My MacBook Air (2013) won't turn on

Reset SMC.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964

Choose the method for:

"Resetting SMC on portables with a battery you should not remove on your own".

Best.

I have only owned this laptop for a couple of months

The good news is that is still under the one year limited warranty.

Startup your Mac in Safe Mode

A Safe Mode boot takes a longer than a normal boot so be patient.

Once you are in Safe Mode, click Restart from the Apple () menu.

If that doesn't help, see if you can access OS X Recovery.

Turn the Mac off, wait about ten seconds then startup while holding down the Command + R keys. Let go of the keys when you see the spinning progress indicator.

From there you should be able to access the utilities in recovery mode to verify and repair the disk if necesssary, or reinstal OS X.

Read before proceeding > OS X: About OS X Recovery

If you can't boot into recovery mode, contact Apple for instructions for sending in your Mac for service > Contact Us - Apple Store

I had to reset my NVRAM and then it was all better. I tried everything that was posted here too. To reset your NVRAM do this "Press Option-Command-P-R until you hear startup sound a second time."

Hope this helps some of you that have tried everything with no luck.

hi hugotgs - i was having this exact same issue. thing wouldnt turn on. i shook the **** out of it and nothing. i took the bottom off and tried turning it on. when i did so, i saw the fan kind of twitching. so i stuck my finger in and gave the fan a bit of a flick. when i did that, it started spinning normally, and the macbook air just powered right up! im guessing i need to replace the fan but man this was driving me nuts!

hope that helps

In my case it was the power on button!!

Was using my 1.5 year old MacAir yesterday, battery was drained so I plugged it in but was not able to power it back on, it was charging the laptop with the green & amber light, did everything listed also with the shake but was not able to power it up.

Went to my local genius bar and was told it will take 2 days to diagnosis it .... as it was out of warranty & if it was something big like a logic board, I don't think I would have replace the hardware due to cost, so I decided to do it myself with other professional help.

Well it turn out to be my power up button, had to replace the whole keyboard for that single contact, so "I m with the shaking it like you mean it", if only I shakes it more! 🙂

Been using electronic product most of my life, tv , cd player, washing machine etc, basically "anything that needs a power on button" but never once had a problem with it after a year & a half of moderate usage .... come on Apple!

To anyone having this problem that the macbook air 2013 won't start or even give lifesigns exept for the magsafe charger LED!

I tried reseting SMC.

Keep the lid a little open (thats what i did) and keep it in a firm grip to make sure you hold it.

THEN SHAKE IT LIKE YOU MEAN IT!

Then press the start button.

Done.

This will set of the SMS (sudden motion sensor), and in doing so, this solved my problem.

Now everything works like a charm!

Have a nice day everyone!

Holy smokes. That just happened to me. The Shift+Control+Option+Power SMC reset worked, thank goodness.

What is the cause of this? Very unsettling.

My MBA is less than a month old. Was working on it this morning and it went black - I had moved from one location to another. The first thing I do whenever I get a new "gadget" is read up on all that could happen and possible rectification. I remembered your post and so I picked it up, turned it a few times with lid sllightly open, closed the lid, opened the lid, hit the power button and viola - on it went!

Thank you so much. I am so grateful for really an easy fix.

On another note, too many of us are having this issue - what in the world could it be?

I was busy doing something for uni this morning closed my computer to attend breakfast and came back later to find the **** thing would not show any response to opening or showing the main page and thought it was not charged. Charged green showed and tried again to no avail and then when that didn't work panic occurred. Turned on another laptop I own and viola found this forum of helpful information and this one from SweetLady saved me and got my MacAir working again.

thank you it worked by slamming the lid shut and opened ajar and turn on button.

Happy Australia Day

Thank you!!

After reading your post, I shook my brand new Macbook Air like a madman and the lovely chime came on. I put my head down on the desk with relief—the work I am in the middle of, is that important.

Thanks so much for coming up with and sharing this wonderful party trick.

You truly saved my work... my day... my week.

I found my way to this discussion when my MBA 11" (just purchased in June 2014) showed the symptoms described by Camdenlily after less than a week of use, namely, black screeen but with bootup chiming and fan running very loudly. In my case, resetting SMC (several times) did not work. What worked was reseting the PRAM.

UPDATE: after trying again your suggestion (clicking on all keys on the keyboard) it came back to life!!!

Hmm... I used to think rebooting hardware used to be more techy business 🙂

So thanks again davidfromlyons!!

Another troubleshooting step for those stuck with an MBA that won't power on. Open the lid, face the keyboard and screen down so you're looking at the seam where the lid and body connect *but from the back* (keyboard not visible), and do short burst of air in a harmonic-like fashion between that gap in the seam. What you're doing is reversing the air flow and cleaning out dust/stuff that may be blocking the fan or other components/sensors from working. No promises but it worked for me!

A more clear explanation:

Another troubleshooting step for those stuck with an MBA that won't power on. Open the lid, face the keyboard and screen down so you're looking at the seam where the lid and body connect *but from the back* (keyboard not visible), and do short bursts of air in/out in a harmonica-like fashion between the small gap in the seam between screen and keyboard/bottom of the MBA. Obviously try not to expectorate while doing this - as dry a mouth as possible. While doing this reach your hand around and press the power button every seconds. Hopefully you'll hear the "gong" that tells you the MBA is booting.

I believe this works because it reverses the normal direction of air flow and cleans out dust/stuff that may be blocking the fan or other components/sensors from working.

I too have had the same experience with an newly-purchased secondhand 2012 vintage 13" MacBook Air. Lovely machine but on several occasions it has 'died' but revived after a good shaking.

The supposition is that the reawakening is something to do with jiggling up the Sudden Motion Sensor. However does the Mac Air post 2010, when internal hard drives were replaced by SSDs, have such a thing? According to Apple "The Sudden Motion Sensor is designed to detect unusually strong vibrations, sudden changes in position, and accelerated movement. If the sensor detects any of these, it instantly parks the hard drive heads to help reduce the risk of damage to the hard drive in case of impact."

After the last and most severe episode I phone Apple's helpline and was talked through resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) followed by resetting the NVRAM. Since then it's behaved, but it's less than 24 hours so fingers are still crossed. The Apple phone help is very good.