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beavery Author

Level 1

0 points

All of my friends who are using MBA mid-2012 have SSD failures.

The SSD failed after two weeks out of warranty.

In my case, the MBA mid-2012 was freezing immediately. After restarting, the screen turned white with blinking folder.

I have done all the solutions and they all didn't work. I went to the apple store right after that since I thought that the warranty would last until the end of August 2013 (I brought the product at the end of Aug 2012). The guy looked on the system and told me that It's expired since 1st of August which is not correct.

After asking my friends and local stores, I have found that a lot of people who brought MBA mid-2012 got the same issues. Most of failures happened after the warranty is expired. Although It's my fault that I didn't buy the apple care on time,I am still very disappointed. The apple products were more reliable than the others.

MacBook Air, Mac OS X (10.7.5), Mid-2012 model

Posted on Sep 10, 2013 10:47 PM

97 replies

YuriJJ

Level 1

5 points

Sep 13, 2013 10:22 PM in response to jhcj

jhcj wrote:

The "MacBook Air Flash Storage Firmware Update 1.0" [http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1655] which Apple pulled at an unknown date seems mighty suspicious. I'd wager everyone with the SSD issue updated their firmware in the last few months.

Looks like that!

I have Revision TPVABBF0 before my SSD died.

flomk

Level 1

0 points

Sep 14, 2013 1:44 AM in response to beavery

Apple Service offered me now a substitutional MBA for the time until they can replace the SSD.

They said they have no idea how long it might take because they themselves get no info and that there are more and more MBAs with SSD failures coming in

eileenh4

Level 1

0 points

Sep 14, 2013 4:03 AM in response to Gregs67

Same problem and about the same time out of warranty.

jhcj

Level 1

4 points

Sep 14, 2013 9:44 AM in response to flomk

Nice. This is the first time that I've heard of the employees at least acknowledging that there's an unusual amount of SSD failures. I'm hoping that we're a little closer to Apple addressing this issue.

Sep 14, 2013 11:44 PM in response to beavery

I also encountered the same problem in my MBA mid-2012. It crashed all in a sudden. Trying to perform internet recovery, the disk cannot be detected anymore. Mine is also out of warranty by 4 weeks. But Apple extended the warranty for one time repair. Now I am waiting for my MBA SSD to be replaced.

beavery Author

Level 1

0 points

Sep 16, 2013 3:26 AM in response to beavery

Hi All,

I would like to update the latest status of my MBA mid-2012.

After reading through all the posts here, I made a call to the Apple Hotline again and explain my issue. I also mentioned about this topic. The person on the phone asked me to send my MBA to the service shop to confirm again if It's the SSD failure. He gave me his name so I would have to call back him once the investigation is done.

I went to the service shop. The guy confirmed that It's the SSD failure. I called back to the hotline. Finally, they gave me free of charge to change the SSD.

Thanks everyone here for sharing your cases. They are very helpful.

For the people here who are still thinking that the SSD failure is a rare case, please go and talk to any Apple service providers, you will found that there are many failures happened to MBA-2012. SSD is out of stock every places here in Bangkok as well as some other countries.

PS. my case is about 1 month out of warranty.

Regards,

Y_HB

Level 1

0 points

Sep 16, 2013 12:04 PM in response to beavery

Very common issue in South Korea too for 2012 MacBook Air with 128GB SSD (Toshiba ones as most 128GB models carry those. Some reported having Samsung or Sandisk but those users are not facing any problem yet)

Mine died a week before my warranty ended and my friend's one did a week after the warranty expired but apple let her get AppleCare and got it repaired but it took really long time. (Delay & Lack of supply for 128GB SSD worldwide)

When I posted this issue on one of Korean Mac forum, lots of people also reported the same issue too.

flomk

Level 1

0 points

Sep 17, 2013 4:37 AM in response to beavery

1 month anniversary now that my MBA is in the hands of Apple Service.

I wonder when I will see it again...

Isnt it weird that this SSD issue is mentioned nowhere in the press? Usually they pick up rather quickly on stuff like that.

Sep 17, 2013 5:45 AM in response to beavery

I got the same issue yesterday on my 13' MBA Mid-2012 purchased December 2012 😟

Was working when it just freezed and restarted with the question mark folder that appeared and when check with Disk Utility, SSD of 32k only in list.

Fortunately still on warranty but had to left it in store.

Sep 17, 2013 5:48 AM in response to beavery

I got the same issue yesterday on my 13' MBA Mid-2012 purchased December 2012 😟

Was working when it just freezed and restarted with the question mark folder that appeared and when check with Disk Utility, SSD of 32k only in list.

Fortunately still on warranty but had to left it in store.

Sep 21, 2013 6:11 AM in response to beavery

For the ones who still think it is not a widespread problem, one more here!

Mine failed this week (monday)! Exactely the same: mac freezes, force shut down, when turning on i get the question mark of death, can`t internet recover because disk utility doesn`t show my SSD.

My luck is that mine was still in warranty (until november 11).

It really seems that lots of problems like this are starting to surface now, my guess is apple will make a recall for the sake of their name.So, do you think it was because of the new firmware??

I am from Brasil, the guy from the apple service store told me I would get my Mac back in 10-12 days.. I hope we don `t have a shortage of SSDs here in Brasil, like in South Korea and Thailand!!

Anyways, I already bought an external wireless HD to make regular time machine backups. I lost TOOOO MANY important documents because of this 😢.

Sep 22, 2013 5:23 PM in response to jhcj

I'm starting to agree with you that it's linked to the pulled firmware upgrade.
I made a video with a bit of a work around as I wait for a replacement drive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6LEykaS7Iw

Sep 25, 2013 12:25 PM in response to flomk

Has it been fixed yet? Mine has been out of comission for 11 days now with the same story of the part being on backorder. Very upset after finding multiple discussions of the SSD shortage and long repair times. I use mine for both work and personal, and on the road all the time. I do have the AppleCare warranty, but not like it does me any good if they can't fix it.

Sep 25, 2013 12:46 PM in response to wbclark54

Not yet... The guy from apple told me it would take 10-12 days, and now it is only one week from the day took it to repair.

I will tell when I get it back! I hope soon...

Sep 25, 2013 3:37 PM in response to beavery

I am also having the same problem. Macbook Air 11" mid-2012 128 GB, United States. SSD crashed today, 3 months out of warranty. Froze and then on a hard restart got the folder with the question mark. After trying to do an Internet Recovery, no hard drive is listed in either Disk Utility or when attempting a Time Machine restore.

I am very suspicious of the firmware update DL1655. Why else would they pull it from their servers and also all support documents for it, unless something was wrong with the update? Very odd.

I have a Genius Bar appointment in a few days. I'll post an update after that. I did notice that in the weeks leading up to the crash today (and after the firmware update), I was getting notifications that my startup disk was almost full. The first time it was, but after I deleted some old files, I would occasionally still get the notification that it was almost full.

All of my friends who are using MBA mid-2012 have SSD failures.