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MacBook Air (mid-2013) suddenly goes black and needs to be restarted

Hi everyone,


I saw there are some other forum posts discussing a related problem, however all posts I found mention that they can either see the mouse on the black screen (and move it around), or that the laptop starts reacting again after a specific period of time (30 seconds or so).


WELL, my MBA doesn't do that. It happened already a couple of times (2 times this week only) that while working my laptop screen turns black. I hear it working (very quietly), but I can't see the mouse, nor does it wake up after a certain period of time. It just stays 'fake dead'. In order to use the laptop again, I need to restart the laptop (push power button and force shut down) and then restart it.


As far as I can remember this has only happened to me while I was running my laptop on battery and never when it was connected with the power cable.


Is anyone having a similar problem, or does anyone know a possible solution to this? It has started to get a little annoying as I lost several of my documents to this because I didn't save my document.... 😟


Many thanks in advance!

MacBook Air, iOS 7.0.3

Posted on Nov 12, 2013 9:29 AM

Reply
24 replies

Nov 16, 2013 7:35 AM in response to sogomier

I have found multiple threads about the topic, we are not alone. There seems to be a but with the sleeping mode, someone explained it in the other thread:


UPDATE:


I just tested this a few more times (after setting a one-minute display turn-off). When the display turns off, it goes through three stages: 1. the screen dims, 2. the screen goes black, 3. the keyboard backlight turns off. Tapping the spacebar or swiping the trackpad anytime during stage 1 will reset the timer. Tapping the keyboard or swiping the trackpad during stage 2 will freeze the black screen with the keyboard lit up. Waiting until stage three to tap the spacebar will wake up the display and everything is fine.


There is less than a one-second window between stages 2 and 3 while the screen is black but the keyboard is still fading that touching the input devices will hang the machine.


https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5475679

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5118135?start=615&tstart=0


It seems like a software bug which is not going to be fixed by reinstall or replacing the computer..... so I guess we have to wait for a software update on this and train ourselves to not touch the pad right after the screen goes black to avoid the "freeze"....

Nov 18, 2013 9:09 PM in response to sogomier

I have this problem but it happens more after it's been asleep for a while and try to power it back on. I open the lid, the screen lights up but says black, and the keyboard lights up. It stays this way until I manually power it off. It happens random times, sometimes 2-3 times in a day, sometimes I get a whole day without it happening. Anyone else had this problem?

Nov 28, 2013 2:28 PM in response to sogomier

Same problem with a mid-2013 MacBook Air 13.3" and it's getting worse.


Freezes and blacks out when in sleep mode, then wouldn't wake up rather than automatically reboot. It did this in front of a client.


Tonight it froze completely and wouldn't switch on at all. After repeated attempts it eventually came back.


Whenever it freezes, there's no response, no cursor, it's just dead.


It behaved like this before and after upgrading to 10.9, so it's a hardware issue and is going back as it's only 15 weeks old.


Not at all happy. Made me look like an idiot in front of my clients who all had a good chuckle about my expensive paper weight.


I've got a 10 year old dinosaur of a Windows laptop by Compaq, there's a single line of LEDs failed on the screen, that's it.


I expected far better for a top of the range laptop.

Dec 13, 2013 8:43 AM in response to MDN64

Apple called this morning 12/13 and stated the engineers are aware of the sleep problem and to watch for a software update. I asked, "So this is not hardware related?" and rep said it is expected to be fixed with a software update and since this is a known issue they will probably prioritize this. I asked why it is happening to some mid 2013 macbook airs and not others, and he still said software should fix the problem. hmmmmmm.....


They also said you may wish to make sure auto update is active:


apple/system preferences/app store icon/check the box automatically check for updates (which is enabled by default)

Dec 13, 2013 2:39 PM in response to shyannlindy

I called Apple after a local independent retailer looked at mine.


Here's what they changed:

Logic board

Display

i/o borad

Flex cable


The technician also swapped the SSD with his own and the battery.


After various attempts by him to find someone at Apple who could help, he found a nice young lady who called the technical section who had this to say:


"Apple suggest 'bug' in 10.9 as cause of issue. Apple are looking in to the problem as they have multiple machines being returned with the same problem."


So if you haven't taken yours in, please do so now.


It's hitting Apple in the wallet, so now they're paying attention.


The sad fact is that this issue goes back to 2011, my own 2012 version did it with my last company, so 10.9 is not the culprit so the next update won't change anything.


There is a fundamental flaw with the MBA, so I have declared it unfit for purpose - it randomly shuts down and there is no fix - and asked for my money back.


Apple are getting back to me on Monday.

Jan 9, 2014 11:47 AM in response to aleonnet

There is no solution.


Apple don't know what the issue is but are busy trying to prevent it being forced.


Get a refund.


If Apple ever manage to sort it out I'll buy another one but I'm not holding my breath and wouldn't be surprised if it takes years.


Apple are lucky most workplaces use PCs or they'd be hung out to dry.


Can you imagine the furore if a bank were using MBAs and started losing customer data through these crashes?


As most are private individuals we don't carry any weight so Apple can ignore us and laugh all the way to the bank.


Join the Fac ebook group, post reviews on Amazon, Ciao etc. and warn others who haven't landed themselves in trouble, yet.

Feb 12, 2014 1:44 AM in response to themachead

Reports on the Fac ebook group for the 10.9.2 Beta are positive so far but we're not calling it a fix yet as we believe there are multiple issues here.



Quite a few of us have seen the BSOD grow in frequency from a random occurrence to frequent which doesn't match a software issue. We suspect that Apple has found a work around, so it could easily manifest itself again as the hardware continues to degrade.


All those who took their MBAs back had significant pieces of hardware replaced - I/O board, display, hard drive, battery etc.


Check out MacBook Air screen goes black on Fac ebook as there are multiple threads on this issue here, only one there. Since we started discussing this issue in public, Apple went from denying it to a possible fix, so let's make sure the world knows about this issue and Apple's appalling behaviour towards its customers.

MacBook Air (mid-2013) suddenly goes black and needs to be restarted

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