MBA 13 Mid 2013 crash Black screen

Interestingly, mine didn't get worse. But it's always there.

I can see that it has the possibility to be a software issue, but I just doubt it. And if it is a hardware issue, I will be disappointed if that is 'fixed' by a software workaround. A workaround and a fix are different things.

And because I suspect that is a hardware issue which is tried to be covered by a software hack, I'll never get another Apple product in my life 🙂

By the way, MDN64, I have told them about your case number and that Apple had to refund you. They contacted Apple with that number, and they said: "Apple didn't tell that this needs a replacement, let alone refund. They told us to get your computer back for testing again, which we know nothing will come up, and if the customer (you) insists, he can go to where he bought it."

I told him that the shop I bought won't take it back, because 15-day return period has passed. He said "I'm sorry but that's what I got from Apple. Just send your computer to us again and let us test again."

So... Noone is expecting that this is a software issue more than I do now.

Shame that I bought this to be my computer for at least 4 years.

That's very interesting.

What Apple don't know is that I have an automatic call recorder on my phone so I have every conversation saved.

As a result I am quite comfortable telling you that Apple lied to you and can back it up.

Apple replaced everything they could, it still crashed.

They offered me another MBA but could not give me a guarantee that it would work.

I asked them to provide me with a rMBP until they could provide an MBA that worked but they declined, hence it went back.

I bought it from an independent retailer, so it had to go back to Apple through him, so there's a grain of truth in their story, but Apple never requested that further testing be carried out, they had to throw in the towel.

I guess either I will send it back to the repairs or keep it. Sending it back costs me time and money. That is the thing I couldn't make others understand so far.

But I'll see how this goes. If 10.9.2 fixes it in a way that satisfies me, then I'll keep it. For now, I'm gonna wait for that release. Or try to get my hands on the beta, in any ways.

I got my hands on the 4th beta.

Obviously, I am back to 10.9.1, which is 'stable'. I didn't want to cause more trouble on the computer.

The problem was gone like richard_vd said. I made a video. I couldn't wait for it to put itself to sleep, so I did the lid trick, Apple menu > Sleep, long press power button to open the power menu and then sleep, press power button to sleep.

Video is in this link: http://videobam.com/iBWlh (I hope that works). Please tell me what you think. It gets curious with the "close the lid and open it quickly" trick. It feels like I open the lid before it could sleep, so it first sleeps, then wakes up. In some cases, it doesn't wake up after I open the lid again. In one case, I pressed a button to wake it up, it woke up. In the other case, I closed the lid again and opened. It woke up again.

It definitely needs some improvement, but do you think this is a hardware thing now?

Just want to say THANKS to richard_vd for the testing an the idea of the developers' release. I was VERY close to bailing on my MBA after several lost documents (in mid editing) and waking to a frozen system most mornings. I dropped in 10.9.2 (13C53) and tried all the testing richard did. I can report the same results (and I had the same symptoms). Thanks again.

True. I'm just making conclusions based on my own experience. I'm not saying I'm certrain they are definite for everyone.

But maybe there are more than one issue here? Maybe the reproduceable issue (putting to sleep and then trying to waking up without success) is one issue and the ”random black screen when working” that has been around is another? Maybe they aren't related or maybe they are.

I'm just saying that on the MacBook Air (Mid 2013) that I tried to reproduce the sleep/wake issue I wasn't able in 10.8.4 on that computer after several tries, but when starting the same computer from a disk with OS X 10.9 I managed to reproduce just after a couple of tries.

