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Mac Air Problem Powering Up

K

krawfo

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 4, 2011
195
12
My granddaughter has a 4 yr old MBA that dies during power up. After pressing the POWER button, the screen is barely illuminated and the Apple logo and progress bar appear. Three or four seconds later they disappear, the keys are backlit and the screen go black. I've tried a PRAM and SMC reset but no joy.
I suspect this machine has major issues but wondered if there's anything else I could try.
 
I had a similar experience with a MacBook Air a couple of years ago. Eventually on startup it emitted 3 loud beeps signifying faulty RAM. Unfortunately the RAM chips are soldered in so difficult if not impossible to replace. This meant that a new logic board would have been needed, had I not scrapped the machine.

You could try starting up in diagnostics mode as described here:

https://tinyurl.com/y3bhyl4w
 
Last edited by a moderator:
When the screen goes black, shine a bright light through the apple logo in the top lid or shine a very bright light at an angle on the screen. If you can see an image on the screen, it has a backlight issue.
 
alanrb said:
I had a similar experience with a MacBook Air a couple of years ago. Eventually on startup it emitted 3 loud beeps signifying faulty RAM. Unfortunately the RAM chips are soldered in so difficult if not impossible to replace. This meant that a new logic board would have been needed, had I not scrapped the machine.

You could try starting up in diagnostics mode as described here:

https://tinyurl.com/y3bhyl4w
Click to expand...

Now it won’t power up at all so unable to run any diagnostics. Thanks for the suggestion though.
[doublepost=1568657382][/doublepost]
Audit13 said:
When the screen goes black, shine a bright light through the apple logo in the top lid or shine a very bright light at an angle on the screen. If you can see an image on the screen, it has a backlight issue.
Click to expand...

Nothing on the screen when I shine a light. Thanks for your suggestion.
 
I decided I had little to lose so I popped it into the freezer for 15 minutes and it booted right up. I was able to run the diagnostics which reported A VFD001 - There might be an issue with your display.
I assume the LCD is toast and replacement will cost at least 2/3 the price of a new computer.
 
To close the loop on this thread - I took the bottom case off and had a peek inside. There was a cable in the corner that appeared a bit pinched as it snaked into the bowels of the machine. I gave it a wiggle or 2 and the machine powered right up and the display was fine. I've gone through about 10 or 12 power on - power off cycles and it's working just fine. Diagnostic test shows no errors.
I found out my son bought this from Newegg as a reconditioned computer 4 or 5 yrs ago. Some of the pentalobe screws looked a bit rough and came out easily so I suspect this machine had been opened when it was reconditioned.
 
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