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MBA 13 Mid 2013 crash Black screen

Has anyone else encountered an issue where they are using their Mid-2013 MacBook Air (13in) on battery when the machine suddenly goes to sleep or appears to, but it has actually crashed. The screen is dark, keyboard and trackpad are not responsive and the keyboard backlight is on. You have to force it off to restart by pressing and holding the power button? It is completely random, not a kernel panic, and nothing I can see in any logs. After the recent firmware update the symptoms changed such that the display is still active since the Apple logo is lighted. I've never had it happen when I'm on a/c power. Unfortunately its random and infrequent too. The recent firmware indicated it helped with battery issues, etc. didn't fix mine apparently.

MacBook Air, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Oct 24, 2013 4:36 AM

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319 replies

Nov 2, 2013 3:44 PM in response to Sarguin

I just got back from my Apple visit. I reproduced the issue in front of the rep on my machine, and booting to their test environment. He said the engineers are "working on it", but it seems this is the first time somebody could demonstrate the issue. I'll get a call back in the next couple weeks.


In the mean time, they offered me a new computer, but we both knew it would not help. Hopefully, this will lead to a firmware update. For now, just be sure to not try to wake up your mid-2013 MBA's as they are dropping off to sleep, and you shouldn't have any problems.


I'll post here when I get more information from Apple.

Nov 3, 2013 1:37 AM in response to Sarguin

Macbook air 13" mid 2013, i7, 256 ssd, 8gb RAM


I also have this problem. It crashes when I try to wake it up, when it's entering sleep mode. I tested on all of my friends MBA's and they had the problem aswell.


I also have some bugs with the screen. Look at this post and try to reproduce the bug the way I describe it. I am cuorius if you also encounter this bug: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5285164?answerId=23593948022#23593948022

Nov 3, 2013 5:33 AM in response to Sarguin

MBA Oct 2013 crash black screen plus additional situations

8 GB ram 512 SSD

Purchased Oct 9 Replaced end of October due to black screen

Black screen repeatable as above discussion since replacement


Additional to discussion

I closed the lid (enter sleep mode) and come back to the MBA 5 hours later and found a warm not hot machine back left corner (no fan running). Upon opening the lid was greeted with a white screen and movable cursor but nothing else.

Hard restart required.

Avoiding space bar and touchpad for now!


2nd observation

Open from sleep to sign in screen. Had not signed out?



Software Update thinks I still need to do the SMC firmware 1.9 update. (done it 4 times with a reboot as required)


Related?

Black screen started to happen on my 2007 MB PRO as well. Recove with battery removal only. Black screen started to happen after most recent update just prior to Mavericks.

Apple not supporting 2007 MB PRO. led to MBA and earilie same black screen

Nov 13, 2013 12:31 PM in response to yoganinja

I'm able to reproduce this behavior and it has been happening to me exactly as described. A relief to know what it is and how to avoid it. @yoganinja nice work on tracking down the cause and following through with Apple, too.


While searching I found several other threads that are discussing this or a similar issue...one has 42 pages! It would be nice if they could all be made to point here!

Nov 13, 2013 10:37 PM in response to Sarguin

I have the same issue with my MacBook Air 2013. I had no problem until I updated to Maverick. After that, the problems came the next day. First my MacBook just shut down out of the blue and did not open any more. I finally figured out that I had to hold the power button for about 15 secound for it to open.

The next problem was that when it goes to sleep it would not wake up. The keybourd is lit, it seems to work (if I push the Caps Lock is lights), but there is no video. The only way to solve this is to do a hard shut down on the power button. It is horrible, I would have never upgraded to Maverick if I knew Apple would release something with such big bugs.

Now the workaround I found is to set sleep to Never (in energy saving menu) and to uncheck put hard to sleep.


I would also like to add that I installed all updates available to this day 05 November, so it is not un update issue.

I hope Apple fixes this horrible bug soon.

Nov 14, 2013 7:32 AM in response to newappleton

Don't go through the hassle of replacing it since ALL mid-2013 MBA's seem to do this. Apple is working on an update. In the mean time, just don't try to wake it up at the moment it is going to sleep; wait an extra second or two after the screen goes black before waking it up, and you won't have a problem. See previous posts in this thread for details.

MBA 13 Mid 2013 crash Black screen

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