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2012 MBA 11" just arced, smoked and died....

F

fairplayinc

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 24, 2010
36
2
That just about sums it up.

I purchased a new MacBook air (2.0 i7, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) last Monday. Last night I was sitting with it on my lap. I picked up my cell phone and, while looking at a recently received email, I heard an arcing sound. Like that sound you hear in the winter time when you get zapped by a metal object. The screen went dead instantly and to my amazement, smoke started rising from the USB port on the left side. It smoked for just over 10 seconds. The smell was awful. A thick combination of plastic and hotness. I was over in no time. There I sat. With a $1600 paper weight.

So i took a ride to my local Apple store and you would not believe what a hassle i went through. As soon as I mentioned that it basically caught fire, I had a barrage of questions and hoops that I had to jump through. A safety report that I had to complete. It seemed as though they were genuinely concerned about the overall safety of the situation. Then as the questions progressed, it was obvious that they were concerned primarily of getting sued.

After all of the questions and about an hour later, I got a replacement machine. I have had lots and lots of macs. This is the first time I ever had a tragic failure of this magnitude.

Thanks for letting me vent. Hopefully none of you have an experience like this. If you do, please chime in and let us know!

Thanks for reading.
 
r.j.s

r.j.s

Moderator emeritus
Mar 7, 2007
15,026
52
Texas
Glad that no one was hurt and you got a replacement machine.

They had you do the forms so, yes, they wouldn't get sued, and so there was documentation of what happened, in case there is a larger problem.
 
K

KPOM

macrumors P6
Oct 23, 2010
18,024
7,867
Too bad about the MacBook Air. While I agree it was a hassle to fill out all those forms, sadly that's a product of our litigious times. I'm guessing also that they need to keep track of those types of situations, since if it happens enough times, they may need to order a recall.

If it had just been a "normal" failure, like a bad logic board that caused it not to boot up (with no smoke or spark), chances are they'd have just swapped it out with no hassle.
 
S

Stetrain

macrumors 68040
Feb 6, 2009
3,550
20
KPOM said:
Too bad about the MacBook Air. While I agree it was a hassle to fill out all those forms, sadly that's a product of our litigious times. I'm guessing also that they need to keep track of those types of situations, since if it happens enough times, they may need to order a recall.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think that's probably a big part of it. It's a brand new product revision so any problems like this are probably supposed to be documented and reported.
 
I

infectedfall

macrumors newbie
Dec 18, 2011
18
0
a quick phone call to customer relations explaining the dangerous and scary situation their product has just put you through should fix you with an iPod shuffle at the least. :D:apple:
 
J

JBST

macrumors newbie
Jun 20, 2012
16
0
Sorry to hear your bad luck...

This reminded me of a recent post about the new MBA dying and smoking...

see link:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1390476/

Only difference is that the OP had a 11" while the other person had a 13"

Both seem to be i7 config... any correlation?? or coincidence?


norneDK said:
This thread scares me.
Click to expand...

I have to agree that this scares me a bit too considered I also placed an order for the i7...
 
jgo78

jgo78

macrumors 6502
Nov 11, 2008
384
36
hopefully this is an extreme rare case, like the new samsung S IIIs that have been known to explode recently.
 
K

KPOM

macrumors P6
Oct 23, 2010
18,024
7,867
JBST said:
Sorry to hear your bad luck...

This reminded me of a recent post about the new MBA dying and smoking...

see link:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1390476/

Only difference is that the OP had a 11" while the other person had a 13"

Both seem to be i7 config... any correlation?? or coincidence?

I have to agree that this scares me a bit too considered I also placed an order for the i7...
Click to expand...

Probably just a coincidence. The i5 and i7 are identical except for the processor, and they have the same TDP. The only difference is that the i7 has a little more cache and runs a little bit faster. These types of things are rare, but do happen. If there's a larger issue, there will be a recall, but the odds are overwhelming that your MacBook Air, whether i5 or i7, will be just fine. Likely the issue with these logic boards wasn't the processor, but something else (perhaps a short somewhere in one of the connectors).

I think that Intel makes a lot of the different processors on the same production line. They then subject them to testing. Some of the i5s or slower i7s could be physically identical to the 2.0GHz i7, but didn't pass specs at the maximum turbo boost, and thus were limited to the slower speeds and sold as i5s or slower i7s. E.g. if Intel sets out to make 100 2.0GHz Core i7s on a wafer (made up number), and 5 of them are just outside of spec at the maximum Turbo Boost of the 2.0GHz , but are perfectly fine if throttled down 100 MHz, then it is better to sell them as i5s or 1.9GHz i7s than to junk them.
 
Last edited:
M

macneubie

macrumors regular
Aug 8, 2011
150
0
fairplayinc said:
That just about sums it up.

I purchased a new MacBook air (2.0 i7, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD) last Monday. Last night I was sitting with it on my lap. I picked up my cell phone and, while looking at a recently received email, I heard an arcing sound. Like that sound you hear in the winter time when you get zapped by a metal object. The screen went dead instantly and to my amazement, smoke started rising from the USB port on the left side. It smoked for just over 10 seconds. The smell was awful. A thick combination of plastic and hotness. I was over in no time. There I sat. With a $1600 paper weight.

So i took a ride to my local Apple store and you would not believe what a hassle i went through. As soon as I mentioned that it basically caught fire, I had a barrage of questions and hoops that I had to jump through. A safety report that I had to complete. It seemed as though they were genuinely concerned about the overall safety of the situation. Then as the questions progressed, it was obvious that they were concerned primarily of getting sued.

After all of the questions and about an hour later, I got a replacement machine. I have had lots and lots of macs. This is the first time I ever had a tragic failure of this magnitude.

Thanks for letting me vent. Hopefully none of you have an experience like this. If you do, please chime in and let us know!

Thanks for reading.
Click to expand...
Got pictures of the fried air to see?
 
F

fairplayinc

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 24, 2010
36
2
dmn001 said:
To OP. Did you take any photos of the damage? Was it plugged in or on battery?
Click to expand...

I did not. There were no signs of scorching or anything on the outside. The guy at the apple store took it apart and confirmed that the logic board had fried. Near the cooling fan. He also smelled that same melted plastic stench.

It was hooked up to power. That was also returned.
 
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