I have a mid 2013 Air. This thread is new to me since yesterday. I realized I was having trouble with the screen going black on me with a lit unresponsive key board. I thought it was getting worse but it was me hitting the power button as I went for delete. Also happens if you hit them at the same time. I also noticed that if I closed the lid and opened it fast it did the same thing. So by the time I called AC last night I had it figured out. I was hitting the power key and putting it to sleep when I went for the delte key. Other times I was closed the lid and opened it right away with the same resluts. I got talked into doing a clean erase on my HD and resinstal. What a HUGE was of time. . THen I was told do not migrate my time machine. See if it does it on a clean install with no data. Well it acted just like before. So I talked a a senior supervisoir this AM and he said it is a hardware problem and to bring it in. I am telling him there are these long threads about this issue and he gets angry with me and said the threads suck. So what I figure is happening is that the system needs 5-10 second delay after going into sleep before waking it up. If I delay waking it up by 5-10 seconds the srceen NEVER goes black. Also if I close my lid I wait the same amount of time and no problem. So that is my soultion for the time being. Just wait a moment before bringing it back out of sleep. Unless this thing really starts getting gooy on me I will not take it to the store just for this problem.

Your descriptions are good. I have two MBA's - one entry level and one max'd out. I worked with senior engineers 6 weeks ago to show them it was not hardware and demonstrate the problems and capture debug logs. To backup your findings, my slower MBA has a longer "danger time" during which you cannot touch anything while it goes to sleep (slower processor speed). The faster MBA has a shorter time (goes to sleep faster) but a "danger time" nonetheless. Once I added the developers' release of 10.9.2 it all went away, including the "dead in the morning" problem that is less talked about here - but MORE maddening because I could not avoid it crashing. So, bad news, Apple Support is NOT good at disseminating info like this and always tries to send us to the retail store (yuck). But good news, these threads ROCK, and a software fix is on the way!

I'll tell you a good demo to try and freak eveybody out. This was long before I figured this thing out. But I now know what happened. I was watcing Netflix and hit the power & delte at the same time so it immediatley did the semi sleep crash thingy with the black screen with the lit keyboard. But this time included in the "package" was this clicking noise that sounded an alwful lot like my 2008 Mac Book when the hard drive failed. I immediately paniced and then thought wait this has a flash drive so it cannot be that. What happened was a couple of seconds of the audio from the movie got into a feed back loop in this semi sleep black screen state and it was replaying itself. It was a very low audio sound.

Yeah, to me the bug sounded like it was some sort of race condition/timing bug with osx's sleep process. I'm glad to hear it seems to be fixed in this update!

same thing 😐 on my MBA mid 2013

Since I figured out that this happens only if I simltaniousluy hit the power button (sleep) and anyother button, usually the delte button beause they are so close togehter I have stopped the problem 100%. Also if I hit the power button to sleep, or close the hood and change my mind I wait 5 second before I tell Mac to come out of sleep. And again that elimintated the problem 100%. The issue is there is a lag/time difference for it go into sleep completely. If you tell Mac to come out of sleep while the processser is not yet there you will get the black screen. It really is simple. I am more careful about hitting the delte key (do not over shoot and catch both keys at the same time) and now no more problems. When hitting both keys at the same time the processor trys to go to sleep from hitting the power button and then at the same time you are hitting the delte key which is saying come out of sleep. Same thing if I am watching a movie and I want to bring my sound up while wathcing a video. I hit the the sound key right next to the power key and catch both at the same time and poof black screen. Again I am more careful and now no more issues. Again if you close the lid and then say wait I am not finished just hesitate 5 seconds before opening the lid. Do not overshoot the processor abiity to do its job. I know I know we should not have to do this but the fix is easy. Just slow down.

same thing, several time, MBA 2103

I am having the same exact problem with my MacBook Air (8/256). But.... have any of your tried an external monitor when the problem arises? (I apologize that I didn't read through all 18 pages of this post but I really didn't see any hint of it). Anyway, with my screen black, in both OS X and Windows 8.1 (Boot Camp), I am able to get the machine to use my Cinema Display. In both OS's the video card only recognizes the external display (connected via the Thunderbolt port). I have a feeling that mine is very much hardware related, but I don't know for sure.

I am making an appointment at the Apple store and I will update when I find out what is wrong.

What are you doing when the screen goes black?