count on...any ideas? The computer has been sent to the mainland again...

hi all,

i had the same issue with my late 2010 MBA 11", watched a movie in the night, closed it and in the next morning it was completely dead, even the Magsafe didn't light up. I've tried serval thinks, including all keyboard combination (SMC reset and so on), a different power supply from a 13" MBP, shaking like i mean it, nothing worked so far. But today, hot summer day, i placed it the whole afternoon in the car in the sun and suddenly it was working again.

Thanks alot at user ewrecka for the tip.

Last entry in the system log was:

Jun 16 00:01:19 unknown5855CAF8B8BD logd[66]: Flushing contents to disk due to sleep event

This is INCREDIBLE ADVICE. Absolutely fantastic. I honestly thought this was a joke when my wife's laptop wouldn't work, causing big problems for her small business. This advice fixed brought the screen back to life. Best advice I've ever found on the internet. Thank you!

Did your MBA continue to work after it came back on? Mine did the same about two weeks ago (I've not had it longer than a month), and I was thrilled after a few days it magically powered up after nearly a week of nothing. But a few days ago it died and won't power up again. Light has changed from orange to green, tried every reboot I can find, called Apple, etc. I'm taking it in tomorrow, so I guess I'm just curious about what to expect. This seems to be a frequent occurrence among Air owners, from what I've read online...