MBA 13 Mid 2013 crash Black screen

Best sources claim Apple is actively working on a solution. As of the last OSX Mavericks developer update I'm working off of released a few days ago...No, there is still not a viable solution. I've tried everything listed in over 10 different discussion threads. It's without a doubt a software issue.

If you don't mind the loss of some functionality/features in OSX, you can operate in Safe Mode which for me at least, fixes the sleep/wake freezing issue.

Safe Mode is activated by powering off your MBA and immediately pressing and holding the Shift key as soon as the chime sounds upon re-start (not before). Hold Shift key until you see the progress bar and spinning gear at the bottom of your start screen and you can release the Shift key.

I just wanted to follow up on some of my earlier posts in this thread.

About two weeks ago I received a replacement mid-2013 13" from Apple. My original mid-2013 was from, by my best guess, part of the original batch, and it suffered terribly from the wake from sleep crash.

Now having put it through it's paces over the last two weeks, including travel, I haven't had the issue once. On the old machine, it was 100% guarantee to happen if I was coming out of clamshell mode with BT keyboard/trackpad and monitor. That has been resolved as well.

My advice to those, even with the 10.9.2 update, is to stay persistent -- especially if you have a machine from the initial launch. Best of luck to you, but a replacement machine definitely resolved the issue so if it was hardware related, updated components have stamped it out.

I think you are most likely correct that Apple is working on a solution. I have had 2 wireless techs tell me so. Unless of course it is a hardware problem which would require a recall. Then they may just hope people go away or only fix those units who appear at the Genius Bar demanding a fix.

I have been on 2 forums since updating to Mavs. My Wifi conductivity issues seem to be OK now with one of the fixes. The other forum was about a black screen when putting Mac to sleep and the re-awaking it. That forum, since 10.9.2 has not been acitve for awhile now. I know 10.9.2 fixed my problem that caused me to reboot after getting stuck with the dreaded black screen and a lite keyboard. Now I cannot force it to go black no matter what I do. So Apple obviously had a fix for the black screen problem. Now it remains to be seen if they get a fix for this one. It may be far more complicated than the black screen issue.

Well forget my last post. I had not recieved a black screen post since March 12. I mistakenly thought this was the Wifi gets dropped upon waking forum because the black screen thread had been silent. Only after sending my last post did I realize I had gotten the forums confused. I can only guess the black screen issue is still plaguing people.

10.9.2 fixed mine and I have a mid-2013 13" Mac Air. For those who are unaware there is a similiar "awaking" problem with Mavs concerning Wifi connetivity. It has been far more acitve a forum that this one. So I goofed.

I just assumed that no posts meant people got a fix.

I should clarify:

My replacement came after my mid-2013 13" was still exhibiting the crash wake-from-sleep issue after the 10.9.2 update. Apple had me install the update as soon as it was released. Put the machine to sleep after work, came home, and it crashed multiple times over the next two days through normal use.

The only thing the 10.9.2 update did was physically show me the "Your machine just crashed and now will restart" screen. Apple immediately replaced the machine.

To me, on pure speculation, it sounds hardware related (at least with some out of that original batch).

This is not just an issue with newer computers. I am experiencing this on a late 2009 iMac and it only started after I upgraded to Mavericks. Unfortunately the frequency seems to be getting worse.

Sounds about right, I just imagine it's more prevalent on portables due to frequency of putting them to sleep vs. desktops.

As I stated previously, I'm 100% certain it's a software issue since running in "safe mode" eliminates this issue. In my experience, this guarantees it's a sofware vs. hardware issue. Of course, sofware behavior can and often will vary significantly when comparing between various hardware platforms--even with very slight variations.

To make this clear, my exact issue is reproduced 100% of the time and does so under ANY circumstances (keys hit, not hit, etc.) when the display is either shut or the screen goes to sleep. I'm re-stating this as others seem to have variations of this or something similar and I don't want to confuse the primary issue.

I have "never put drive to sleep" checked/unchecked and all other tips/tricks suggested with zero impact on the negative outcome. This outcome is either a black/gray screen (key board lights up still) or a screen frozen on whatever I was working in before--like a snap shot of the desktop, etc. when the screen sleeps on its own or the lid is closed.

Regardless, the only fix is to perform a hard restart. Resetting SMC or PRAM, re-formatting, disk warrior, etc. does nothing to correct it. Only running in safe mode.

I'm curious to see if anyone else having the black or frozen screen upon wake issue can reproduce when running in safe mode?

Safe Mode basically just disables all third party stuff (startup items / kernel extensions / fonts). Chances are you have some third party software running that is not Mavericks compatible.

Did you try running something like this in Terminal to find out what non-Apple kernel extensions are running:

kextstat | grep -v apple

As a next step you could try to isolate the misbehaving software by uninstalling some of it and retrying.

Holy heck brother, you might have just solved a problem that 3 GB trips, my own above-average Mac knowledge and various other attempts have failed to correct!!!

It was an old AirParrot audio driver file that wasn't deleted during the uninstall process that seems to have been the culprit. Their website had terminal details on how to ensure ALL related files were deleted and that seems to have fixed my issue.

I'll give it a few re-starts/days/sleep cycles before I call WIN, but it's looking promising :-)

I'll update soon...

Either way, THANKS

Great, thanks for the feedback.

I love those 100% reproducible issues.

Hehe, agreed on 100% reproduceable. 🙂

Well, I had the same issue with my MBA, dropped it off for repair at Apple Store and seems it's fixed. Have been using this for a couple of days now and everything seems alright. The technician replaced two components:

Those are just labor charges; not parts.

I think I may have found the reason as to why the screen suddenly goes black...

Its due to the "Hot Corner" functionality. The screen has 4 programable Hot Corners that functions like an additional set of TrackPad gestures. When you move your mouse near one of the four corners the function kicks in. Whether its view Dashboard, Mission Control or PUT DISPLAY TO SLEEP.

The Fix:

In the DESKTOP & SCREENSAVER folder in the system preferences, click to SCREENSAVER page. At the BOTTOM RIGHT corner is the Hot Corner button. Click that then change all of the hot corners to - (null) or whatever function you want it to be.

Hope that helps.

Mine went to Apple Repair a week ago. Just got my first black screen with moving mouse again.

So evidently taking it in for repair doesn't help either.